Shannon News TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1927.

Shannon News, 4 October 1927, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1927.

The bachelors of Moutoa intend holding a ball in the Moutoa Hall on Friday, October 21st.

The Rev. R. Williamson of .Shannon conducted his fourth divine service at Mr.ngaore on Thursday evening last.

The Bowling. Club’s weekly card tourney held on Thursday evening drew a good attendance, those present having an enjoyable time. The winners for the evening were Mrs Terry and Mr. Jas Richardson. ! .

Advice lias been, received that the Railway Department have decided to erect only three houses in Shannon, instead of four, as previously announced, as it is found that the former number will meet the Department’s requirements .

The fishing season opened on Saturday and over the week-end the local streams were well tested, but from reports to hand the results were not very encouraging. The number of licenses issued in Shannon, so far this season, show a gjod-increase over last season.

Miss Irene Coakley and Mr T. F. Jamieson, who are to be'"married this week, were tendered a gift evening by their friends in the Parish Hall on Saturday evening. There were about 100 present, and a pleasant evening was: spent. The guests were the recipients of many useful and valuable present?.

Messrs A. T. White, E. Butt, J. T. Bovis and J. Gagliardi represented the Shannon Bowling Club at the opening of the Manawatu Bowling Club’s, sear son at Palmerston North on Saturday. They drew to play a rink from the Palmerston North Club consisting of Innes, Wimsctt, Griggs and Bell, whom they defeated by 33 to 11.

In the course of a Rugby match at Whangarei on Saturday, between Old Boys and Ilikurangi, described as the hardest and fastest game of the season, two Old Boy players, E. J. Aim and F. 11. Cotton, were carried off the held with severe injuries to their ankles. Both are masters of the High School. Mr. Aim is a son of Mr. and Mrs J. Aim, of Shannon, who have received advice that their son’s leg is broken.

On Wednesday evening last, the 28th September, the Mangaore Social Club held their third series of card tournaments. About 40 enthusiasts sat down to cribljage and euchre. Prizes were awarded as follows:—Cribbage: Ladies, Mrs Owen (first), Mrs Snelling (bcoby); Gentlemen, C. C. Franks (first);, D. Owen (booby). Euchre: .Laulc.:, Mrs Ewen-Balfour (first), Miss L. Aat wood (booby); Gentlemen, N. Me Kip lay (first), S. M. Wilde vbooby)- Sumptuous supper was served by,(he ladies.

There are now 1000 Salvation. Army bandsmen in the Dominion, and some of them are men of very high technical ability, according to Commissioner James' Hay. In England, the Salvation Army has just commissioned its lOOOthj band..

‘‘‘Everywhere I go in your country I see ; water-power running to waste. Why not harness it and use it, to run your railways? The water costs nothing and it would be cheaper 'to export your 1 coal. In Austria, where to-day we have no coal all our railways are electric. 1 believe that this will ultimately be .the system in this country.”— Professor Schaffer (Vienna) in conversation with a Christchurch Press reporter.

”Afproperly controlled lunch is essentiai to the child who is taking the meal away from home,” wrote the Mediehl Officer of Health (Dr. R. J. R. Mecrecly) in a report on visits to various schools which was considered by the New Plymouth Education Board, says a Taranaki exchange. At Hawera the school lunch was controlled by a teacher, and the children were prohibited- from using the playground until 20 minutes had elapsed for the meal. At Eltliam, while the lunch was not controlled, the pupils were not allowed on the playground until 20 minutes, had passed. The doctor was pleased that such attention was paid to the point. The senior inspector (Mr N. R. McKenzie) said that lunches were controlled in other schools as well, - k <>: i, *t. ,4 .v •

One-third of the honey produced in the Dominion comes from the Waikato.

In 36 tenders received by the Wanganui Agricultural Association for gorse grubbing work the highest was £l2O and the lowest £2O.

A retired contractor, commenting on the prices obtained for draught horses at a sale in Christchurch the other day, expressed the opinion to a reporter that in a year or two he would not be surprised to find five to seven year-old geldings being sold for as much as £IOO each.

The New Zealand railway year closed without the occurrence, of a fatal accident to any train passenger. Over 26,000,000 passengers were carried. The number of. accidents to trains involving passengers and employees was six as compared with forty-one the previous year. Personal accidents on the line (other than train accidents) totalled twenty less than for the year 1925-26. Shunting accidents likewise showed a satisfactory decrease.

Within a year, Sir Joseph Ward predicted at Waiuku a great political change in New Zealand, for in his opinion -the people were dissatisfied with the Government (reports the New Zealand Herald). He said he )vas not pressing himself on any party as leader, but was willing to assist New Zealand to a better position. Touching his age, Sir Joseph claimed to have many good years of work left in him yet. “I own up to 70,” he concluded, “and what more can I do?”

A correspondent of the Feilding Star forwards the following extract from a letter just received from Home: “New Zealand butter is selling' at Is 8d retail and the local dairy butter at Is lOd and 2s per lb. New Zealand is never sold as such, but is simply known as ‘colonial’ butter, which might come from anywhere. You ought-to make it a condition that your butter, which is always good and of a uniform quality should be sold in this country (British Isles) as ‘New Zealand butter.’ ”

A thief with a knowledge of horticulture has been robbing greenhouses in the West Plains district, near Invercargill. Armed with a hammer lie has opened the doors of various greenhouses and selected with nice discrimination the-best plants, frequently taking pot and-all. One resident of West Plains, who had taken such pains in growing cinerarias in her greenhouses, has to get up every morning at two o’clock to replenish the oil in a lamp burning to maintain the correct temperature, was dismayed to find that her choice plants had been stolen.

A big mortality amongst pigs is foreshadowed as the result of the installation by many farmers of pipe lines from milking sheds to pig troughs for the conveyance of skim milk (says an exchange). A well-known veterinarian, Mr S. Burton, says lie recently visited one farm where over 80 pigs were dead, 18 or 20 were dying, and the balance were sick. He traced the mortality to the sun playing on the pipes and making them incubators for germs, which found their ways to the lungs of the animals causing septic pneumonia. As such installations are now becoming general there are likely to be wholesale deaths during the summer unless the pipes are kept scrupulously clean.

"Many people in Australia seem to think that they are not over-welcome in New Zealand,'' said Rev. P. Carrington, a New Zealand Professor of Divinity, who is travelling from Adelaide to Quebec, when at Auckland on Monday. The visitor said he had greatly enjoyed his few years of work in Adelaide/ He found the Australians both warm-hearted and friendly. They always had a welcome for people from New’Zealand. He could not understand the feeling that they were not very welcome in this country, because his personal experience had been to the contrary. He felt that both in Australia and in Canada New Zealanders could do much to improve the understanding between the peoples of different parts of the Empire.

The application of a Presbyterian theological student, A. M. Richards, for exemption from military training was again refused in the Auckland Court on the ground that he was not a member of a church that was opposed to military training. A previous application was refused and defendant has been twice fined for refusing to undergo training. In refusing the application, Magistrate Cutten said the Presbyterian Church was not opposed to i military training. It was law, and the annlicant had to obey it. The Auckland. Presbytery, in a resolution passed on Tuesday, pointed out that the Act provides for the exemption of those conscientiously opposed to military training and claims such exemption for Richards, believing him to be sincere in his views.

Opossum trappers have done well this season, taking animals in proportion to the reduced number of licenses authorised, those taken out being 360 as compared with 407 last year. Mr T. Andrews, a ranger for the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, informed a Chronicle reporter that two Palmerston trappers had secured over 800 skins, and two in’ the Western Lake district, Wairarapa, had taken 1042. The prices for medium sorts have been from 8s 6d to 9s a skin, and are a good deal better than the values last year. The opinion was expressed by Mr Andrew that the opossums would increase despite the trapping, as the female has from two to three young ones in a year. The revenue from trapping licenses has been a boon to the Society, Avhieh, in consequence, is able to pursue a more liberal policy in distributing fish and game than it could do some years ago. The liberations of pheasants are now at the rate of over a thousand annually, and last season most shootors obtained a bird or two. . ! j _ . j:::

Replying to an interjection in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Minister of Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod) stated that a bill dealing with education reserves would be introduced later in the session.

The total number of staff employed by the Railway Department on the 31st March, 1927, including those, engaged on works chargeable to capital, was 18,652 and the average number actually at work throughout the year was 18,458, as compared with 17,990 the previous year. The average number of men engaged on works charged to capital was .1,239, as against 1,058 last vea r.

“Apprentice instruction classes were inaugurated at Newmarket, Petone, Addington, anil Hillside workshops in July, 1926, and the results disclosed at the' last examination of /apprentices show that a good deal of progress has been made. A keen interest is being displayed by the apprentices in the class-work, and the advantages -to be derived from systematic training are quite apparent.—Excerpt from Railways Statement.

Some photographs taken at Gape Kidnappers recently show that the gannets are already selecting nesting sites and preparing for the upbringing of their 1927-28 broods, declares an exchange. The gannets begin to arrive at the Cape in August. For the visitor who can make but one trip to the sanctuary in the year, December, January and ’February-rare the best months to go. Then the chicks may be seen in all stages of development, from the chick just out of the egg to the older chick with its speckled plumage.

An elderly man, whose name has not been ascertained, had a narrow escape from death when the* half-past eight train from the south was drawing into the. Levin station on Saturday evening. Through some unknown cause lie stepped off the platform before the tram had stopped, and fell between the carriages and the kerliiiig. People rushed to ihe spot with feelings of horror, which were almost immediately relieved, as when the train stopped the man’s head emerged from below and lie was quickly assisted on to the platform.

Reference was made by the Prime Minister in the course of the Railways Statement in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to the question oi refreshments for travellers. “I believe it will soon be necessary to rc-open the question of providing passengers with meals on trains,” said Mir. .Coates. “This can be clone by the reinstatement of dining-saloons and by the. supply of hampers. I secured specimens of the latter as used on the Britisli railways and have, as a commencement, arranged, for a supply to be placed on some of the expresses.”

As a number of men have lately been paid off on the Main Highways work in the Horowhenua County, a Chronicle reporter this morning asked the County Chairman (Mr G. A. Monk) what the position was, and he explained that there was no cessation of the County’s activities, but as certain sections on which formation work has been going on this year, to link up the completed portions of the road, are almost completed there is no longer any. need for the gangs. Between Te Horo and Waikanae the formation has been completed, also between Manakau and Otaki with the exception of the portion known as Bevan’s. These lengths are practically ready for the penetration course now; and tire Chairman anticipates that the whole of- the new road as far as Waikanae will receive its final penetration coat early in the New Year. The casual men employed between Shannon and Makerua have also completed their work and have been paid off.

Horatio Botiomley is not resting after his .prison labours. He has commenced a series of articles to the Weekly Despatch under the heading of "From Broad Acres to Broad Arrows" —by "Convict 13." He was an unlucky number—perhaps that is why he did not secure, release earlier, despite the efforts-of-influential friends. "I promise," says Bottomley in a foreword, "to publish something which, I avow, will send a thrill through the heart and conscience of the nation. The public will learn from me, for the first time, the truth of the great prison underworld.' ’ In a comment on this publicity, Public Opinion observes that few will question Mr Bottomley’s right to deal with the question of prison reform in the light bf his own experiences, adding: "Many ex-prisoners in years gone by have related their reactions to the prison system, and in all matters of reform there has always been a readiness to weigh the voices of those who have been in the position to judge the effect of the conditions in force on themselves and othg^s."