ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43096, 23 May 1907, Page 4

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

There is a heavy demand for timber in Dunedin.

A universal, half-holiday association has been formed at Invercargill. A consignment of 500 bags of copper ore from the Maiorilamd Copper Company’s Nelson mine was- shipped to Sydney in order to be smeltedl at the Coblar works.

A Petone candidate for municipal honours gravely informed his audience thie other evening that he “had no future deeds to boast of.”

What is wanted (says the San Francisco Newsletter) is a- code o-f honor that will oblige a fellow to be as quick to knock himself down when he tells a- lie as he is to knock down the mam who calls him a liar.

Probablv the most appropriate banner possessed by any football club in New Zealand is that of ai team at Raetihi. They style themselves the “Ferarooters,” and the banner is a boar’s hide, with head and tusks complete, all mounted on a pole.

There are twenty-four insurance companies, including the State office, carrying on business in the- colony, 'the names being given in the last- “ Gazette,” in accordance with a. rule made under the Fire Brigades Act, 1906.

A man named Mitchell, residing ait Murupara-, near Rotorua, had on Monday night attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat. .The unfortunate mam is said to he insane.

The Taranaki Herald says: If ever the presence of petroleum in. the vicinity of the breakwater had been doubted, it -would be proved now. The bed of the sea is being blasted for the purpose of forming a new berth of a fair depth. Each time a charge is fired, oil comes to the surface in large quantities. The coating is so tbiok that it may be skimmed off. As a harbour official puts it, there are barrels full.

The next section of the North Island Main Trunk railway, from Ta-i----ha-pe to Mnta-roai. will be- handed over t-o the Railway Department -and opened for traffic on: the Ist prox. The length is about- seven- miles.

For some reason the Auckland authorities have avoided naming the pkgue-infect-ed . vicinity in their city through the press, -and it has had an amusing phase. Business people who had forwarded orders to city establishments for goods, have displayed great hesitancy in taking delivery of them, having a dread of possible infection.. The affected part- is at the lower end- of Queen street.

“I don’t know what to make of business men of Christchurch,” s-add Mr C‘. R. Glark at an auction sale of property in that city. “You go mad after gold mines on; the West- Coast, and don’t Wake up to the; fact that you halve got a gold mine in your own city till some one else buys property in it. Then you go and offer him £IOOO on, his bargain.” The other day a- Melbourne paper had am advertisement in. which somebody expressed gratitude to some other people for taking off their hats as « funeral passed. This Victorian habit of saying a public thank-you grows. We -get this now: “I give public thanks to God for preserving my brother and friends from harm during earthquake and fire of Sam Francisco, 18th. April, 1906. J. C. Harrop.”

. Over fifty of the boys attending King’s College, Auckland, accompanied by four of the masters anid Professor Potter, their instructor in gymnastics, are camped in tents on the ’Rotorua racecourse reserve. Thley will remain in camip a week. An elastic act. At Bradford (Eng.) the case under the Shop Hours Aiet against a butcher’ who wais also a. pork, butcher was dismissed upon the defendant explaining that only one blind was down, showing, that the butcher’s department was closed, in accordance with the Act.

A hard-up Sydney compositor visited a religious paper office the other day. ‘Yes,’ said the boss, Sve are busy, and we want a good fast comp.’ “That’s me, exactly,’ rejoined the out-o’-work. ‘What are the wages V ‘Well we always pay 22s 6d to good men,’ said the boss, with a condescending attitude. ‘Do you pay omi Wednesday and Saturday —twice a. week 1 ?’ asked the out-o’-labour person as he left. The number of Chinese receiving charitable aid in the Otago district outside the Benevolent Institution is 74, and they cost the Benevolent Trustees £585 6s a year. There are fifteen Chinamen in the Institution, costing £282 15s a year, or in all the total amount, expended in the relief qf indigent Chinamen here comes to £B6B year. The Trustees told the Minister of Education that, these people Could be sent home for about £l2 a head.

The reported death of Mr Cyril Towsey, the accomplished pianist, who left Wellington for London a year age, has not been clorrobrated. In-

deed, letters have been received by his father, Mr Arthur Towsey, of a comparatively late date, which throw a cheerful light on the doings of his son at Home. He had recently had an engagement at. a big “At. Home,” given by Mrs Herbert. Gladstone, where he met a sister of Lady Plunket, who was interested in him as doming from New Zealand, and offered him an engagement ait an “At Home” she was to give at Cadogan Square.. At the Gladstone “At Home” he played four solos, as well as accompaniments.