GENERAL NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 52, 4 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

The N.Z.L. and M.A. Co., Ltd., report a splendid wool sale at Wellington on Thursday, 25th February, 1915.' A number of clips were offered on .account of the Stratford branch, and of those, that were offered, that on occount of Mr William Willis, of Kohuratahi, brought the fine price of 13-Jd for 7 bales crossbred ewes.

The police have been notified of the theft of an instrument, the only one of its kind in Australasia, for the humane slaughtering of animals (says the Auckland Star). The instrument, which is comparatively a new invention,- is in shape something like a pistol, but instead of discharging a. shot, it plunges a fine steel dart into the brain of the animal, causing instant death, The dart is immediately withdrawn by special, mechanism.

While addressing the" jury in a libel action at the Christchurch Supreme Court, Mr Justice flenntaton stated thafc there was a great tendency at the", present; time on the part of people libelled in a newspaper to immediately see what they could get out of the pa pel by asking for punitive damages. People, however, were not entitled in a libel action to come to Court for the purpose of making, money out of it. A strong case must be established before punitive damages were awarded.

A story is going the rounds concerning Wilbur Wright's, fidelity ; to his religious convictions. He was aboard, and at the high tide of his first foreign success, being everywhere acclaimed as "The Emperor of the x Air." One day the King of Spain came to see his aeroplane. An orderly .approached the famous airman and said, "His Majesty would like to see you fly." Courteously, but firmly, Mr Wright at once replied, "I am very sorry, but Ave never fly on Sunday."

A strange plant (says the North Otago Times) has been found in grass land upon one of the hillsides near Oaraaru. It is probably the Centaurea Veratum, a composite plant from the Levant. In its native land it is ah annual, but may prove longer lived here-. The flower head is something like a dwarf star thistle, and the spikes around the calyx resemble a small dart. There is a story- which states that the Centaur Chiron cured the wound in his. foot made by the arrow of Hercules .by the use of the plant; hence its name, Centaur. Although a curious and interesting plant it is advisable to dig it up whenever it is seen. . '. j:,'. .'

Some doubt appears to have been cast on the statement that a farmer in the Heddon Bush (Southland) district had been offered £2OOO for a crop of wheat over 100 acres in extent. The Otautau Standard is informed on the 'best authority that the offer was quite a genuine one. •Wheiritris cojisi'der<*d that an 80 Intshel crop of wheat has been harvested off 'the Sajnef property the statement can J fye ' afceeptedT without the proverbial grain of salt. Z .

Concerning the Emden wreck, a correspondent in an Australian paper writes: "A trophy we should, be 'proud of ig now, lying at the Cocos •Islands'] why not raise a fund, or;' 'better' still, the State Government '-'send capable men to refloat her, and "iow her to Sydney, where we all will be proud to inspect, her at Is each. I am almost sure that the money derived from inspection will more than cover the expense, of bringing her here. England has her Nelson, and other ships'.'pf interest, why not Sydney her Emden? Where is there a State or country in the world who, witb such a young navy, capturel such a, prize? Surely, after all iF has cost us in money and lives, we will not allow ,it to stay there,. If a fund is started, I will contribute to such an object. Hoping some day to see our prize securely .anchored in Sydney Harbor."

,- The right of Maoris to exhume bodies and remove them to burial places in some mountain resort has been raised in connection with the visit to Gisborne district of the prophet Rua, from ijfche Urewe-a Country. With about ftU followers Rua dug up the body of a native who had been buried six or ■seven years, and the remains were 'carried in a portmanteau to the Waimaha Pa, at Thunga, where there is a tangi being held. The settlers beard that Rua intended to exhume the remains of some natives who had died at the pa from typhoid, and became anxious about the matter. Some police were sent to see whether a license for the exhumation had been obtained, and, if so, to see that the conditions were carried out satisfactorily. It was found that no license had been obtained, and Rua thereupon decided to come to Gisborne to get one. It was believed that the Maoris could do as they liked about removing a body, so long as, their action meets witli the approval of the owner of the property. Section 07 of the Cemeteries Act, decrees otherwise.