NEWSY PARS.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10348, 22 April 1911, Page 4

NEWSY PARS.

A considerable area of country in tha Masterton district has bsen wirenetted against rablrits this souson. Settlers are ibeginningi to ltelisne that tin's is the only affective method of protecting 'themselves against the 5j.:..:.c! of rabbits.

How 1 old is Pelorus Ja,ok According to an account given by Hepa Henri Whim, of Pelorus Sound, he is credited with 275 years-. He lias teen escorting steainersi near live French Pass for over 20 years, but ho lias probably been known to the paikiehas foa* lialf a oentuiry.

It has! toea decided to hold a retrial in the calse of Oaptain Knj^ett on the clharg'es on wliioli he, was dismissed from the defence foi'c'e. Intima.tion has faeienl recieivtd to^ this effect from the Hon. G. Fow-lds, who say* that Captain Knyvott had now agreed to tho conditions for the oourt-miaiitial, suggest ed Tby the Oominandant. The Minister has fixed May 9th as the date for the inquiry.

I A Maisterton lady, who lias a small (stream running through her property, states that &ihc has lost no fewer than 17 ducklings this last smson through the voracity of eels. Almost every loss.was traced directly to this clause. The unsuspecting bird would be seized either by the foot, oa' th<j biaitik and dragged! under the waiter. Numbers of the unfortunate victims which managed to reach land again wtaild be minus; either a foot or a portion of the biea'k.

Kawakawia g<>ing to Kick. —The new railway time-table just issued is, tio far asi Kaiwiakowa 1 is concerned, nothing 1, more nor 1 less tbam a conglomeration of Ibungles. It coxild not have iieea fixed up better' to druel •tracte, travel, and popularity. Whoever is wspoiv-'ible for sudh a state of affaira deisel-ves no thanks from our and of the sticflc It appears on the facie of it, that everything is to work against tho true interests of Kawakawa and the pi'ogress of the district. But wte are going to kick.—iLuminpry.

Aj remarkable case of deliberate self-destruction 'Ly an animal was witnessed by a resident of Hamilton on Sunday afternoon. A! sorry-look-ing gray horsie wias sieen standing with its fore feet in the water on the Hamilton Elast side of the Waikato River, gazing despondiently into the stream. It occupied this position for aboulb half an hour, when it sud-

d'eQily j.umped ii^t.o the river and repeatedly immersed its head, slowly drifting down stream tho while, until when albbat fifty yards distant from the spot where the plunge was taken tho poor- beast was as dead as the proverbial dbornail, the carcase drifting slowly down with the current.

Whether it is easy. to procure liquor 1 a;fc Goi\) is a matter that is often deibiated, saya the Mataura Ekisign. A; patient-looking, individual, whol hadl spent the previous evening undea 1 lock and key, was fined os for being drunk one morning this week. Wlhen discharged from custody a>fe 11 a.m. he was solbiar and had ,£l3 odd in his pos'sessioni. At 12.30 p.m. he was lyinc! hopelessly drank in front of the coiirthouslQ with £0 Cs 8d! in his pockefta For quick work mi the "lambing; down" of a 'vliotim, n- prohibition town is, it would seem, eiqual to a mining township in the old gold-mining 1 days.

An invention that, it isi claimed, will prove the safolation of the flax industry in New Zealand, is) now in course of completion. The invtentor has succeeded in developing a ehemidal process for bleaching 1 the flax, and! he is now eng'aigjed in pt-r----factinc; a machine for strippingl the fibre. Tho advantages of thei new system are said to ibie many, the principal features being 1 the jelnarkably quicik time in which the vax can be bleached, and tho fact that tho whole of the natutral strength of the fibre ia retained. Oh a; fine day tho inventor 1 says he is alble to! dressi a leiaf of flax in half an hour, and whilst in the Waikiato recently he put his solution to the test, and lie says the manager of the rope factory declared that the "fibre Was as strong! as Manila.