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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 51, 27 January 1933, Page 6

By smashing a window fronting on to the street, a thief was able to extract a cashbox containing the sum of 7s from the caretaker’s office at the City Council convenience in the Square. The cashbox was later found buried in one of the garden plots minus its contents.

More comfortable passenger carriages will be in use on the Welling-ton-New Plymouth express shortly. Renovations on special cars are now being done in the railway workshops, and the new carriages will be more spacious and particularly suited to this long express journey. The new cars will not be as heavy as the luxe carriages in use on the Main Trunk and Rotorua lines.

Among the guests at a luncheon held by the London district of the Institute of Journalists recently was Sir Alfred Watson, editor of the Statesman, Calcutta. Sir Alfred was congratulated by the chairman, Mr R. E. Loveless, on his double escape from assassins in India. “All I wish to say about these recent happenings in Calcutta,” said Sir Alfred, “is - that my mental attitude towards them is very much that of the American sub-editor who, tired of the monotony of the news, put up a heading, ‘Watson Shot Again,’ and let it go at that.”

The report that the appointment of the commission promised by the Government to examine local body government in New Zealand was likely to be delayed on account of the emergency which now faces the Cabinet was confirmed by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, in an interview last evening. “At the moment we have much more urgent business in hand,” said Mr Forbes, “and the question of appointing the commission has naturally been held over in the meantime.” The Prime Minister indicated that an inter-de-partmental committee had been set up to investigate the position of local body government in detail and-to collect all available information. He was not aware just what stage of its proceedings that committee had reached, but he repeated that the Government had in any case more urgent problems.

An exhibition of tweeds was held in London, when a collection of materials of excellent quality and design from various districts in Wales was shown. The industry is an old one and was at its zenith in 1790, when Welsh woollen fabrics of high quality were well known in Europe and America, more particularly those made in two great centres, Dolgeliy and Bala. Recently there lias been a revival, and with modern designs and a careful attention to the demands of fashion, both in men’s and women’s clothing, there seems no reason why Welsh tweeds should not be as widely known as those made in other parts of the British Isles. During the short time they were on view many orders were taken and well-known makers-up were favourably impressed by their quality, design and colour. It is hoped that the demand for these things may prove successful in reducing unemployment in many parts of Wales.

The editor of a Cantonese newspaper has been ordered to pay a fine of 400 dollars or in default of payment to serve 133 days in prison for publishing an article abusing the Japanese Emperor.

A New Zealand record for a singlepusher spar monoplane was made by Mr F. S. Mills, of Auckland, while flying at the Model Aero Club’s meeting at Christchurch. Mr Mills’s time was 2m. 455., when his aeroplane came to rest in a tree-top.

New Plymouth fishermen report that kingfish are very plentiful just now off the Sugar Loaves. One party lost four spinners, their lines not being strong enough to hold the fish. It is expected that if the warm weather continues catches of mako sharks may be reported.

With the closing of the Black Lion mine at Ohai the coal traffic —for many years the source of a steady and substantial revenue for the Railways Department in Southland —has fallen considerably. Even before the closing of this mine the quantity carried was only about 500 tons a day and now that total has been very considerably reduced.

Members of the various City Council departments participated in their annual picnic to-day, the venue being Plimmerton. As in other years, a special train was chartered, this leaving Terrace End at 7.50 o’clock and Palmerston North at 8.10. There were 16 carriages and a van, and when passengers had been picked up at Longburn and Awapuni, there were over 500 people on board. The picnickers are expected to arrive home shortly after 8 p.m.

Reporting on fishing conditions at last night’s meeting ot the Palmerston North branch of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, the ranger, Mr W. T. Andrews, stated that the fishing locally had been fair with the Oroua River outstanding. Some very fine bags had been taken from the latter river and had easily averaged 21bs. The Hautapu River from Taihape to Hihitahi was also producing some good bags. Tire limit had been taken on several occasions. When on a recent visit to Arapuni, Mr G. W. Reid, a member of the Railways Board, was informed that tSb leakage from the headrace was well under control. Remedial measures are still in progress, he told a Dunedin reporter but the apparent leakage has been reduced to small dimensions. The generating unit which caused trouble through vibration is being dismantled for the purpose of substituting another turbine for the original one. The engineer considers the oscillation is in no way due to • faulty foundations, but may he traceable to the turbine.

Havoc was wrought in a Papanui poultry run last week by a “killer dog” that took toll of a very special breed of ducks resulting in a loss to the owner of at least £2O. The ducks were about 11 weeks old, and the poultry keeper had received offers of,£l Is each for some of the birds. All were killed by the dog. The owner reached the poultry run in time to see the dog in the act of killing the last of the 39 birds, and after a chase was successful in securing It. A curious feature of the raid was that the dog did not interfere with any of the other poultry, and did not eat any of the birds "that it killed. A little lad aged eight years wandered away from his home in Blenheim on a recent afternoon, and remained missing until he was found at 10.30 the following morning at the Sandhills, some two or three miles south of Blenheim. He is the son of Mr and Mrs C. Gray, formerly, of Ashburton, who recently arrived from Kaikoura. Apparently the lad obtained the use of a tiny bicycle from a neighbour’s house and decided to see something of the district. Fortunately he selected a warm niglrt for his adventure and was none the worse for being out all night. He showed his father where he slept for the night under a willow tree near the main road. Seemingly the little lad went further afield than he intended, became tired at nightfall and decided to sleep. Reference to the very dry summer being experienced in the Foxton district was contained in the report of Mr Ei. R. Barron, inspector of the Manawatu Rabbit Board, presented to the meeting yesterday. He said that on the greater part of the board’s area very little rain has fallen, with the result that the country is drier at this period of the year than it has ever been since the hoard was formed. Conditions, such as the present ones, generally existed towards the middle of February and the work of rabbit destruction has been much harder to carry out during the month for these reasons. The ground had been too dry for successful trapping to be done, and trapping operations were suspended for a week to see if conditions would improve, hut the rain that had fallen had made practically no difference, and the work had been resumed as there was so much ground to be got over, and no time could be lost.