NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Forty Minutes Late. ® t0 " oss ' n £ delays, the Limited express thu ° m Wellington 40 minutes behind time tnia morning. Invasion of Jellyfish. ],or-kT lK>USan , ds , of i ell y fißl » * r e now invading the harbour, and bathers are finding their pleasure ery much spoiled. Not only the beaches, but also the wharf section of the harbour is bein" Msited by these unwelcome guests. Bathers at many of the beaches on the North Shore often find their friends showing their affection by planting a slimy mess on the back of the neck. "Reserved I" ." Keßer .^' ed! " As a corpulent gentleman stood ♦ 1 J r picture theatre last evening when the hghts were switched on for the National Anthem at the end of the evening's entertainment, it wa,s clear that for some unexplained reason the sign that had been on the seat when w A ITIVC , W ? S firml y fix «d across his back. With mingled wonder and pride at being the object of much attention, he soon lost himself iu the departing crowd, and was last seen being Street * MUmber of small in Queen The Best Berry. Auckland strawberry growers raise the best berry m the North Island, and their methods of packing are unequalled by Southern growers," said Mr G. A. Green at a meeting of the Auckland Strawberry Growers' Association yesterday. Mr. Green considered that the industry lad an enviable future if the necessary steps were taken to maintain the quality of the fruit at a ingh standard. At the present time the industry locally was 'being menaced by a root disease, and an effort of an organised kind was being mad© to overcome the trouble and give greater security to growers. The Department of Agriculture, said Mr. W. H. Rice, was willing to assist wherever possible, and to co-operate with the association in the investigations now in hand.

A Fraternal Greeting. Ah! He policeman all te same mo," exclaimed a handsome native policeman as he stood at the landing stage at Apia, Samoa, in 1910, and looked at the C.M.G. decoration on thp bieast of General Sir Alfred Robin as he stepped ashore at the head of a gaily-uniformed body of pohce that had arrived from Auckland by the Isavua to replace the military force of occupation, which held tlio island until its fate was decided by the League of Nations. In the police party on that occasion were two military officers, Major Hill and Captain Watson, now stipendiary magistrate, Captain Proctor, and the late Chief Detective Boddam, and over 30 in the rank and file. The force scfon became unnecessary, and gradually the members were sent back to New Zealand. Morrinsville's Water Supply. Morrinsville has a gravitation water supply system that for some time has 'been the pride of the borough. In the hills some twelve miles from the town the headworks assure an adequate supply in the dry weather, and give a pressure of 1001b to the square inch. At the meeting of the Borough Council last evening the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company inquired whether any definite information could be given as to the quality of the water, and when it was exacted that arrangements would be completed for the purchase of the native interest in the catchment area, so that control of the whole catchment might be assumed by the council, with a view to tajang measures to make the water entirely free from contamination. The clerk was instructed to explain the position. Lusitania Survivor. A survivor of the Lusitania, Mr. Maitland Kempson, who is at present on a visit to Auck» land, was one of the 400 when the liner was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915. The lives lost numbered 1600. By the aid of a lifebelt Mr. Kempson kept afloat for five hours before the patrol which put out from Queenstown picked him up at dusk." Another survivor was a member of the crew who had been rescued from the Titanic and the Empress of Ireland on their fatal trips, and thus established the record of having been through the three greatest disasters in the history C of the mercantile marine. Sewerage at Morrinsville. Although a comprehensive scheme for the drainage of Morrinsville Borough is not yet considered necessary, a sewerage system for the inner area has been constructed during the past few years at a cost of £16,000. The financial arrangements in connection with the scheme were met by a loan which was raised in 1923, on which the annual charge for interest and sinking fund amounts to £1080. The loan matures in 1960. At last evening's meeting of the Morrinsville Borough Council the local manager of the Bank of New Zealand stated that the holders of the debentures were prepared to accept payment of one debenture of £500 and to exchange another £500 debenture for bonds of the new loan. Provision was made accordingly, the denomination of the new debentures to be £100 instead of £500. Disease Among Strawberries. Recent research, with a view to the prevention of disease among strawberries in Auckland, hag led to. the conclusion that the most common cause of the disease is excessive moisture, due to insufficient levelling of the beds, underdrainage, or the formation of silt in surface drains. A contributory cause might also be the use of unsuitable fertilisers, which would cause the ground to become slimy in character. Nonrotation of crops, too, has become a factor. When the problem was discussed at a meeting of the Auckland Strawberry Growers' Association in the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, it was decided to continue the research investigations, trials to be made with different varieties of strawberries grown side by side on affected ground. Such a course, it was stated, would probably lead to the discovery of a species immune from disease. Inventive Women. "Women are showing themselves in a new light, and are proving to be as ingenious as men," said a 'bright Auckland woman to-day, when she claimed that originality was not the prerogative of either sex, but equally shared by both. Whether it came to making an inlaid tray or a simple trap for catching flies, the inventive knack was needed when the thing was being tackled for the first time, and there were a hundred ways that a benzine tin could be turned into a piece of furniture by the deft and magic touch. Pleating at home was one of the few things that every modern woman would like to be able to do, it was stated, but it had been impossible until an ingenious woman invented a pleating iron a while ago. The secret of the invention was to have a grooved iron table and a grooved electric iron, with which the operation was simpler than the pressing of a pair of trousers. A Sing's Life. The common garden slug, Limax agrestis, is no friend of the sluggard (says the "New Zealand Smallholder"). As he is a night marauder, it is only in the early morning (or by torchlight) that you can easily catch him, except in the days of perpetual rain. He—or rather she —lays about 500 eggs in a year in crevices and rubbish. But Teally there is no he-slug and no she-slug in this species of slugdom. They are both one; they are what are called hermaphrodites—two-sexed. Every slug is an egg-layer. Within the strict limits.of vegetarians they are omnivorous. Tiny seedlings are cherished delicacies, and quite s» popular pastime among them is to gnaw roun< the tender stem of a young plant or flower an topple it over. And the greatest enemy of th slug is the Runner duck, which, however, wear large-size feet, and breaks down little plant rather badly. The birds of the air, the fowls o the henroost, and a three-inch brown slug callc Testacella scatulum (a cannibal with a diminutive shell on the tip of his tail) are other slug I absorbers mentioned by this tn>giiin|. '