LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Patea Mail, Volume XLIV, 1 December 1920, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A man for light gardening and odd jobs is inquired for in this issue. Try D, Jones, Egmont Street, for plumbing and tinomitlung repairs. Telephone 111.* Mr. IT. R. White (late Becthams’) has some interesting advertisements in the wanted column to-day. An owner is required for two cows and a calf straying on Mrs. Bremer’s property at Whcnuakura. Bo sure and don’t miss dear old Mammy Chloc from Old Porgray. Her lullaby will captivate the audience at the Pierrot Kiddies’ entertainment on December dial.

It is reported that Mr. “Billy” Sunday, the well-known evangelist, was at one time a noted baseball jlayor, recently declined an offer of £200,000 to act for the films.

A message :f'roin Beersheba stales ■that the famous well of Abraham lias been equipped with modern pumping machinery, and is now supplying water t ) the town.

Members and others interested in the re-formation of the Fatca Racing Club are requested to meet at the Borough Council Chandlers on Friday, 3rd December, at 7.30 p.m.

Two Eltham Borough Councille*A are among the latest Councillors to forfeit . their seats through having received a greater sum than that author iseil by .Section -12 of the Municipal Corporations Act.

The attention of the public is called to Messrs. Brestidge and Graham’s advertisement, which appears in another column. The firm make a speciality of Xmas and birthday cakes and catering of every description.

Mr. J. D. Rockefeller has given approximately (id,000,000 dollars to the benefit of charities and public institutions, chiefly benefiting women and children. The gift, which is in his wife’s memory, brings his total benefactions to 400,000,000 (approximately £93,000,000).

Should clergymen travel secondclass] The Methodist Synod, now in session at Auckland, distinctly says “No.” First-class travelling on steamer, but second-class on the railway was one suggestion. “Wc must uphold the dignity of the clergy,” declared the Rev. George Bond. “Second class faros to second-class men.” in other words, says an exchange, “not “too much of the meek and lowly.”

A Maori leper recently discovered in the Tainiianiuui district was isolated at the pa for a time, and rumours to this effect created a little alarm. Dr T. J. Hughes went from Auckland to see the man, and then it was decided to remove the leper to Wellington, hut the crews of various steamers threatened a strike if he were put on board to go to Lyttelton. At last a special crew was put on the Tame Beddon, and the man was taken down and put on Quail Island.

“The ignorance of Xew Zealand on tire part of many intelligent .Americans is appalling," remarked Mr. 11. Adair, a former resident of Wellington, in speaking to a Post reporter of his sojourn in the Tinted States. “Two school teachers were discussing Xew Zealand, and one declared it; was an island off the Madras coast, while the other persisted that it was part of Newfoundland. When showing a college group in a Xew Zealand weekly paper, one of (he number remarked in an astonished tone; “Why, this is printed in the English language, and yet it is published in Xew Zealand. It is a translation I .’" The most colossal statement was made by a chairman who, in introducing me to an audience, said: ‘lie is a Now r Zealander, and a product of American missions!"

A queen bee will lay as many as 3000 eggs a day in the height of the season, says ,an exchange. Why cannot fowls follow this example?

More than £500,000,000 has been realised on British sales of surplus war materials, which goes to show what a vast undertaking the Great ’War was.

A cabblegi'am for London stales that some prominent revue stars luxe been the victims of an ingenious confidence trick. A young woman induced them, after poignant dressing-room interviews, to give their services til, a concert for wounded soldiers. H-ige fees were promised, but (lie artisu wore paid by means of worthies-; cheques.

A Palmerston Xorth Maori was a>kked how he liked Ids flight in an aeroplane in Palmerston Xorth, and replied with great emphasis: ‘‘Py gorry, lie the best ever come along. When ho got up i (ink my stomach lie turn upside down; sometimes 1 link ho around my neck; then, py gorry, I link I have no stomach at all when he do the whizzle upside down.”

With an outlay of five and a half millions on war gratuities ami advances under the repatriation scheme totalling 24 millions, Xew Zealand has expended by gift and loan an average of about £3OO per soldier in re-estab-lishing the members of its Expeditionary force in civil life. It is a fine record, and a fitting acknowledgment by the community of (lie gallant conduct of its troops in the held.

The girls :it the St. Mary’s School at Stratford arc devote*, d admirers of Admiral (ami .Tellicoe, and when the Gov-ernor-General passed the school on his way to the showground on Thursday a number of them stood lined up at the gate, which they decorated for the occason, and gave his Excellency a very hearty cheer. Lord .Tellicoe ordered his car to he stopped so that ho and Lady .Tellicoe- might say a few words to the girls, who were no less delighted than surprised by this thoughtful attention.

Perhaps tire celebrated American Bishop Potter gives Sir Harry Lucy the best tale in his diary. After preaching in the Adirondack*, this un conventional bishop was nngcrly up. proiit'ht,';] by a gaunt backwoodsman: ‘‘As usual,” he said, ‘‘l lamed something to-night.” “And what was that?” asked the pleasant bishop, warmly .shaking the horny hand “Why, Bishop,” said the backswoodsnian, “I found out for (he fust lime that Sodom and Gomorrah wuzn’t twins! ”

Returned soldiers null bo interested in a rectn decision of the Defense Department to extend the availability of privilege four-weeks railway tickets to the 28t.h of February next. After the doth November, however, applications for those tickets must be made to Base Records, Wellington. Tickets already issued which, owing to the previous decision, expire ou 'the doth November without having covered the four weeks due, will be extended to cover a four weeks’ period ou personal .application to anv Railway Staliouniaster.

ft was a bishop bold of a colonial see, and in the course of an episcopal visitation he arrived at an up-country farm, many miles from anywhere, the proprietor of which was very proud of his knowledge of Hie world, and had instructed his wifebe sure and call the visitor “Lord” whenever she addressed him. The good wife was more generous minded than her husband, and when dinner began she broke 1 silence with the remark:-“ Well, Bill, i don’t .think much of you as a helper. Give the Ford some more gravy.”

Says (he Stratford correspondent of (he Taranaki Ilearld: —An incident, half comical, and half regrettable, occurred in connection with the addresses presented (o his Excellency here and at the function at a neighbouring town. The wording was practically identical, a fact that if noticed by the visitors, must have set them wondering, f happen to know that the production sprang from a St art ford brain, and the Town Clerk can explain the duplication, which was not the result of anything go occult as thoughttransference.

“The wonder soldier, who was a brigadier before he was thirty,” is how the London Daily Express describes Lieut.-Colonel B. C. Freyburg, V. 0., C.M.G., D.S.O. (two bars), of Wellington. This reference (o the New Zealander appeared in an article dealing with the V.C. heroes now that I lie majority of them have resumed civil occupa lions. Li cut.-Colonel Frey long is one of the three V'.C. oilmers who are still in the Army, the other two being General A. Carton de Wiarl (the most •wounded man in the British Army), and Lieut.-Colonel Gort.

A man servant who was new ,(o his job had been instructed by his mistress to bring everything' into the drawingroom on a salver. A visitor called one day with a large and rather ferocious looking dog, which was left outside. When the visitor was about to go, however, his hostess wished 'to see the dog, so she rang the bell and told the man to bring him in. I'knne minutes passant, but he did not appear, lint suddenly the sound of angry growls, snarls, and barks was heard, so the bell was rung again, and .the man entered, carrying tin* salver, but with a look of distress on diis face. “ Pardon me, madam," he said with a differential cough, “tint T could not indoocc the hanimal to sit on (he salver. M-i knocked me down three limes, and bit my calves something cruel. If the gentleman wants ’im. ’e’s still out side."

A message from Riga reports that on the 'third anniversary of the revolution the special committee for fighting the counter-revolution has issued a pamphlet in which it is stated that between. October. 1!M8. and October, Ifi-O, the commission discovered .‘54-1 anti-Bolshevik strikes, the settlement of which cost the lives of 11.10 communists and tinkers. Three hnn deed and ;-evcnly-lwo anti-Bolshevik organisations were discovered, YUiO death sentences were carried out, d-1,.' 1 ..’!! arrests were made, iMtfi! persons v.ere interned, and Kill held as hos-

Commenting upon the financial outlook in Xew Zealand to n Times reporter, a Wellington bank official said there was nothing to be alarmed at in the situation. “To use the homely simile, the community is in the position of the mini who had a job in which he drew his wages weekly and by the following Saturday had nothing left, lie got a belter billet, but then did not receive his pay until the end of the month, with the result that for the first few months, until tilings had readjusted themselves, he could hardly find money to pay for tobacco and matches during the week or two before pay day. For the past five years we have been through the Imperial commandeer, receiving prompt payment on account of our produce almost as soon ns it went into store here. Xow we have to wait till it reaches England and is realised; and, naturally, money must be somewhat tight until the position readjusts itself.”

Rear-Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey, the Prince’s Chief of Staff, carried a. heavy load of responsibilitly during the tour (says John Sands (press correspondent. Four,icons, unruffled, and cheery, he never showed his anxieties. Ten minutes after tin- railway accident in West Australia, speaking of the experiences of the Prince and himself, he said to me; “It was I lie closest shave that I have ever had in my life, and ! have been in some tight places. We ought both, to have been killed. I’m sure I do not know why we were not,” As Chief of Staff Sir Lionel Halsey was unquestionably the right man in the right place, and he was capably supported. The Prince could not; have been better served.

Tin 1 person who drinks methylated spirits in lieu of the spirit, or spirits, usually obtained across the bar of the publie-huuse, is not unknown in Xew Zealand; but if he does so after April Ist next it will be in the face of the warning ‘ ‘ I’os won. ’’ My Order-in-Council it is directed that on and after that dale the Customs Act shall be amended as follows:—“Every vendor of completely denatured methylated spirit for sale without restriction shall prior (o the sale thereof, cause each vessel containing the same to have securely attached 'thereto a label with 11he following words printed thereon: ‘ Methylated spirit; poison. Xot iu lie taken internally. Jf so taken it may cause blindness or death, and it will induce general physical decay.’’’ This means good-bye to the notorious King Country whisky, of which this particular spirit is the base.

Mr. Ernest Short,, in a speech at Feilding, said that: at one .farm in America they had seen a Holstein eow which was after the world’s record for milk production. The cow was under wire gauze. so that not even a fly could gel at her. Jn six months she produced llOOOlbs. of milk, and, barring accidents, she would beat (he world’s record by IKiOOlbs. at her present rale, lie had seen the bull calf produced by this cow. It was a niagniJiceni animal the best: he hail ever seen in his life. He had ascertained that the price put upon this calf was and when the cow’s year’s record was published the price would .jump to £lo.Odd. He had suggested to the Holstein .breeders Association that they between them purchase this calf. Surely the Holstein breeders could iinil £d(l(ld between them. The introduction of such an animal would In' a tremendous lift for Mew Zealand. —Star.