Shannon News TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1926.

Shannon News, 31 August 1926, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1926.

Mr E. T., Moody, solicitor, left for Dunedin on Saturday. He? will be returning in the course of a few days.

. The many friends in Shannon of Mr W. Murdoch, who- has been ill, will be pleased to learn that" his condition now shows an improvement.

A keenly contested debate took place at Mangahao on Thursday night between teams representing tire Mangahao and Mangaore Debating Societies, the subject being, “That Continuance is preferable to Prohibition.” Mangahao spoke in the affirmative, and Mangaore in the negative. The various speakers were in good form, and as is natural where there are strong positives and negatives, sparks were at times produced, the. audience keenly enjoying the repartee. Both teams are to be complimented on the very able manner in which they individually and collectively carried out the debate. The speakers were,. Mangahao: Messrs Hutton (lead), While, Boyd, Skeen and Ross. Mangaore: .Messrs Bass (lead), Coates, Gagliardi, Blackwood • and Woods. Messrs Moody, Braun and Thwaites, of Shannon, acted as judges and Mr T. A. Johnston officiated as chairman. There was a large and appreciative audience and applause was frequent. The judges award was: Mangahao (affirmative), 399 points, Mangaore (negative), 388'points.

Ladies who wish to be graceful and walk with greater comfort, should call and .inspect the celebrated ‘Berlei” comet, now showing at Howard Andrew’s, the leading drapers, of Shannon. See advertisement on page d

The late Mr F. W. Fischer, who for many years carried on a secondhand dealer’s business in Wakefield Street, Auckland, left a fortune of £IB,OOO. His house and furniture he bequeathed to his housekeeper, and the remainder to his sister in Adelaide.

A bequest unique in the history of Dominion, sport has been made by the late Mr Herbert .Smith, formerly of Wellington, a Hamilton resident, who died in Brisbane recently. / A sum of £IO,OOO is left under his will for the promotion of healthy pastimes and the. purpose of creating a better physical standard for the Dominion’s youth. About £I7OO is available yearly for a period of seven years.

Thirty impatient car-drivers spent a contemplative hour on the Wellington road this morning, awaiting the pleasure of a tractor driver whose load was bogged. On the northern side of Paremata a drain is being constructed across the road, only half of which is open to traffic. A tractor and its trailer laden with metal lost its bearings, got off the beaten track and not “all the King’s horses” could shift it. After an interminable period of waiting a steamroller “got to” it and thirty disgruntled drivers depressed their selfstarters.

A farmer at Hoanga had a bit of bad luck recently. He stacked some hay in his barn in the upper portion of which was a loft in' which he had stored some arsenic which he used to cure hides. Unfortunately this poison by some means or other got through the floor of the loft on the hay below without the farmer’s knowledge. The cows were fed with the hay and a number of them became violently all, in fact four of the best of them died. The farmer was at a loss to know what- had made them ill and called in the services of a veterinary surgeon, who discovered that the dead cows showed signs of poisoning and instituted a search as to how they could have got it with the result that it was found to have fallen into the hay as before mentioned.

No fewer than 61 soldier settlers abandoned their farms during the year in the North Auckland district. Warning a youthful offender, at the Children’s. Court at Wanganui of the pitfalls ahead of the evildoer, Mr J. S. Barton S.M., said it would do the boy -good, no doubt, to accompany him on an occasional visit to the gaol. Ther,e he would see one man, over 50 years of age, who had spent more than 34 years of his life in gaol. That man had not, when young had any idea that his life should be so ordered; but he had fallen into evil habits, and so bad spent most of bis lifq in prison. A curious incident occured during a seven-a-side Rugby tournament at Bulls. Ivaierau (Wanganui), playing against Rata, had scored a try and the kick at goal was about toi be taken when the time bell rang, with Kaierau in the lead by 6 points to 3. The usual courtesy cheers were then exchanged, and the teams filed off the ground, but it was discovered a minute or twO‘ later that the spell had been short, and the teams were ordered to discard their overcoats and return to the'field. Rata then proceeded to-v Win by 9 points to 6. Ah amazing scene was witnessed at the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch last week. While waiting the hearing of a maintenance case, a woman sat in the sup outside the court, Her /husband passed, and made a remark.which she -resented. She gave a scream, and the husband) recognising this as a danger signal, beat a hasty retreat. He took shelter in one of the court passages, but the woman pursued him there, and he fled to the' prisoners’ room. From here farther retreat was impossible, and, the woman, finally catching him, proceeded to chastise him. The echoes of her thudding fists could be heard even in the court room, and the husband was only saved by speedy politic intervention. But only for a moment, He went outside,, where he found that his wife had enrolled the assistance of four girl friends. They swooped on him with cries of triumph, and rolled him in the gutter, in which there was an ample stream of water. When the man got free, he removed himself as quickly as possible from,the neighbourhood of his wife/and her Amazon friends.