LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 2564, 23 December 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Mahcno arrived at Sydney yesterday morning from Auckland. A Mfingatainoka resident has won the second prize, worth about £ISOO, in a recent Tasmanian consultation

The Town Clerk (Mr J. R. Hardier was last evening authorised to 9-dd ten per cent to all outstanding rates. A hotelkeeper on the Main Trunk line is evidently a humorist, for he has printed In big letters on the side of his hotel, "All Drink Free.” and In very small letters underneath, “from adulteration."

Mr Ivan O’Meara, the Gisborne wireless amateur , who is noted for his long-distance achievements, has added to the list of the countries he has communicated with by getting in touch with an amateur In Mexico.

The Wairarapa Automobile Association has received advice from the district engineer, Public Works DG J partment, that the Rimutaka road is now open to car traffic, a’nd will be open for heavy traffic to-morrow morning.

The Marino Department advises that the adjourned inquiry Into the circumstances In which the steamer Pakeha struck an obstacle in the channel at Bluff on her last voyage to New Zealand will be resumed at Invercargill on January 12. Serious allegations haVe been made against the Raetihi hospital by the the parents of a child which died In the institution after four operations for appendicitis. They allege that the child did not receive proper attention, and was given most Unsuitable diet. The members of the board took a serious view of the matter and ordered an urgent inquiry. A bare pass in the matriculation examination was not enough to warrant a boy or a girl going to a university college (said Professor Boyd Wilson, at Wellington). He urged parents to take thought before sending the children to a university course for which they were not fitted. It would bo far better to keep them another two years at the secondary school.

Waipukurau at present leads the way in the matter of champion mean man, but Palmerston North is claiming pride of place for flrst-c’ass honours in absent-mindedness. Yesterday morning, when the forenoon Auckland-Wellington express steamed in, the mail van headed a line of sixteen carriages, the guard’s domicile bringing up the rear. A Palmerstonian with a letter to post waved a greeting to a postal acquaintance as the train flashed past mid-station, and then calmly walked, back to the guard’s van with the object of mailing the letter. Nearly a quarter of a mile was involved in the journey to complete the task. “How can an old woman expect to run a lolly shop?’’ asked Mr F. K. Hunt S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland during the hearing of a case in which ah elderly person made allegations of misrepresentation of a shop near the picture theatre at Mount Albert, which she bought last May (reports the “Star"). Plaintiff ■told the Magistrate that she had been out in New Zealand for three years, and previous to that had experience of shopkeeping in Lancashire. "You waht a pretty girl to run that show,” remarked Mr Hunt. This was defendant’s contention also. Plaintiff had bought the shop, stock and fittings for £375, but had lost heavily and was compelled to sacrifice the business for £125, having been unable to pay two promisory hotes of ■£so and a further sum of £l5O due to defendant. On the \ r ery threshold of the holiday season come price concessions on the smartest hats at The Rosco Millinery Salon. Showing now a particularly attractice line in tagel and klko straw. Pretty trimmings take the form of scarves, georgette and crepe de chene. 2G/9„ 27/6, 29/6 and 32/6 net cash.