NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11783, 20 March 1924, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

A competitor at Trentham for the National ’Rifle Association’s meeting is Colonel E. R. Smith, who as a captain in the Dunedin City Guards, won the belt as far back as 1894. Colonel Smith has been a competitor at Trentham for over forty years. He is one of the association’s vioe-presidents.

A new railway regulation came into operation on Monday requiring guards to wave a green flag in addition to blowing a whistle as a signal to the emginedriver to start tihe train. This is following a praertioe on the lines in Great Britain. The flag is a small one, carried in the breast pooket ef the guard’s uniform ooat. A remarkable example of the length of the law’s arm was given at the Te Kuiti Magistrate’s Court when a man was brought up in a liquor case, the original offenoe having been committed in 1909 (says the “Taranaki Daily News”). At that time the present senior-sergeant of police at Hamilton was a constable at Te Kuiti, and when, recently he saw the accused man at the Hamilton railway station he reoognised him as the individual who had been “wanted” for 24 years. The original informations, yellow with age, were produced in court, when the case was formally adjourned. It is believed to constitute a record for the Dominion. A devout professor in the United States had the reputation of interpreting Scripture with literal exactitude. If it was in Holy Writ then It was so. That was his simple rule, explained Dr. F. P. Emerson, of Boston, at the Auckland Rotary Club’s luncheon yesterday. Some students tested the professor almost to the point of doubt. They pasted together some printed quotations from the Bible, which were made to read as a continuous narrative. The story was that Moses took unto himself n wife made of gopher wood, 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 80, cubits in height, and pitched within and without witn pitch. This rather disconcerted the professor, but after momentary reflection, he said: “It just shows that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.” A man named John Le Quesne had a thrilling experience on a recent evening in the Hawke’s Bay district. He was mustering sheep in the Brookfields area, when the rising of the waters made him abandon his oar and climb one of the big poplar trees which are so numerous on many of the properties there. The continued increase in the depth of the water prompted Mr Le'Quesne to clamber from one tree to another, and he travelled 200 yards in this fashion, but when he got to tbo end of the row of trees the water was still too deep to wade in. He removed his clothing and dived into the water, and ultimately reached higher land and set out for help. When he reached Mr Lisette’s residence he was welcomed and given dry clothes and something to eat, and was later able to proceed homo. H© was in the water and trees for over three hours.

The Mayor of Mastertou has suggested that the works committee should schedule a list of urgent works and put a proposal before the ratepayers for a loan of £IO,OOO to £15,000.

Included in the immigrants who arrived on the lonic at Auckland are 43 domestics under the charge of Miss Almadale, and there are also eight public school boys who have been placed on farms in the Dominion. Those for ports south of Auckland will probably leave there by special train last evening, half an hour after the departure of the Main Trunk express.

The ancient friendly rivaliy between the various colleges for supremacy in games will receive another fillip to-morrow, when a party of boys from St. Andrew’s Oofleee, Christchurch, will arrive in Wellington by the ferry steamer Maori for the pur pose of meeting teams from Scots College in cricket and tennis. The visit will extend until Saturday evening, when the lads from the southern college will return home.

There is very little inquiry for dairying land just now along the coast (says the “Feilding Star”). The general buyer will not pay the prices asked, for they are often above the real productive value of the land. Consequently, little business is being transacted. At the same time, the rich land has ■reached a fair basis and a well-balanced farm, free from disadvantges can be had for £BO per aore. Such properties, however, are not numerous and aTe difficult to acquire.

Gas pipes in Auckland suffer in varying degress in depreciation of quality, according to the nature of the soil in whioh they are laid. Mr Jas. Lowe, secretary of the Auckland Gas Company, told the Assessment Court that he had known old pipes to be taken up which oould be cut with a knife. Others, laid in volcanic soil, were liable to pitting. He had seen pipes taken up from Great North road that were pitted into very bad hole 6. Another cause of deterioration, since the advent of electric lines, was electrolysis.

While motoring through to the West Coast from Nelson on Sunday the car in which Viscount Jellicoe was travelling got stuok near Inangahua Junction. Rain was falling heavily at the time, and the Governor-General, picking up a bag of apples and some sweets, paid a call to a nearby settler’s residence (Mr Delaney), introducing himself at the back door. Thereafter, for the next hour, while awaiting the arrival of another oar to remove his ear from the mud, His Excellency amused himself with the Delaney children, to their unbounded delight.