TOWN EDITION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 6

TOWN EDITION

Bathers m the Te Aro baths, Wellington, were painfully surprised on Tuesday morning about 7 o'clock, when they foun< a' large octopus clinging to the fence oi the inside of the baths. So closely die it. hang to the palings that all efforts t< dislodge improved vain. It is urged .thai it-is high time the gaps m the fence at the baths were repaired, when such loathsome and. dangerous creatures can <vair. access to the baths. A Perth" (W- A.) correspondent write* that Mr Newman, assistant Government Entomologist, estimates that since the introduction of the fruit fly parasites into West Australia by Mr Compere, (iovet-nn.ent Entomologist,- a few months agp, at least 120,000 have ; . beer, bren out. A great number have been sent to orchardists within the State, and consignmerits . totalling- 20,000. have just been sent to Natal and Cape Colony. The danger of handling benzine near a naked light was exemplified! at yHawera recently. A' motorist had driven oufifrom Palmerston .North withoutfirst seaing his' tanks were' 'full; and" liad' to stop £nd fill • -them upon t'he rofdSvay. In doing this, he placed a lamp, upon 'the -step of, the car, when suddenly; thwe ■>vas an eXpldsibu arid the car. caught fire. After hard work he at last man T aged to : smother .the flames . with" a. rug he- had -with him, but not before -some; j&fo'-or £30 worth of 'damage 'had been done., , •'■.;'. Empire Day, which last year was observed, by ten millions of British subjects, is to be. celebrated on May. 24. Tlie message to the boys and girls of the Empire from the Earl of Meath tells them, that they will realise more and more fully as. they grow older of their, great indebt"6tliiess to the British Empire — a majestic 'community, of three, nations, freely go : verning themselves, owing , its being to vast sacrifice, enterprise, and valor on the part of their fathers amdi predecessors. Further,, the children axe- urged to bear m mind' that, of the allied peoples of. the Empire each one looks to the others for practical sympathy, protection, and co-operation.

- At the regatta this afternoon -great interest was taken m; the exhibition given by the champion m company -with Rees'jonte: Tiiey had a. *piint ' together from Dr Williams' corner, to the bridge, when Webb took the lead by half a length,, : which position was maintained to the i' finish. Webb's style was greatly admired, and the rowers were ; ejithuß.iasticaliy a<pp!aud'ed. Th© junior race m tlie Shield competition was more ©verily contested than, the seaiior ra«e. At Dr. WiUi.-iins' corner Gisborne were, leading, bufe : P6verty Bay coming on wiht a great dash disposed ' of tlieui at tlie bridge, and wort by about a length. Tlie crews were </£_p o Verty Bay— W. McGuffie (str), C. -Winter (3), ,J. Newton (2), and J. .Stewart '(bow>. Gisboroe^ — D. E. Dustin tstrJv^T; Dods (3), G. Stevenson (2), and Gi.'Buscke (bow.) '

Mr C. J. Fox writes: The river Loire has sandy banks which cause a great deal of trouble at the time of the regular winter overflow :by filling up the ihannel and entirely "altering the course ' of deep- water. It is thus' necessary to keep continually dredgihg the riVer for a distance of ten miles, over which the obstructions are met. • The depth is kept at.such a figure that ships of 28. feet draft can reach Nantes* at any time; while at the highest tides ships of as much as 33 feet in ■ draft can use the channel. .' One . of the schemes for taking care of the considerable quantities of mud and debris ■ivhich gets into the channel is by means of a peculiar dredge with a rake attachment at the stein. This craft has a length of 131 feet, a; beam of 23tt and a. registered tonnage of 292, with machinery of 300 horsepower. The rake has a length of 36 feet and a weight of 2.5 tons,. During the ebb tides the steamer goes to tl^s middle of ; the river; and drops the rake, and tpen runs from Nantes to the entrance of the channel and back again until the lifext high water, by which time the r,ike has succeeded m so 'inixing "up tfte mud with the water as to render (C/fluid. It is then carried out to Sea by the tide going <Jut.

£. An unseemly disturbance : occurred 6hoftly before the commencement of a performance by Pollard's Juveniles at BJenhehu on Thursday evening. The crowd simply took matters m their own hands at the outset, and would not listen io reason.' They pushed the doors, and forced themselves- m, sweeping the doorkeepers, on one side. 'T have never had a worse or more unruly crowd to deal with," said Mr Lowe, manager,' "and I have tp. handle practically every theatre fn Australasia. They immediately became uncontrollable, and the management had to keep a cool head to suppress any possibility of a\stampede or panic. Why it is that Blenheim has the name of being unmanageable m its theatre I don't know, but I have heard the same thing from other managers. In other towns people make it a point of honor to respect reserved seats, and they are amenable to direction." Mr Lowe says that he himself took the most important door, the side . entrance, and the crowd so jammed him that he could not communicate \yith the other parts of the hpuse. Even so the sale of tickets was stopped at a quarter to 8; and m the enct -.it -was found that there was i room for ovjj£' 100 more on the lower floor. . A,, ctream of people poured up the .stairs, and would not listen when being told that they could be accommodated below. .Reserved seats were deiiberutely . taken ■by those not entitled to them, and they flatly refused to shift.

Mr Massey, the leader of his Maj.estyig Opposition, like the proverbial fc#t>tchinun, jokes with difficulty. It would be better for his reputation if he would not joke at all, remarks the Lyttetton Times. At Whangarei, the other week, lor instance, he supplied a particularly bad example of bis humor. He was trying to criticise the .Premier's explanation of the Dominion's finances, and instead of admitting, as he did on occasion, that -he" knew nothing about the subject, he attributed the Minister's "mixed remarks" to a visit he had paid to the Waerenga vinery. Tlie suggestion was, of course, that Sir Joseph vvard had mixed his liquors and his figures and had not been able to get tfiem apart again. . As it happens, the Premier is almost a- teetotaller, if he is l.ot a teetotaller altogether. Any-one-who has watched him at a banquet has seen him. toying with a glass of lemonade through the whole length of a weary toast list, and never touching a ■drop of anything stronger His abstinence, as his convival f riendte often declare, is a credit to him. He has neithe- taste nor temperament ii>r liqj or. If Mr Massey's marvellous jest had been made m Bellamy's, it would have been understood and appreciated by the gentlemen who are admitted to the sac--led precincts ; but when it was spoken from, a public platform, and telegraphed all over the country, it stood a \t>vy good chance cf being widely misunderstood.