NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15466, 10 March 1921, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

A Christchurch resident reports having taken sixty-six potatoes from ono plant raised in the city. W6rli on : the Whakatnno borough hydro-electric power scheme is proceeding satisfactorily. The main transmission line will be laid across llangitaki swamp before winter. Says a writer in a contemporary: “My advice to all workers, be they vatersiders or ribbon-sellers,* waitresses or ledger-keepers,, carpenters or ironmoulders, if you’ve got a job, hold it down, and hold it down with both hands and hard, for the war time jazz of big protits, high wages, great Uurnoviji’s, lovely prices, is over.” •A bequest, subject to a life interest, has recently been made to the Diocesan Board of Education (Church of England) under the will of the late Mr T. Heatley, of Rulkett. The amount) ultimately available will bo between £2OOO and ±I3OOO, and will be at the disposal of the Board for the support of Church schools in. the diocese of. Christ church. At the inquest into the death of ELma > Gweniieth Jones, at Awakino, Taranaki, on February 26, a verdict of accidental poisoning was returned, no blame being attachable to anyone. The girl ffiet- her death '.by sw;»l lowing several'sheep'tablets which her father was givings to. some lambs. When the father's attention was distracted the child secured several tablets and swallowed "them, succumbing to arsenical poisoning 12 hours later. A. big .fire occurred in. the Patea Iftirbor Bpard’s .dupiping shed early on Wednesday morning, resulting in the shed and its contents, including the dumping plant,' being destroyed. The shed, at the time of the fire, contained 470 bales of wool and general merchandise, and a motor-car, all of .which were completely distroyed. The origjn of the fire is a mystery, (bo general impression being that it started through spontaneous combustion, in some of tlio wool. Reviewing. his long career on, his farewell'appearance oil- the Supreme Court Bench,;Mr. Justice Chapman said in two months be would have completed the fiftieth year since ho \vas called to the Bar. He was retiring with regret, but without any sense of depression. He was leaving in good bodily health, with-out-having,, iii the past 20 years, lost a single day at '• work through illness, though'he had, on a few occasions, to content himself with, half a day. That was- no merit to himself; it was an endowment and lie had had the care of his family-, without which, perhaps, things mfght have been' different. The threepenny piece in church collections has bocorno a byword, and an instance,’occurred recently of church officials giving a strong hint to worshippers, that- this coin had. a diminished — t and still diminishing—purchasing power. 5 / From time to time a strange.miscellany has found its way into church collection . bags,; including .'buttons, pieces of : chocolate, and various articles of small , intrinsic value. -Probably the most uniquo . collection, in modern times was taken up on a recent Saturday in Mel- - bourne by the Seventh Day Adventists ‘ for foreign mission purposes. In adili- _ tiou to. the pledging of £1025, the collec- ’ tion included six gold rings—some set , with precious-stones—a pair of earrings, ) three gold bangles; and several gold ‘ brooches..'

. In the English Labor Leader of January 6; Mr. Philip Snowden, presents - the following relating -to rates levied : “In 141'county boroughs and boroughs the rates levied range from 10s Set to 26s sd'-in the .£, there being only four boroughs in; which they were under 10s. Merthyr Tydfil enjoys the .distinction of being the highest rated borough in flie country, -with a rgto of 26s 5d in the .£. Poplar is the riiost' heavily rated of the metropolitan boroughs, with 22s lOd in tHb £. The' increase, in rates in 1920 over the previous yfear, averaged 50? per 'cent.; in a large number of boroughs. Next year is bound to seo a still further' increase, find this will go on until the break comes, or until a long djirei'due reform of the rating system, is ! adpptedi” .

“Good morning, madam! I’ve come to read the electric light meter,” said a well-mannered youth, in .short trousers, who presented himself ’at a house in Oxford Terragc,-ChrisTchurch. The lady of tlie'house replied that the meter had been read, quite recently, but the youth) persisted that lie had to redd it again. Despitio ■ liis seeming respectability, the lady was suspicious, and remained in attendance while he read the'meter.. For that suspicion; she was thankful afterwards. At tho next house,the young fellow,, said .he had called to inspect the electric liglrts. There, he was admitted' freely, ..and left by himself while he' inspected the lights in a bedroom. His .“job” completed, he departed ■ unhurriedly with a polite remark or two to the‘lady of the house. Subsequently,' however, it was found that a wristlet watch, a safety razor, and a .dozen handkerchiefs' had- Vanished from the bedroom in whifch lie had been alone.

The Avickedndks of venting bis spite on a doctor’s motor-car. was very for-cibly-impressed on a lad who works in a garage, by Mr. J. W. Ppynton, ,S.M. Tho' case against the lad-was that he used-to; clean the doctor’s. car when it was’parked in the garage, but another lad;; whs ‘givey the job, and in jealousy or -spito ;tho young- follow put an obstruction iii the petrol tank. The result wash soon: apparent, for when the doctor took-out liis > car and. speif out to the assistance of a'sick .party'at Remuera the fear; halted halfway there, ,and refused .'to-budge another inch. An angry doctor it'was who finally found a large mass of foreign substance,, blocking the vent in the tank,, and Detective O’Brien questioned the boy, who confessed- to everything. “He is not , bad, just foolish,’*, it'aid’ Chief Detective McMahon. “See how narrowly you escaped causing a serious Accident,” the' Magistrate told the boy, “you might have caused the death of somebody wlio was very‘"ill.” A- boy much chatitoned in spirit left the courthouse. ,

"A country waking from u long sleep to which sho fell wearily after niuen misfortune.” Such is the description of BpawufgiveiL from his own recent ybBervations, by /) Mr. Henry Leach, in ChijinbeiSs’ Journal. Her resources are immense- and almost untapped. It comes almost with a seqse of shock to ,Kow ' Zealand readers to learn that in Europe,' arid’in Western‘Europe, to- hoot, there is , eitill “a virgin land . waiting ,to .he developed-and' colonised,” owning big coalfields only,.noyv'.beginning . to be worked, : iron, lead,. zinc, sulphur, and sulphates inf abundance, and magnificent natural '.provision for-water power. ' Mr. Leach'quotes some interesting comments . onf'tliorcountry’s possibilities by/Senor La -‘Oierira,. an old’ and experienced Spanish’ statesman and ari ex-Cabinet Minister-. “We are now 'making many things"/that - only recently we received fromtabroad,” he said. “We have, for example, begun to-make railway locomotives ; we Uro even - making- our' own railway ' carriages and ", sleeping" cars. Soon -all" our'-railway work Will be accomplished by ourselves.” & . ’ » ' As; serious 1 warning of the responsibilr ity ; iwliit'li persons finding articles which do nup 'to them have of trying to tface'lhe rightful owner/; was given Ly 'ilr., T.,, A'- lb. Bailey, S'.M., at. the. ElthUni 5 Magistralb’a Court; A young man, whs ci%g«l v with. the theft of a lady’s'-handbag and contents, which he hail;. fbdhd'‘find had nlade ho subsequent etfort 'to return- to, the owner, even though ;• by idehce, of ownership was contained on ’twp pieces of paper in the bag. The magistrate said that if a per-son-finds an .article in a public place and nidges no attempt to. find the owner a/id' v return >it lie is guilty of theft. The onus - off.endeavoring to trace the owner was -oil' the ’person finding the" article, andihc/phoilld either advertise it'or report:, it/ to. the police. In the case of ti-iviaEafrtieled, 'howeyer, "this need not. be [dope, , but- f iiti finder-'must endeavor to . rfttprn'anything of value. Tho defendant'. had not, taken anything like reasonable- steps to find tho owner, and must, bo cofivicfed of theft, but as tho articles had been returned, and no one had suffered/ only a light penalty would be "imposed. ,

Prior to 1854, the town of Wanganui was named “Pctre,” but in that year aii Act was passed altering the name to Wanganui- Curiously' enough, the river is referred to in the same. Act as “Whanganui River.” In point of fact the correct Maori interpretation of the West Coast towit is “Wha-nga-nui.” Tho hot salt baths, -recently completed at Caroline Bay, Timaru, were officially opened by the Mayor last week. Tho bath cost £1.460, including furniture, the Teschemakcr bequest forming a material contribution to the- funds. The services of an experienced masseur have been retained. , - Purchases of land and property io the value of over a million pounds were approved by delegates at tho meeting of the Co-operative Wholesale Society in London, when the bank manager as‘sured the movement as to the financial stability of their bank, depositors in which had a total of £12,030,000 behind them. ■ : The Prime Minister states that, as a ‘result of his visit to the Buller (forge coalfield, lie was convinced that the Westport-lnangahua railway line should be completed, thus giving access to tho cpal. The line, would actually touch some seams of coal of unusually good quality. The estimated quantity is about 70,000,000 tons. - The. change, of the half-holiuay from Thursday to Saturday was effected in .Masterton without incident. The whole of the trading establishments, with the [exception of one tobacconist’s shop, were [closed on Saturday afternoon. Somo of tho tradesmen stale that their takings showed a. considerable decline for the Aveok-end, while others found no appreciable difference in their returns. Visitors, from the country complain that 'the train services compel them to waste a whole day if they go to Masterton on Saturday morning. ■ A terse reply to complaints about cost of living was made recently by Mi;. W. M. Hughes (Austr aliaii Federal I Prime Minister). “The difficult times ahead,” he said at a conference, “can bo met, because Australia is singularly fortunate and favored by Providence. ■Wo live in ,a country where there is an I abundance of* food. People in this Country do not know how well off they are, and this applies to the rich man as •Well as to the worker. The rich man who complains about taxation is hv comparison with the Englishman very wel’ off, and if tho worker who complains about cost of living were to go to England, he would very quickly abandon all these other prayers on which he is in tho habit of spending hours and repeat one short and fervent petition to the Almighty to bring him back to Australia.”

The Government has guaranteed the price of wheat for this season, and the loaf of bread has been sold at a parity, says tho Masterton Age. The agriculturists of Canterbury and elsewhere are 'now asking that the guarantee be continued. . In the interests of the Dominion it is to be hoped that the request will not be conceded. The harvest in Canterbury has this year been above normal.' Australia has'also an immense surplus fo; export. The values of oats and other cereals have .come down, and the lamb

trade is not likely, at present prices, to supplant wheat; - There can be'no reasonable pretext, therefore, for a continuance of the Government • guarantee. In any case, a-sufficient l quantity of wheat will be grown next season without a guarantee. The Australian surplus will provide for any possible deficit. The, interests of the Dominion' as a whole should be placed before those of Canterbury.