Shannon News FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1926.

Shannon News, 5 February 1926, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1926.

Mr C. Jennings.; who has neon spending a holiday in Wellington!, returned home on Tuesday. •Mr W. Quarrie has disposed of his drapery business and lea.ves for Australia at an early date. Mesda-ines Franks, Balfour and Mc. Laughlan reiturned home from the Exhibition on Tuesday. His- Worship the Mayor (Mr W. Murdoch), who has not been enjoying the best of health lately, left on .Tuesday for a few days rest at New Ply? mouth. Mrs A. Freeman and children lea.ve on Friday by the Miariama for Sydney. Mr Freeman intends to follow later and take up (permanent residence in that city. The Shannon Tenuis Club has lodged a challenge with the Foxton. Club for the Newman Cup. If convenient to Foxton the maltch will take place on the 13th. ■Miss Moina Neale, A.T.G.L., L.T.G.L., A.L.C.M., L.L.C.M.. L.A.8., of the R.A.M. and R.C.M., has returned home from her holidays clown South and resumes teaching Monday February Bth. ■■ ~. _ At the Shannon School Comoiittee meeting on Wednesday mention was made of the fact that" the children from the Buckley district are once more compelled to walk to school -as the bus does not run. The headmaster stated he had already reported the matter to the Board, and the comim.ittee resolved to also write the Board on the matter. A very enjoyalblo afternoon was spent on the Mangaore Tennis Courts last week end, when the Club held a handicap doubles tourney. Evenly contested games were the order of the day, the winners being Mrs lTutton and Mr H. Wood. Mr T. A. Johnston, in presenting' the prizes, congratulated the winners on their hard-earned success. The afternoon tea was-provide.l bv the ladies of the club.

On Tuesday afternoon, while pro eeed.ing home from Mangahao. a lorry driven by Mr C. Hook, failed f> negotiate one of the bends. -The vehicle loft the road, falling £Q[) feet down a precipice. 'Hie driver and the other occupant of the lorry had a inraculous escape. Mr Quarrie jumped clear just as the lorry was leaving ihe road, but Mr Hook was 30 feet down the. hill before he could free himself. The lorry is-very badly, damaged and .salvage is practically iiupossible. Both occupants must consider themselves fortunate in escaping without injury.

-During the vacation considerable improvements have been carried out in the Shannon School! and grounds. The class rooms haive been painted inside, and the work of asphalting the new play area and tupdres*ing the old portion is being carried out. Brightly blooming flower beds present a gay appearance, audi the neat kerbing around the beds, added to the thoughful laying-out of the grounds, makes a school ground of which all townspeople and children should feel proud. When one considers that all this has been accomplished in the last four or five years one cannot but praise the school committees responsible and the teachers for their interest. Talk of Shannon—Grey's Boot Repairs.

High heels are to be banned if the : State of Massachusetts, U-.5.A., passes : ,-i Bill about to be put forward. ' j Nearly 400,001) tons of soap are wast- j ! ed in England .eveiy year by careiessi ness in the home. ; i j Among the exports irpm New Zeal- ! and which are steadily' growing is j that of honey, Avhich last year.showed j an increase of 200 tons over the .pre- ' ceding year, or from 500 to 700 tons, ' valued at between £40,000 and £50,000. I ! j Tiie stress of fast travelling is quick- J i ly making itself apparent in the roll--1 ihg stock of the railways. One of the ! carriages on the south-bound Auckland express suffered a broken coupling yesterday, just prior to reaching , i Te. Kuiti, and the resultant bumping alarmed s ome of the passengers in i adjoining carriages. It was found • necessary to disconnect the carriage ; in question and transfer the passen- ( gers to another carriage at Tc Kuiti. I It Is a more or ;es.s ; generally recognised fact that Hawke's Bay people are well nigh fanatical in so far a? Rugby football is concerned, but :vi incident which occurred at the baths on Monday evening during the water polo match indicates that the latter game is by way of becoming most .popular. 'During the course of the .match, which was between Canterbury and Auckland representatives, tremendous excitement 'ensued,., which came to a climax when, a • well-known Napier vouth, who was standing with a grip on one of the.rails at the edge of the pool, unwisely threw not. one but both arms-up in the. air, with-the result that he fell into the bath fully clothed. He received little &;-. :\vy .thy from the delighted crowd, wii ch roared withlaughter and begged him to do it-again.

Ashore in Napier la*t Friday fromone of the visiting vessels at present in port, a sailor procured a push bike with the intention of making a cruise around the city, and' during the passage unfortunately collided with a woman who was pushing a perambulat jv containing a small child. Tin; woman an! baby sustained no harm,, but the sailor was capsized and offered the following apology: "I'm sure I ought to be scuttled for it, .mum, but I ■coul-li:'i got your signals nohow. 1 saw you shaping to port and altered my course aecordhV, and then I couldn't sec what was happenin,' no more.than if I was feeling through a fog bank. I sounded my siren once to let you-kuow I was altering again to starboard but my craft refused to answer her helm and I couldn't get clear. If you're all right I'll takcvmy little hooker down to dry dock and get her upper works straightened out."

Ignorance of New Zealand in- America is of hardly credible extent. The San Francisco Chronicle, running six editions daily, with a Sunday circulation of 160,000, and a staff of 50 reporters, had to apologise to Mr. F. E. Tomlinsoii, who returned from a .New Zealand publicity campaign by the Maunganiii, in the following terms: "Our article erroneously stated that you were connected with the'New Zealand, and Australian Governments. It should have read only 'New Zealand.' The error crept into the story through a misunderstanding of the word 'Antipodes? used by the writer in telephoning an account of your, meeting. The reporter misunderstood tire term 'Antipodes,' and used 'Australia' in describing the subject matter of your lecture. The mistake is regretted, but only goes to prove the necessity of your New Zealand Government devoting itself \o an intensive campaign to educate the American people concerning your country." •

The longest distance fast all sleeping car train in the world is the TransCanadian Limited, owned'by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Every day during the summer season four of these trains move over the Canadian Pacific tracks in' each direction and total milage is 150,040 miles—or about three times as far as from the earth to the moon. Ten complete sets of equipment, of which four were in motion each way daily and one was being cleaned and refitted and turned round at each end of the .run, are required to maintain the service, and they include 12 baggage ears, 12 diners, one cafeobservation parlour car, 48 standard sleepers and 10 compartment observation cars, while 22 changes of engines are made on each run. Including these engine stop;!, the Trans-Canada was scheduled for only -°»0 stops on the whole, trans-continental run. Fourteen train crews are required for the transcontinental run of each train, consistof engineer, fireman, two brakeiuoii and a conductor, making a total of SI men besides 48 sleeping and dining car employees per train, or about 300 of tlte latter for the entire service.

[ In response lo a request by Br. i George Draper, of New York, the Health .Department furnished him wi;h an account of the 1.024.-2 n infantile paralysis epidemic ami a statement oi the subsequent history of the 1 cases treated, so far as could be ascertained. Dr. Draper, who is an acknowledge! authority on infantile paralysis, in acknowledging the receipt of the statement, says:—"The whole statement is so good and the material so interesting that I propose to incorporate if, practically without change, in the next supplement of tire Nelson •' Loose-Leaf Medicine, in the resume of literature of infantile paralysis, of which deparr ment I am editor." Dr. Draper pays a tribute to the effort which the Health Department, evidently put into its "extraordinary interesting document.'' Concerning the serum treatment, he says: "I was so interested to hear that you had good results with the use of "recovered serum. I am convinced that it is a specific. Unfortunately success depends upon the making of a preparalytic diagnosis and the ability io obtain the serum-—two distinctly difficult obstacles." Grey's Boot Repairs have no equal.

Treasure recently found in a Boston sewer comprised rings, watches, and coins dating back to 1787. A novelty' in alarm clocks was inspected at Greyinouth by a reporter a lew days ago (reports ttie Greyinouth Evening Star). Instead of the usual bell ringing, the alarm oJ musical selections, reminiscent, of the old-fashioned musical box. The clock was made in Germany. Whether the strains of music will induce sleep, instead of the intended wakefulness, remains to be seen.

Approximately .61)0 tons of condensed milk were imported by Japan in 11)24. ■ '.Hie advent of rnilk m powdered form a-bout five years ago at first met with little response, but, due to consistent and appropriate advertising, the imports of powdered milk have made great headway during recent years, amounting in 1923 to over 1500 tons, while there was a domestic production of. about 330 tons. . Italy and Jugo-Slavia are becoming well represented in New Zealand's permanent foreign population. Of 650 foreign male migrants to New Zealand during the ten months of the year ended October 31, Italy contributed 233 and Jugo Slavia 269, close on three-quarters of the total. They are, however, well swamped by, the British migrants, whose numbers for the period totalled 7256 -males and 5362 females. \ ■ Manaia is taking'into consideration the question of 'the half-holiday. Some people favour Saturday and some favour Wednesday., The Manaia Witness says: "Incident any'it is interesting to."note that 'amongst the most . enthusiastic supporters of the Wednesday who are sq very anxious that no business' should leave Manaia, we find the names of nine business or professional men \vhf> send all their printing and stationery wb-rk out of the town. The position lias its humorous side, hasn't it?" Ji'i olden times ihe gradual collap.se of si family nam.' through failure ol male issue, likt thai supposed to have been placed, on tlm house of the latt I lord I.oith of Fy.vie, was quite, a common form of legendary curse. Sir Walter Scott made use of one oi these ancient imprecations .'in the ballad, ".The ■Curse of Moy." It took the •form that, "a son may be born tut that son shall verily die.' ' But there is still a Mackintosh at Moy And to the non-superstitious it may t;eem a tad, order to suppose that the man who acquires an ancient house by purchase, as Lord Leith did, also acquires the .family doom, if any.

An enthusiastic naturalist who was motoring 'in Uganda met .«. twenty-> foot python in the road. He stopped his motor-car on the tail of the reptile, and attempted to capture the t-ylh'6n for his collection. He grasp, cd it f by the tail and tried to drag it from the ditch in which four-fifths of its length had taken .shelter. He did not succeed, so,he selected his heaviest spanner from a tool-box and beat the reptile. His efforts, however, v. ere in vain. The python shifted the motor-car from its tail, ignored the attack and disappeared into the bush while the disconsolate naturalist repacked his tool-box and drove off.

The latest, wireless story .concerns i. foreign vagrant apprehended by the Now York Police 'and interrogated regarding hi. 3 credentials. But he spoke an exceedingly strange tongue: The police interpreters were . nonplussed, and eventually several professors, of modern languages admitced themselves beaten. At this juncture an idea occurred that broadcasting might he of service. Listeners to the nearest broadcasting station were accordingly acquainted with the circumstances, and ihe luckless individu. at was instructed, to speak into the microphone. The distressing appeal was heard by a fellow-countrymen U;:ys a writer in "The Win-less World"), 'with the result that the captive was identified as a Laplander Explanations satisfied the police and he was allowed to depart.

There hag been a considerable Huttor throughout the various Government Departments lately in Wellington following on the receipt of a circular I'roni iluj Treasury requiring a monthly return to bo submitted up to the end of May showing the names of officers who have visited Diuiedin, .stating their business there a.nd the length of their stay. It is assumed thai the circular has been issued for the purpose of discouraging office re from making too many "official'' trips to Dimedin .during the iixbihi'tion period; but at the same time it has hocit responsible for a considerable degree of resentment. One officer characterised it as "childish,'' ■and contended that it was a reflection (J n heads of Departments as it inferred that they did not exercise sufficient control over their subordinates.

A nurse left-a i'ourteen-months-old child in a perambulator outside, a London shop while she went inside to make a purchase. . When H.c returned the child had disappeared. She called the door-keeper and a police. man ,and together they .searched tho ri.'ie'hbor.rhood i'o..- th<> missing- child. Then tho nurse ,in a state of great anxiety, rang up the child's father, more police were notified, and a wider search was begun. It .was assumed that the child had been stolen by a woman passer-by. Some hours later the nurse and tho child's father returned home and found, to their aslonrshmont that the child was in the house. The explanation was that the mother, when passing tho whop, saw her child and took it" to-an adjoining t>hop ?o buy :om<* sweet.;;. When she came back Mir nurse -wheeling- th& empty perambulator, was searching the adjoining streets.

Treasure (.supposed to be lying' at the bottom of the tea has an irresistible fascination for the adventurous. r;ur why do they give so much' attention to loreigii quests when there is gold on their own doo-steps, so to spiaii?. TJ.j latest enterprise is said to be a sea.-jli ior the gold and precl- ()•,::; idlings which the Roman Em--pcior Tibeo us is supposed to have Runs- into tho sea at Capri in the Mcditorrancn, the scene of Mr. H., G. Wens' ' Uivam of Armageddon." •/vhat, r.ovv. > or, of the wreck 'of the Hani a, Cruz in the shallows oft" the *,.-..m 'iiudi-ig Ueef on the Welsh coast, .villi 1-0 cu.v-s of gold and a ton of .-.';.ver bam? There is also the Infanta off 1-an try Hay, with four and a half millions in her hull,'.and the India.. :;an, Van Keiupre, up in the Orkneys uil of Outen K&st Indies remittances. ""'v I'aiis' l.otelkeeper is at present wom'iering- vheher one of his present iieKio is a cobbler who caries his "reair oider;.;"' with him or a collector T old shot-:;. Some time ago a young .mil, uciij;ib'.ng himself as "Henry one.:, of ..ondo.n," arrived at an I'd in the Kue Figalle, where he booked a room, paying- a week's rent .11 advance. Alter a day's stay he •ft the ho.el empty-handed, and has .ol been hoard of or seen since. At he end of the week for which the oung man had paid, the hotelkeeper ent up to the room and found there wo empty bags and a large assort."icnt of ok! shoes—l7l pairs-—ar-v,n;vod in vows round the room. What ihe Knglishinan's motive -was in ravelling about with no other luggage than all these shoes and why he hould suti. ienly have abandoned his collection, are mysteries ont yet solved.

Ostrich feathers are not seen in Auckland these days, remarks the Star. Even in winter time few ladies wear them; 'and there will be still less as more ladies get; shingled remarked a milliner. And to tliink that nothing was prettk-r* or nice than the white and feathered plumage. "For'even,ing wear, trimmings and fans, for feather necklets and feather boas, there is still a small demand for feather, but it is not a re-action of what it was a couple of years ago; and the ostrich industry in South Africa has fallen on a slump that threatens its existence. Until the eve of the war, women were fully and amply "fledged," and 1913 was the "goldie age of the ostrich." In that year the exports of the Oudshoorn district of the Cape were nearly three million pounds' worth cf feathers, last year the 'exports were only a quarter of a million. Lit "tie wonder that the farmers have com menced killing, their birds and using heir skins for making women's shoes. Thousands of ostriches are being slain, and the development of the ostrich shoe industry is meaning the rapid dis-ap-pearance of ostriches from farms :*n South Africa.

That to- be a musician one must be unbusinesslike, untidy and unsocial is .me of the common fallacies that is based on just sufficient truth to make if dangerous. Some of the greatest musicians have had i these failings, but still more have been just as keen business men as if they had been employed in any other profession. Handel, in spite of his repeated failures when trying to run on opera house, was an excellent man of affairs, and because of this he threw .ip opera and went in for the betterpHjying 'branch of oratorio. Palestrina, i'.lso, was as careful about material ::hings as he w*as about making the music of the Church fitted to its imrposes, and it was only on being insured that he iwould. receive a cer. -iain pension in any circumstances that he accepted a post at the Lateran. And, coming down to modern lays, one could scarcely 'say that ;uch composers as Sir Arthur Sullivan and Dr. Richard Strauss have :ackcd. musiness acumen, or that the majority of great players lose much .'or this lack. At any rate, some of he best music has won some of the biggest money prizes, and frequently because the makers of it have known :iow to make it attractive to a large public. ■ -'