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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16209, 6 December 1926, Page 6

The: Wellington and Suburban Highways Board have made a start with th.> bituminisj'ng of the Hutt Road, between Avalwn Park to the Taita church, whde the stretch between Lower - Hutt and Avalqri Park will be similarly dealt with as soon as the- plans are approved by the authorities.

Tho Hastings Homing Club held a pigeon-flying race from. Timaru. The birds were , liberated at 5 o,m on Saturday for their 420 mile journey, but- owing,to the bad weather conditions none homed until Sunday morning, when the only ones to return were two of Dr. H. M. Wilson's birds, who -traversed the journey at the .rate of 666 "yards and 577 yards per minute respectively. Disaster visited m unfortunate returned soldier, who lives on the HastingsHavelock road, early on Friday morning. The .man had for a long time been an invalid in the Pukeora Sanatorium, and on his discharge recently put his meagre and hard-earned savings into a tomato growing enterprise. Frost came on Friday and almost entirely ruined his thriving crop pf 8000 plants. Other growers, both market and domestic gardeners, were also badly hit by _ the frost, but this returned soldier s misfortune is particularly pathetic. In the Auckland Magistrate's Court. Thomas Glnnville, a young man, was proceeded against for erecting a wire-less-outfit without obtaining a license. It. was stated that defendant had his apparatus in position for three weeks before it> was licensed. "It would have been much cheaper to have paid 3n-i for the license than to have taken tho risk," said the magistrate, Mr. Hunt, who imposed a fine of £3, with costs 7s. "It cost him £1 for eae.h. week without a license."

A military pageant on a scale never hitherto attempted in the Dominion, and rivalling pageants of a similar nature seen in England in recent years, will be presented in Auckland next month. Later it will be staged in Wellington and Christchurch. The pageant comes to the Dominion from the Wembley Exhibition, where it stod alone in its magnificence. Between 1500 and 2000 performers will take part in a reproducting the chief tableaux of the Empire Wembley, and tbeer will be other brilliant displays. ' Uniforms and settings from England have now reached Auckland. One hundred bandsmen will supply music for the pageant. Believing that the State Advances Office had recently been advancing such small portions of amounts applied for that applicants were almost compelled to abandon their building plans, Mr. J. A. Lee, M.P. for Auckland East, inquired of the Minister of Finance why this was being done. "The State Advances Superintendent assures me that the board considers each application on its merits, and that in the granting of loans there has been no alterations," replied the lion. W. D. Stewart, in a telegrata. "The administration of the Advances Department in respect to the granting of loans lies entirely with the Advances Board, and not with the Government. The Government has no authority to interfere or to influence members of the board in the exercise of their functions." When Edward McLelland was charged in tho Dunedin Magistrate's Court with assuming the designation of a member of the police force, when he was not a member of that body, Mr. G. T. Baylec, who appeared for him, raised a novel point, bringing out, in cross-examination of a police witness, that, though men in various callings chose 'to adopt such titles as superintendent, inspector, or sergeant, they were not arrested for assuming that designation of a member of the police force. Mr. Baylee contended that the titles used in the police force signified rank, and were not confined to the force. The defendant in the

case, was alleged to have said that he was a detective, so that he could get into the jockeys' and trainers' room at Forbu'ry Park on November 27. Defendant pleaded not guilty. ChiefDetective Lewis, who prosecuted, stated that defendant had represented himself as a detective on holidays from Wellington. Accused was ordered to come up for senten.ee if called upon within 12 months, on condition that expenses amounting to 20s, ipid costs .9s, be paid forthwith. '

the recent strange case of suspended animation, or postponed death, in a Maori village at Wanganui, sends memory tagging back.to sundry other curious instances of the sours" stubbon refusal to part company with the body (says the Auckland- Star). Many years ago a Mapi tohunga. named Efiau enjoyed great popularity in the Waikato and thereabouts for his alleged success in bringing the dead back to life. At any rate ho performed the feat in an astonishing manner.on one occasion, when he caused an. apparently dead girl to sit up and speak. There was a case near Wairoa, Hawke's Hay, a few years ago, when a woman who had died clearly repented of her rash decision, for she. rose on her couch and interrupted the tangi. by describing most vividly her journey to the Reinga, the Maori spiritland, and what she saw there. She was offered food to eat there, she said, but fortunate she Mas not foolish enough to accept it, otherwise her "Wairua," her soul would have remained there. But the most remarkable incident of all happened at a big tangi on the West Coast. Wild, an aged chieftainess, had died, to all appearance-, and the loud mourners were beside the bier. A surreptitious bottle of brandy was going the rounds among the members of the wake party of wahines. The corpse suddenlv pushed awav the mats and sat up. Stretching out her tatooed risht hand, she made peremptory request: "Homai te waipiro!" In astounded silence the bottle was. passed. Wiki took . a long, long pull, sighed a deep gratified | sigh, and sank gently back on her pil- I low;. They all said it was a beautiful ' death,

The "Seddon" coach given by Mr. E. Lovell-Smith is to be honsed in the Canterbury Museum. ', The programmes submitted by the Tolaga Bay Jockey Club to the Poverty Bay Turf Club were approved by the H.B. District Racing Committee last week. International courtesy appears to "form no part of the equipment of some aliens. •At the Christchurch Opera House one night recently, sitting in the front row was a party of American citizens, who, when the British National Anthem was played at the close of the performance, ostentatiously kept their seats, and tho men of the party deliberately put on their hats as the first chord of the Anthem was played by the. orchestra. One of the men is on a temporary business mission to the city. .

A relic of by-gone days has come into the possession of the chief officer of the Dunedin City Fire Brigade in the form of a sword. . When a chimney was demolished at the Phoenix factory, where the racent big fire occurred, the sword was retrieved from the mass of debris. On. the handle is the crest of . some famous English regiment. That portion of the Phoenix factory which was gutted was formerly the old gaol, and it is surmised that the sword was hidden in the old-style chimney. "Tho proper course: is to take' him, off the road, but I realise that, in this instance, it would deprive the. man of his livelihood," said Mr. R. W, Tate, S.M., at the New Plymouth Police Court, when imposing a fine of £2O eund costs £5 on Oswald Norman Thomas,-. for driving a-car at a speed dangerous to the public. Tho prosecution was the result pf a collision near Eltham, when Thomas' car, in passing a line of traffic} swerved across the road, struck: a pole and oyetturned. ,'fho., .car • was !, then struck by another ihotor. •'**'" ,*"-"• '' :> A by-law case occupied the atten : tion of the Magistrate's Court this morning, Wilfred Searle being charged with cutting the corner in a motor-car on November 23. Mr. S. V. Beaufoy appeared for the defendant, who pleaded guilty. The facts were outlined by Sergeant Dempsey, who stated that defendant turned round the corner from Gladstone road into Derby street on the wrong side. Mr. Beaufoy saidi. that the defendant was an experienced; driver. The breach was only of a minor nature. The magistrate fined defendant 20s and costs.

Many motorists are in the habit of using rain water caught in an earthen jar for the filling of their car batteries, there being a general impression that such water is quite as satisfactory ; as distilled water. At a lecture on batteries given in Hastings, however, this idea was exploded. The lecturer stated that under some conditions such rain water was quite as good as distilled water, but generally in its fall the rain collected certain substance* from the air, and these substances had" a deteriorating effect on the battery plates. The speaker strongly advised the use of only distilled water if a battery was to be kept at its maximum service point.

Victoria, like New South Wales, is this year lamenting the almost complete wreckage of her fruit crop. Normally the. southern State produces anything-be* tween 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 cases of apples. This year's crop, it is estimated, will sink to about 450,000 cases, which means that the popular "Jonathan" will be about worth its weight in gold on the market. The pear crop also will be much reduced, and the berry fruits the lightest for years. The ravage has been caused by thrip, which seemingly has made a Commonwealth invasion this dry year. A Victorian orchardist, at a conference to talk matters oyer, dropped the remark that, "if he killed a million pests with spraying, seven millions more attended the funeral."

Stockmen know how dangerous a cow under the impression that her calf is about to be molested can be, but fewpeople would credit a doe rabbit with the desperate courage witnessed on the Waimarino Plains recently by Mr. A. If. Messenger, of the Government Publicity Office. Crossing the plains he observed a rabbit closely circling a crouching hawk, and making dashes towards it, and! curiosity impelled him to investigate. Under the hawke's talons was a young rabbit, convulsively struggling to get free. On his approach the bird rose and skimmed away. The little rabbit was found to be but little injured, and when it was left concealed in a tussock, the mother was back to it before the man was far away,

j "The advantages of the one-man farm ! are beginning to be Tealised by people other than the occupiers of such properties," said Mr. \V. J. Broadfoot, who recently attended the conference upon land settlement as the delegate of the Te Kuiti Chamber of Commerce. "During the discussion at the conference," said Mr. Broadfoot, "I. stressed the desirability of establishing one-man farms, that is to say, farms of a size which one man and his family can farm fully without employing labor. After the conference the Auckland manager of one of the bigger stock firms in the city, told me they had come to the conclusion that the one-man farm was a very desirable objective. They had not a single one-man farm for sale on their books, by which, as the manager said, it was evident that the man owning this tvpe of farm was doing so well that he was not willing to eel!. 'lf we had 500 such farms available,' he said, 'we could sell them all.' "

The recent appointments made bv the Auckland Hospital Board of two "honorary orthopaedic surgeons to deal with cases needing treatment in this departlhent of hospital work is. it is said, one Of the wisest movements made in hospital methods for a long period (states the Auckland Star). Not only will there be uniformity of treatment," but the patients' stay at the hospital will bo considerably reduced. Tins was exemplified at the meeting of the Relief Com-, niittee, when a young man who had broken his leg less than two weeks previously appeared on cratches, in the best of spirits, when members remarked that it generally took much longer thai! tint before a man with a broken limb was allowed to get out of bed. "Oh, that's the old method," replied the young fellow who had met with temporary misfortune. "The specialists soon fix us up nowadays, and. get us to our own homes, where a complete cure is soon effected, although we. have to remain out-patients for some time" % "

Science in relation to clothing is being taken more seriously. A leading shoe store in Dunedin has installed a pedoscope, which is the trade name of an X-ray outfit for ,shoe fitting. The installation is not only a novelty, but also a decided adjunct to service. The stand is taken by the purchaser, and i the machine is set into operation, Under a stand a fan keeps the 230-voH light cool. Looking down through the screen, the buyer sees his feet X-rayed. He knows whether 1 his shoes are of the correct fit and incidentally whether his feet are in anyway deformed by badfittintr shoes of the past. The pedoscopehas to be carefully operated so that no client will be! burnt by the rays'. At no time can the machine be operated longer than 30sec, and no patron of the store will b<j able to have mom than eight minutes' X-ray within 14 days. The Xray can also be seen by ■ the salesman and another, as three views are obtain- ] able. There are onlv two such machines j in New Zealand, the other being in Auckland,

Ten surname?' alone-in'Britain 3ate . scared by no fewer than 2,293,600 of it?A inhabitants. There are 530,000 Smithfe I 204,000 J. Smiths, 420,000 Jones, 320=000 Browns, 235.80 Q Taylors, 180,000 Davies, 158,000-Wilsons, 122,400 Walkers,: 120.000 Morrises, 108,000 Wrights; 90,000 Coopers. Even the rarest names are not unique, as the following examples prove : Beetle 150, Coffee 54, Bernard Shaw 30; Tea 12, Fido 435, Bread 3, Gotobed 426. The road repairing methods of the Otago surfacemen are much superior to those in vogue in Southland according to an .Invercargill motorist .who has jus% returned from a trip in the - northern province. When the pot-hole*'have been filled in. he states; the metal is given a coating of dried grass or any.refuse from tha side of the .roads. This acts as a binder for the metal, with "the: result that it is hot scooped out-immediately a car passes over it.

Due no doubt to Qie prevalence of troubla in • industrial circles lately, farmers have been, stating! the. opinion that the abolition Of the, Arbitrafion Court would remove the source of trouble, and among 'those voicing this opinion on • the : question recently were the directors of the Apiti Dairy Co., j&t a, meeting at which it was. unanimously decided that the-time had arrived 'for the abolition of £he Arbitration Court and the preference to unionists clause. A motion to this effect was tarried.. \H Figures published ■by tlie League of Nations show how important, a part tha "tourist industry", now plays ,Jn the prosperity of the European' nations. It is estima'ted-ihat visitors frofir.'the' UViit? ed States 1 in 1924 spent in .Europe aJbottt" £70,000,000,'-. of, which; Franco reo>ir«d no; less travel, habit is spreadihjg,atid it' is.sate \i& assume that these;figures Trill expand as Vse jybrld settles- ahd normal peace-time conditions' price more prevail." A "Come to Britain" movement has been organised.

A special appeal for donations, towards the fund for the'erection of a new church resulted in an offering totalling £1264 from the "congregation of St. David's Presbyterian Church, Khyber Pas* road. Auckland, on Sunday. An offer of £2OOO was recently riiade by a member of the church on condition that the congregation provided at least £.IOOO. Preprations for the erection of the new kiilding are well advanced, and a tender of £16,000 was recently accepted. The structure will be in brick and concrete, and the main hall will have a seating capacity of 560. •

Durjng their, present tour (says . ail exchange) the members of the Mairi Highways Board have heard a good deal from local deputations about "foreign traffic'' over main-highways. One of the members, Mr. A. E. Jull; told the Waikatp County Council, however, that theret was at least one road in New Zealand over which no '.'foreign traffic*' passed. This was on the East Coast, at one place on which there is a five-mile stretch of good road, but, owing to an unbridged river at one end aiid a mountain at the ; other, nothing■'■ "foreign'* could get on to it, and .the only motorcar there had been landed from a boat. '

.1 Attention was drawn some days, ago ,by s? correspondent to a Wellington paper to the hours worked by nurses in private., hospitals, it being stated that they average about 65 per week. In reply" to this a member of the Wellington Trained Nurses' Association has stated; that her hours averaged more like'&4 per week. The rules of the association state that a nurse is to have eight hours' rest, and two hours at least daily for exercise, when the the patient ,can conveniently be left. Frequently, it. is added, the patient cannot conveniently be left, and the nurse's hours expand to from 12 a day upwards. '"•,". . X \ Much interest in New Zealand is manifVfested by persons in other countries wjio have,, as it were, just discovered it. Am article in the influential Italian journal "La Stampa" by Signer Arnaldo Cipolla, an Italian journalist who toured the Dominion several mpiitlia ago; has drawn the attention ofjfltalian business men to New Zealand. Delighted with. this country, Signor Cipolla describes its natural beauties, proUne the 'quantity of exports and trade,'social and economic conditions, sports, and attractions, and lays special stress upon, the ■* general prosperity of its citistens, dealing specially with the satisfactory state of. Savings Bank deposits and tjie beneficent activities of the State Advances Department. A tribute is paid to the educational system, and to the press pf the Dominion. Much of the information was supplied by the Argentine ConsulGeneral in Wellington, Seaor Bidone, a fellow-linguist, and as a consequence Senor Bidone by the last mail received a budget of inquiries from those anxious to establish business., connections or visit the country. .