A Thought For Today.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 84, 8 March 1945, Page 4

A Thought For Today.

The best men are not those who have waited for chances, but who have taken them—besieged the chance, conquered it, and made it their saboteur. —Chapin. Missing Deerstalkers. No trace has yet been found of the two young men, Patrick Roy Smith and James Radcliff, who are believed to have been drowned in the' Burke River while deersta'iking in South "Westland. Large Hailstones.

Hailstones as big as eggs fell in the Pukerau. district, in Southland, during an electrical storm recently. One farmer said that had a wind been blowing at the time many windows in the areas affected would have been smashed. Unwelcome Visitor.

A family living at Levels was visited by an albatross, but it outstayed its welcome when it threatened to attack its unwilling hosts. Notwithstanding the warning of the Ancient Mariner, as the bird had a wingspau ot 9lt 6m and seemed bent on doing harm, it was considered wiser to destroy it ana offer the carcase to the Christcliurch Museum. Strike Leader Loses Chairmanship. A poll for the chairmanship of the Auckland branch of the A.S.K.S resulted in the defeat by 10 votes ot Mr YV. Donovau, who was chairman ol the strike committee in the stoppage of work that recently disrupted the northern section of the railways foi about a week, says a Press Association message from Auckland. The successful candidate was Mr A. Walker. Big Wool Clip. Packed wool stores throughout the Dominion and the commissioning of all available storage space wherever it can be secured suggest a tremendous holdover of wool in New Zealand when the current appraisal season concludes. A prominent woolbroker in the south said that the 1944-45 wool clip estimated at just on 1,000,000 bales, including slipe wools, which represents an increase on last year's figures of approximately 50,000 bales. "Father of All Floods."

"We have alwavs had floods, but that of 1897 was the father of all Hoods," said Mr V. Smith, a member of the llangitikei County Council, addressing a meeting at Taihape in connection with the nomination of candidates for the llangitikei Catchment Board. Below the junction of the llangitikei and Moawhango Rivers, he said a settler planted a tree to mark the extreme height of the flood waters That mark had never been reached since in any flood.

Weraroa Escapees Found. Three boys who escaped from the Woraroa Boys' Training Farm on Tuesday night and removed a Go\crnment motor-car from Levin have been iound at Kongotca with the car in their possession, 'lhey were handed over to the child welfare qfficer at Fcilding. Another 'boy, who escaped earlier and who removed a car from Palmerston .North belonging to Mr G. C. Young, has been apprehended at Wanganui. He had Mr Young's car, which, it is stated, was equipped with other number nlates when recovered. February Road Fatalities. During February there were six fatalities in which motor-vehicles were , involved. Three lives were lost following collisions with telegraph poles and i another in a collision with a railway train. A bus collided with and killed : a pedestrian and the rider of a motorcycle was killed when he co.dded with i a lorry at an intersection. The railway*' crossing accident happened in Canter-" bury, but all the other accidents occurred in various parts of the North Island. The lowest death roll in any previous February was 10. This was the figure for both 1943 and 1944. Founding a Herd.

The breed of cows that would be best for the Otaki Sanatorium, and details connected with the founding and building of a herd of the desired kind, were matters discussed at a meeting of the Western Districts Joint Sanatorium Committee, held in Palmerston North. Mr W. E. Broderick (Wanganui), a member of a subcommittee which recently inspected the farm at the sanatorium, intimated that he had received a very fine offer of a young Ayrshire bull at considerably below its marketable value from a Wairarapa breeder. The Ayrshire breed finding support among committee members, it was left in Mr Broderick's hands to accept the offer and to secure half a dozen or so young heifers with which to found the future herd. While due regard was given to the fact that the present herd had been, in the words of Mr P. E Stainton (New Plymouth) "run on the same business-like lines as the rest of the Palmerston North Hospital Board's affairs," it was felt that a herd of one breed suitable to the climate and pasture, and to the needs of the institution, would giva the best all-round return.