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Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 131, 3 May 1927, Page 6

A commission inquiring into the grievances of certain Maori tribes opened its sittings at TV airoa yesterday. On Thursday the Wanganui Acclimatisation Society will liberate 2000 yearling trout in the Mnngawliero Stream. Prior to the Raetihi fire several years ago, this tream was excellent for trout fishing, but the fish were killed by the excess of potash deposited in the river. The Trustees of tho Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Blind Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Fund have received £ll ‘ls from the Tolaga Bay Soldiers’ Committee, £2 14s 3d from Mr J. S. Fox, Okato, and £7 9s 3d from Rangiwahin as a result of collections on Anzac Day. Tho New Zealand Olympic Games Council has asked the English authorities if the Now Zealand team can be accommodated on the vessel it is proposed to charter to take the British team to the Amsterdam meeting next year. It is understood that the British team will live on the ship while in Holland. A number of representatives of the southern wheat-growers will visit Wellington this week and will confer with the Prime Minister (lit. Hon. J. G. Coates) and other members of Cabinet on the position of the industry. Arrangements have been made for the growers to appear before the Tariff Commission in connection with duties on wheat and flour. As far as can bo ascertained (6ays the Dominion) tho works —railway construction, hydro -electric development, telegraph extension, and other public works —affected by the allocation of tho proceeds of the new £6,000,000 loan arc all part and parcel of existing programmes. No fresh ground, it is understood, is being broken.

When children from two families w’ere charged with the theft of confectionery in court at Christchurch, an angry scene occurred because one parent accused the other of telling lies. After a warning had been disregarded the father of two children was led. cut of court, but was allowed later to return. The parents were ordered to pay for the stolen goods. One of the members of the council of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, an expert angler, recently spent five days fishing at Lake Taupo and caught five fish, an average *of one a day. The largest weighed nine pounds. “Trout are very scarce in the lake,’’ he remarked. He added that he had fished hard all the time, and that he had whipped the Tongariro River until he was tired.

“Some present day children survive to be pigeon-chested, weak, rickety and suffer from malnutrition by virtue of beinjj dragged up,” declared Dr. F. D. C. Pinfold, presiding at the annual meeting of the Hamilton branch of the Plunket Society. The doctor expressed the opinion that present day upbringing was little less cruel than the barbaric practices of natives in throwing their infants into the sacred rivers. There was a tendency to-day, he said, to develop constitutions nearer the 3C than the A 1 marks. A young woman was charged at the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui yesterday with selling sweets to some children on a Sunday and was discharged without a conviction. Mr J. S. Barton, the magistrate, pointed out that the Act made it open for people to obtain refreshments on a Sunday. If a person went in for a plate of sandwiches he had to consume them on the premises, but he did not think the Act ever intended that if a child went in and bought 6d worth of barley sugar it had to sit down in the shop and 6uck it away. Wong Ah Chong, who was sentenced to 12 months’ reformative detention yesterday morning in the Supreme Court at Dunedin on a charge of breaking and entering and theft, was brought before the Magistrate’s Court there in the afternoon for sentence on four charges of being in the possession of opium in a form suitable for smoking, and also on a charge of smoking opium. The Collector of Customs stated that the quantity of opium found was not large. Accused was convicted and discharged on each charge, the opium to be confiscated. An interesting development in connection with the school now in course of construction at Coutts Street, Kilbirnie, Wellington, tantamount to the provision of a new boys’ high school, was announced by the Minister of Education, Hon. R. A. Wright, yesterday. The principal use of the new building will now be the accommodation of excess pupils from the Wellington Boys’ College; while, to meet the growing primary school requirements, the ultimate erection of an additional school at Miramar Central is foreshadowed. When the ball box was opened on the Matamata Club’s links on the day of the official opening a starling’s nest containing two eggs was found inside. The bird had evidently got in and out through the small aperture into which the found balls are put. It is extremely doubtful if, had the eggs been hatched, the young birds could have got out of their snug home, but apparently the mother bird had confidence that she could bring her progeny out of what seemed a prison. However, as the box was wanted for its original use, the problem will not be solved unless she tries it again next season. From Mr A. R. Brett, of Auckland, we have received a copy of a little publication, “The Race for the Wires — Old Time Journalism,” containing some reminiscences of his father, the late Sir Henry Brett. As the title indicates, the brochure deals with the early days of journalism—the time when there was no cable service—and the many incidents that resulted on tire arrival of the monthly mail steamers with their budgets of news. As there were then two rival news agencies throughout New Zealand, many were the ruses adopted by the representatives of those agencies to get their monthly budget from the ship first and to get it telegraphed to the papers they represented, and with those occurrences the book is concerned. * A multiplicity of matters are discussed on the Auckland waterfront, and when “ringers” and big shearing tallies were mentioned, one veteran sailor, who used to be a member of the crew of the topsail schooner Anna Pile, trading ov.t of Auckland, recalled (says the Star) that the vessel on one occasion shipped five sheep for the Islands. During the voyage the captain decided that, on account of the heat, the sheep should be shorn. The sailors knew nothing about the job, and there were no shears on board. However, the crew made a start, lour men holding a sheep down, while a filth member of the crew snipped away with the captain’s scissors. This was tfie lar routine for five days, and by the end of that time the flock of five were close.ly shorn. At the Hastings Magistrate’s Court recently, a Maori, aged 25, was sued on a judgment summons for a grocery debt amounting to £55. Under crossexamination the debtor admitted that the debt was contracted in 1920 and since then he had not paid a penny off it. At present he was not in a position to make any offer. The magistrate agreed that the debtor was not in a position to pay, "but,” added the magistrate, “I can’t help commenting that for a storekeeper to give credit to the extent of £55 is absurd, especially to a native. I could understand a ‘‘fiver,’ but natives never worry. They live tor to-day and never think of tomorrow. It is no use making an order when a man says lie will try to pay. If he can’t do so then he wants a rehearing, and that means more trouble, but to give a Maori credit tor £55, well, it’s utterly absurd.”

Rev. Rowland S. Bingham, founder and director of the Soudan Interior Mission, will give three great lantern lectures' in Everybody’s Theatre on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 4th, sth and 6th May. Mr Bingham was one of three pioneers who entered the Soudan with the Gospel 34 years ago. The other two pioneers succumbed to sickness, while Mr Bingham, though broken in health, was spared, hot- 22 years he has had the oversight of the Soudan Interior Mission. Just recently Mr Chas. Hummel, representing the same mission held, visited Palmerston North, when large numbers gathered to her his soul-stirring message. Mr Bingham is a powerful speaker and lias a wonderful message to tell. It is expected that Everybody’s Theatre will be filled. His lecture on “Prophesy Proved bv Photography” is a masterly one. Mr Bingham has visited the places depicted on the screen, ami can give remarkable evidence of the accuracy of the prophecies of the Scriptures. Mr Bingham especially invites those who have doubts about- the Bible. • The municipal gas deaprtment will give a gas cooking demonstration ii. the supper room ot the Opera House to-niirrow afternoon. Ladies are cordially invited .<> attend.