NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 52

NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand will be represented in Melbourne this year during the annual Empire Shopping Week' and New Zealand firms have been approached to forward exhibits and samples. A large window in Collins street, the main shopping avenue of the Australian city’, has been secured for the display of N’ew Zealand goods. “ How a man can live, keep a wife, and perhaps a child, pay for rent, lighting, fuel, and all the other necessaries pertaining to households on a wage of 10s a day beats me,” said Mi' E. D. Mosley, in a judgment summons case at the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court the other morning. “ I cannot see how he does it.”

Beautification by tree-planting is being enthusiastically pursued at Westshore (says the Napier Telegraph). Some time ago residents combined to plant pohutukawa an other native trees at suitable spots through the township and extensions of the work are proposed. The board in charge of the Vigor Brown Domain, a vacant area of land between the railway station and the sea, has approached the Hawke’s Bay County Council to assist it in planting trees on this area. The request will be considered at tbe next meeting of the council. No candidate feels equipped for the race for the United States Presidency without an effective election symbol, and while there was still a prospect that he might be induced to compete, fair admirers of Mr Coolidge had provided him with that necessary item of equipment—a pair of pyjamas fashioned from old flour sacks, and intended to symbolise the President’s stand for economy in private and public affairs. Mr Taft was carried to victory by a symbolical pair of pants—but they were working togs. The rubbish baskets on the railway platform are made the receptacle of all sorts and conditions of things (states the Greymouth Evening Star). On a recent morning, whilst seeing friends off by the express, a lady was observed placing her prize dog in one of the baskets “ for safety,” till the train left the station, when it was once more given its freedom. The disconsolate air of the dog at being placed in such a structure, even temporarily, suggested that even a dog has its feelings. Among exhibits of historic interest which have been presented to the Old Colonists’ Museum at Auckland are the homeward-bound pennant flown by H.M.S. Galatea on the occasion of the departure of the Duke of Edinburgh from Auckland in 1871, the ribbons cut by H.M.S. Calliope on entering the Calliope dock on February 16, 18S8, a programme of a concert given in Auckland at which the Duke of Edinburgh took part, and a programme of the farewell gatherings held in London in 1862 for the main body of the Albertland nonconformist colony. Pessimists sometimes make the statement that people of to-day were not as honest as they were in the “ good old days ” (says the Wairarapa Daily Times). This assertion often gets a severe contradiction, and it received another jolt in Masterton recently. A young lady lost two £5 notes one evening, and advertised for them. First thing the next morning a borough employee handed the notes in at the Times office, having found them in a gutter while carrying out his street-cleaning duties.

“I regret that I cannot congratulate the Auckland district on its freedom from crime, if one is to judge from the list before me. There are 15 indictments against 17 persons, and some are of a very grave nature —one of murder, one of rape, and six sexual offences. I am told that this list is a smaller one than usual. If so, it shows that a somewhat deplorable state of affairs is in existence,” said Mr Justice MacGregor, in his address to the grand jury at the opening of the quarterly criminal sessions of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. The fact that the most brilliant studend does not make the best teacher was mentioned at a meeting of the Auckland Education Board last week when the case of a highly-graded teacher adversely reported upon by the senior inspector was being considered. “We have had case after case of these people getting high degrees and turning out no good as teachers,” said Mr H. S. W. King. “ Yes, they seem to remain as students,” agreed the chairman, Mr A. Burns.

“ Since the Canterbury Rowing Club has been formed it has adopted the Oxford and Cambridge style of rowing,” said Mr F. I. Cowlishaw, president of the club, at the annual smoke concert (reports the Lyttelton Times). “We have tried ourselves out on this, and I think that the long swinging stroke was mainly responsible for our winning the senior four and getting four men into the Canterbury eight. This style is the best, and cannot be excelled. You cannot beat the good old long swing and fairly quick recovery." Few people of the present day realise the predicament in which the early settlers of the Ashburton County found themselves with regard to water supply (says the Guardian,). In the first years of the county practically the only water available was that in the rivers, and the stretches of country between were burnt up in the summer, making the lot of the settler anything but a happy one. Apropos an article in the Guardian setting out the cost of the water race system in the county, an old settler states that when he was at work on the plains he had nothing to drink between the morning meal and the evening meal, and to keep his mouth moist he had to suck a pebble. This, he declares, was the only way’ in which many men were able to overcome the difficulties consequent on the absence of creeks or races.