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Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 3

In his charge to the grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court sessions at Hamilton on Tuesday, Mr Justice Blair said that a motorist may be intoxicated within the meaning of the law, yet not drunk in the ordinary sense. “ Most of us,” remarked his Honor, “ think we have a claim to be able to say when a man is drunk. He is drunk if he can’t walk home. There are occasions when it is a very precise question. If a man has taken so much, whether by way of liquor or drugs, that he is incapable of properly performing his duties as driver of the car, then he is in a state of intoxication,” said the judge. “So that you will not be concerned to decide whether a man is drunk, you need only address your minds to the question of whether his mental condition was so affected by liquor that he was unable to drive the car properly. When the Rev. E. Ward, vicar of Kaitaia, was motoring from Mangonui to Oruru on Sunday week, and was crossing a bridge over the Taipa Stream, a loose plank upset the steering and the car somersaulted over a break in the rails into the stream below (says the Auckland Sun). Mr Ward was pinned under the car in about two feet of water, but managed to keep his nose and mouth above the water level until help arived. He was released and taken to the Mangonui Hospital, suffering from shock. No serious injuries were received. Fortunately for Mr Ward, the tide was out at the time. At high water the stream is eight to ten feet deep at the spot where the car went over.

A firm believer in the influence of the British Navy is the American delegate to the Rotary Conference, Rotarian Charles Frazier, of Honolulu (states the Christchurch Press). Addressing the delegates to the conference on Wednesday morning, Rotarian Frazier said that his son, who was a Boy Scout, had travelled from Honolulu to Sydney on H.M.S. Hood, as the guest of the admiral. He had kept a diary and had written in glowing terms of the courtesy he had received at the hands of the admiral, who, on bidding him farewell, had actually taken off his glove to shake hands. “ Well, some time after that,” Rotarian Frazier went on, “ I sent my boy to the States to continue his studies, and told him to cable me whether he had passed his examination, and to cable either ‘ yes ’or * no.’ A few weeks later I received a cablegram with just the word ‘ Yes,’ but I had forgotter all about it. so I cabled back, ‘Yes, what? My son’s reply to that was, ‘ Yes, sir.’ ‘ “ That is just an instance of the influence of a British admiral on a perfectljgood American boy,” concluded Rotarial Frazier amidst a burst of laughter.

Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Jellicoe, was present at the first annual dinner of the Master Mariners’ Chib, held at Southampton, .on January 17 (says our London correspondent). During the course of his speech he said that the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy were really one sea service. The Empire could not exist without such a splendid Merchant Naw, and therefore the peoples of the Empire should realise that the sea services are an essential part of it. The Royal Navy was a mere child of the Merchant Navy. He paid a great tribute to the services; of the fishing fleet during the war, and said there were epic stories which should undoubtedly be written about them. One of the consequences of the war was to promote a greater comradeship between the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy.

Lovers of bird life who stay at "To Kiteroa,” Waimate, are greatly interested in the work of the proprietor, Mr W, Napier, in taming the native moki, or bel' bird. There are hundreds of these birds in the bush which surrounds the house, and, as a photograph shows, they have become very tame. Mr Napier commenced hi s operations by placing a dummy woman in a chair, in the open, with twe small cups of diluted honey at the ends ol the arms of the chair, the moki, it may be explained, being very fond of honey. In due course the dummy gave place tc living persons, and the mokis apparently failed to distinguish the difference. In the photograph mentioned a little girl is shown seated in the chair, and there is a moki on each arm close to the cups containing the honey. Many of the mokis are so tame that they will alight on the head' or hands of people sitting in the gardens, and every precaution is taken not to frighten the pretty confiding birds. Cups of diluted honey are placed in many parts of the grounds, and a good deal of time must be occupied in keeping them filled, Mr Napier, however, feels fully rewarded by the results of his labour of love in the pleasure given to himself and also to those who stay at his house by the successful domestication of the birds.

By the mail from Home last week there arrived a pocket book which had done a good deal of travelling since it. was lost by its owner. Last July, Mr Stuart Robertson, teacher at Glenaray School, Southland, who, along with his father, Mr John Robertson, of Musselburgh, had been spending a holiday in the Old Country, was travelling from Scotland to London by an express train to join the Orama at Tilbury’ on his return to New Zealand On arriving at St. Pancras Station he dis covered that his pocket book was missing. With the aid of two officials the train was thoroughly’ searched, but without success. The pocket book contained only a few papers of little value and a snapshot of the owner, but no money. It subsequently appeared that a passenger by the same train had found the article in a corridor of the train at Leeds, but inquiries had failed to trace the owner. The finder happened to be in Scotland some time afterwards, and mentioned his find to a nephew. The nephew, in turn, was later conversing with the grandfather of the owner, and casually remarked that hit uncle had found a pocket book in a trail and that he could find no owner for it Inquiries were made and the snapshot wai recognised by the grandfather, with the I result that the pocket book was restored | to its New Zealand owner.

At the conference of the New Zealand Trained Masseurs’ Association at Wellington it was decided to take action against all those practising massage who are not registered.