NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 31

NEWS IN BRIEF.

“ Hawke s Bay tomato growers will experience one of the greatest crops in tho history of that district, and the quantity will be about double that of any previous period,” said Mr George A. Green, organiser for the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and secretary of the Auckland Fruitgrowers’ Association, after a 10 days’ tour of the Wanganui, Wairarapa, and Hawke’s Bay districts. The returns of business from the Stratford Magistrate’s Court show a decrease of 121 in criminal cases and in fees collected (civil and criminal), and 57 fewer arrests for the year as compared with the previous 12 months (says an exchange). A decrease all round, too, is shown for the quarter in comparison with the same period of 1926. The total amounts recovered for the- quarter were £583, and for the year £3975, as compared with £1199 and £3860 respectively. A young man making a purchase in a Wanganui shop discovered that he had been too generously treated in the matter of change (states the Chronicle). He returned and remarked to the man behind the counter: “You’ve made a mistake with the change.” “ Well, you should have discovered that sooner,” was the sharp rejoinder. “ Don’t worry, then.” replied the young man, as he smilingly left the shop with the money still in his pocket. “ I was given half a crown too much! ”

On October 4, last year, a Whangarei business man forwarded a letter to a customer in Kiripaka road (says the Northern Advocate). Since then the letter has travelled a long distance for a penny. It was first readdressed to Albury, ' New South Wales, then to Albion, Queensland, and finally to Foxwood, Brisbane. It was redespatched from each of these offices with the unclaimed stamp upon it, and finally returned to the sender. There were “ rubber necks ” in the city the other morning (says the Christchurch Sun). The cause was an aeroplane which stunted di recti v above, carrying ; out a . variety of evolutions in entertaining fashion. It was very fine to watch, but comment was general concerning the danger, not only to the pilot, but also to tha public, had the machine got out of control, or had a quick landing been forced upon the aviator. Stunting is never permitted in other places over a city At the first Culinary Exposition, recently held in Paris, eminent chefs, Paul Bouillard, Laurin, and Foucou. instructed the home cook how to do better cooking for less money, and made their points, by doing it in the open kitchen in the restaurant, where those with fat pocket books might lunch for from about 6s up, without wine. Wine and sausages took much space in the French food show. There were more kinds of champagne and more varieties of sausage than of any other products. The sausages started with a rich variety from Arles and went on down the alphabet, varying from a scant inch to a foot and a-half in diameter. Snails, of course, had their place in the show, and one Belgian exhibitor took in some cheese that caused his booth to be moved near a door. An Aucklander, who has returned from a holiday. in the King Country, was impressed with the bountiful supply of water that farmers have up that way (says the Star). Much of the King Country is of hilly, volcanic origin. Beautiful springs well up at the head of the numerous valleys, and clear streams of a kind that would make a city councillor’s heart rejoice, flow on their way to join a parent river. The ram is in general use, and, with its perpetual “click, click,” in measured, slow time, pumps water to tanks on a higher grade. Some of the King Country fanners have reticulated all their paddocks, and thus cloudless skies and perpetual sunshine cause them little concern.

It is surprising the risks peonle will take (remarks the Wanganui Herald). The other afternoon when dense clouds of black smoke were belching from the fire at the gasworks thousands of people, in all manner of conveyances, and even mothers with babies in prams, flocked to the scene, so that the roadway was completely jammed with. humanity and vehicles, and incidentally there were some narrow escapes. Had the fire been nearer to a gasometer or the oil containers the whole locality, people and all, might have gone up with one terrific bang. The fire brings under notice the large amount of dry grass in that locality at this time of the year, and it would be a good scheme to do away with all this and replant with ice plant.

A young Russian inventor, by moving sensitive fingers up and down' invisible keys in an apparently empty atmosphere, can reproduce to a pianoforte accompaniment. the music of the masters with the touch and.tone and variations of a practised violinist. This coaxing of music from the air by, finger vibrations is the latest marvel of wireless science. A box like a large-size cabinet has a thin rod rising from it, a number of tuning contrivances like organ stops, some lengths of wire, and a couple of loud speakers. Anyone’s hands can produce the music, but whereas a. skilled person can play tunes, the unskilled can only produce discords. The principle of this invention, which is to be known as the tennenvox, is, apparently, that the vibrations of tho fingers and hands in the air create sounds. Thes» are too minute to be heard by the human ear, and the new invention magnifies them so that they are audible. During. last year II bankruptcies wero recorded in Blenheim (says the Express), a decrease of two compared with 1926.