GENERAL ITEMS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 83, 13 June 1921, Page 2

GENERAL ITEMS.

A man who wag found sleeping in the cemetery in Symonds .Street, Auckland, and who was charged with being a, rogue and a vagabond, said ho had been told that many persons slept in the cemetery under the Grafton bridge, but that he only found two other people on the night \>n which he occupied these quarters.

With the mining companies offering employment to more skilled miners, the housing problem is becoming very acute at Waihi, and the greatest clliMculty in be : ng experienced in making provision for newcomers, particularly married men. In order to meet the position, the companies have for some time past been purchasing any dwellings available in which mine workers are not housed, but though a number hftve been secured, there is still 'a; marked shortage.

Cutting is evidently taking place in | the building tnide locally (states the Wanganui Herald). A Wanganm builder states that recently he submitted what ho considered a low tender for a building, which would only allow wages to keep his men employed. He was surprised to find that another tender had been sent in considerably below the sum he had quoted. A Waimate (South Island) builder advertises that he i s prepared to erect houses of four rooms for £470, and of five rooms for £6OO

One of the four jurywomen called upon to serve at a fatal accident enquiry in Aberdeen Sheriff Court recently, raised a novel point regarding personal expenses. Coming from a rural district of Aberdeenshire sJie brought two children, whom she said she could not leave at home, having no one to look after them. The children were in court whilst their mother sat in the jury-box. At the close of the cfise the woma.ii claimed travelling allowance, and sustenance for hersef, and asked that the railway fares of the chidren be paid also. The surprised court f'fliviaJs decided against her.

Like Edgar Allan Poe, the Victorian Minister' for Lands (Mr Oman) has a mysterious bird which perches "just above h : K chamber door" (says the Melbourne Argus), He does not like the poet, regard it as a bird of evil omen-in fact, he told members or the Town-pla.nniug Association recently that he and his family had eome to regard It almost as sacred. When he went to his new home at Lismore eleven years ago, Mr Oman said; the birdMa large hawk-cam*, and perched abov e the window. They ban taken their nightly rest together even s -nce, except on such nights a,s Parliamentary duties kept the Minister awry from home.

A return printed in the annual rePort of the New -Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association shows that a total amount of £1,801,883 has been disbursed to soldiers in the shape of financial assistance from the incepiZ ° f J? 16 de P artl »ent to March 20, mi. Tins total was made up as follows :—Loans for business, £1 019'065; furniture, £484,798; tools,'etc!, £-0,486;: grants for unemployment sustenance, £5274; training sustenance £267,3*1; transportation, £4922—and the amounts granted to the various districts were a s under—Auckland, £687,568; Wellington, £088,957; Canterbury, £310.769 : Otago, £214,557.

The following i s taken from the £lobe (London) of Saturday Jayuarj 21st, 1821: "On Thurusday night y. young man, named George Kettering •undertook to stand four hours o n one leg without any other support. The -wlager wag for ten guineas, and decided before a large companv upstairs M the sign of the 'Plough.' i n Ciltspur Street! Bets ran high against him. Even when he hfM stood tn?e« and a half hours in that painful position bets increased to 5 and 6 to i ,against him. When he had' stood in that attitude three and threeqtiartcr hour 8 he became so weak that lie could not .vperk, and it wa s expected every mnute that lie Would give way However, to the' surprise of all ho stood it out, and w; lS the,, carried to his chaar, ho not being able to move understand it i s the greatest task of the kind ever performed.''