HERE AND THERE IN NEW ZEALAND

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 307, 11 December 1936, Page 7

HERE AND THERE IN NEW ZEALAND

GLEANINGS OF DOMINION NEWS.

Traffic On Bridge. •'The time is fast approaching when we will have to have a permanent traffic officer stationed on the Rangi ikci bridge at Balls,” said Cr J. 11. I’errett, during a. discussion at the last meeting of the Manawatu County Council on traffic questions. “The position is far from being satisfactory,” he continued. “In fact motorists are becoming annoyed at the hold-ups and 1 myself was held up the other day for 20 minute;,.” Sole Selectorship. “When 1 was appointed selector for the union, there was criticism from some who said a committee should be appointed,” said Mr J. N. Millaid, when speaking at a meeting of the Wellington Rugby Union held last night to honour Mr Millard’s service of 21 years to the union. “Nove r.',hele ( ss,” he continued, “1 think one man can do the .job better than three, lie can map out a system, the players are playing for him alone, and there is a more friendly and satisfied feeling than when a player is serving several masters. Moreover, the players can be kept together; in my day Jessep, Coulston and McPherson, three forwards, termed the Unholy Alliance, were inseparable on tour, simply because they were together for years.” Large River Eel Caught One of the biggest eels ever caught in the Temuka river was gaffed near the Td.ni/.ra railway br’dgj by' Mr Robert Watson recently. The eel, which is one of the long back fin variety, weighed 30 pounds and measure;! 171 inches in girth and was five feet in length. The size is considered mort> remarkable since the Temuka is a rain-fed river. A second eel, 24 pounds in weight and four feet nine inches long, was also landed. The large eel was gaffed in a back water in a depth of three feet. Many spectators gathered to obtain a view of the eel in a shed in the town.

Keeping Well. While praising the work done in New Zealand hospitals, at a. gathering in Palmerston North, the, Hon. I’. Fraser, Minister for Health, also expressed a desire to see less need for hospitals. “We are woefully deficient in knowledge about ourselves,” he said. “A great step forward would be to get children to understand themselves just as they a;re taught to understand, say', -the works of a motor-car. We should teach them something of anatomy, psysiology, and psychology to enable them to handle themselves better than before. The campaign of the future must be to keep the people well.” Feeble-minded Children. The need for the Australian and New Zealand Governments to take greater care of abnormal children was stressed by Dr Lorna Hodgkinsqii, of Sydney, interviewed in Auckland. “The tragedy is that there are thousands of such children in the mental hospitals, where they mix with those permanently insane,” she said. “In America and England proper care is taken in special institutions of mentally defective and abnormal childiren. ft should, be the 'duty of the State to care for these young lives. It is a disgrace to the State to send feeble-minded boys or girls .to prison for offences, for proper homes should be provided in Australia and New Zealand and also agricultural stations and industrial colleges for the proper treatment and training, such as the children of well-to-do people are given.”

Memories Of 30 Years Ago. “ ‘Come and look at .the horses, they’re in great nick,’ is an invitation rarely heard nowadays in rural districts,” remarked the Hon. W. E. Parry, when replying to a deputation at Te Puke. “What has become of •those fine upstanding spirited hacks which used to so gladden the hearts of farmers and their families?” asked the Minister. “The fact is, and it is a pity, they are not being bred to-day. What a pleasure it was to see those horses and to notice the pride with which die farmer-breeder exhibited them. I, and many others too, wain to see the like of some of those horses again, and that is why I have been trying to induce my colleague, the Minister of Agriculture, to resuscitate the Remounts Act, which has remained dead in the Statute Book of the country for so long. We want to see those horses again, see them competing at the country' meetings, and not with the commercial horses. - ’

What Is a Ferry? “I wem over on the ferry from the North io the South Island,” said the Hon. George Colville, a distinguished English visitor, speaking a; a reception of the Wellington Travel Club recently. “Imagine my surprise when I found that the shop was a boat of over six thousand tons having engines of 13,000 horse-power. F'ancy calling-that a ferry' What we know as a ferry in England is an old man vith a boat rowing passengers over a river.” Doll’s Leg Swallowed. As a result of swallowing the leg of a china, doll, the 1 six-monihs-old son of Mr and Mrs W. G. Saunders, of Waiatapu, was admitted to the Rotorua Public Hospital (states a Rotorua correspondent). An X-ray examination was made and it was indicated by the hospital authorities that it was hoped that the obstacle might be removed without the necessity for an operation. The child was apparently playing with the doll at its home when it swallowed the leg. Mrs Saunders immediately communicated with Mr Hewitt, licensee of the Waiotapu Hotel, and his daughter and Mrs Hewitt, together with the infant’s mother, hurriedly brought the child to Rotorua by car for medical attention. After an exa.in ination, a doctor ordered the baby into the public hospital for the X-ray examination.

What You Know; What You See. “You are not here to think; you are here to tell us what you know and what you saw. If witnesses in accident cases would remember that, they would not talk so much, and we would not hear so much that is confusing to us.” Thus Mr Justice Callan expressed himself in the Auckland Supreme Court, when rebuking a witness. Later Mr Noble, for the plaintiff, objected to Mr Goldmine asking witnesses to reiterate previous statements. “You can hardly object to Mr. Goldstine asking witnesses to repeat things,” said Mr Justice Callan. “After all, you brought them here to repeat things we had . heard before. Myself, I am to be fated to hear them repeating things in this case for quite a long time.”