NOTES AND NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5536, 19 July 1920, Page 3

NOTES AND NEWS.

Over £2ooo' i s to be spent on lay]mg out the grounds of the PaJmerj ,ston North' Hospital. ! "The grocery business is not a bed of roses," said a witness in the Wellington Magistrate’s Qourt, "and I have never heard of a grocer in New Zealand making a fortune." ! Under the will of the late Mr Thomas Fitzpatrick, an Australian grazier, a Norman by (Taranaki) nurse has been bequeathed £IOO “in recognition of the way she nursed him through a serious illness at a hospital in Auckland.” “Are you aware,” asked counsel 'during a cross-examination in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court, “that you have the reputation of being a. champion ]iar?’’ “Probably I am—-in the same manner in winch lawyers have the reputation of being champion thieves,” retorted the man. A peculiar accident happened the other morning to a man named P. McCarthy, Havelock North. A young' draught horse jumped a' rail and his feet striking the edge loosened one end which swung back and struck the man on the head, breaking a small bone. The unfortunate man was removed to the Napier Hospital for treatment. Spion Kop, who subsequently won the Derby, made his first appearance in public in England this season in the Speltliorpe Plate, H miles, at Kempton Park. He was backed down to 11 to 8 on in a field of seven and won in a canter by six lengths. He ran in hood and blinkers but created such a good impression that from 33 to 1 for the Derby the day prior to his Kempton run he touched 12 to 1 a couple of days later. Among things noted by the crew of the London Times aeroplane on its attempted flight down the length of Africa was a difficulty arising from the brilliant sunshine which makes it impossible accurately to judge one s distance from the ground. ’The climate of Central Africa," adds a member of the' expedition, "might be responsible for almost anything —it will cause petrol to evaporate so quickly that a supply calculated to last four hours la consumed in an eighth of that time. “‘So long as I am Mayor, I am going to refuse applications for permission- to advertise through the parading of the sandwich men in the streets,” the Mayor announced at the Wellington City Council the other night. The matter was introduced by a question from Councillor Forsyth, who desired [to know by what authority a certain sports body bad had -sandwich men in the street that very day Wliat distance dees a referee- cover in the ooursc of i 15-round -boxing match ? The- answer would doubtless he a. very respectable figure in yards (states the Greymouth Star) -for he is continually on the move after the contestants. This point evidently struck a member of the audience at the hexing match at the Greymouth Town Ha-11, and he expressed his sympathy for the referee by calling out: “Why don’t you get a bike, mate?” A good story is going the round about Britain’s new Field-Marshal. Sir W illiam Robertson. During the war a works company was quartered in a Lincolnshire village, the men being in furnished billets. A dispute arose with one of the "landladies," and the officer, considering that she was in the wrong, refused redress of her alleged grievance. “Oh. very well,” said the dame, folding her substantial arms, , "I’ll just write to Willie Robertson. | Him and me were children together, and he’ll not see me put upon. The mystery of the disappearance some- four months ago of a roadman named Kenny was solved' last 1 liuivday when Mr Frank Thompson, who was’ out shooting in Guthrie’s hush, Ruahine, camp across remains which were afterwards identified as those of Kennv, in the bush . There was no evidence of violence, and it- appeared as jf the man had been overcome while taking a short cut from his camp four miles away through tlie bush to Ruahine Kenny was a single man, about 50 years of age. An English paper says that a little seaport in New Zealand, caked Russell, was described as the sleepiest place in the world by Mr Herbert Harrison, who lectured in London m aid of the New Zealand Memorial Chapel. Russell, lie says, took life so easily that, although the fish were jumping out of the water asking to be caught, the people preferred to eat tinned salmon from .British Columbia. Rather than be put to the trouble of milking their own cows, they imported condensed milk from Switzerland. “A very old boy of the School came to- visit me the other day at the School,” saul Mr C. E. BevanBrown, headmaster of the Christchurch Boys’ High School at the reunion of old boys. “We talked for some time in my study and then he asked, me where the cane was, saying that he thought it was up to him forgive me one-.’ ‘Oh,. no.f I replied, ‘it is up to me.’ So he lifted up his coat-tails, bent over, and 1 gave him three. (Laughter.) I did not hit him particularly hard, but at the finish he remarked, ‘That last one hurt, sir. The old hand'hath not lost its cunning.’ ” (Laughter.) Ouit of the millions that fought for Britain only one lost memory case remains unidentified. Major Stirling, one of the officers in charge of the deportment .which attends to lost memory oases, said: “As a matter of fact, there is only one case on our books of a man who lias lost his memory remaining unidentified, and we shall certainly trace him shortly. Soldiers mentally afflicted by shell shook or through other causes number about 600. But of lost memory cases we have only four, and for each patient we have had hundreds of inquiries . It is heart-rending to read the letters we reoeive, but the cold truth is that the dead are buried and the missing have been found.” Jn a reference to the new school at Foxton the Feilding Star says: “The school is pronounced by good judges to be the finest specimen of school architecture in the DominionThe rooms are well placed for the sun, splendidly lighted, perfectly ventilated, heated under the hofcwater radiator system, and equipped with the- latest single desks and table for the infant _ department. The corridors are spacious, and several resemble small halls, although such a word must not be used in the hearing of the education officials in Wellington. There is a large concreted square outside for assembling pupils.” According to the Daily Chronicle, Mansfield) was greatly interested in a romantic wedding, the bridegroom, Air William Hebden, of Auckland, New Zealand, having crossed tlio world for.a bride. Miss Lucy Cash, of Mansfield, whom lie had never seen until his l arrival in England last week. Many years ago Air Hebden married a cousin of Miss. Cash., and during ’the war his four sons came over to fight for the Motherland. They spent their leave, at Alansfield, and thus old ties between the two families were renewed. The- sons were wounded in war, but have been able, to return home, and, liis -wife having i dled, Air Hebden opened correspondence with Miss Cash. 'Proposal and acceptance were by letter, and 1 after a voyage lasting 50 days, ho claimed his bride.