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Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 256, 28 September 1932, Page 6

Tlie Hastings Borough Council, at its last meeting, decided to arrange with the hank for an overdraft, this being the first occasion on which this has been necessary since 1924. At the Dunedin Exhibition of 192526 John Robertson, of Greymouth, then under seventeen years old, won the boys’ solo cornet contest and then effected a surprise by playing well enough in the open championship to be recalled—the contest was won by \V. Stevenson. Subsequently, Robertson went to England and became solo cornet player in the famous St. Hilda’s Band. Now he is conductor of the Toronto Police Band. The Oliai (Southland) miners’ strike has passed its fifth week and it is interesting to seo what it has cost (says the Southland News). At August 17 the decrease for the then expired portion of the financial year in the coal sent over the Oliai Board’s line was 8622 tons. A week ago that had increased to 19,126 tons and the average decrease is 2600 tons per week. With the retail price of coal at approximately £2 a ton, or slightly under, this means that about £20,000 has so far been withheld from circulation. In the House of Representatives, yesterday. Mr W. E. Parry asked whether, in view of the emphatic decision at Ottawa (which was endorsed by the Prime Minister) that prices must be raised, the Government would take the necessary steps to amend legislation relating to pensions and not only restore reductions made last session but also to consider granting increases. He said it was considered by eminent authorities that this was the most effective way of raising prices. The Prime Minister, in reply, said it was not intended to introduce legislation on the lines indicated.

The condition of the victim of the air crash at Johnsonville on Thursday last, Mr L. F. B. Taylor, is slightly improved. Of the £BOO,OOO borrowed for harbour works since 1923, the Gisborne Harbour Board to-day has a balance of £4961 in hand.

The Foxton United Sports Association has insured its next sports gathering against wet weather, a policy for £IOO having been taken out. During the ceremony at the Courthouse grounds yesterday afternoon, when the Court officials and members of the legal profession planted an avenue of trees, a space was left at the public entrance, it being intended to invite Hon. J. G. Cobbe, Minister of Justice, to plant a tree when ho next visits Palmerston North. t>Details of the cost of construction of a main north-south road up the valley from Plimmerton to Pukerua Bay and then along the coast to Paekakariki were sought by Mr W. H. Field in a question lie gave notice of his intention to ask the Minister of Public Works, Hon. C. E. Macmillan, in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon.

According to Bishop Bennett,- in an address at Napier, approximately £85,000 has been spent on education of the Maori race. At the present time there are 134 native schools in the Dominion, all of which are under the control of the Government. There are 14,676 native children receiving education to-day, while the teachers, mostly English, total 296.

Arising out of a collision with a Ministerial train at the Mokotua (South Island) crossing on January 7, 1930, wherein Alexander Kelly and his seven-year-old daughter lost their lives, tho widow, Rlioda Jane Kelly, who lives in Invercargill, is petitioning Parliament for a grant sufficient to secure her a home. The petitioner sets out that she is in needy circumstances.

A 17-year-old youth, Gordon Dyer, a son of Mr and Mrs F. H. Dyer, of Epsom,-Auckland, was shot in the left thigh when a pea-rifle accidentally exploded at his -homo. The mishap occurred when Dyer suddenly dropped the rifle, which he was examining, the fall causing the weapon to discharge. • The injured youth was taken to the Auckland Hospital, where the bullet was removed. *

During the week-end a sawmill hand, Mr G. Prichard, discovered, in the bush between Hammond’s station, “M'okai,” and Gregory’s mill, on the eastern bank of the upper reaches of the Rangitikei River, a finely-made greenstone axe, and near at hand a replica, made of stone. About a quarter of a mile from the scene of the find are the remains of a half-con-structed Maori war canoe, the location of which has been known for some years.

“As a race we cannot make the progress we want to make if we are going 'to forget the Maori people,” said Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa, in an address to Napier Rotarians. “I feel that to-day one of the most important duties wo of New Zealand have to face is the development of the Maoris. We must never forget that in the early days, when the pakelia population was small in New Zealand, the Maoris never forgot their responsibilities.”

A guarantee of half the rental of about 20 State Advances Department houses at Lower Hutt from which the tenants have been evicted owing to their failure to pay their mortgage instalments, provided the department allowed the houses to be occupied, was promised by a deputation from the Lower Hutt Borough Council, which waited upon the Prime Minister yesterday morning. Mr Forbes replied that the matter was really a policy one, outside the scope of the department. He would bo pleased to look into it and see what could be done. A horticultural freak, known to experts as a fasciated linaria, has been found in the garden of Miss A. Simcock, of Helensville. The deformity is in the stem, which is of normal thickness, but is nearly two inches wide, instead of being a frail wand, as in ordinary linaria plants. The foliage and blossoms, both of which are identical with ordinary specimens, are growing out of the wide stefn, and are unusually prolific. According to horticulturists, a fasciated linaria is rarely found, although the deformity is frequently seen in the case of certain Japanese lilies.

Over fifty yoars ago a large whaling ship called the Pacific broke from her moorings and was wrecked on the rocks off Popatiki Beach, at the Neck, Stewart Island. It has always been understood that among her gear was a brass cannon. A few days ago two Islanders searched the place at low spring tide with the aid of a magnifying glass box. The cannon was easily seen in quite shallow water lying on the remains of wreckage. The cannon is a.bout 6ft. long and very massive. A loop was worked on to one end, but after partly lifting it with the aid of the tide, the rope slipped off, so a further trial will be made next spring tides.

The statement in the annual report on the Defence Forces that only one of the machines being used by the Air Force was' of a type now being eniploycd in other parts of the Empire was commented upon by Mr W. E. Barnard in the House yesterday afternoon. Mr Barnard said it was reported that all the Air Force machines with the exception of one were obsolete, and that it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain them, at a reasonable cost. It was desirable that the Government should purchase modem aeroplanes in order that those being trained should have the advantage of using the latest machines. The old machines were becoming costly, and they should be scrapped as soon as possible.

The Government’s policy in connection with appointments to the Legislative Council is being awaited with interest. With three more members due to retire next month the ranks of the Upper House will be very thin indeed (says a Parliamentary correspondent). The three members due to retire shortly are Hon. Sir Heaton Rhodes, who was for a number of years a member of the Reform Ministry, Hon. L. M. Isitt, who has taken a prominent part in sponsoring Bible-in-Schools legislation, and Hon. G. Witty. Both Mr Isitt and Mr Witty were in the Lower House for a number of years, and it will be remembered that they saved the Massey Administration from defeat after the 1922 election.

A tribute to the standard of New Zealand journalism was paid by the Count de Baillet-Latour at a dinner given in his honour by the sports bodies of Christchurch. “In other countries, when I have been interviewed, I have rarely been able to recognise what I actually said in the words attributed to me by the interviewer. Usually it wasn’t an interview at all, they just put in what they wanted me to say. But in New Zealand I have never found anything attributed to mo that I did not actually say, and if it appeared stupid in print it was my own fault.” The count added that he had heard high praise of New Zealand sporting writers, who had a reputation for being absolutely fair, and from what he had seen he believed that was so. He was astonished to find in every town in New Zealand, even the very small ones, very good newspapers, which really did give not only local news, but world news.

Delayed by easterly gales and heavy head seas, the Zealandia from > y ney arrived in the stream at Wellington shortly after 9 o’clock last mgnt, 14 hours behind schedule. One of the most beautiful sights at present to be seen in Taranaki is tho Malone memorial gate at Stratford, which is a blaze of bloom from 10,000 daffodils planted by tho Stratford Horticultural Society. The gate was erected in memory of Colonel Malone, who wps killed on Gallipoli.-

An adventurous bicycle tour, Principally through rough territory in the King Country, the Urewera Country, and tho East Coast, was recently completed by Miss Nora Copsey, of the Wanganui Technical College. Miss Consey had the experience of taking the first bicycle to Maungapohatu, the famous Urewera stronghold of the Maori “prophet” Rua. Slue also met Rua.

That a whaler should lose a harpoon head in a whale and recover it when he caught the whale over 15 years later seems too remarkable a coincidence to be true, but that it what happened to Mr Joseph Perano, of Tory Channel. When Messrs Falla and Powell, of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, were in the Marlborough Sounds recently, Mr Perano gave them the harpoon, and it is now added to the museum collection.

The death of Mr Robert McQuay, of Stratford, aged 84 years, in the Waikato Hospital, recalls an interesting case which engaged the attention of New Zealand some years ago. Ihe late Mr McQuay was tho father of Private McQuay, a New Zealand soldier who lost his memory in the Great AVar and wlio was for some eleven years domiciled in. Australia, it being thought at the time that he was a member of an Australian unit. Happily, he was recognised in Axistralia by some one who knew him before the war, and eventually he uas returned to the Dominion.

A local farmer had a somewhat startling experience a few days ago (says tho “Standard’s” - Foxton correspondent) . His car refused to start owing to faulty timing and he hitched it to a team of horses' with the object of starting the engine up. The vehicle was towed some distance before anything happened, and then a terrific explosion shook the car. Benzine had sucked into the cylinders and expelled into the exhaust with each revolution of -the engine and, when finally a spark was obtained, it ignited the fumes in the silencer which exploded with such force that it blew a hole in the ground. It was fortunate that tho explosion went down instead of up, or the repair bill would have been ' considerably heavier.