GENERNL NEWS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 664, 13 March 1909, Page 8

GENERNL NEWS.

It happened quite recently that a resident pastoralist was worried by the misbehaviour of one of his dogs and decided to destroy it, when «, passing di'over saved its life by accepting it as a gift. On the following afternoon an offer of £l3 was made to the new owner by another who was intimately acquainted with the dog's character, and a quick exchange resulted. The transaction' proved that it is not always wise to hang a dog when he get 3 a bad name Hawera Star.

A grim story—which in a less intelli-. gent age (says the London Christian World) would have been taken as a record of Divine vengeance—comes from the seat of the earthquake. The whole staff of the comic paper, il Telefono, were crushed to death at Messina. In the issue of the paper on Christmas Eve ribald fun was made of the religious observance of the season, and an atrocious parody of a popular Christmas hymn was printed. Strangely enough—in the light of subsequent events—the hymn concluded wifcth a mocking prayer to the " Bambino "—the Christ-child—to send a mighty earthquake! An extraordinary example of Gerinan military discipline, which occurred on Christmas Eve near Bronikowen, is attracting public attention (says,tire Berlin correspondent of the Daily Express). Herr Arthur Kriede, a wealthy landowner, of Bronikowea, was skating on Sensburg Lake, when the ice broke and Hie fell through into the water. A soldier was doing sentry duty close at hand, and Kriede shouted to the soldier for help, and begged him to. render assistance. Military regulations, however, prohibit a soldier doing sentry duty from leaving Ins post under any circumstances whatever. As this particular soldier could not render assistance to Kriede without leaving his post and thereby infringing military regulations, he remained Viivre lie was and watched Kriede drown before his eyes. There were sevttal long poles lying near the spot, and the soldier need only have walked to the bank of the lake and held out one of the poles to the drowning man to effect his rescue.

Ninety out oi a hundred houses in Wellington are' "worm-eaten" to som? extent, gays a local architect. The trail of the borer is over them, and the man who would be quite free from its depredations must build his hquse of jarrah, or some similar hardwood, if it is to be of timber, and to do that he must be a millionaire. The borer has no respect for mansions. Ten yeare ago it was discovered, with a shock, that Die was attacking Government House, and had actually commenced his depredations in the best room of the residence, upon line heart rimu timber, which was then regarded as impregnable to' his assault 6. Yet the borer is a contemptible enemy, so slow in his operations that Government House will probably see out this Parliament, if it does not last much longer, and' eo weak that his march can be delayed'for years by the simplest of expedients. The architect before quoted states that many years ago, after be had built a house for himself of good rimu, he was disturbed to find half-a-dozen oi the borers' holes in some planks of the staircase. He watched'them, but the number of holes did not increase, and has not done so to this day._ The explanation probably is that this timber had been in contact with affected timber, but that the borers which got into the wood before it was removed and built into the staircase were not sufficiently numerous to thrive and multiply, and died out without' doing further damage. But a few years later.the architect discovered traces of the borer in his bathroom. Week by week, tjhe number of Small boles increased! at a surprising rate; each morning he would see little piles ,of sawdust* alongside new holes, and every few days a mew board would ecme within, the'area of invasion. He therefore soaked the affecte'd boards' thoroughly with kerosene; wfrh the result that not another hole appeared for the next five years. Then ijegaii a renewal of the boring,-which he promptly checked for another period of several years by a repetition of the soaking. He is confident that, if he remained, to watch the insect, it would not prevail against the house i'or forty years to come.—Dominion,