NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11662, 29 October 1923, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

A Dunedin stamp merchant has received a communication from Berlin to the effect that, as the German currency it for ever 3umping up and down (mostly down), the Post Office has found it necessary to keep on printing new stamps; and, ae it is impossible to keep abreast of the' changes, the authorities have decided to abolish stamps and return to the method of seventyfive years ago—namely, handing in letters at the office and paying for them.

The Cape daisy, which is included in the noxious weed category, is at the present time a bright feature of the landscape. The yellow borders of various roads outside the town suggest that tho daisy has,-been spread by travelling stock, although, on the other hand, it is plentiful in the town and suburbs. Efforts to eradicate it- have not been particularly successful, and. like some of tire other hardy growths, it appears to have come to stay. The seed of Cape daisy is supposted to have been 'brought to New Zealand many years ago in a sailing vessel’s ballast

The borer controversy which started in Wanganui some time ago 'has extended afar, and amongst those who claimed that the insect would infest heart of totara was the Taupo Totara Timber Company.. They admitted that the worm might be found in green timber in the sap, but contended' that tihe live insect was unknown in dry totara in buildings. What is accepted as irrefutable evidence that borer does affect dry totara is the fact that some of the old Maori carvings in the Wanganui Museum—all heart of totara — show freely signs of the live worm, and' that evidence is available for anybody Who visits the institution.

“I deprecate the fear of being parochial,” said Mr O. Alpers, president of the Christchurch Ratepayers’ Association. “Don’t Ire afraid to be parochial. We smile at out friends in Auckland for tho display of that spirit, but let us be greatly daring and be pa-rcchial too. A man should first and foremost love his city, and if his heart is big enough he might love his country and his Empire. Why talk and humbug a-bouit- the brotherhood of man —it stops short at the niggjfer, and perhaps the Chinaman, although it might be that the latter is a, very good follow indeed. Love your city, your country: and your Ehnpire, and then you eh aII not be guilty of trying to follow heartbreaking platitudes, even though they are fathered by such great men as Abraham Lincoln. Most of tho great and good things which have come to mankind have been the product o’ •parochialism. Athens was parochial, and when it ceased to he so it ceased to be Athens. Rome, Florence, and Venice were the same.”

“Do not chew grass” is a wise dictum. A well-known athlete underwent medical treatment for several months, and had two operations on a mysterious swelling on a gland. The disease is -called actinomycosis, and is usually found in cattle, pigs, hoises, and even elephnnts and dogs. In the case mentioned, it was contracted through the habit of "hewing graßs while playing games, a common practice among sportsmen. In chcw ng grass one may consume a_parnsito, and there lies the danger. Formerly this unpleasant diseaso was known as “wooden tongue” or “big jaw.” owing to the large swellings which developed on the tongue, jaw or skin. Aotinomycosis is a chronic inflammatory diseaso producing pus, and is caused by a fungus, which in the case of a man attacks the jaw and neck, entering through diseased teeth or tonsils. A severe local infection is set up, which burrows its way into the tissues, distorting whit it traverses and stopping at nothing unless treated in time.

Bmotween 50 and 60 school children competed in the cow-judging competition held at the Carterton Show.

The big hydro-electric scheme of Southland, known as the Lake Monowai scheme, is expected to lie fully effective by March of next year. There is a million of loan money, raised under Government guarantee, invested in the venture, but already the results are said to be fully justifying the expense.

“The hotels in New Zealand are very fair; the roads are attractive because one has them to oneself; the scenery at remarkable.” commented an Overseas visitor at Gisborne. “The most charming feature of your country is, however, the way in which the people accept the strarger.”

Advice has been received by Mr H. Desborough, manager of the Wellington branch of Messrs Thomas Cook and Son, stating that the whole of the firm’s staff at Yokohama, with the exception of one who was on holiday, were killed in the earthquake. The staff numbered! 25.

In Timaru lost week a boy of seven or eight years fell into the" sea from the fishermen’s wharf and he would have been drowned hut for the mompt action of Andrew Tait, a fisherman (says the “Timaru Herald”). Tait jumped into the soa, fully dressed, with gum hoots on, and rescued the boy at risk of his own life.

“Banks Peninsula is a great pile of volcanic maternal,” stinted Mr L. J. Wild, in an address at the Luncheon Club at Palmerston North last week. “This was thrown up from the extinct crater which is now Lyttelton harbour. The original crater has been very much enlarged: by vuleanism in its Inst stages and by stream action.”

A curious double wedding took place recently in the City Hall, New York. A young man married his former stepmother, while his father, from whom she had obtained a divorce, married another women. The younger man’s wife will now call her former husband father, and she will have a step-mother of her own.

“My dear, I had just got the miiror,” was the absent-rmnded reply made by a well-dressed female witness to a solicitor in the Auckland Police Court. “Oh, don’t, please, call me ‘my dear’,” said counsel, who could not continue his cross-examination for some moments owing to the laughter in which the whole court joined.

One of the judges of the hack elasees at Carterton, Mr C. C. Roberts, of Ashburton, was quite enthusiastic over the quality of the horses shown. “The championship jumping,” he 6aid, “was magnificent, and would not be improved upon anywhere in tile Dominion. Carterton is indeed fortunate in having such high-class stuff competing in all the jumping events.”

A particularly dispicable theft is reported' from Burnside, near Dunedin. The house of Mr Morton F. Samson was destroyed by fire; but some personal belongings were saved from the flames, and taken outside and placed on the ground. Later it was found that some person had removed a gold watch, sovereign case, and chain, together with a medal won by Mr Samson in 1908 for shooting.

“White coal is the coming thing,” said Mr William Ritchie at the Power .Board meeting at Westmere. “The great mountain in the background with the snow on it will never go on strike, and it will always pour the water down. The coal miners on strike will be biting their naals when they see electric motors at work, and saying to themselves, ‘What fols we wede. ’ ”

Two Wellington gentlemen recently spout a day or two in the country and hud occasion to stay at a country inn, where the residents were of a somewhat varied type. When the morning tea appeared one of the travellers remarked: “Oh j I forgot to put my boots out.” To his astonishment he received the reply: “It’s just as well you didn’t. They might not have been here now.” Although coal is supposed to be a one-way freight on the* West Coast line (telegraphs a Christchurch correspondent), half a dozen trucks of Avoca coal have recently been railed from Canterbury to the Coast to supply the American dredge at Rimu Flat owing to the stoppage of mining on the West Coast. Tlie Government is reported to be building up its supplies at Otira with Newcastle coal.

Some excitement was caused in the Maiia.watu gorge the other day, when a wild pig, taken by surprise, was cut off from his track to the bush, and was chased along, by a motor lorry travelling towards Woodville. On being met by another car, travelling in the opposite direction, the pig turned into the scrub alongside the river, all hands in hot pursuit. The chase had to be abandoned, however, as the animal took to the water, and swam across the swollen Manawatu river.

A Wanganui wallpaper merchant stated to a “Chronicle” reporter that the British wallpaper trade had recaptured the business of New Zealand which had gone to the United States and Canada during the war period. During the war British manufacturers had been unable to hold tbeir connection owing to their factories being utilised for munition work, hut by reason of their better qualities, designs, and colourings they had again asserted their superiority. The Dominion has been reoognised as the heaviest purchaser of wallpaper, per capita, in the British Empire, and one of the wallpaper representatives, when visiting New Zealand, remarked upon the huge stocks carried by the trade. The British oustom was for retailers to conduct business on orders only.