NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3795, 22 May 1928, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

M. Sidal, the French draught champion, played 10(i games simultaneously at .Compiegne, winning 102, losing one, and drawing three. A survivor of the disaster to the steamer Princess Alice 50 years ago, when her small sQi was drowned before her eyes, has just died at 80. Front and rear lights for pedestrians on roads outside cities, as a safeguard against accidents, are proposed in a Bill introduced in the United States. “Let no one bear 'beyond ye threshold words uttered here in friendly conference,” is the in* script-ion over the door of Mr. Lloyd George’s new residence. A fatality occurred at Matawai, Gisborne, last Friday, when a four-year-old Maori boy, Mahunga Poi Poi, succumbed to injuries accidentally inflicted by his father. The child’s parents were taking him with them eeling on the Koranga Stream, beyond Matawai. The father was landing an eel with a pitchfork, and not 'knowing that the child was near, he swung the fork round to throw the eel to the ground. The fork struck the boy and one prong pierced his eye. The injured child was hurried to the district nurse’s home, but succumbed oil the journey. Mere Railia Pcreniki, at the age of 72, at Puru, Waikato, is dead. She was once a ehieftainess of the Ngatimaru tribe, and was very respected by Maori and pakelui, being an authority on tribal lore and on Native women’s customs. She was a prominent figure in the days of the mining boom, when she wielded great influence in favour of the diggers, overcoming the Native objections to prospectors traversing Maori lands. 'She leaves a son,. Hare Pereniki, a prominent Ngatimaru Rangitira, and a daughter, liaora Tarangangui.

Even such a recognised barren wilderness as the New Zealand Official Year Book contains an occasional oasis of something palatable to literary digestive organs, albeit such cases have to be earnestly sought, says the Auckland “Star.” Of all places the least .likely to contain such a welcome diversion would be the index, and yet there some of the most succulent titbits of the book are found The various items appearing in the index are arranged in strict alphabetical order, and one is struck with the coincidental associations that occur. Amongst the E’s “eggs” is immediately followed by “elections,” which seems appropriate. In the H’s “hay, quantities consumed,” precedes “heads of departments/’ In the A’s, “Assembly general, members,” is immediately followed by “asses and mules,” while “geese” and “general assembly” are associated in the G’s. Blind and stone deaf —an aged Maori whose evidence was required in connection with a dispute between two Maori brothers provided a difficult problem for the Gisborne Police Court recently. Yet despite the fact that the old man could neither see nor hear, questions were put to him and answers received by means of an extraordinary language of the hands, an intensely interesting exhibition. The Maori witness, Minerepa Te Rure (over 80 years of age) was led into the 'Court by his niece, who was to act as interpre ter of the unusual language, and a dispute arose when it was learned that she was a sister of the parties. Finally, however, the Magistrate permitted her to act as interpreter, the Maori brothers standing by and listening to the old man’s replies. By moving the fingers of witness’s right hand in various ways, the interpreter was able to put to him questions of considerable length, and to receive from him equally lengthy verbal replies, which the old man made more forcible with realistic signs.