Shannon News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1929.

Shannon News, 25 October 1929, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1929.

We are informed on good authority that there is every likelihood of a new drapery business opening in Shannon shortly.

A sign of better times in Shannon is evidenced by the fact that empty houses are not to be had. Local house agents state that this position has not been solely brought about by the arrival in the town of men employed by the Public Works Department, as houses for renting have been scarce for the past month or two. We understand that there are quite a number of people still on the waiting list.

The attendance at the euchre tourney held last' evening showed a falling off, only 47 players taking part. The following were the results of’ the evening’s play: —Ladies: Mrs McLaggan 1, Mrs Mabey 2, Mrs L. Jones 3. Gents: Mr Mabey 1, Mr R. Sands 2, Mr M. Thorne 3. The following qualified to play off, for the two gold watches at the end of the series:—Mrs Pritchard, Mrs Radford, Miss E. McKenzie and Messrs G. Hook, J. Curran, W. Butler, L. Satherley, F. Buckman, F. Peaeli and T. Moore.

“You 'must get the local paper if you live in the district. It is part of the life of its public, a bit of themselves, and the advertiser who leaves it out of his calculations is, in my opinion, missing one of the greatest assets in securing sales.” This is the considered statement of Mr R. T. Lang, of Sells, Ltd., London, based on his own experience and observations during 40 years’ association with big business.

Claimed by its owner to be the only one of its kind in New Zealand, a yellow flowering gum tree is growing in the garden of Mr 11. Rowe, Paraiti Road, Bell Block (says the Taranaki Herald). The tree is a dwarf growing to a height of about five feet, and the species was only recently discovered in Australia Covered with light yellow flowers, the tree makes a pretty sight, and Mr Rowe states that it will bloom for four or five months.

Local bodies in. Hawke's Bay are taking up the matter of superannuation funds for their employees (says the Daily Telegraph). The Napier City Council, the Wairoa Power Beard, the Central Hawke’s Bay Power Board, and the Hawke’s Bay County Council have all instituted such funds, and at a recent meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board, the secretary of that body was instructed to go into the matter and report with a view to its formation Iheie.

To judge from something seen on a road near Hamilton recently, horss management is quickly becoming one of the lost arts (says the New Zealand Herald). A baker’s delivciy man was on his usual round when his horse fell down. The man decided that the first thing was to separate it from the cart, but how to do this puzzled him, for the animal was lying on one of the shafts. Then he had a bright idea. Going to a nearby house, he borrowed a saw and sawed the shaft og. The rest was easy.

'The practice of carrying tethered or untothered dogs on the running boards of cars was recently condemned by the Auckland Automobile Association, and the edict of the association in; this respect was upheld by a number of Napier motorists who were questioned on the subject by a Daily Telegraph representative. One and all agreed that the practice was a dangerous one, particularly at night, when the dogs were liable to be dazzled by lights of approaching cars and to jump off right under their wheels, possibly causing a serious accident.

The longest ten minutes of one girl's life' occurred the other evening ac Auckland when she arrived at a suburban church in time for her wedding to find all in darkness. The electric light had failed. Inside, the organist, played to a crowded church; outside, men and women moved about in tho dark, but the only light came from the leading sedan in a long line of cars, where a nervous bride received constant assurance that all would soon bo well. Power Board engineers soon found the break; the bride smiled, and all went according to schedule.

An extraordinary thing happened when a New Plymouth shop-owner turned on his cold water tap the other morning, for after the water had run cold for a moment, boiling hot water ran out of the tap and filled the room with steam. This particular shop had no hot-Avater system, and the owner avus much mystified until the explanation was found. It appeared that the occurrence was the result of tho lowered pressure in the Avater mains ivom 120 lb to 901 b per square inch consequent on the Avork being carried out by the borough ctaff in replacing some of the mains. The shop next door had a boiler, and instead of escaping by the usual Avay the hot Avater was able to force its Avay back through the pipes and come out again at the nearest outlet.

At a card afternoon recently, one of the guests plied the question: “Why do they call the game bridge?” The answer came quickly from another lady: “Probably because it makes your partner cross!”

A burglary occurred at. a whare owned by Mr. Phillips, and situate between Paekakari-ki and Paraparaumu, when the occupier, Mr. Ivan Letich, suffered the loss of some money and household articles. The theft was evidently committed between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday while Mr. Letich was absent at work.

i 1 There’s no doubt about it that New Zealand lamb lias earned a high reputation on the Homo market, and I have been assured by men who know that the product of this district has no equal in Canterbury or anywhere else,” stated Hon. J. G. Cobbe, at the annual general meeting of the Pending Farmers ’ Freezing Company at Feilding.

.Mrs T. Dwan has offered to present to the Wellington hospital one of the latest' electric knives . for bloodless operations. The hospital authorities have accepted the offer and are now having inquiries made in England for the latest and most up-to-date surgical instrument of the type. The only other instrument of its kind.in New Zealand is in the Christchurch hospital, having been given by Mrs N. Hobday, of that city.

“I know a farmer in the Manawatu who has an equity of between £4OOO and £SOOO in a £20,000 property and who will lose it if the proposed land tax becomes law,” said Mr. H. Bond at the executive meeting of the Wellington provincial branch of the New t 2jealand Farmers’ TJni/Om present considered that, under , the circumstances, it was time the man got off the property, and that the sooner he got off the better for himself.

A definite recommendation with regard’ to the erection of hoardings in .Masterton was placed before a meeting of the Borough Council last night 'by its Park and Town Planning Committee, to which the Council referred an application from an outside firm to erect hoardings. The committee recommended that the application be granted on condition that all advertising other than local advertising shall refer to wholesale lines that may be stocked or procured by local firms.

A change in the method of parking cars in Broadway, Rangitikei and Cuba Street.; was decided upon by the Palmerston North Borough Council last evening. The areas alongside the kerb in these three streets will be abolished in favour of a central area, with sufficient room to accommodate a double line of cars parked head to tail avhile traffic on each side of the central line will move in one direction only. The new scheme also provides for an additional parking area opposite the bus stand in the Square, by setting back the kerb to the path running through the reserve to the war memorial.

No cessation of the annual decline in the number of births registered in New Zealand was witnessed for the year 1928 (states the annual report on the vital statistics of the Dominion, which was just been issued from the Census and Statistics Office). The actual number recorded was 27,200, this figure being the lowest since 1919, and 681 below the total for 1927. The registrations consisted of 14,082 males and 13,118 females. Coinciding with the fall in the total births recorded, the birth rate during 1928 fell to the unprecedentedly low level of 19.56 per 1000 of the This figure compared wife 20.29 for 1927, a decline of 3.59 per cent.

“A 4001 b. fish with the brain the size of a walnut!” exclaimed Dr. W. A. Fairclough, when as he was explaining, at a lecture in the Auckland University College Hall, the visual and mental processes of fish. It was the swoiklfisfii (Xiphias gladius) that he was talking about when he mentioned the w:r:nut-sized intelligence, and he illur-.tr - ted his statement with a lantern slide showing the rough dissection of the head of a swordfish that he had made some six years ago at Mayor Island, usuing a tomahawk and a sheath knife for the opeiation. “The mental processes of a swordfish must be nonexistent,” said Dr. Fairclough. “Pain, as we -appreciate it, is a mental process, so I conclude that the swordfish is incapable of feeling pain. He certainly cannot feel pain as we know it, and to suggest that the fish can distinguish between the triangular gang hook and the single hook is absurd.”

The mind of a man sometimes takes a queer turn when he is in quest of something to which he considers himself entitled. An evidence of this was given in connection with the registrations for employment under the Premier’s scheme of providing work for all the unemployed in the Dominion within a few weeks. One man called at an office a few days ago and intimated that'"he wanted to register. He was given the ordinary card, and proceeded to give thereon the required information. Ho omitted, however, to fill in the name of his last employer, and -when asked to do that he said ho could give the name of his present employer. When told that the only persons whose registrations could be accepted were those actually out of employment, the would be applicant was very annoyed, and threatened to report the officer for refusing his application. He said lie might be out of work in a short time, and ho considered he ought to be able to make his registration in prospect of being out of work. He was told to come back when he was out of a job, and then his application would be accepted. Another man who was out of work applied at the same office, but made the stipulation that he must have work in Wellington.