LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 21 January 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The new Nurses’ Home in connection with the Patea Hospital is to be opened on Tuesday next at 2.30 p.m. by Dr. I'. H. A. Valintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals. Press.

A comp’ete crew was secured without difficulty at Sydney yesterday for the steamer Ulimaroa. which sails on Friday for New Zealand after being idle since October.

A Waituna resident, Mr C. A. Leicester, succeeded, a day or two ago, after two hours’ play, in landing a inakomako shark off the bar at Tangimoana. Grey sharks are numerous enough in this locality, but- the inakomako is a rare visitor. The on? caught measured 6ft. Gin.

A Christchurch gentleman who reoent’y found a, purse containing a sum of money and advertised for its owner lias come to the conclusion that quite a large number of people have had the misfortune to lose purses containing money* He has received no fewer than 30 replies to his advertisement. During the last few weeks there has been an appreciable improvement in the crop prospects throughout South Canterbury, and although the area under cereals is substantially less than the average, the prospective yields at the moment are anything hut discouraging (says the Timaru Post). The following are the successful candidates in the home-nursing examination held in Patea in December;: —Mrs Harriot -Moore. Mrs .Sarah Uockell, Mrs fra Barrow, Miss Barbara Elmslie, Annie Davis, Ivy Hickford, Clara Davis, Hilda Pinker, Avis Spence, Elsie Hall. The names are not in order of merit.

Rangataua promises to become a favourite holiday resort for city dwellers. Several who were there during Christinas week visited Mount Ruapclni. and were delighted with the journey. 'The Alpine Club lias improved the track, and the journey from Rangataua to the mountain is nmv a very easv one. A horse may be ridden to the foot of the mountain —some visitors have ridden well up it—-and a hut is to be erected at the foot of the steep.

The Hawera Municipal Band will provide a first-class dance programme in King Edward Park this evening. A collection will bo taken up for the new instrument fund. The bountiful rains that have fallen, aided by the large amount, of bright, sunshine, have had a most beneficial effect on the pastures. The secretary of the Kaupokonui Dairy Factory Co. reports that for the last monthly period milk returns show an increase of 3.7 per cent, on the corresponding period of last season.

Aii unusiia] form of diversion will l** urovidecl for Auckland Rotarians wlio ' • n' tile delegation to Wbangarei next week. After being entertained at a Rotarian luncheon on Tuesday morling, the visitors will he taken on a tour of inspection of the work of Wilson’s Portland Cement, Ltd., where ‘hov will witness th? firing of a tremendous charge of thirteen tons of gelignite at the company’s quarry. It is estimated the exolosion will dislodge '50.000 tons of rock, so that the spectacle should be we'l worth seeing. Advice has been received that the missing Auckland accountant, Edgar David Hamilton McEwen, who .'eft his wife and child on the morning of Janu;i v 11 and subsequently wrote to his .miployers and also his wife, stating that iq, ‘‘would be found among the d ad men," is safe and well on board the scow Kaiaia at Tologa Bay. A .married man named J. W. Schofield was drowned in the Auckland harbour while fishing from a dinghy moored to a launch. The sea was choppy mu! the dinghy capsized. A man on board the launch lumped in to the rough water, being forced to regain the launch. Schofield’s body has not been recovered. Deceased was a meat canner. and was emp'oyed ’• the Auckland Meat Company.

The N.Z. Society of Professional Teachers of Music will hold its third annual conference at Dunedin next week. Mr Robert Parker, of ’Wellington, is president. Many representative musicians from a'l parts of the Dominion will attend, and subjects for discussion include the Registration Bill for teachers of music, grading of singing exercises for all school classes, music in matriculation and similar examinations, universal pitch for all instruments in New Zealand, all matters of "teat interest to the profession, and, : n their effects, to the public. There are also a number of papers to be read in technical subjects. There is one damsel in Christchurch who actually sniffs when anyone says "honesty is the best policy.” She is an honest soul herself,.but she hates paying for other people’s honesty (remarks the Sun). Recently, in a southern town, she contracted a debt and left with a friend the money for settlement. She left just one penny too much, and received from the friend a letter in which was enclosed the penny change and the well-known adage. That was all right, hut the recipient had to pay a fine of 6d because the letter had not been registered, and there was a loose coin it in! She decided to post the penny hack, unregistered, and wrapped in a note stating 6he simply could not dream of taking such a small amount of change.

The discovery of 1110 a hones on the sandhills lying between Maioro and Waikato Heads is reported from Waiuku. On returning from a fishing excursion. Messrs A. 0. Johnson and R. Banbury found the remains of a moa exposed hv the blowing away of the sand. The hones were very chalky and brittle, and appeared to have been buried for a very long period. Accompanying them were about 200 small stones, well worn and polished, obviously from the bird’s crop. On several previous occasions moa hones have been found in this part of the country, the most important discovery being that of the hones of several birds uncovered during the draining of McTier’s (now Hamilton’s) swamp at Awhitu. The Northern Company’s steamer Matangi did not sail from Auckland last night for Tauranga owing to the seamen and firemen refusing to take her to sea until a sailor they objected to had been dismissed. This the company refused to do, and the vessel’s departure has been postponed until tomorrow morning. The sailor who it is desired should he dismissed has been in the Northern Company’s employ for a long time, the last three years being on the Matangi. He is reported to he one of the most efficient members of the crew. It is understood the men state that he was a volunteer seaman in the Northern Company during the coastal seamen’s strike three years ago.

For the first time in the history of Christchurch there was a woman justice of the peace on the Bench at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. She was Mrs D. O. Lamh, wife of Commissioner Lamb, director of immigration for the Salvation Army, who is visiting Christchurch on an Empire tour. When Mr H. A. Young, S.M., took his seat on the Bench he was accompanied by Mrs Lamb, and before the proceedings started he said Mrs Lamb was a justice of the peace in England, and had several years’ experience as an officer of the King. She had rendered very valuable service, and he had asked her to sit with him to see how matters were conducted in this part of the world. The visitor took a great interest in tiie cases that came before the court. Frequently she conversed with the magistrate.

Visitors to seaside resorts who fail and any of the bottles to be thrown into the sea in connection with the drift experiments of the Internationa] Council for Sea Exploration, may pernios find a labelled whale instead. The Discovery, which recently ]eft for ■Southern seas, carries apparatus for marking whales, and a reward wil’ be ■aid by the Colonial Office for information concerning the peregrinations of •my whale thus labelled. The label will be fired at the whales, and be attached L o them by means of a barb, just long enough to fix tli? label, but not sufficiently long enough to penetrate the thick coating of protective blubber. V, hales, it is believed, often pass from Antarctic to Arctic waters, and by this method of labelling them it is hoped "o solve the problem of their migratory habits.

A noteworthy demonstration of rapidity in tyre-changing was given at Kaponga yesterday, when Mr “Alec” Guv, of the, local firm of J. and A. Guy, removed a beaded edged cord tyre from the detached' wheel rim of a Ford ear, changed the inner tube and replaced the tyre and tube on. the rim: in 52 seconds. The exhibition followed an offer of assistance made by the performer to an amateur who was preparing to spend a strenuous half-hour or so in replacing a punctured tube with a sound one. Pleased to be relieved, the. amateur promptly accepted the offer with the injunction “Go ahead, I’ll time you,” and*in the light of previous drawn out efforts of his own was greatly surprised, when the tyre was removed in 37 seconds, and after a brief interval was replaced with the fresh tube in 31 seconds. Asked then to cover the whole operation Mr Guy completed the task as already indicated, including the double handling of the tubes, in 52 seconds. One lever and a hammer were the only implements used., The tyre Avas a comparatively new one. It had covered only a few hundred miles and prior to this occasion had been removed once only.