The Levin Daily Chronicle WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1935. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 November 1935, Page 4

The Levin Daily Chronicle WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1935. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Of the many unusual gifts put in the plate at church, one of the strangest was included iu the 'collection at an Auckland Presbyterian church on a recent Sunday. It was a certificate for one fully paid-up £5 share of a Christchurch company.

Active preparations for the commencement of an air service between Wellington, Blenheim and Nelson are being made, and offices, hangars and waiting-rooms at all three ports are now nearly completed. The building at Rongotai is due to be finished in about a week.

Persons walking in the Dingle Reserve at St. Heliers Bay, Auckland, wore attracted by an unusual din of bird chatter. On investigation of a thicket no fewer than nine blackbirds were discovered mobbing a morepork. The owl appeared quite indifferent to the turmoil, but the milling blackbirds took the precaution of keeping -well out of reach of his useful beak and talons.

Many foreigners from distant countries make their homes in New Zealand, and they very soon come to regard the Dominion with as much affection and patriotism as the native-born New Zealander himself feels for it. This was emphasised on Monday by two of a party of seven Greeks who returned to Wellington by the Makura after a visit to their native land. They explained that they had come to regard New Zealand as their true home.

Obvious antagonism to British tourists on the Strathnaver was noted at the Italian ports which the vessel visited during her Medittcranean cruise last September. However, an officer of the ship, who has many acquaintances there, found that the hand of friendship was extended to him as usual. “If our country goes to war with your country, you and I are not at war,” was the manner in which his friends summed the position up.

Coming as it does at this time of year the present 'cold snap is in striking contrast to the weather which Levin and district was enjoying during the month of November last year. With the exception of one or two single* days there has as yet been no warm weather, while last year summer commenced in earnest about the middle of October, in fact so much so that the local swimming baths were opened a week earlier than is the custom. It is an unusual phenomenon to see the Tararua Ranges clad in snow in November, though this is the case at present.

Four ewes and four lambs were killed at Wheatstone (Mid-Canterbury) during a thunderstorm in the coastal district on Sunday. The animals were somewhat mutilated, but did not have the appearance of being burnt. The ground for about ten square yards was cut up as if pigs had been rooting. Hail accompanied the storm, and some of the stones were as big as pigeon’s eggs. The tops of .young oats were cut off, peas were thrashed out, fruit trees stripped, and gardens generally suffered. In other coastal areas fruit trees were stripped and crops flattened, but weiv not severely damaged.

Two veterans of the cue met in an Auckland billiard saloon the other evening, and while waiting for a tallde got talking to,bacco, as old smokers will. iSaid one: “Don’t know how it is. Bob, but I don’t seem to get the pleasure out of my pipe 1 used to. Losing my taste for it.” “Reckon you’re 'brand-tired,’ ” said Bob, “you want a change of baccy, old man. Myself I’ve been smoking same old brand for 20 years, and wouldn’t change.

Why sho'uld I? I can't get anything better, or so good. But there are brands, 1 know, that ‘go off’ a lot. Mine-Cut JTulb No. I'O (Bullshead) — doesn’t.” “Toasted, isn’t it?” asked his cobber. “That’s right! 'One of the five genuine toasted brands—Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cavendish, Riverhead Gold and Desert Gold. And next to no nicotine in any of ’em! The toasting does it, .my boy! Now you try Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), and I wager a new hat you’ll soon relish your pipe again!” And so he did!*

Tlid fortnightly Kimberley euchre will be held this week on Friday night instead of Thursday as is usual. Good supper and prizes are offered.

A correspondent writes to the i oxton Herald drawing the attention of the authorities to the presence “right in the centre of the business area,'’ of what he terms “the existence o±. the nucleus of a stud stock farm.

An illustrated address will be given in the Queen Street Hall on Friday evening, commencing at 7.30, by Dr. E. G. Anderson, on the subject of the children’s home at Otaki Beach, and a cordial invitation is extended to all interested persons to attend.

“Some persons talk about the ‘good old days,’ and repeat that what was good enough for their fathers is good enough for them,” said Rev. L. C. II or wood at a social in Christchurch. “Some look to the past, and others to the future. They take Karl Marx as what they look back upon in the past and for the future they look to a world made into a socialistic commonwealth. Thus we all take refuge in cither the past or the future; we must, however, face to-day,” he concluded.

A particularly dangerous trick was played by a returning holiday-maker on a. motorist driving down Dyer’s Pass Road, Christchurch. A party of young men and girls was riding in the back of a lorry, and one of them was using a small pocket mirror to reflect back the sun’s rays into the eyes of the following motorist, who was unable at that place to accelerate and pass the larger vehicle. Fortunately for the motorist, the road soon turned into the shadow of some trees, and the youth returned the mirror to the girl who had lent it.