LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 68, 31 December 1928, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The "Ashburton Guardian" will not be published to-movrow (Now Year's Day).

One case of pneumonic influenza at Rakaia, and one case of scarlet fever at Mayfield and another in the Borough, have been notified to the County Health Inspector (Mr E. N. Johnson) during the last fe\y_days.

A children's gift matinee will be held at His Majesty's Theatre to-mor-row afternoon when a large number of \ presents will be distributed among the children who are the first to arrive. The picture will be "Children ot Divorce."

On board, the Makura, which arrived Auckland this morning from Sydney, is a party of 149 boys, members of the Young Australia League, who are commencing a 22,000-miles trip through the United States and Canada (says a Press Association telegram).

of an application for a brewer's license for the Lion Brewery in Ashburton is given in a petition which is being circularised here. It is stated that 200 signatures have already been obtained for the petition, which will be presented to the Minister of Customs (the Hon. W. Taverner).

As a result of lightning striking a power line and damaging an air-break insulator at the Grant's Hill substation, which ie under the control of the Public Works Department, the whole of South Canterbury was plunged into darkness for 48 minutes early on Saturday evening. The electrical storm also put a number of telephones out of action.

An Invercargill telegram states that Jean Forbes, aged 13, who had been missing from her home at Tuatapere since last Wednesday, appeared from an unused loft in a stable on an adjoining farm at noon yesterday. It is understood that she had spent four days and nights in the loft without food. She is in a weak condition and suffering from mental strain.

Stewart Island possesses a rare animal, namely, a distinct species of bat that is apparently not found elsewhere. The bat possesses a tail, and evidently! is the only bat to have one. In the extreme south of the Island (says an exchange) they had their home in a cave known as Bats' Cave by the fishermen. The bats used to be there in great numbers, but recently it was reported that someone had lit a big fire 1 in the cave and the bats had disappeared. They may have transferred to some other haven, but it is singular that this cave is the only place where the bats have been seen.

The desired qualifications for office assistants were referred to by the Hon. Sir George Fowlds when speaking; at the annual prize-giving ceremony of Brain's Commercial College, Auckland, of the advantages of a general knowledge (states ami exchange). Sir George said it was gratifying to have the assurance that the general knowledge of the students was on a high level. In a typist the business man did not require a girl merely to rattle off his dictation on the typewriter so much as a girl to correct Tiis mistakes and censor his work. Unless young people had a good general education it was impossible for them) to do that.

Those Wellington housewives who left buying their Christmas viands a little late found the greatest difficulty in buying somo things at all, and had to pay for their forgetfulness. Roast lamb *is nothing without mint sauce and green peas, but the supply of ocas proved not inexhaustible. Peas were soiling 61b and 7ib a shilling prior to the festive season, but as the shops became cleared out on Christmas Eye theyi assumed a sudden value. Sixpence and sevenpence a pound was paid by plenty of people after tea on Christmas Eve, and a.s high as tenpence a pound was asked in some shops.

A fish that might be described as a marine porcupine was found dead m the sea near the New Plymouth break : water on Wednesday (says a Taranaki paper). From the character of certain punctures in its scaleless body it seemed that it had received a fatal bite from a barracuda that had hastily dropped the morsel on discovering it was well armoured above and below with rows of short but sharp quills. The fish was about nine inches long and weighed about ljlb, its square head being set in a stocky body that tapered sharply toward a tail supported by fins. There was no dorsal hn and an exceptionally small moujji was provided with two bony ridges ini lieu of teeth, that in the upper jaw being triangular in shape. The eyes were set wide apart on either side of the head, while further back there were two gills.

The curator of Wanganui Museum (Mr Shepherd), in conversation Avith a reporter of the local "Herald" in regard to mako sharks caught at the Bay of Islands, mentioned that when he went to Russell to take charge of a mako shark given to the museum the tackle was still inside the fish and the owner asked that this should be returned to him after the fish had! been skinned. When Mr Shepherd opened the mako he found that the kahawai attached to the tackle had passed through the mass of teeth in the mako's jaw without a scratch. There are three classes of shark, including the mako, having similar teeth, and these can be laid down flat in the jaw at will, either a section or the whole of them, and this accounts for the small fish not being scratched when the mako took the bait. Should the teeth happen to be in a flat position at the time of death it is impossible afterwards to lift them upright.

The Maoris of the Waiapu district have been provided with a new topic by a sudden change of habit on the part of a great pear tree located in the pa at Tikitiki (states and exchange). The tree had not borne fruit for many years until the- present season. Its rterilitv had been taken fqr granted for a long time, but one inquiring Native asked the Government orchard instructor during one of the latter's visits to the coast why the tree did not bear as others did. The instructor noted that there were no other pear trees in the neighbourhood, and advised the inquirer to procure some blossom from another variety of pear, place the twigs in water-filled jars, and hang them in the branches of the non-bearing tree. Mystified until the instructor explained to him the basic principle of cross-pollination, the Maori adopted the experiment, and this year the tree bears a fairly healthy crop of fruit. ,