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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 252, 21 September 1933, Page 6

It is stated by tlie Otago Daily Times’s Parliamentary reporter that an early, announcement may be expected concerning the personnel of the commission which is to inquire into local body administration. Two members of the Government Railways Board—Mr E. Newman (Rangitikei) and Mr G. W. Reid (Dunedin) —retired some weeks ago, and the matter of bringing the board up to normal strength will be decided very soon, states a Parliamentary correspondent. “Throughout my 14 years’ experience I have never known the large district over which I have control-ex-tending from Patangata County to Woodville County—to be so free from infectious disease as it has been during the past 12 months,” stated Mr W. Welsh, Government health officer, to a representative of the Dannevirke News.

A group of Transatlantic visitors to London rubbed their eyes to see a governess cart being driven at a trot ainid the Strand traffic. The anachronistic vehicle is, however, a familiar spectacle in that quarter of London. It belongs to a doctor who goes his rounds in it. An attendant youth holds the pony’s head while his master is by his patients’ bedsides. Special permission has been obtained from the President of the French Republic, M. Lebrun, for a girl who is only 12$ to be married to a. boy of 17. The ceremony will take place in October. The bride to be is Mile. Adrienne Delamarre. She was born on October 10, 1920. Her fiance is M. Henri Pinterux. They are both natives of the village of Catillon, which lies amongst cornfields some sixty miles to the north of Paris. Mile. Adrienne is a sturdy girl who looks much older than her years.

The opinion that school grounds should be levelled lor games other than tennis was expressed by Colonel J. H. Whyte at the meeting of the Wanganui Education Board yesterday, when it was reported that in the case of the Beaconsfield School, which had applied for permission to lay down an asphalt tennis court, there was not a quarter of an acre of level ground. Colonel Whyte stated that the opportunities for participation in tennis at schools wero limited. All could not play at once, a.nd it was better to have a pastime open to all.

A well-known Parisian journalist was surprised by the receipt, day after day, of letters—many of them relating to the most private matters —which had been opened and then sent on to him with the simple remark, “For your information.” It now transpires that these letters were sent by the concierge of a large building. This concierge opened all correspondence addressed to the tenants and sent it on to the journalist, who, he had decided, ought to .be informed of all the business and private affairs of residents in the building.

At 8 o’clock last night the Fire Brigade was called to a chimney fire at a Cuba Street residence. No damage was done. Permission was yesterday granted by the Wanganui Education Board to the Manchester School Committee to conduct religious exercises in the school. Residents report an increase in the number of deer at Maharahara. Near the copper mine they are stated to be particularly plentiful / and have been observed on the flats, at a distance of • about half a mile from the ranges.— Woodville Examiner. In intimating at the Rongotea Bulb Show that a country queen would be nominated at the carnival which it is proposed to hold in Palmerston North in aid of the Central Relief Committee, Mr J. Linklater, M.P., expressed the hope that the country would- rally round and return their queen at the head of the poll. Twenty unemployed men, working near Bulls under the Rangitikei County Council, broke camp yesterday, and returned to Wellington. The men have been employed planting on the sand dunes. Before leaving they passed a resolution thanking the council for the consideration shown them. Some weeks ago, the council received a letter from the men expressing their appreciation of the camp. An effort is to be made to secure the metalling of the old coach road from Tokaanu to Waiouru for a distance of about 40 miles. It is urged that the road would make available more angling in the upper Waikato River, relieving,the congestion on the present portion. It is pointed out the road would give southern touring motorists a short cut to the thermal regions. In its present state the road is a trap to motorists, as one day’s rain renders it impassable. “I have just spent a night in a house which, though within thirty miles of London, is five or six miles from the nearest railway station,” says a writer in a London journal. “What is more, it is so remote from main roads that one never hears a motor-car. The only reminder of modern transport was the faint drone of an invisible aeroplane overhead. To complete the illusion, the small Elizabethan manor house had passed through the centuries without the hand of the restorer despoiling it.” Powers for the consolidation of special loan areas in local body districts, enabling the authority to strike a single general rate instead of a multiplicity of special rates, will be contained in a Bill which the Government proposes to introduce during the coming session of Parliament. The powers conferred by the Bill will, it is understood, be permissive and not mandatory, and they will be subject to the approval of the Local Government Loans Board an’d the Governor-Gen-eral in Council. Heavy rain fell at Palmerston North during the night, and this morning stormwater channels were flooded, while there were miniature lakes at some corners of the footways. A rainfall of three-quarters of an inch was recorded for the 24 hours ended- at 9 a.in. today by Mr T. R. Moore, of “Wairnarama,” Terrace End, making a total of over an inch for the past 48 hours. The Manawatu River had a level of 3ft 6 inches at noon. The warm rainfall will be of immense value to the land.

A Woodville resident (says the Examiner) has in his possession a smooth pebble, about the size and shape of a thrush’s egg, which it is presumed came from the crop of a moa. It is interesting to recall that a quantity of moa remains were found in a cave at Coonoor, Makuri, a number of years a.go, and among the bones were small heaps of these rounded pebbles. One of the finest moa skeletons in New Zealand was found in this particular cave. A characteristic of the pebble is that its surface is always greasy, no matter what the climatic conditions may be. The attention of Waikato residents, especially in the Hamilton and Cambridge districts, was drawn on Monday night to an extensive reflection in the sky over the Monavale district, caused by a large fire in Monavale swamp. Swamp peat- fires regularly burn in the summer, but on account of the very dry spring they h.'.ve started earlier this season. This fire is spreading with great rapidity and the swamp of 22,000 acres was practically on fire from end to end. It presented a striking spectacle, the flames being reflected against huge banks of smoke. No damage has been reported. On the contrary, the fire is doing good work by burning off miles of titree. If there are no heavy rains the fire will burn indefinitely. Application by the Palmerston North Central School Committee for five gallons of paint for the school baths provoked some comment at the meeting of the Wanganui Education Board yesterday, when several members stated that the board’s policy was not to assist in such matters. Observations were made by the chairman (Mr E. F, Hemingway) on the fine work done by the committee, and Mr E. R. Hodge (the architect) also said that many of the store rooms and sheds had been built and paid for by the committee. Mr J. K. Hornblow protested against the grant on the grounds that his application for the Glen Oroua School had been refused. It was decided that the application be granted, but that in future no help would be given for school baths.

An unexpected obstacle, it lias been discovered, stands in the way of tlie realisation of a scheme to provide Parisians with sea-water bathing by constructing a pipe-line between the Channel and the capital. This plan was submitted to the city authorities some time ago. There did not appear to be any serious practical objections to it, but it has now been realised that the regulations of the Department of Customs make it quite impossible to remove water from the sea.. This sounds fantastic, but an authority on this subject asserts that it is true. He recalls the history of the salt tax in France, and states that a law against “stealing” salt from the sea was passed in the eighteenth century. That law disappeared with the Revolution, but the regulations based upon it have never been abrogated. They are not applied nowadays, but the fact remains that it is still forbidden in France to bring any- part' of the sea ashore ! Says the London Daily Telegraph of August 4: “A study of the history of armed raids and ‘hold-ups’ in this country shows pretty clearly that our air is not salubrious for gunmen. Yesterday, for instance, three gentlemen of tfiis persuasion, one at least of whom had a fire-arm of some sort, were attacked and routed by a man of 65. And it is not many weeks since two real professionals from America, entering a bank at Newcastle full of confidence in their technique of frightfulness, got a taste of English retaliatory methods which they will long remember. These instances of the courage of the ordinary citizen in the face of the pistol are not isolated. Dozens of cases are on record, and they do great honour to the individuals concerned ; but they do still greater honour to the majesty of our law. Displays of similar bravery in America, would not be heroic, but merely suicidal. For in America the gunman is not afraid to shoot. Hero he is, and everybody knows it.” Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure tor coughs and colds, never fails. —Advt.