LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Northern Advocate, 9 February 1920, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The public are requested to take notice that picture theatre advertisements are appearing on page 3 of this is<me A <irst-offending native, charged with drunkenness before Messrs Chissell and Hardy, J.P.s, this morning, was convicted and discharged, and a prohibition order issued against him. The committee of th e Swimming Club met durin S the week-end and arranged various details as to punts, temporary bridges, tickets, etc. Co-n----plimentary tickets are to be issued to soldiers at the Whangarei Hospital and the Kamo Sanatorium. The tickets will be on sale in the streets by boys. The committee are leaving no stoae unturned to make the function of next Thursday a great success. Entrants for the various events are desired to facilitate the work of the officers by early bookings. A single man named Weston, an electrician employed by the Telegraph Department, met with a rather serious accident. He. was riding a motor cycle, with a companion in a side car, along the Portland Road, on Saturday evening, when the machine, in taking a sharp declivity, struck a ston e and capsized. Weston sustained concussion of the brain, and was brought into the Whangarei Hospital, and this morning was reported to be recovering. His companion was only shaken by the fall.

The Swimming Club's arrangements for provisional. bridges across the Mair Pool, for the approaching carnival, suggest the urgent need fo* proceeding with a permanent stru: ture or structures across the stream. An idea has been mooted that tw> bridges would make a most enjoyable round trip for visitors to the park. Various plans have been suggested for such a bridge or bridges. . A wooden structure on cement piles, a suspension bridge, and a six-feet wide on top solid concrete bridge, with a locking gate, in the centre, have beon advocated, and each possesses failures of attractiveness and utility.

The fishing has been above the average this year (says the "Luminary")—over 230 schnapper were caught in a few hours recently Hnefishing from launch. Four Poverty Bay sheep farmers were here for ten days thoroughly enjoying good sport, as they were all "rod fishers." The largest fish caught was a mako shark (2801bs), and a kingfish turned the scales at 801bs. Several makos wer<> caught, all giving good sport, and many kingfish. Yesterday a visiting aviator and another caught eight kingfish, averagong 471bs, two hnpuka over COlbs, two schnapper wenr over 151bs, and a number of smaller ones. Four large fish were lost as they broke the wire traces,

The Bay of Islands Dairy Co. is > issuing to its suppliers a fuurther bonus of Id per lb, which will amount to abJUt £1000, and will be paid ou; on th tl 1918-1919 season's supply,

A Ratepayers' Association has beei formed at Maromaku, with Mr W. FBoese as chairman and secretary. One of the first matters to come un der the association's deliberation will be the £50Q0 loan money allocated to th e Rama Rama Valley roads.

Seattle, in th c United States of America, is building what the shipping authorities declare will be the largest commercial pier in the world The enterprise will cost £500,000, and the pier will be ready for use by May I st Eleven ocean-going vessels w'll be able to dock at one time along the pier.

A rather unusual figured in !h<' profit and loss account of the Canterbury Industrial Society, Ltd At th d annual meeting a member asked for an explanation of the entry, "Burglary account, £40/' and on the credit side, that of "Received conscience money, £25." The president (Mr H Hunter) replied that the st n-e had unfortunately ben brokn into, and the large sum of £40 stolen. Some time later, a letter had been received enclosing £25 ''conscience money," with a foot-note stating that the balance would be sent later. "However," said Mr Hunter, "that was tha last heard of it." (Laughter). "Suppose we refer the matter to the Burglars' Union," suggested a member.

By sounding with sound waves nstead of a steel cable a Frenchman has baen able to determine the depth of the ocean in a few seconds, whore the ordinary process requires minutes *nd hours. In contrast to the usual equipment of cable, reels, and donkey engine, he equips simply with a quantity of high explosive, a microphone, and a chronometer. Detonating a charge of explosive in the wake of his moving vessel, ho hears in his microphonia both the noise of the detonation and the echo produced by reflection from the bottom. Reading the time interval from the chronometer, and knowing the speed of sound in water, he is able to calculate the ocean's depth at that point. Tests have shown that the method yields sufi> 'eientJy accurate results for practical purposes. A comedy occurred in the London Divorce Court before Mr Justice Hill. A case had been called on, Hill against Hill, a wife's suit for judicial separation. The respondent presented himself to conduct his own case. As 1 counsel proceeded in the opening of petitioner's case, the respondent-: face lengthened, until at last he exclainvd: "I never heard such a story. This isn't my case at all." It then appeared that there was another case of Hill v. Hill for judicial separation, which had not yet come into the list, and the counsel and his client in that case happened t 0 be in the building, and came in t 0 have their case tried. Counsel was a little hard to convince. "May I take it," said he to the re spondent, "that you are Mr Hill, and the Christian names are So-and-so?" "You may take it," the respondent replied angrily, amid much laughter, , "that the Christian names are nothing of the kind, and you are lost! lost, sir! among the Hills."

The beneficial effect of the recent rains in parts of Australia were described by Mr E. A. Shrimpton, chief telegraph engineer, who has returned from a business trip to Australia, visiting - Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, and some of the places in between. He left the express at Albury, and went into the country for a distance of 100 miles or so by motor, en route to Melbourne. The country then was burnt up. There was not a blad.3 of grass as far as the eye could see, and consequently the country was quit o desolate and bare of a.iy. living thing. He then went on to Melbourne and Adelaide, a matter oi eight days' absence, and, returning %o the Albury district, found that some, fairy hand had changed tho whole aspect of the country. The good rains had fallen in the meantime, and in every direction the eye rested on endlers miles of the greenest gra-s imaginable.

One of the strangest occupations for women (says the San Francisco correspondent of the Sunday Express) is that of professional winotaster, a posj held by Mile. Collinere, a you.')g French gidl, who earns about £5000 a year in California. She is a teetotaller, strange as it may seem. She cares nothing for wine, and never swallows it; the testing is all dona by taste in the mouth. If she were to drink wine she would lose her sutbl>' magic or taste, which is fine and so marvellously developed that sne can discern from the firsitaste of wine, just where the grapes grew from which it was made — [whether they were raised in California or in the vineyards of France or ■ Germany or elsewhere. She can even tell the vineyards in which the grapes grew, and whether they were raised on a hillside or in a valley. She can instantly detect an adulteration oi any sort, or if there is a blend, and if so, of what wines. She has oftsn found so-called wines with not a particle of grape juice in them, being made up of of cheap alcohol, sug*r } dyes and cheap fruit juices. Mile. Collintre ran tell the age of a wine almost of a day; whether it crossed the sea or has been moved often and for long distances. She never eats chocolates, rich puddings, pastry, : raw onions, lemon?, curry, or pineapple. She uses no salt, does not drink tea or eoft'e.e, and lives on the simplest and most wholesome diet. She gets her reward for all this asceticism in two ways, for not only does "t preserve her wonderful taste, but it gives her a marvellous coiruplexion.