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Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 246, 14 September 1935, Page 6

It is understood that a movement has been started in Levin to form a Progressive League, the principal object of such being to make recommendations to local bodies on matters affecting the welfare of the town. It is likely that the Carnegie Corporation will make a grant lor the improvement of country libraries in New Zealand. The corporation has appointed a special committee consisting of prominent librarians to draw up recommendations, and already comprehensive proposals have been considered. Though magpies are commonly supposed to have an objection to reproducing their kind in captivity, one of these roving noisy and mischievous relatives of the jay family has belied this belief by nesting in the roof of a garage in Albert Street, and its owner received a surprise when he found it had laid two eggs. He is now awaiting developments. Infected with the seasonal enthusiasm of spring gardening, a resident of Ferguson Street has recently been making daily pilgrimages to a point just inside his front gate to gaze with pride and real affection upon a daffodil which he claims to be the biggest and best which has ever graced his garden. However, his regard lor this choice daffodil was evidently shared by another person, for when he made an inspection yesterday he found, to his surprise and dismay, that the bloom was missing. It had been neatly snipped off at the base of the stalk by a nocturnal intruder. The victim of the theft could hardly believe his eyes, because not another flower in the garden had been touched. If the Westminster baby that weighed only 13 ounces when he was born can claim to have been the world s lightest baby, Wellington province can probably boast the runner-up. A bandon baby, it transpires, weighed only 17 ounces when born, some 14 years ago. When he noticed in Thursday s report that the smallest baby reared under the supervision of the matron at the Karitane-Harris Hospital, Dunedin, weighed G pounds, Mr J. Hazelwood, Upper Hutt, write to a Wellington paper to say that his brother's wife, Mrs H. Hazelwood, of Sandon, was the mother of a girl child who weighed only 17 ounces at birth. The little girl is now 14 years old, a healthy child, and has always been so far as ho knows, stated Mr Hazelwood. “Thousands of pounds have been lost through the ravages of the white butterfly,” said Mr J. Linklater, when speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of .Representatives. “It lias caused tremendous damage throughout the whole of the country.” Mr Linklater said that when the pest came to his district it destroyed green crops and left farmers short of feed for their stock. The research workers at Massey College had introduced a parasite which was successfully combating the white butterfly. The position, however, required a closer watch, as the pest was now making its appearance in the South Island. The diamond black moth was another nuisance which was causing concern among farmers, and he hoped the Minister of Agriculture would do everything possible to assist the research workers. Rotary’s contribution to .the cause of world peace was emphasised by the Duke of Kent last month when he addressed the Newcastle-on-Tyne Rotary Club. “Rotary,” he said, “has international as well as national aims. It tries to cement and extend friendship and good fellowship between business and professional men the world over. In this way it contributes to an all-round better understanding, and furthers the cause of universal peace. No one who has travelled widely can have failed to notice the good that has been accomplished in that direction through the spread everywhere oi Rotary clubs. A flourishing Rotary Club means that the spirit of self-help, of service, of enterprise, of determination to rise superior to circumstances, is in the ascendant. I am pleased to say that this spirit is not lacking in our country generally to-day. Rotary is certainly helping in this national effort. It is encouraging the best kind of service in business and in civic and social life.”

The Five Brigade received a call last evening to a residence at No. 261 Albert Street where a minor outbreak had occurred. Its quelling did not present any great difficulty.

As the result of the work of some unknown person, extending over the last week or two, a number of dogowners in Levin have found their canine pets poisoned. Such a large number have fallen victims that some owners are muzzling their animals. ' “A good voice is a Divine gift—a singer is born with it. The judge recognises and appreciates the quality of that gift, but what he listens for is a demonstration of the use to which the gift has been put.” Thus stated Mr W. B. Fowler, of Bristol, England, musical judge at the recent festival of the Wellington Competitions Society, in Wellington yesterday.

Loose metal on the busy railway crossings, especially at Princess Street, is a serious danger to cyclists where it is spreading over the hard bitumen for a hundred yards. In wet weather it has also formed potholes in the smooth surface. This condition has been allowed to exist for over throe months, and should at once be remedied by the responsible authority.

Approximately 13,520,000 New Zealand postage stamps of the jubilee series were sold of the total of 16,500,000 printed. Six million of the halfpenny value were printed and 4,800,000 sold, and of 10,000,000 of the penny value offered to the public, sales amounted to 8,400,000. Half a million of the sixpenny value were printed, and 320.000 sold. Already these stamps are changing hands at as much as Is 6d each. All the stamps of the series which were unsold at the time the issue was withdrawn have been recalled and destroyed.

A large deputation of settlers who are holders of leases of farm lands from the Aotea Maori Land Board is to meet the Prime Minister, (lit. Hon. G. W. Forbes) at Wellington on Tuesday to discuss matters concerning the serious position which they are faced with now that many of their leases are approaching maturity. There are approximately 70 individual lessees in tue blocks, which are situated in Waimarino, Wanganui and Waitotara counties. The lessees request that they be granted conversion of their existing leases to provide for a further term of 21 years with successive rights of renewal as from the termination of their present leases.