Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 46

t T J- e remarkable presence of mind of Leslie Gray, aged nine, of Leicester, saved Harold Stanley, aged eight, from drowning in a deep canal. Several boys had yust arrived on a fishing expedition, when Stanley fell in, and was quickly carried away. With great coolness. Gray connected up his fishing rod, and, holding it out for the drowning boy to grasp as he came up for the first time, succeeded in getting him to the bank.

The extension of the irrigation work in Centra] Otago was urged by Mr A. E. Ansell during the discussion of the Public Works Statement in the House of Representatives. He said that the great majority of the work being undertaken by the Public Works Department to relieve unemployment in various parts of the country was unproductive, whereas the irrigation of Central Otago was likely to benefit the wealth of the Dominion as a whole and not merely the particular district in which the work was carried out. The suggestion had also been made by the member for Central Otago (Mr W. A. Bodkin) that the Government would be well advised to give further attention to irrigation, and Mr Ansell said he considered this was one of the most important works which could be undertaken at present. The irrigation already carried out showed the great value of the scientific watering of an unproductive area. In returning a verdict of accidental death at the inquest in Christchurch on Thomas Baden Howley, aged 30, a labourer, who was killed by a car, the coroner (Mr E. D. Mosley) said that in crossing a street much of the onus must be on pedestrians. “ They know that vehicles are likely to be on the road, and on such a night as the one in question they should be doubly careful. Any person in crossing a street and walking in front of a car should see the lights before the motorist sees anyone. The evidence leads me to the conclusion that Howley really walked into the side of the car.” There are many people who know “ Not Understood,” and yet have the vaguest ideas of its author and his country. A striking instance of the appeal of the well-known lines is reported by Mr J. C. Kay, manager of the Western Springs Speedway, who (says the Auckland Star) has just come back from a trip to Canada and the United States. At Vancouver he found a motor dealer named Mr Fred Deeley, who thought so highly of Bracken’s lines that he had thousands of copies printed and distributed them each month when he sent in his account. On one occasion, when two of his clients were at loggerheads and looked like heading for the Bankruptcy Court, he used the poem with good effect. Taking one of the pair aside he slipped a copy of “Not Understood” into his hand with a “Look here, old man; just take this home and have a look over it.” Then he waylaid the other member of the firm and repeated his advice, neither, of course, knowing that the other had been given the same counsel. Next morning two very cheerful clients walked into Deeley’s office, shook hands effusively, smiled “a Jai d wide, and from then on they made an excellent thing of their business, and in the words of the fairy tale, “lived happy ever after.” And the metamorphosis was all due to the little sevenverse poem written by Tom Bracken in ‘ little old New Zealand.”

Each October brings to the minds of thousands of Dunedin’s flower lovers the idea of visiting the daffodil fields at Wetherstones, Lawrence, where they are privileged to feast, with their eyes, on the beautiful and unique sight of a hillside thickly carpeted wth hundreds of thousands of blooms. “ Daffodil Day at Lawrence ” is perhaps one of the most popular days looked forward to by the general public, which is quick to appreciate the opportunity of visiting an area which has become almost world renowned. The sincere expression of wonderment and delight made by Mr Guy Wilson, the English authority and daffodil grower, on his visit to Wetherstones last year, who said that the sight was worth while going halfway round the world to see, has been gracefully confirmed by his article in an English paper, which reads, inter alia:— “The chief attraction of the Lawrence district is Messrs Hart’s place out at Wetherstones, where daffodils in endless variety have been naturalised over 12 acres of steep hillside, creating a vewtable fairyland of intoxicating and almost incredible beauty. Amongst them were some lovely seedlings, including a very pure white trumpet and a perfectly symmetrical and smooth pale bi-colour trumpet; also such old friends as Colleen Bawn, the Corbularias, and Cyclanineus.” Mr Hart considers the blooms will be at their best during the third week of this month, and the Railways Department will run a special cheap excursion train from Dunedin on Sunday, October 19. The number of radio licenses issued up to October 3 (approximate only as there are always a few licenses in transit) is stated by the Post and Telegraph Department (reports our special correspondent in Wellington) as follows:—Auckland district 17,324 receiving, 277 dealers; Wellington district 24,266 and 462; Christchurch district 9595 and 246; Dunedin district 6163 and 170; a total of 58,348 receiving and 1155 dealers.

Because a woman dreamed that a longdead soldier appeared to her and asked why he and his companions had been forgotten, a memorial to the men who fell at Sedgemoor, Somerset, on July 6, 1685, is to be unveiled. Sedgemoor was the last battle to be fought on English soil. The memorial to the men who died there —a plain oak litany desk—was unveiled at a special service by the Mayor of Bridgwater, in Western* Zoyland Church. Five hundred of the Somerset peasants, who made up the Duke of Monmouth’s army, were herded into the church after the battle, most of them dying or wounded, and left there until soldiers took them to prison. Five men died in the church, while 22 poor wretches were made to clamber into the belfry tower before they were strung in chains and hanged from the tower. A few years ago Miss Elizabeth Winter, of Chedzoy, dreamed that one of the men killed at Sedgemoor appeared to her, and asked why he and his companions were lying forgotten.