NEWS IN BRIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23004, 6 October 1936, Page 18

NEWS IN BRIEF

In the year 1902 Mr C. S. Solomon, now of Whangarei, but then resident in London, was presented with a fountain pen. The pen has been in constant use ever since, sometimes for seven or eight hours at a-stretch, and last month Mr Solomon sent Home for a second nib! ••;•'• ' '■ ,' The recently-demolished totahsator at the Ashburton racecourse has provided material for a hut being built by an Ashburton angler. One hut, at present under construction at. the mouth of the Rangitata River, with many windows and the two words, "In" or "Out" at each window, has many of the local children puzzled Adults, however, have no doubts about the origin of the material. For the dark mornings we have alarm clocks from 8s 6d.—Peter Dick, jewellers and opticians, 488 Moray place, Dunedin, C. 1... The way in which the French eat strawberries is told by a former Aucklander, Mr Kenneth Lawson, in a letter from Lyons. The summer in France has been very wet, he says, and so there, is not likely to be much fruit. Strawberries, however, have been very cheap. "I can tell you I eat some!" writes Mr Lawson. "We don't eat them with cream* here (though I do sometimes), but the French take 21b of strawberries., put them in a big dish, and cover them with sweet, red wine and a little rum. They're nice like that." Grandism .(3002): The finest in quality Wines and . Spirits, imported direct from the world's markets by the Grand Hotel, Dunedin...

Sympathetic interest in the fate of the. old mill was displayed by Mount Eden Borough Council members at a meeting the other night, when correspondence was discussed dealing with a protest of the owner, Mr J. Partington, against the occupation of the site by a metropolitan fire station. Speakers referred to the sentiment attached to the old mill as an ancient landmark, and all 10 members, except the Mayor, Mr T. M'Nab, supported a motion that it should be retained by the city for all time. The Mayor held that it was no concern of the Borough Council, but of the City Council and Fire Board.

Hampers of assorted liquors as required by customers either in town or country promptly despatched to order by W. Crossan, the " Waterloo," Caversham...

Business people returning to their homes in Auckland were provided with a novel form of entertainment the other afternoon when a large white boar, which was being brought into the city from the Westfield stock sale on a motor truck, broke through the railings at the end of the vehicle and escaped on to the roadway near the intersection of Symonds street and Khyber Pass. An eager crowd soon assembled when efforts were made to catch the pig. * For the best part of half an hour it kept its pursuers on the run. Round the vacant next to the Auckland Savings Bank, across the road in front of trams and motor cars, the pig ran until, exhausted, it dropped to the pavement and was made captive. ■ ■ ■ . Health and enjoyment of home comforts depend so much on the quality of the goods used. This feature of business gets careful attention at Gray's Big Store, Milton, when buying to fill the needs of their customers...

Stories of sleeping taxi drivers have been comparatively common at the sitting of the Taxi Commission in Christ*, chur&h, but previous examples .were capped'the other afternoon when Mr A. H. Finch, of the Blue Star organisation, was giving evidence. Referring < to the .long hours worked by the men, Mr Finch said that one driver went to sleep at the wheel and hit a veranda post and did not wake up—and there was no suggestion of drink. Some witnesses declared that they worked up to 13 hours a day, seven days of the week. The highest price paid for a beef cow at the Westfield stock sales in the past seven years was obtained the other day (reports the New Zealand Herald), when a huge Shorthorn. > weighing over 10001 b, was sold for £ls ss. It was among a choice consignment from a Wanganui farmer, which averaged £l2 5s lOd each. With the general improvement in beef values over the past two months,,several high prices have been received, although prior to the sale the best figure recorded was £l3. During September. 1929, the cow market ranged between £l4 and £l6 15s each, and steers were up to £27, whereas the latest top price for a bullock was £l7 10s. Beef averaged between 42s and 44s per 1001 b in 1929, compared with the present values of 30s to 365. Special showing of curtains, cretonnes, shadows, hearth rugs, squares, and linos, this week. See special window and interior display. All new goods. Prices right. Buy now.— The Mosgiel Drapery Warehouse, A. F. Cheyne and C 0.,. '. The infrequent sight of a tui perched on a chestnut tree in Latimer square, Christchurch, recently attracted attention. Although these welcome songsters occassionally visit gardens on the Cashmere Hills, it -is rarely that they find their way into the city. Possibly the prodigality with which the kowhai has blossomed in Christchurch this spring was the attraction for Latimer square's lone tui. The story of a boy whose middle name was a letter D and nothing else (one wonders, did he put the full stop after> it?), recalls the legend that in Sidney Porter's pen-name of "O. Henry" the O was a symbol by itself, * with nothing to follow. Stranger was the case of the late Bishop O. Stringer, of Canada, who had only the letter as a middle name. Ex Fordsdale and Rangitata. our new season's Blue Mountain Jamaica. Only from A. Durie and Co.. coffee specialists. 32 Octagon. Dunedin.. Discussing the difficulties which many home-bakers are encountering in their efforts to make bread, an experienced bush-worker and baker related to a Poverty Bay Herald reporter how, in 1919, he had solved a similar difficulty; At that time country peonle were in trouble over the flour supplies, and many station owners were sending to town for their bread, owing to the apparent impossibility of getting good results from home baking. The narrator stated that on one occasion he had inadvertently allowed the lid of his camp-oven to catch upon one of the wire supports, with the result that part of the cooking of that batch of bread was carried out with the oven unclosed. The result was a perfect batch of bread, and this he attributed to the escape of the steam which, had the camp-oven been closed tightly, could not have escaped. As an experienced baker, he recommended home cooks to adopt a similar measure for their present difficulties, opening ovens occasionally to permit the moisture to dissipate. Best quality regulation dust drums obtainable at Dickinson's, Ltd., tinsmiths and sheet metal workers. 245 . Princes street. Dunedin... What was probably a record in money-changing transactions was put through at the Auckland Government Tourist Department Bureau. The record was for the smallness, not the magnitude, of the amount involved. It was just one " nickel." This American five-cent piece had been given to a very small boy by a visitor from overseas, and ihe youngster later reported that it was not negotiable currency at the "lollie" shop. "You'll have to get daddy to take it to the bank and change it." was the laughing remark of the donor. " Certainly," said daddy, " we'll go to town to-morrow and do the job properly." The small boy was too nervous to enter the bureau himself, but he waited outside, and great was his joy when daddy emerged a minute later with "two real pennies." These went straight to another " lollie " shop. And so the money, like the music, goes round and round. A cocky roared unto his wife, "Now listen here you joker; If you don't get Hitchon's Ham at once, I'll brain you with the poker."..