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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 310, 28 November 1936, Page 8

There is ail acute shortage of houses for letting in Napier, and land agents agree that it is impossible to deal satisfactorily with the flow of applications.

Stung on the face by a bee, a lorry driver, Mr Victor Anderson, of Leamington. Waikato, momentarily lost control of his vehicle, which crashed into a telegraph pole, snapping the pole and damaging the lorry. Mr Anderson suffered minor facial injuries, and he was removed to the Hamilton Hospital. Mr T. Ashworth, of Colyton, who suffered a fall at the Feilding saleyards yesterday, underwent an operation in the Palmerston North Hospital, last evening, and it was reported to-day that his condition was satisfactory. Mr Ashworth is not on the list of serious cases, though his injuries comprised a fractured thigh and concussion.

In connection with the announcement in the “Standard” on Thursday evening that a Bristol fighter ’plane has been made available to the Palmerston North Technical School for use in instruction on engines and frames, a Wellington Press Association message announces that four machines of this type will be used for ground training. One has been lent to the Wellington Aero Club and the others arc being retained at Wigram.

The greatest celebration in the history ot ltoman Catholicism in New Zealand is to be held in Auckland and at the mouth of the Hokianga River early in 1938, when the centenary of the arrival of Bishop Pompallier will occur. Plans for the suitable observance of the centenary were discussed by Bishop Liston at a meeting of over 500 Irtish priests and representatives of parishes and Catholic societies from all parts of the diocese held in Auckland, this week.

The wide variety of persons employing dance orchestras gave rise to some difficulty in the listing of parties when the Wellington performing musicians met their employers in Conciliation Council yesterday. Among the parties cited by the workers were churches, cabarets, hotels, theatres, sports bodies, social clubs, school committees, racing and trotting clubs, dance orchestras, and schools of dancing. The council has adjourned until Monday, when an agreement will probably be reached, with the 1930 Auckland award as basis.

The well-known home and grounds of the late Sir Francis Bell, at Lowry Bay, one of the outstanding landmarks on the • popular drive to Eastbourne, Wellington, are to be sold and cut up into building sites. The bay derives its name from Lowry, who was mate of the Tory. The property, which originallv comprised about 550 acres, was first taken up by George Hart by Crown grant in 1859. In 1865 the property was purchased b” the Crown and a residence (later owned by the late Sir Charles Skerrett) was erected as a country seat for the Governors of New Zealand. The residence was frequently used bv Lord Normanbv and his staff. In 1877 the Crown sold it to Mr Duncan Sinclair and Captain John Mowlem. of Palmerston North, who in 1884 sold it to the late Mr W. H. Levin and the late Sir Francis Bell. Some little time afterwards Sir Francis Bell erected the original “Taumaru” residence. which has been added to from time to time. On Mr W. H. Levin’s death in 1893, his share was acquired by the Bell family.

Taranaki recently held an arts and crafts exhibition, the nett profit of which was about £350. A New Plymouth resident relates that rats on his property recently ate away about six inches of a two-inch bath waste-pipe. Thirty members of the 7th and Btli Batteries, N.Z.R.A., Palmerston North, will visit Wellington to-mor-row to inspect and see demonstrated the anti-aircraft equipment at Fort Dorset. Because there are insufficient players available to make the trip, a visit from the Wellington Bowling Centre to the Manawatu Centre has been postponed from the first Wednesday in December until next year. A correspondent writes : —Fifty years ago to-morrow, on November 29, 1886, the first train was run by the Manawatu Railway Company trim Wellington to Palmerston North. On the same day of the month in 1380 (56 years ago) the first issue of the “Manawatu Evening Standard” was pub) if hod . Owing to a minor breakdown of the engine,' the Limited express bound for Auckland was 55 minutes late in arriving at Palmerston North last night. The trouble occurred between ICoputaroa and Shannon, and a relief engine was sent from Palmerston North, meeting the express, which was proceeding at a reduced speed, at Linton.

At the conclusion of Mr T. R. Lees’s address on “Farmers in the Making” at the Citizens’ Lunch Club, yesterday, it was announced that, on the suggestion of Mr J. A. Nash, the Manawatu Patriotic Society had agreed to pay £lO for the cost of equipment to sons of soldiers entering Flock House from this district, in cases where their parents found it difficult to provide clothing, blankets, etc. Serious burns to his face, body, and hands were received by Mr A. Stohr, of Upper Hutt, as the result of flaming methylated spirits setting fire to his clothes yesterday. Mr Stohr was burning some rubbish in his yard, and to make the fire burn more quickly he poured a quantity of methylated spirits from a bottle on to the rubbish. The spirits immediately burst into flames and shot back at Mr Stohr. setting fire to his clothes. For picking a protected native plant, clematis, from the bush, along the Tararua Road, Ryan Charles McCarthy was ordered to pay costs when he appeared before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach said that complaints had been received of people going out on Sundays and holidays and picking clematis. “It is said that when a piece of clematis is pulled off the whole plant dies,” said the sub-inspector.

Keen to see Mr J. E. Lovelock in action, but not so keen to pay a shilling for the privilege, a young man, James Merrivale . “gate-crashed” at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, recently, by swarming over the fence. Unfortunately he was observed. When he appeared yesterday before Mr J. H. Luxford, 8.M., in the Alagistrate’s Court, he was fined exactly what it would have cost him to gain admission in the orthodox way—one shilling without costs.

On the expiration of a life interest in the estate of the late Mr Alexander Whitelaw Newton, who died in Wellington on November 11, the sum of £2OOO will be given to the Wellington City Council for the purchase of seats, these to be placed in parks, gardens, streets or other public places. This bequest recalls a gift made to the city in 1914 by Mr A. W. Newton’s father, the l late Mr John Newton. He gave 250 seats, which bear the inscription, “Rest an’ be thankfu’.”

Remarking that some persons laughed at the poultry tanner as a farmer, Rev. W. if. Stent, president of the New Zealand Poultry Producers’ Federation, told a meeting of the Manawatu branch of the federation, last night, that even the farmer laughed at his wife for keeping fowls. Yet, said the speaker, the farmer liked his bacon and eggs. In addition, cakes were eaten by all, and the necessity for eggs in housekeeping made poultry farming a very important industry.

A visit to New Zealand by the King during the centennial celebrations in 1940 was envisaged by Sir James Parr, former High Commissioner in London, when speaking at a luncheon given in his honour by the Auckland Travel Club. Although he made it clear that ho was speaking merely in a private capacity, Sir James said he imagined that a Royal Prince would be invited to attend the celebrations, and he suggested that it would be a wonderful thing for the Dominion if King Edward could come. Hundreds of terns.whicli usually nest at the Rangitata River mouth, have nested in the upper reaches of the Orari River this year, and many eggs and young have attracted attention on the shingle of the river-bed there. It would seem that the change of location was made by some uncanny instinct, because the area at the Rangitata mouth, which is usually used for nesting, was washed away by a big flood recently, and if the birds had gone back to their customary grounds their eggs and young would have been washed out to sea. From the Wanui-o-Mata district, near Wellington, is reported a fight, in a pool of the stream, between a domestic duck and a shag, which was watched by two harrier hawks. A farmer’s daughter was compelled to intervene, after the duck had been considerably damaged. An interesting question is whether two harrier hawks on the bank of the stream were there as spectators or as probable participants in a meal. Trout are reported to be scarce in this lower part of the Wainui-o-Mata stream, and many shags are reported to be there.

In view of the present shortage of oranges it is interesting to consider the possibility of supplying the market from New Zealand plantations. The heaviest plantings of oranges are in the Kerikeri district, while there are also orchards in Auckland, particularly near Avondale, Tauranga, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay. At Kerikeri and Tauranga there are numerous orchards devoted entirely to citrus fruits. There are about 25,000 orange trees planted at Kerikeri, the majority of which have been planted from live to seven years, and this season’s crop is estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000 cases.

“We have many incapacitated and injured seamen still to help, and we have a large number of overseas boys and girls in New Zealand, vdio, although now men and women, are still our wards,” stated Air T. It. Lees, managing-trustee tor the F.'xk House Fund, in an address to the Palmerston North Citizens’ Lurch Club, yesterday. “The trustees,” ho added, “will not be satisfied until they have given the opportunity, to each one, strictly in proportion to their own efforts, to make their own indenendent start in life. Handing over Flock House station and the training establishment to the more powerful hands of the Government, who can make of if a much larger influence in New Zealand than we could hope to do, does not mean that the Seamen’s Fund goes .out of existence.”