LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 February 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hawera Jersey Cattle Club some time ago bought a set. of tattoo earmarkers, and as this class of brand may now be registered it is anticipated that more breeders w-ill avail themselves of. the opportunity of hiring the instruments. /

An old-age pensioner named James Willan sustained very severe burns as a result of a kerosene lamp upsetting in his whare at Dairy Flat, near Albany (Auckland), last night.. Willan, who has lived alone for some'time, rushed out of his whare with his clothing on fire. Neighborirs w-ere attracted by the old man’s cries, and the flames were soon extinguished. He w-as taken to Birkenhead and afterw-ards to the hospital, w-liere he died six hours after admission.

A distressing fatality occurred at Deborah Bay (Dunedin) yesterday afternoon, when a boy nhmed Joseph Hugh Ledgerwood, aged 14 years, was fatally shot with a pea rifle. The lad and his brother, aged- 18, w-ere playing with the rifle, which they did not knowwas loaded, w-hen it accidentally exploded. one bullet, entering the younger boy’s stomach. The injured boy was conveyed by launch to Dunedin, and an operation performed in the hospital, but it was found that the bullet had entered a vital spot, and the lad succumbed.

Lake Rotomohana is so steadily rising that it is causing the Government engineers some concern. Its average rise is seven inches per month, and in the past few years it has risen 43ft. It. is now about'3oft. below the lowest point at which it can overflow into Lake Tnrawera, and\ it is feared that in no great time it may sweep this ridge away, burst, into Lake Tarawera, and cause the river flowing from the latter to flood the farms' on its banks. Mr Warbrick, a well-known guide, does not think it will do more than overflow steadily into Lake Tarawera, but, the engineers _ are far from satisfied that it will be so harmless.

A suction dredger working in the Hudson Rived a few weeks ago brought up a marble head, which was, believed to represent Augustus Caesar and to have been carved by a master sculptor of the first century. It was of Carrara marble and weighed about thirty pounds. How it came to be embedded under ten feet of hard day below the Hudson River ha s yet to be explained. One theory was that the statue from which it had been broken was carried as ballast many years ago by a sailing ship from the' Mediterranean and dumped in the Hudson River.

A dog tax collector received a surprise in the suburbs of Auckland recently. In the course of his rounds he inquired of two children, aged three and five years, if they kept any dogs. Thev replied that they had two. The collector knocked at, the door, lint was informed by the children’s mother that no dogs were kept. “But your children said thev had two,” he protesetd. The entry of the. youngsters at the moment clutching two hriglitly-hned wooden dogs in, their arms, and tearfully asking that their treasure be not. takeh away, explained the situation.

On New Year's Day the Duke of York, who is on a visit to the Kenya Colony, went out at Siolo accompanied bv Captain A.vre. the hunter, to inspect n zebra which had been nut forward as lion bait. On the way a lioness crossed their track, and the Duke fired into the woods at the lioness, but instead 1 disturbed two buffalo. The buffalo appeared, one on either .side of the party. The Duke fired one. hare] to the right and a second to the left, each shot killing one buffalo. It was later discovered that, the lioness was also dead.