Shannon News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9th, 1926.

Shannon News, 9 February 1926, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9th, 1926.

Tlie flaxworkers will hold their annual picnic early in March. Tlie ordinary meeting of the Borough Council will be held this evening. Mrs Currie, of Wanganui, is staying with her parents, Mr and Mrs W. H. Gunning. Mr Jones and daughter, of Newtown, Wellington, have taken up their residence in'Stout Street. Mr and Mrs Len Ward, of Invercargill, who have been staying with Mrs Ward’s parents, Mr and Mrs Knowles, of Vance Street, return to their home on Wednesday. During the sitting of the Buckley Drainage Commission last Thursday some 21 curs were stationed in Plirnmer Terrace for the greater part of the day giving quite an animated appearance to our main street. His Worship the Mayor (Mr W. -Murdoch) who is at present in New Plymouth, states he will hot be present for Tuesday’s Council meeting. His health is improving and he hopes to return home at tile week-end, Mr B. Sands, who has been an inmate of the Rotorua Sanatorium for the past seven weeks, has returned, home showing much improvement in health and expects to be back at work in a week or two.

Mr C. C, Franks successfully got Messrs Hook and Quarae’s lorry .safely to the top of the road at the weekend. The lorry was 150 feeit down the hillside and in a difficult position, so the work was not an easy one.

On passing through the town one cannot but notice the improvements being carried out by the Council at the Post Office corner. It is the Council's intention to tar this portion of the footpath and road, ,and we hope ■this will be the forerunner of many more such improvements to the Borough.

When will Shannon children learn to protect their own property ? A recent example of the spirit of the lime is the paddilng pond, the overflow pipe of which has been blocked with paper no doubt with the intention of deepening the water in lire pool. This piece of want of intelligence will necessitate the taking up of all the pipes and cleaning them. The Council intends to put a grating over the pipe to prevent a recurrence of this nuisance.

At the final sitting of tire Buckley Drainage Commission, the Chairman (Mr T. A. Johnston) asked Mr A. Ross, of Foxton, if he would care to express an opinion regarding - the influence of flood waters on the yellow leaf disease in flax. “I do not consider anyone is competent to express an opinion,” replied Mr R,oss, “as yellow leaf is found everywhere more or less, but flooded areas are not, as a rule, quite so badly affected as land immune from floods. Tire general opinion is that yellow leaf is dying out. and is not to be taken seriously in future .flax operations.”

fn the large advartisemenl on page 4, Howard Andrew, Lid., have another long list of bargains at tlreir “Gigantic Stock-taking Sale.” Special attention is called to a line of sandals at a very low price.

At a meeting of the Buckley Drain- ! age Board it was resolved to have the now cut through Mr H. Easton’s proi pet ty cleaned out immediately. , j The friends ol' Mrs Butler will re- ! ' gret to hear that she is at present .not ' enjoying the best of health. All join j in wishing her a speedy recovery. i ! a local correspondent writes complaining of the lack of control of the i ‘ parking of cars outside the picture theatre. A stand is provided by the I council for cars and the entrance to | the Hall should he kept clear. I The Borough Council has purchas-. j ed the old Council table of the Levin Borough Council. The table which is | of the regulation horse-shoe pattern, should add to the dignity and conve- ' uience of the meetings. Local bowling and tennis enthusiasts will be having a strenuous time, next Saturday when the Newman (tennis) and Man son and Barr and Dixon j Cups (bowling) will be fought for. | Both clubs can be relied upon to give as good an account of themselves as possible. Mr Norman Hyde, of Hunterville, who is well-known to Shannon people, he being at one time in charge of the local Methodist Church, gave an interesting address at the Gosped Hall last Friday evening. Mr and Mrs Hyde have been spending a few days at Otaki and left for Hunterville on Saturday. Mr A. Simes met with an unfortunate accident whilst cycling to- his work at Miranui last week. The fork of his bicycle broke and he tvas thrown heavily to the ground. As a motor car was pasing at the time he had a miraculous escape from, u more serious accident. It- will be some days before Mr Simes is able to continue his duties. Two accidents occurred at Mangaha© yesterday. While working a crane a man named Haynes had the misfortune to crush three of his fingers. After being attended to by Dr Mackereth he was ordered to the Palmerston Hospital. Later in the day a middle aged man named William McGuinness, while engaged in drilling a hole in a 7-foot stone, w’as injured by a fall of earth, a large boulder striking him on the shoulder, injuring the latter and breaking several ribs. He was attended to by Dr Mackerefh and will enter the Palmerston hospital to-day for an X-ray examination.-' The Shannon Borough Council has purchased the horseshoe table from die old Council Chambers in Levin and will have it removed to the Council offices in Shannon within the next few days. No cricket matches were played on Saturday between teams of the Hofuwhenua Cricket Association. Levin had a bye, Weraroa B was unfortunate in not being able to send a team to Paraparaumu, the latter winning hy default. Otaki, too, found they were unable to play Weraroa A, who also won by default.

The jpenny-in-slot stamp machine at' the Wanganui Post Office has a habit' of playing “put-and-take” with the public every now and again. It was in one of its peculiar moods recently. An old lady became very excited when she got two penny stamps for a penny inserted, while a young man who was next up to die machine “put one and took nothing.” Thirty-seven head qf deer were killed yesterday at the Paraparaurnu Game Farm,, the action arising out of the Government prohibiting the liberation of any more deer. Members of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society gathered early in the morning and the work of rounding.up- and killing the herd, that had taken 26 years to develop, was begun. The carcases ar-e being shipped to America, where, strangely enough, deer are receiving the utmost protection to ensure their preservation, The practice of die Railway Department in withdrawing 'from newspapers advertisements dealing with special timetables two or three days before the occasion in respect to which the advertisements apply, was referred to at a meeting of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce. It was pointed out that anyone intending to travel by the railway on such occasions usually wished, to- refer to die timetable on the day before and bad to look up back numbers of the papers to get the information. The complaint will be brought before the traffic manager.

As die story was related by a railway man, no apology is made for its presentation says the Waikato Times. With a view to keeping a check on the speed at which drivers were taking the Limited over various portions of the journey from Auckland to Wellington, a speedometer of the tape variety was recently installed in the guard’s van. After the arrival of one of the trains art its destination the “man in tile cab” was brought before some of the officials a,t head office, when the spged was the subject of test As the automatic tape was unwound to the extent of yards and yards, everything was going off favourably until 50 miles per hour was shown at the period when the train was standing at the Marton platform ! It is almost, needless to remark that the automatic tape tester lias been relegated to the scrap heap.

Owing to tile diiliculty of obtaining new blood from England as a result of tile loot and mouth disease, it lias ibeen decided tiiat the I’araparaumu deer herd shall be done away with. This hoi’d lias stocked die North island with deer. The saddest spectacles of political bile are provided by these men who having devoted themselves to politics, are unable to maintain themselves ,by any other means when they are - ipiacbd in the discard. To the increasing number of such men in Australia has been added, the name of the Hon. W. O. Archibald, politician since 1893, and one time Minister of Home Affairs mid Minister of'Trade and Customs. He is now an inmate of the Salvation Andy,Home in Pirie Street,. Adelaide. He asked for accommodation tliei’e recently, and the Army, understanding the case, took him in. I That New Zealand girls are not | pleasure mad, as some folk woulu have the world believe, is shown by the successful pluck and ambition cn Miss . Muriel Fi;azer, of Ngatawa School, Marton. On the verge of examinations she had set tier heart on she was seized with an attack of 1 appendicitis. She tried, with the assistance of her medical adviser, to stay off an operation till after she had done her payers, but an immediate operation became imperative. Nothing daunted; she. took her books with her to hospital, and'continued her studies in bed. She got 'out oi hospital on the 12th day after the operation, and “sat” for her examination in bed on the 13th day, successfully passing her matriculation and solicitor’s general knowledge examinations at the age of 17.

During the next session of Purlin men? will bo a movement in the direction ol getting Kapiti Island thrown open as. r holiday resort. The island abound: with good camping spots wit'll idea facilities for fishing and bathing. A present the .island is a sanctuary foi native flora and avifauna. At least a great portion of it is still owned ip natives, and dunnh; the holiday month this area is largely visited by poop!: from the mainland. There has been growing feeling (slates an exchange that Kapiti Island has not been a sue cess as a haven for native bird life, am it is felt that wen 1 it made availabl as a holiday resort, it would be larg> ly visited by people from Wanganu Sangitikci, Manawatu and Weliingto district. The matter has been repr sented to several members of Parlin ment, with a view to, having the pro sent restrictive legislation removed.

Peter Moko gives a denial to the statement, that there is any intention on the part of Rat an a and the executive of the Ratana Church to remove the headquarters of the church to Tc Kuiti. Moko states that they are prebaring to launch a new enterprise at Ratana and in. addition have .communicated with the Minister of Railways, asking him to provide a suitable station at Ratana and also a station master to meet the requirements of .the growing- community. From, records at Ratana }t is estimated that Maoriq who go to and from fire pa during tire year contribute £22,000 annually to the railways revenue. These figures are based on a low estimate of 20s per head fares for each traveller.

An amusing (to the onlookers) but rather terrifying experience is related in connection with the visit -of Wirtb’menagerie to Masterton. A couplf of ladies were admiring one of the big elephants. One said: “I wonder if bis skin is hard and leathery or soft to the touch.’’ Put your, hand on him and find out,” said the other. Lady No. 1 timidly put her hand on the foreleg of-the giant beast. With, it. is declared, a “naughty little twinkle in his eye,” the elephant at once gently clasped the lady with his trunk around her dainty skin-coloured stockings, and she fell to the ground with a shriek of alarm. The elephant, immediately let go, and went on reaching out for apples or peanuts. The experimenter is still unable to say whether an elephant’s skin is soft oi hard; nor is the elephant any more communicative as to the fineness oi otherwise of the lady’s lower limbs.