ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 117, 15 May 1909, Page 7

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The" Kaikoura Sun reports Sir Joseph Ward as follows concerning the Main Trunk line:—A number of people had become pessimistic regarding the South Island Main Trunk railway, but he could assure them that the work was progressing steadily, and that the Government had no intention of allowing it to stop until it was completed. The Government was composed of men claiming to possess commonsense and practical knowledge, and they realised that it would be next door to madness to stop the works.

A writer in the Manawatu Standard states that an interesting relic of the Maori war has recently been found. It is the sword of Captain James Duff 'Hewett, who was killed by the Maoris at Toi Farm, Wanganui, in '1865. His sword was taken by the Maoris, and recently it . was discovered in the Hawera Museum. It was first seen in the hands of an old Maori woman, who said that she had found it a "long time ago in a rata tree," and she sold it to an Englishman, who, on examining it; saw that it had belonged to a British officer. The sword was used at Waterloo, where it was carried by Colonel Hewett, who, it is stated, lived to be the very last Waterloo officer. The sword is now in the possession of his grandson, Mr C. R. Hewett, of Awapuni, Paimerston North.

There is nothing like travel to enlighten people. The Kaikoura Sun reports:—Visiting Pressman' Lane (Christchurch Press) says his third trip to Kaikoura adds to his high appreciation of the place and people, while visiting "Brother" Wheeler (representing the N.Z. Times; Wellington) was amazed to find Kaikoura has so much good land, such charming attractions in its coastal and other scenery, and- many more potentialities. Solicitor-General Dr F. Fitchett, speaking at the complimentary banquet on Saturday evening, said that he had been nearly killed with the hospitality bestowed upon him. He had had seventeen meals and a tremendous lot of information. The latter got rather "mixed"—like some brands of pickles. He was not sure how many bushels of sheep went to the acre in Kaikoura. It had been suggested by a resident that with fast steamers Kaikoura would become a suburb of Wellington. That resident was too modest. Wellington would become a suburb of Kaikoura. Crown .Prosecutor J. F. M. Fraser (Otago) made a public confession. Kaikoura was a "book of revelation" to him. He expected to find a sequestered fishing village, Vbuilt between the Pacific littoral and the glorious Kaikoura Ranges, with a blacksmith's shop,, a store, ah hotel, a church, and a few huts. Instead he found a nice town, many churches, good hotels, capital stores, and the most hospitable people he had ever met with. Kaikoura was an ideal, a lovely holiday resort, and he intended .coming up, by motor car, from Dunedin, to spend a holiday in Kaikoura next summer. Were Kaikoura within 50 miles of Dunedin it would be thronged every week-end. .

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the recent communication of the Masonic Grand Lodge, of New Zealand at New Plymouth last week was modestly kept in the background (says an exchange). It was the fact that the Lodge has organised a great system- of charity which is being used in the alleviation of dis-. tress. The Lodge has accumulated a capital fund which at the end of March amounted to £19,752, and must now kave passed the even figures. This sum is solidly invested in Government and local body debentures to the extent of £18,000, earning interest at 4. and 4i per cent. The income thus derived is disbursed in casual relief, and a system of annuities to aged Masons and ; the widows and children of deceased Masons has been instituted, which is annually increasing in scope as the funds accumulate and the needs arise. This work goes on, quietly and unostentatiously year by year—a splendid example of the practice of those principles of benevolence that characterise the craft and commend it to so many men.

As a result of the increase of'wages of employees in tea-rooms and fes>taurants at Christchurch a local establishment which has hitherto made a feature of a shilling lunch has increased the price to eighteenpence. A rival restaurateur writes to the papers to point out the absurdity ot the contention that it is.impossible to make both ends meet on the modest shilling. "At the present time," he states, "a restaurant proprietor is buying his meat at a lower price than he" has done for years, bread, butter and other merchandise being equally cheap. As regards the cost of^ the raw material a caterer uses, that is as cheap to-day as it has been for years, : and the price of meals should under no circumstances be raised. As, re" gards the Arbitration Court award, 1 may say the wages are fair and reasonable, and the award has put the catering business on a much, better footing. It has gone abroad that a private hotelkeeper and some restaurant proprietors have had to pa,y as much as £350 extra wages per annum on account of the award, i reel pleased, indeed, to think that the award of the Court- has caught this class of individual, for previous to the award he must have paid miserable sweating wages."

A small farmer from North Canterbury who has been in Southland during the present threshing season has returned with information that he thinks his brother , landholders ought to know. He threshed on between thirty and forty farms, and he alleges that on every one of them there was Californian thistle, the weed being more prevalent on some as compared with others, but in all cases no attempt is made to take out the weed from either oats, chaff or grass seed. This, he says, is due to the fact that the men on the threshing machines are expected to put through 50 bags of oats per hour, which gives them no time to take out the seed. He thought that it was shameful that such a state of things should be permitted, as farmers with clean lands might buy oats or chaff from the district mentioned, and then wonder how it was that their own lands became infested with Californian thistle or other noxious weeds. In the interests of farmers generally, he thought that something should be done to prevent the propagation of weeds in this manner. >

"Chivalry upon the part of men in Auckland seems to be quite dead," says an irate lady passenger. "Menfolk appear to have taken up the attitude that women should not travel on trams between 4.30 and 6 o'clock in

the afternoon. That is all very well, and admittedly women should be considerate for those travelling home after office hours, but it is nap possible to always fit in one's arrangements. This week, traveling'in from Onehunga, I had to stand up in the car nearly the whole way with a baby in long clothes in my arms. The car was 1 just full of men, and another lady, who was compelled to stand also, was so indignant at my plight that she roundly upbraided them for their lack of politeness, Even more than this, however," continued the mother, "is the lack of politeness upon the part of the Auckland schoolboys, and it is very rarely indeed that you will .find even these boys, with college and higher school badges, ready to give up their seats to a lady."