NEWS IN BRIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 22

NEWS IN BRIEF

A pigeon message from Mayor Island states that Mr C. T. Young, of Ceylon, fishing from the launch Naomi, captured seven swordfish in three days. The weights ranged from 2841 b to 4231 b. “I have never seen the country looking so well,” said a settler from the Rua Roa district to a representative of the Dannevirke Evening News the other morning, “The recent rain has had a wonderfully beneficial effect on pastures, and the milk supply to the local factory was keeping up remarkably well,” he added. For a Birthday Present our shop is a veritable gift depot:—Pure Silk Stockings, from 5s lid; Boxes of Embroidered Handkerchiefs, from 4s lid; Ladies’ Choice Handle Umbrellas, 6s lid; beautifully finished Morocco Handbags, 10s 6d; Rich Silk Scarves, 3s lid. —T. Ross, 130 Princes street... “ There is nothing more pathetic, I think, than to see a middle-aged man get on his feet to make a public speech and then fail hopelessly to do himself justice. I hope none of you here will ever fail in that way, and that you will, while you are young, take every opportunity _to learn to express yourselves in public," said the president (Mr H. A. C. North) speaking at the annual meeting of the Christchurch Accountant Students’ Society. The fact that a number of cows had died as a result of lupin poisoning recently was mentioned by the inspector (Mr D. R. Barron) at a meeting of the Manawatu Rabbit Board. He said that hitherto lupin had been regarded as a harmless noxious weed, but of late it had been discovered that on poor land some cows had died through eating the leaves. Come and see our Show To-night. We are open till 9 o’clock Friday nights.— Scoullar and Chisholm, Limited... A Christchurch motorist who made the journey to Timaru during the weekend saw many men carrying their swags (says the Sun)., Some of those walking from place to place looking for work were of a distinctly different type from the usual swagger. Several of them were young men, and in two cases golf clubs protruded from the bundle of clothes and sleeping gear the young swaggers carried.

Brown top seed, formerly a very profitable product for farmers in the Whangarei district, and which at one time sold for as much as 4s per lb, is a drug on the market at present, and is only worth as much in pence as it was in shillings a few years ago (says the Northern Advocate). Many fields in Waipu have not been gleaned. Grandism (1294): Closed all day tomorrow (Good Friday). Place your order before noon for delivery to your home to-day...

“Do you know anything about motor cycles? ” a witness was asked in the Supreme Court -the other day. “ I know at least when they are going fast and 1 know when they are going slow,” was the cautious response. “Did you ever see one going slow?” asked Mr Justice Herdman, in some surprise. The witness admitted that it was very seldom indeed that he had seen such a happening. In conversation with a Manawatu Evening Standard reporter, the ranger to the Wellington Acclimatisation' Society stated that several stags’ heads had been secured this season by hunters, a particularly fine one falling to the rifle of Mr J. Liggins, of Tokomaru. The head in question was' a 15-pointer with antlers 84 inches in length and with a spread of 44 inches. It was exceptional to find such a magnificent type in the back country in the neighbourhood of Tokomaru.

. Because their performance and reliability are taking motorists ’in all parts of the country by storm, do not neglect your opportunity to investigate the claims of India Super Tyres. Look *or the Red Ring. Agents: The Otago Farmers/.. A brotherly feeling towards the boy who has a constructive bent was confessed by Mr Justice Blair, when speaking at the annual meeting of the Boys’ Institute in Wellington a few nights ago. “ Things like knocking a ball around with a golf stick don’t appeal to me at all,” he said, “ but I do like to feel at the end of a Saturday afternoon that I have made something that wasn’t there before.— (Applause.) Probably that is some deficiency in my make-up, but I do appreciate the joy a boy gets in making things with his hands.”

Just as “Big Ben” finished booming in the New Year on January 1, an unexpected visitor knocked at the door of No. 10 Downing street, where Mr Ramsay MacDonald was entertaining some friends. The caller explained that he wished to carry out the “ first-foot-ing” custom which is still observed in the North of England and Scotland, where it is the tradition that if the first person to cross the threshold in the New Year is a dark man he will bring good luck. The Prime Minister, when told that a “ dark man ” had called, gave orders for him to be admitted. The “ first-footer ” was the Maharajah of Alwar, who had heard of the Scottish custom, and had decided to surprise the Prime Minister. He handed Mr MacDonald a New Year’s gift. There was a delicate irony in the situation at a public dinner in London recently, when the Minister of Transport, Mr Morrison, narrowly escaped being held up by a new talk-control machine, says the Sunday Times. This contrivance, after a speaker has been on his feet for an agreed time, intimates by a red light that it is time for him to sit down again. It looks as if the long speech were doomed. No more will the gentleman “ unaccustomed to public speaking ” insist on practising for half an hour. No more shall we listen with set faces to the story about the Aberdonian and the tag from Horace. It only remains to devise a machine by which the tenor of the speech could be regulated. Why not a hooter to warn against an imminent chestnut, a siren deploring inaudibility, and a maroon to indicate that, like Queen Victoria, the audience is not amused!

A suggestion has been made by th» chairman of the Napier Commission (Mr . J. S. Barton) that power should be given the court to examine the details of any contract that was let for work as a result of the earthquake to see if the charge was reasonable or inordinate ' all above a reasonable cost to be disallowed and recovered by the maker of the contract (states the Telegraph). There have been a number of instances where very large profits have been made by contractors working in the earthquake 'area, and complaints have been received by the commission from the sufferers. It was reported recently that a onelegged boy had won a high jumping event at the Whangarei High School sports. The Marlborough Express reports that a similar example of courage and keenness overcoming a physical disability was provided at the Marlborough College sports, when a lad named Eric Clifford, who had lost a foot in a mowing machine accident, won the junior high jump. He cleared a height of 3ft 9|in, and this, plus his handicap of Gin, won him the event. “New Autumn and Winter goods are now on view at Gray’s Big Store, Milton.”. . Two men finished a whole-hearted argument on Saturday afternoon more or less through a plate glass window in Ridgway street. Wanganui (states the Chronicle). There may not have been very much science about the fight, but enthusiasm was certainly not wanting. Evidently the pace set by one was on the fast side for the other, so he used the “Chancery” hold so well-known to schoolboys. Firmly locked together, the two charged across the footpath, tripped, and went head-first through the window. The new unbreakable glass concerning which meagre reports have already been published, consists of thin glass sheets with a product of acetone pressed between them. The acetone prevents the glass from splintering when it is struck. A special bullet-proof form has lately been tested in France. Revolver and rifle bullets merely struck flakes from the sur- : face, and the test was so impressive that it is now planned to use glass for windows of tanks and for gunshields. The invention is a British one, but the glass is receiving wider publicity in France than it did in England, presumably because the military, authorities did not hesitate to give it high recommendations. All British! The coffees and chicory used in the “Bourbon” brand are all Empire products. Blended by A. Durie and Co., coffee specialists, 32 Octagon, Dunedin. “Bourbon” for breakfast!.. “ It seems strange, in view of aeroplane accidents, that some means are not adopted of notifying searchers of the scene of the mishap ” (writes a correspondent in the Wellington Evening Post). “ Thera are certain chemicals which, when _ combined, are capable of creating and emitting a dense black smoke, and when released could, I should think, be seen many milea from the air. The carrying of such chemicals should not be much of a burden, to the machines’ carrying capacity.” The sands near the mouth of the Waimakariri River nearly claimed another car last Sunday evening. A motorist who was travelling along the new beach drive stopped his car on the wet sand and almost instantly the vehicle began to sink. He tried to drive out, but the rear wheels had sunk over the hubs. Four draught horses were required to pull the car out. An experienced motorist states that the drive is dangerous to drivers who do not .know' the beach, because they would stop, and if they were not careful their cars would sink in the sand. We are selling Penfold’s port wine at 4s per bottle, house whisky lls, pints 6s; cash with order. Prince of Wales Hotel. C. Hinchcliff, proprietor... Owing to the fact that some local sawmillers have, found it necessary to close down their mills there is a large number of men and youths out of work in the distrist (reports the Tuatapere correspondent of the Southland Times). At the end of last week 27 registered as unemployed, and it is stated that Messrs Hamilton’and Co.’s Tuatapere mill is also to close down. For some time the employees at Messrs Kilkelly Bros.’ Alton mill have been working only three days a week, and those' at Messrs Birch and Co.’s mill four days a week. Messrs Guthrie Bros, have closed their mill in the meantime, and unless orders are forthcoming it is likely that other owners will follow suit. Meat! Meat! Meat! Country clients. Sides of good mutton, delivered to busesor consigned by rail; per lb heavy, mutton and 2d per lb light-weight mutton; dripping 4lb for Is; lamb 7s 6d per. side; rolls of bqcon IOJd per lb, i rolls lid per lb. Cash with orders.—Bartons... . . The disappearance of 15 racing pigeons owned by an Onehunga boy resulted in the arrest of a youth, aged 19, on a charge of stealing the pigeons. A constable was sent to Pakuranga, where the Auckland Gun Club was holding a shoot, and found the stolen birds in a crate. They had been sold to the club, and the timely arrival of the constable prevented the birds being , shot. The accused, who was fined £4, and ordered to pay 25s costs, said he had purchased the pigeons at 5.30 a.m. from a stranger in the street. Special showing of autumn goods in all departments. Call and see the latest m coats, frocks, knitted goods, underclothing, and hats. All at special prices. Your inspection invited. —The Mosgiel Warehouse, A. F. Cheyne and C 0....A bull attacked and injured Mr H. Woodroofe, a farmer, ’in the Manawatu district, when he entered a paddock where the animal was grazing. The bull, which was dehorned, knocked Mr Woodroofe down and rolled him over until he reached a fence. It might have killed him, for he was unconscious, had not Mrs Woodroofe come upon the scene. Mrs Woodroofe set dogs on to the bull and managed to drag her husband through the fence to safety. He will be confined to his bed for a considerable time. Men’s working shirts, sizes 14J to 17, striped “Tiger Twist” or plain grey “Oliver Twist,” 7s lid. Khaki Veldt, 8s 6d. Posted anywhere for cash.— Kilroy and Sutherland, Ltd.. 192 Princes street, Dunedin... Though the winter, with its customary large increase in library membership, has not yet started, March figures at the Canterbury Public Library show a big in crease over February’s (says the Christchurch Sun). Commenting on this, the librarian (Mr E. J. Bell) said that reports from England and South Africa showed that waves of unemployment had been followed by increased membership at the public libraries. This was explained by the fact that many persons, having had their incomes reduced, had been forced to borrow books where previously they had bought them, and, further, by the fact that many unemployed persons availed themselves of their enforced idleness to read more. , £3OOO wanted in 15 days. Big Slaughter Sale at The “Ascot,” corner Princes and Rattray streets. All-wool Worsted Suit, £6 6s; now 69s 6d. Sports Coats, now 19s 6d; Poplin Shirts, 10s 6d; now 6s lid, all sizes. Mail orders guaranteed... The gradual return to normal conditions in Napier is very apparent at night time, when hundreds of houses may be observed casting cheering rays of light on the outer darkness, and to a considerable extent relieving the feeling of dreariness which ruled after the earthquake (says the Telegraph) . During those first few weeks, to approach Napier at night time, with almost unrelieved darkness in place of the thousands of lights which glimmered cheerfully before, was to gam some impression of the desolation amid which those who stayed behind were forced to live. Now, however, the scene has again become transformed, and each day more and more of the old lights, extinguished for a while by the great upheaval, may be observed. Grandism (1295); Easter Saturday, secure your supplies for Easter Monday to-day. Grand Hotel quality gives that extra touch of pleasure... Colonel Lawrence is still the bogey man of Turkey. In the course of a recent treason trial one of the imprisoned sheiks in a written statement described his relations with Colonel Lawrence, and others of the prisoners declared that they expected help from British warships. These stories (according to a correspondent of The Times) have given rise to fantastic stories of the activities of Lawrence, and the newspapers even suggest that his agents are still at work stirring up trouble in Turkey. Lawrence, of course, is in the meantime doing his best to keep out of the world of politics, but no doubt the very fact that be is trying to hide himself from the publicists creates an atmosphere of mystery. No matter where I roam, On land or sea, or foam, Every morn when I awaken I like my eggs and Hitchon’s bacon.. c