PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1922, Page 4

PERSONAL.

The death of M. Laurentz, the tennis player, is reported in a cable from Paris.

Mr. A. W. Stevens, stationmaster at Rangiora, has received notice of transfer to New Plymouth as chief clerk.

Mr. J. H. Fowler, audit inspector, Wellington, and formerly of New Plymouth, has been appointed chief clerk and chief inspector of the Audit Department. Mr. C. F. Day, who has been stationmaster at Wanganui for the last year or two, and formerly of New Plymouth, severed his connection with the department on Monday, when he retired on superannuation. ,

Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, Minister for Defence, announced last night that, whatever his own inclinations were towards a political holiday, he has, in view of the many requests made by the electors, definitely decided to contest the Ellesmere seat at the general election.—Press Assn.

A recent telegram »■-» the Sydney Svn frem Katoomba was a; follows:—The Western Road is one long procession of men carrying their swags westward in quest of work. More a wagmen are on the track at present than at any previous time.

The biggest locomotive in the world recently hauled the longest train ever made up—more than a mile in length—over the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, from Princeton, West Virginia, to Roanoke, Virginia, for the Virginia Railway. The locomotive and tender weighed 449 tons, and measured approximately 125 feet in length. The train was composed of 100 cars, each of which weighed 40 tons and measured 514 feet. The load carried by each car represented 120 tons of coal, making the total weight pulled by the engine approximately 16,000 tons. Most of us are no doubt under tlie impression that, except in the literary and journalistic, world, the pirate Is as extinct as the dodo. In this we seem to be wrong, as the following Hongkong cable, of December 19, to a London paper, shows: —“While proceeding from Shanghai to Hongkong, the steamer Kwanglee, belonging to the China Steam Naviation Company, was boarded by pirates. Captain Lindsay Crawford and all the European officers were held as prisoners in the engineers’ mess-room while armed men remained on guard outside. Between 20 and 30 of the pirates then proceeded to “clean up” the Kwanglee, ransacking the passengers’ belongings and forcing open the strong-room. The booty was loaded into a fishing junk which was commandeered for the purpose, and the pirates escaped with valuables worth over £14,000, after disabling the vessel’s engines. One Chinese passenger was killed.”

The views of Einstein on education 'have been recently published. Einstein demands compulsory practical work for all. “The boy should be able to choose for himself which it is to be, but I should allow no one to grow up without having gained some technique either as a joiner, bookbinder, locksmith or member of any other trade, and without having delivered some useful product of his industry. Its use to the student is that it makes more solid the foundation on which he will rest as an ethical being.” “It is encouraging to note-that the programme of work which is followed by all boys and girls in our Technical High Schools, and, indeed, the genera] direction of our secondary education in New Zealand to-day, receives such an endorsement as this,” commented the Director of the Wellington Technical College in bringing the matter before the Board of Governors recently.

The North American Indians were a very warlike race, and for centuries fought fiercely amongst themselves, tribe against tribe. After a period of fighting the various chiefs would assemble and arrange a peace. It was then that the peace pipe was smoked, each chief taking several inhalations and so passing it around the circle. For these occasions only the choicest tobacco was smoked. Nowadays many choice brands are available to the smoker, amongst them 'being the Regent cigarette tobacco. W. H. Preece, Devon Street Central, is now offering a very special snip in Regent cigarettes —50 choice, fragrant and cool smokes for 2/6. Get in. They’re good. Thousands of mothers know the value to their children of Sharlaud’s Magnesia, especially during the hot weather. Given daily it helps to correct acidity and flatulence, and keeps the digestive organs yoking regularly. ,