LOCAL AND GENERAL

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 24 April 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ring telephone No* 111 for plumbing and tinsmithing repairs. D. Jones, Elgin ont Street, Patea.

Tenders for clearing lupin, etc., close at noon to.day.

To.morrow will be observed as a Sunday by both Railway and Postal Departments.

A reminder is'givcu of the unveiling of the local War Memorial which takes place at 11 a.m. to-morrow.

A parsnip weighing six pounds and having a circumference of .19 inches is being exhibited in a Pahiatua shop window.

A sehnapper weighing about 25 lbs was obtained by a launch party at Now Plymouth on Monday last.

About (500 names of returned men who are out of work are still on the books of the Auckland Returned Sol. fliers' Club.

The first meet of the season of the Eginont Wanganui Hunt Club takes place on Saturday at Stainley Park, Messrs Lupton Bros. ' homestead.

The annual election of school committors takes place on Monday next at 8 p.m. in the various schools. In the case of Patea the meeting will be held in the Technical School.

Mr C.’ A. Larcombe has an important advertisement in this issue with regard to boots for boys and youths which should be noted by all. Mr Larcombe also quotes a particularly good line of men's working boots at 27/6.

It is worthy of notice that at the Cambridge .Bowling Tournament the competitors included three generations of one family — a father, his two sons, and a grandson.

“How much money have' you got," demanded a United States immigration authority of a passenger on the liner Makura, as she was making her way from Victoria to Vancouver. “I have ■a little. Why, what's the game. Is it any crime if I haven't," replied the passenger. “Coma on now, we've plenty of work to do. Have to find out if you fellows have enough money to outer the country according tp law. Dig down and look over your roll." commanded Uncle Sam's official. “Well here's a letter of credit for £50,000," replied the passenger producing the document. “I can get more if you want it." “That'll do," said the of. fieial, somewhat abashed.' He was talking with D. Clark, one .of Australia's biggest cattle kings.

Stockholm is a telephone paradise. In that city there is at the telephone exchange a separate staff whose , duty is to satisfy every possible wish of the subscriber. If he wishes to know the official time he has but to ring up, and he will learn it to any reasonable frac. tiou of a second, “Waken me at 6.30 to.morrow morning, please, miss,” a subscriber whispers into his instrument on retiring to bed, and miss rouses him to the minute with an effective ring. Lawyers and doctors tell the exchange when they will be in or out on the following day and clients can therefore learn from the exchange if a consultation can be had. If a person is out when you ring up you simply leave the message with the exchange and he will get it when he returns.

All the way from Modesto, California, came a letter to the secretary of the Wellington Rugby Union recently from Mr John D. Nash, stating:—“ When the All Blacks were over here cleaning up all before them they had a yell or or war cry which took the fancy of everybody.” The writer wanted to know if it could-be had in music, an requested that a copy be forwarded to him. It is quite bad enough to have to put this Maori war cry into words without .having to set it to music. Mr MeComisky explained that he intended to get over the difficulty by having a phonograph record taken and forwarding this to California.

A reminder is given of the ‘‘ Cheero ’ ’ Girls’ entertainment which is being held in the Druids ’ Hall oh Friday next. The full programme will appear in our ■next issue.

The task of clearing up the battlefields of France and Belgium is still a long way from completion. Up to the present 95,000 tons of explosives have been collected and destroyed. The work is highly dangerous and already there have been 200 fatalities

A canner of whitebait at Hokitika accidentally dropped a medal into a can. It wps shipped to Australia and the loser, discovering his loss, wrote to the Melbourne'’ agents on the subject and a month later he received his property back.

It may hardly be believed (says an exchange, that in these days of mechanical excellence in dealing with wool, there is on old resident of Bannevirke who does her own scouring, l her own sorting, the various other processes, and her own spinning, and then uses herself the yarn she has made, and a very fine sample, too, it is said to be. How many of the younger generation would be bothered with all this trouble? But then times have changed and what grandmother did doesn’t appeal to the modern maiden.

Some idea of the extent of the recent cloud burst and flood in the back country beyond Patea and Eltham may be gained by visiting the beach between Patea and Wanganui. For miles and miles, indeed as far as the eye can see, may be witnessed depostis of wood, big trees and debris. One Taranaki man who spent Easter in the neighbourhood states that there is sufficient on the beach to keep the settlers of the district in fire wood for the next fifty years. Many of the settlers, he says are cutting up the most likely of the logs for fencing posts.— News.

A rather alarming experience was the lot of a little girl in Waimate (says the Advertiser). She was eating one of .the seasonable confections known as “Easter Eggs” when she suddenly was un_ able to swallow and felt something sharp sticking in her throat. The child's parents were unable to dislodge - the obstruction, and a visit was hurriedly paid to a medical man, who discovered the cause of tire trouble was a short piece of very fine wire which had by some means or other found its way into the chocolate “co-a”. t3®

While flying over Mount Vesuvius on a flight -from Naples to Rome a British airman, Mr Alan J. Cobham, piloting a de Haviland machine, approached the crater. He ventured too close and was caught in a sudden upward swirl of sulphur vapour, which hurled his machine 2000 feet higher into the air in five seconds— a vertical speed of over 130 miles ah hour. The aeroplane rocked violently to and fro and Mr Cobham was almost suffocated by the sulphur fumes'. It was only by opening his engine full out that he was able to escape into the purer and more stable atmosphere.

Pitiful stories of distress among returned soldiers are told by officials of the Warrior's Friend Campaign and the Returned Soldiers' League in Sydney. One case is that of a man who had been a major in the Light Kor.Last week he tramped into Sydney with all his worldly goods on his back. He was desperate and actually starving. Hundreds of diggers are said to be in a similar plight in Sydney and Newcastle. Homes are said to be denuded of fur. niture and children sickening for want of proper nourishment, while wives are overworked and desperate. Jewellery even wedding rings, have been sold.

Mr Giffard Sherman Reade, a wealthy resident of Rotorua, New Zealand, has given to the Admiralty his Holbrook Estate near Ipswich, for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital. Holbrook estate comprises about 1000 acres of land and various buildings and is of the estimated value of £30,000. Mr Reade's rea. son for making Greenwich Hospital the object of his benefaction is to show his appreciation of the splendid services rendered by the Navy to the Empire at all times, particularly in the late war.

There are coal fields in. the Southland district capable of yielding practically inexhaustible supplies of fuel, (says the ‘News'). One by one the mines have been opened by private enterprise until at least half a dozen sorts of well known coal from Southland are on the market in the South Island. Last year the yield was estimated at 140,000 tons, and the News estimates that when the output of the several new mines is added Southland will produce on a five day week about 325,000 tons annually, and will have an exportable surplus of over 200,000 tons. It is also claimed that most of the Southland coal is superior to the brown coals of other parts of the island.

In an article on W. S. Gilbert's correspondence by H. Rowland Brown and Rowland Grey,' in the Cornhill Magazine, there is an amusing account of how the librettist suggested a way out of what is known as the “Shakespeare problem.” Gilbert, in one of his letters wrote —Do you know how they are go,' ing to decide the Shakespearc-Bacon dispute? They are going to dig up Shakespeare and they are going to dig up Bacon and they are going to set their coffins side by side and they are going to get Tree to recite “Hamlet”

to them. And the one who turns in Mr, coffin will be the author of the play.

“After all” our doubts and angrdsh, Days of dread and nights of pa : m, When we droop and gasp and lan .guish

Trying remedies in vain; After all our hopes have vanish .ed, ' And we scarce can still endir re When all useless dopes are burnished. Then comes Woods' Great Pcj jpermint Cure. j , -3 L.