GENERAL NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 65, 19 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

The new dental department at Wellington hospital was officially opened the other afternoon by the Hon, 11. H. Rhodes, Minister for Public Health. The stall' is housed in the former out patients’ building, near the entrance, which has been fully equipped for the, work it is intended to do. Special attention is to be paid to children’s teeth. Mr Rhodes urged that parents should take advantage of the institution, in the interests of their children’s health. ■

The milk supply at the Riverdalo dairy factory has undergone, a big drop lately as a result of the dry weather (states the Manaia Witness). The daily supply at present is 20,000 lbs below what it was at the same time last season. This represents a loss of something like £IOO a day to the suppliers. But this touch of gloom will be dispelled on the 20th, which is the company’s pay-out day, when the money to bo distributed is expected to be the champion cheque among the dairy factories on the Coast.

A touching incident occurred outside the Auckland Magistrate’s Court the other day. A case had been heard and adjourned, in which a wife applying for a separation order and maintenance had been telling a fairly lurid story of how her husband had ill-treated her and meanwhile a little girl about three years of age, who had been living with her mother since the husband had left home by mutual agreement with his wife, was climbing all over her recovered father, while the complainant was relating what a bad man lie was. When the case was adjourned, the child ran away from her mother calling out “Had! dad!” and had finally to be taken away another road crying bitterly because she was seperated from her father.

To have a cart laden with coal crash through one’s roof and a heavy draught horse make its entrance through the side of the house into one’s bedroom is not, fortunately, a common occurrence. The inmates of a residence in Upper McLaggan street, Dunedin, however, had this experience about mid-day on Saturday. To facilitate the delivery of the coal the vehicle had to be backed near a steep embankment, and by some means horse and cart and all toppled on to the roof. The horse, falling through the shafts, landed in such a position that the side of the house had to be partly removed and the animal taken through the passage and out of the front door. A good deal of damage was done to crockery, etc., by the impact, and the inmates received the shock of their lives.

One of the Moeraki fishermen had an unusual experience off Bobby’s Head on Thursday last, where three large whales and a calf were cruising (says the North Otago Daily Times). One of the whales rose to “blow” within a few feet of the launch, and approaching it. Needless to say, the fisherman lost no time at the tiller, and swerved his launch just quick enough to avoid a collision with the mammal, which seemed determined to, assert its claim to the right-of-way. The school proceeded leisurely northward.

A Maori war canoe, known to be at least 100 years old, has been handed over to the Rev. F. A. Bennett, of the Maori Mission, for presentation, and has been placed in the grounds of the Native Church at Ohinernutu (writes the Rotorua correspondent of the New Zealand Herald). This old-time craft, which is about 45 fept in length, and was capable of carrying some 70 men, was known by the name of Iro Iro, and belonged to the Ngati Rangiwewehi hapu of the Arawa tribe, it was buried for about SO years at the east end of Lake Rotoiti, having been interred, in accordance with ancient Maori custom, with the body of the chief who owned it. Some eight or 10 years ago' it was dug up, and was used in a canoe race at a carnival held shortly afterwards. It was found to be too heavy to compete with more modern canoes, and was removed to the Island of Mokoia, on the northern shore of which it was drawn up and placed, in a spot regarded as of peculiar sanctity, a wahi tapu, the site of an ancient oracle. Hero it remained till it was transferred to the care of Mr Bennett. It is intended, as soon as funds can bo found for the purpose, to renovate the old craft, and by the addition of a carved figure-head and stern-post, render its appearance similar to what it was a century ago. it will he kept in the churchyard at Ohinernutu, and suitably protected from tbe weather.