WESTPORT NOTES

Grey River Argus, 24 July 1926, Page 7

WESTPORT NOTES

(Our Own Correspondent.) WESTPORT, July 23

Mr. G. Chaplin, Secretary, of the Westport Branch of the New Zealand Labour Party reports, that- he is: iu receipt of names pf delegates, to the Labour Day Sports Committee - from all organisation and that a meeting will shortly be called.

The local chemists and druggists are now acknowledged to be the best ’flu barometer. A run round the shops of an evening will disclose whether there has been an increase or otherwise. This week there have been fluctuations. At the commencement there was a sharp rise, followed by a‘slight falf and up to date there i s no apparent rise.

Alex Hunter put up a good case for something to Ire done to the Charleston Road, in his interview with the County Council. If this road was put in good order it would be a paying proposition to the Council. The Charleston Road also is a very fine drive out from Westport and if kept i’-> good order would be much used by motorists.

Mr. Eric Richards is leaving for Melbourne shortly accompanied by Mrs Richards. Mr. Richards has therefore severed his connection with Bevan and Co. Mr. Harry Greenwood returned to Westport and to boiler work, after his trip to Greymouth to attend Ids son’s wedding.

Someone connected with the tele graph wiring gang that- was operating in Westport a few months back relates the following: Two of his mates were engaged doing some repairs just outside a certain manse. The cleric’s wife being at home, she was horrified to hear a torrent of abuse outside her window. She immediately sat down and wrote a letter to the P.M. complaining of the dreadful langauge used by the workmen The workmen, whom w e will call Bill and Harry, were soon on the carpet, and asked for an explanation. Harry acted as spokesman. “Well sir,” he said, “me and Bill was on this job and I happened to spill some hot lead on Bill and it ran down his neck, and he looked up at me and said, Harry I must really ask you to be more, careful.” A cable item from Grimsby, England : —“All some women think about is jazz, bob and shingile.”—Alderman Franklin, Thornton City Council.

A contemporary, writing upon a recent German discovery of a method of treating chitin, which to the uninitiated, is the overcoat of the lobster, so as to make silken thread of extreme length, comments upon the many ways in which pests have been made to subserve the uses of mankind. The

original silkworm was a pest on the mulberry tree, but has long been cultivated in the service of beauty. The gall insect which made the European oak unsightly with the woody masses of galls, was adopted for the making of ink. One of the most favourite dyes of the cooks, which makes the pretty pink colour upon cakes and icings, is obtained from a scale insect, the cochineal “bug,” found upon the prickly pear. It is inevitable as the chemists delve deeper- into the mystery of matter, that wo now re-

gard with distaste, will be used in our industrial processes and even in our food. Th© chemist has turned co(al-tar into saccharin, a sugarrtasting chemical two hundred times sweeter than cane sugar and harmless to diabetics. He has produced the blue, juice of the indigo plant in the laboratory. The beautiful colours which shine in women’s dresses are extracts from tar.

A chap up Nelson way shot himself i n th e ]eg accidentally and then he got fined by the magistrate for not having a gun license. Anybody about to have a gun accident should remember , this.