NEWS IN BRIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23705, 12 January 1939, Page 18

NEWS IN BRIEF

Good weather is welcomed not by the holiday-makers alone in Northland. With crops of hay all ready for cutting, farmers are literally making hay while the sun shines. On many farms the yield this year is definitely down on the crop harvested 12 months ago, this being largely due to the late spring. A Maunu farmer estimates that his hay harvest will be only onethird of that gathered last year. A rainfall of 99.96 inches was recorded for 1938 by Mr H. .Guthrie Smith at Tutira homestead, Hawkes Bay. The heaviest rainfall recorded in any year previously was 815.02 inches in 1917. Mr Guthrie Smith's recordings show that the wettest month of the year was April, when 30.75 inches fell July, with 16.04, and January, 12.47. were next. Falls foiv the .past four years were;—l93s, 6i.83; ISMo, 55.38; 1937, 42.21; 1938, 99.96. Holiday makers when in the vicinity of Milton will find Gray's Big Store a good place to replenish stocks. Well bought grocery, hardware, drapery, and boots are available at this shop... When.pedestrian traffic in Temuka's main street was obstructed by a swarm of bees across an intersection about noon one day last -week one of the • community was. well .Qualified to deal with the situation. He was Mr L. F. Robins, president of the New .Zealand Beekeepers' Association and member of the Honey Marketing Board, who captured the swarm and enabled Temuka citizens to go about'their work unmolested. •'."'•• Hpw a gale in Australia had blown so hard that it had kept the flames of a raging, fire less than three inches above the ground was related by Mr H. Gladstone Hill on his return.to the Pominion oh a holiday visit. Mr Hill said that a fire had started, and the force of the wind had been such that the firemen had eiven up trying, to put it out. and had tried to control it. A house, on piles about 18 inches from the ground, was in the path of the flames, and the men had waited, for . the worst to happen. Instead." the flames had been blown right underneath the house and out the other sido. The house had been undamaged, but all the rubbish underneath had been burnt. • • -■;.',.•; . : .' v ; '■ ','•■ . 1939 Bargains Bigger and Better. It's frock week. See special window displays. Ladies' frocks from 3s lid up. Every frock reduced. Call early while the selection is good.—Mosgiel's Drat pers. A. F. Cheyne and C 0... One of the first.visible evidences of import control in Auckland was a •notice which appeared on Friday in the window of a Queen street hosiery and underwear shop, announcing that owing to import restrictions it would not be possible to land further supplies of a line of hand-worked lingerie, which the firm had introduced to the public through its four branches in various New Zealand towns. The notice appeared to attract the attention of many feminine passers-by. "Although, perhaps, we don't beat as . many drums as the dictatorship countries do, the people of Great Britain are just as intent upon keeping fit." said Dr F. W. Aston, noted English physicist, upon his arrival by the Otranto recently, "in sport and through physical education generally, we have learned that it pays to keep' fit. but we don't talk a lot about it. as they do in Germany and Italy. One doesn't hear much about it in England, but a great deal is being done, all the: same." Quality Coffee! The world's bestBlue Mountain Jamaica freshlyroasted and ground daily, is only obtainable from A. Durie and Co., coffee specialists, 32 Octagon. Dunedih... * The Christchurch Museum has begun the New Year well with a steady stream of interesting accessions, according to the curator (Mr R. A. Falla). An interesting Maori cultivating instrument, shaped like a small trowel* with a hollowed blade, which was dug up at Marshland, was presented by Mr A. de Roo. It is in an excellent state of preservation, having been buried in peat. "A penguin flipper found at the North Beach has been presented by Mr L. Ormandy. An example of the vegetable parasite, cordiceps, has been secured on < the West Coast by the museum staff."- It shows the manner in which the fungus takes ropt in the body of a living caterpillar, reducing it to a dried mass, when the spawnbearing head of the fungus- appears above the ground. Have you seen our "three-in-one ' bins for sugar, flour, and bread? Painted to suit the colour scheme of your kitchen or pantry. Moderately priced.—Dickinson's, Ltd., 441 Princes street, Dunedin...

An excellent way of cleaning windows, in his opinion at least, has been discovered by an Auckland lad. Early on a recent morning he might have been seen suitably attired in bathing shorts and armed with a hose spraying and vigorously scrubbing the windows of a building on College Hill, at the same time enjoying an early morning sunbath. The youngster was standing on a veranda overlooking the street while he attended to the upper floor windows. Passers-by, however, did not seem' to appreciate tjie constant shower of water which dripped through the veranda floorboards on to the footpath below. ■;

There is no fuss about the hospitality tendered at Crossan's " Waterloo.'' The best of drinks are always obtainable there, and many appreciate this fact... The sight of a figure clad,' in red pyjamas going through all the motions connected with "setting-up" exercises on the upper deck of a steamer in port interested a number of people on the Auckland waterfront the other morning. The scarlet gymnast bent knees, extended his arms upward, downwards, and forwards, wiggled his body in every conceivable manner—and, in short, did all those,things that remove that well-known " liverish" feeling. Evidently dissatisfied with the amount of oxygen available at one end of the. ship, he disappeared, only to reappear at the other end and. KQ through his exercises again. Spectators argued that he must have been an officer on the ship, this argument being based on the assumption that no one but an officer would dare to wear red pyjamas. Though he did not have a skipping rope, others claimed that he was probably the captain. Grandism (3698): Grand House Cognac Brandy is cur own importation from Jules Racine and Cie, equal to any three star, and sold for 125...

The problem of what to do with the pets is always a serious one when all the family goes on holiday. A camping party which passed through Hastings the other day had solved the problem in a novel way, however. Suspended by a pole from the front of their open touring car was the cage of the family parrot with Polly inside. She appeared quite comfortable in her unusual position. Seated-on the back carrier was a big black dog, another pet which had been allowed to join the party.

On Monday they have bacon, On Tuesday they have stew; But I-think they pine for Monday* If it's Hitchons—wouldn't you?..