GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1921, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

No wonder that the Friesian cattie were inspected by an eager crowd at the Otago Show, says the Dunedin Star. There is money in these piebalds. One man in the throng volunteered the statement that from a cow that he owns he last month got butter-fat which realised £l2 15s 6d.

“Why didn’t you take it to the police station?*’ demanded Mr. F. K. Hunt. S.M., in Wellington, of a man charged with the theft of an overcoat, and who explained that he had found it in the roadway. “Well, sir, I’ve known highly respectable people to find things and wait for them to be advertised for,” said counsel. ’Well, it’s not the right course —they should go to the police,” said the magistrate.

An official identity card may be shortly instituted in France. One section of the Prens extols the police for entertaining the idea; another section clamors against the impudent infringement of the rights of citizens. The identity card, as the Prefect of Police would like to institute it, would carry the bearer’s photograph, a minute description of his anatomy, and four finger-prints, ie a sore point with that portion of the Press hostile to its introduction.

Hugo itinnes, the German financier, plane to found a motion picture company □n a large scale for the production of ‘national films.” and has appointed General Ludendorff critic of incoming manuscripts. It is also said that - Stinnes plans to invest 125,000.000 marks in the new company. It would not be the first time the big industrial chieftain has engaged in carrying out propaganda for Nationalistic pan-German ideas, which he backed by giving the ships of his company the names of Hindenburg, Tirpitz, and other militarists.

“So far as the locomotive men in this country are concerned, they are working under conditions that are as good, if not better, than tho«se of locomotive men in anv other part of the world,” declared Mr. W. McArley (general secretary of the Engine-drivers, Firemen and Cleaners’ Association) at the E.F.C.A. smoke concert on Saturday night. Mr. McArley stated that on that matter he would like to divide honors with Mr. McViily (general manager) and Mr. Gillon (chief mechanical engineer.) Some idea was gathered (if the prices were accepted as correct) in a case heard in the Supreme Court, Wellington, as to the cost of a young lady’s trousseau. A witness, who. before marriage, followed the occupation of a cook, said that within two years she had purchased personal apparel and household goods to a value of considerably over £5OO. The personal apparel included dozens of articles averaging between £4 and £5 each, sports coats at £l5 each, dozens of pairs of stockings, a dozen blouses at £3 15s each. The articles were so varied and the quantity so large that there were sufficient to a smajl shop.

If the wily German does not succeed in extending trade it will not be for want of push or cunning. A Martonian handed the Rangitikei Advocate on Saturday the cover of a packet of sweets bearing the inscription “Prince’s Packet,” accompanied by a hideous libel on the features of the Prince of Wales. It purports to be “Packet in the Empire”— "packet,” not “packed,” which arouses suspicion as to its foreign character. On opening the packet the suspicion is confirmed by the finding of advertisements printed in German. The outside also bears a clumsy representation of the Prince of Wales’ feathers and the word London with two n’s. The article bears the name of "Barratt and Co., London/' \»ny are these things allowed to be imported without bearing in plain characters the words “Made in Germany”?

An article of great interest was discovered at a recent auction sale in Dunedin (states the Dunedin Stax). It was the clock brought out to New Zealand in the ship John Wickliffe by the late Cargill —a double-wheeled French clock enclosed in a beautifully carved mahogany frame. The clock has passed through Several hands. It was cleaned several times by an old Dunedin watchmaker, who had affixed his label, the last occasion being in 1910. The dealer who bought the clock had it thoroughly cleaned, and called upon an art connoisseur, who paid him a high price for the coveted article, which will be forwarded to London for Christie’s famous auction rooms.

A witty answer is always welcome (remarks the Otago Daily Times). Two entertaining retorts arc being put to the credit just now of a prominent member of the Presbyterian Assembly, who seems to be still further enhancing his reputation for possessing a pretty wit. Though not born south of the Waitaki, or even north of the Tweed, he is, nevertheless, a very loyal citizen of Dunedin, and when a visitor somewhat ungraciously described Dunedin people to him as “stolid,” he promptly retorted: “Is that the way you spell solid? "e must get you a dictionary!” An Auckland visitor, in conversation with the same gentleman, followed the old tradition of grumbling about Dunedin weather, and complained especially of the high winds there, “Why,” he said, “it hardly ever blows hard in Auckland. All the wind we get there you could put into a fortnight of the year.” "Providence,” responded the •ther solemnly, “has been very kind to Auckland. What is has denied to her climate it has granted in full measure to her people.”

A striking instance of th? terrible hardships associated with cases of severe illness in the back-blocks occurred lately in tiie Wairoa (H. 8. district (states the Herald). Nurse Alexander. of the newly-opened cottage hospital at Nubaka, on the East Coast, received a telephone call from a station at Mahia one night, reporting that a woman was very ill at Kini Kini, far down the Mahia Peninsula, and ten miles from any house. The nurse started ofi cn horseback at daybreak, and with the help of a Maori guide over a most difficult and dangerous track, reached the place at half-past eleven that morning. At sight of the matron, th? first wh’te woman she had seen for months, the patient, a European, broke down, completely. Realising she was seriously 111. the matron at once decided to have her taken to the hospital at Wairoa. The husband had to ride 1« miles to make arrangements for launch, wagon, add car, and in two days’ time the ocean w * s smooth enough for the launelj to call. The woman was taken by sledge tp tfie beach, and carried through th? breakers to the launch. An hour’s trip t-upk the na'rtv to Waikokopu, where a .wagon waiting to convey them over six miles M M d ‘ oad ’ and a motor cad then Tarried th. woman 20 mile, t'o the hospital at Wairoa. Meantime, tte husband and two young etuMraff .w at Kini Kini. the youngest chi,4, a ba-u.'-' seven month, old, ha, nJ; been left at WftSOiaopu. The woman gradually isapro, U, although She wa| in an utterly run-down g9afe t l°&