Shannon News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1928.

Shannon News, 7 February 1928, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1928.

The friends of Mr Tohi Kohika will be sorry to hear that he is ill and lias been compelled to enter the Palmerston North Hospital for treatment.

Miss Jose Thomson left for Christchurch on Saturday for a short holiday, where she will be the guest, of Mrs R. Neale, late of Shannon.

The Shannon Athletic Club intend holding their next sports meeting early in March. An application has been made for a date.

Miss Allen, late of To Kuiti school, has been appointed to the staff of the Shannon school and took up her duties on Wednesday last.. Misses M. Brown and V. Aim, of Shannon, have also joined the teaching staff.

In thanking their customers for the generous support accorded them during the two years they have been in business, Mesrs King and Hunt, of the C.C.R. Butchery, notify .in this issue that they have closed their well-known butchery business. They ask that all accounts due. to the firm be paid at the shop before Saturday, February lltli.

Mr and Mrs T. Watterston, who have been residents of Shannon for about eighteen years, and who left at the week-end to take up their residence at Lower Hutt, were entertained by between thirty and forty of their friends at the residence of Mr and Mrs C.. C. Franks on Saturday evening. During the evening, Mr A. Blackwood, on behalf of those present, presented the guests with tokens of esteem. Mr Watterston, in replying, thanked all for their kind wishes and trusted that they would not lose sight of their many Shannon friends. At the bowling green during the afternoon the members of the bowling club took the opportunity of bidding farewell to Mr. Watterston, who is one of their most valued members, having been a member of the Club for the past fifteen years. Mr Brann, the president, in handing him a gold mounted fountain pen as a token of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow -members, expressed the regret of all at his departure from Shannon, stating that he would carry with him the best wishes of all for happiness and prosperity in his new home.

In the large advt. of Howard Andrew, Ltd., in this issue three special lines are advertised at gift prices. Those will not last long and the public are advised to get down on them at once.*

The rainfall fbr Otaki for January was 1.5 inch which fell on two days. A Rotorua telegram says the body of

Vital statistics for Otaki for Janu ary were: —Births 7. deaths 4, mar riages nib

“It was not a fight. He gave me a blow and I gave him one back for it, ’ 1 said a defendant in the Police Court in New Plymouth. “Well, most people call that fighting, ** was the comment of the Magistrate. A message from Miami, Florida, say that Tex Rickard has confirmed rumours that Dempsey lias, been eliminated from further consideration for another match with Tunncy, and probably will never fight; again. It is understood an injury to an eve and heavy punishment in the last two fights with Tunney are responsible.

According to reports from the commercial world there has been a rise in the price of hides and within the next few months it is certain that a jump will take place in the price of footwear, says a Dunedin paper. The manager of a Dunedin bootshop, however, thinks that the rise will not be more than ten per cent.

No rain was recorded in Nelson during January. The other dry months in the past forty-five years were February, 1908, and March, 1911.

The fat lamb season in the Waikato promises to bo brought to an abrupt end within the next fortnight unless rain falls'!*, the interval. Lambs are usually kept in the Waikato on rape and grass till June, but- the dry wea thcr has so seriously affected the rape crops and pastures that there is not sufficient feed available for the lambs, which are being sent forward to the freezing works in large numbers and are being killed for export. Other sheep are faring fairly well on the dry pastures, and theie is a keen , demand tor breeding ewes.

A curious story of rooks planting an oak wood is told in Eobinson’-s “Natural History of Cumberland” (1709). The writerv described how, when near Rose Castle, he observed a flock of rooks engaged in planting acorns, digging holes in some mossy ground with their bills, then dropping in the acorns and covering them with moss. Twenty-five years later there had grown up a grove of oaks (the landlord having protected the seedlings as curiosities) of a suitable height for the rooks to build nests therein. Rooks like to pluck acorns from the tree in their stalked cups, and can carry them far, whereas acorns shed from their cups would be .too slippery. Both the mistle-thrush and the wood-pigeon are tree-planters. In one record the crops of four pigeons are stated to have yielded some two hundred beechnuts and sixty acorns.

A Dutch -newspaper tells a new Bismarck story, says London Truth. Count von Arnim, German Ambassador to France, could not stand the Chancellor’s interminable chain of foul pipes, and did everything to avoid conferring with him at the Wilhclmstrasse. One day the Dutch Minister was kept waiting in the ante-chamber, and over an hour elapsed before Arnim emerged with streaming eves, coughing and cursing. “The Black Hole of Calcutta must have been a paradise compared with that foul den,.” lie cried, pressing a perfumed handkerchief to his nose. Presently the great man emerged. “A(ou must forgive me keeping you waiting,” he growled, “but you must allow 1 me a little breathing space. That cursed Arnim, with his beastly French scents! I always have to open all the windows after his visits and smoke two or three pipes-to get rid of the stink.”

“As one who has had a close connection with the Bay of Islands and Ajako Shark Club, I can answer the question as to the method of the disposal of swordfish flesh” (writes a correspondent to the New Zealand Herald). “The answer is ‘Dumped overboard opt at sea.’ There are no'facilities about Russell for utilising fisli flesh commercially except at Purerua, where a canning factory operates on mullet alone. Experiments made by this firm with swordfish, kingfisli, sclmappor and kahawai for tinning proved that with the exception of the latter, they are too dry for tinning. Again, few people care to eat swordfish flesh after the fish lias lain on the thwarts of a launch for 12 hours or more in the broiling 1 sun. However, the fieli is excellent, of a light pinkish colour, rather soft, and tasting to my mind, more like hapuka than any other fish. Until freezing chambers are established at the Bay of Islands, or a plant for converting waste fish into manures, etc., the colossal waste of fish flesh of all varieties will continue in these parts as it has done for years past.”