GENERAL NEWS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3494, 2 November 1926, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS

It is notified in another column that all butchers' shops, in order to comply with awards conditions will close on Wednesday next at 11 a.m. and on Thursday at 9 a.m.

"I’m your guest to-day and you have invited me, and I want you newspaper men to make a note of this,” said Gipsy Smith at the citizen’s luncheon at the Christchurch Y.M.C.A., the other day with a glance at the Press table. “If you don’t know what is good breeding I do. I’m your guest, and although only a Gipsy boy. I expect proper treatment.”

Swaggers laboriously toiling along the dusty highways with a heavy pack up are common sights on the main arterial roads in central Hawke's Bay just now. “The swaggers’ hotel,” a disused woolshod, in the neighbourhood of the Orouwharo station on the Takapau plains; is said to be a popular home for the tourists, and a regular colony is reported to spend the night in this locally famous resting place.

“I say It is possible to. keep black* berry off your land by gruDDif.g,* declared a farmer at Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, in the course of a discussion at the Government experimental plot last Saturday. “Once you get it down, you can grub the seedlings out with a hoe as you go round your sheep, without bending your back.” The Minister, Hon. O. J. Hawken, remarked that a hoe that could bo operated from horse-back would be highly popular.

A Taumarunui business man, who is worried, about the amount of debts on his books is sending the following letter to some of his defaulting clients —“Sir. —Here is a pin. It is not an ordinary, common or garden pin, but a really and truly magic pin. It will relievo you and us of bother and worry if you use it to attach a cheque to this letter in payment of the statement enclosed. Please hurry, for we want to use the magic pin on another fellow.' ’

When a service car was returning from Wanganui to Marton, late on Friday night, it ran off the road near Wangaehu ,and jolted over a bank to a lower level. Though it did not capsize ,it bounced about so violently that the windscreen was shattered, and a passenger in the back seat was severely cut across the top of the head by the* overhead stay of the hood. He was brought into town for medical treatment, and the wound was stitched.

Much amusement was apparent among Wanganui cricketers on Saturday afternoon when it became generally known that instructions had been issued by the Reserves Committee of the City Council that cricketers must not wear spiked boots while practising at the net during the week. Some players took the instructions too literally and while fielding the ball on Saturday afternoon took dives at the ground which would have done credit to the best exponents of fancy diving.

A sum of £22 5s lOd wag taken In admission fees at the New Plymouth public baths during the month of October, compared with £24 13s 9d in October, 1925. Last month 295 children and 288 adits paid for admission, 81 people made use of tho hot salt water baths ,and 52 season tickets were Issued. The slight decrease in revenue, In comparison with that received in October of last year, is attributed to tho inclement weather prevailing throughout the greater part of last month.

There Is a shortage of domestic labour for service in the country dls r tricts of Otago. A Dunedin employment agent states he could place 30 domestic workers ir. the country at a minute’s notice, but he found it impossible to get girls to leave the town. The wages range round about 32s 6d a week, but although a certain type of girl is occasionally placed she does not usually hold the position long before town life beckons to her again. •'Country domestics are at a premium,” the labour agent stated.

Havlng before him a meeting of retailers who had met to discuss community lighting on Friday evening, the Mayor of Hastings (Mr. G. A. Maddison) took the opportunity at the end of the discussion to express his opinion that the retailors’ weekly half-holiday ,now observed on Wednesday, should be changed to Thursday or Friday. We had often felt, he said, that the local half-holiday should not be held on a stock-sale day ,a happening that was avoided in Palmerston North and in other stock marketing towns. It was forcing people to go elsewhere to do their shopping.

Consternation was caused in Cambridge last Wednesday by the discovery that a pupil of the District High School had found a number or detonators and distributed them to classmates, the children being Innocent of the deadly nature of the small gifts. Investigation resulted in the recovery of 18 detonators. One lad was using one as a pencil cover. Another boy had been chewing a detonator, the case showing unmistakable teeth marks. Warnings were promptly issued. Many serious accidents have occurred from time to time through detonators being exploded. In most cases the accidents have happened from gross carelessness.

An endeavour is being made t< form a branch of the Degion of Frontiersmen in Palmerston North and a meeting to that end will be hold in the Commerce Buildings on Thursday evening.

Show-week Store hours at The C. M. Boss Co. Uil's this week will bo as follows: Open all day Wednesday as usual, close Thursday aftcinoot. Cor the Show, late night Friday and closed Saturday from 1 p.m. for statutory half-holiday. See the glorious array of voiles whilst in town an unequalled selection and most outstanding value.

The amounts collected by the Eketahuna County and Borough Councils respectively for the half-yearly returns of heavy traffic fees were £4G 18s Od and £B9 Ss 6d. The amounts distributed to the two Eketahuna institutions by the Masterton County Council as distributing authority is; County, £174 ISs 4d; Borough, £BO 14s lid.

This evening the Girls’ Lunch Club will entertain the patients at the public hospital with a varied programme contributed to by the following: Misses Mann, Blookley, M. Smith, E. Gunter, G. Seifert, Taylor, Rogerson, Stiles. Thornley, Teale, J. Mawhinney, V. Mitchell and Howley. Trios will be rendered by the Rosen family and the Misses McKenzie, Howley and Muirhead, while Mr. Bert Pizzey will provide the humour.