NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 24, 23 August 1928, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS

NOTES FROM ALL PARTS.

THB DOMINION DAY BY DAY.

HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE

A Good Cancer. "I don't think much of Mr Coates' politics," remarked a lady at the Reform social in Wanganui, "but gee, he's a hang 0 f a good dancer." * * * Nearly "Run In" A well-known local footballer sent the superintendent of the Wanganui Fire Brigade hurrying to duty, one !ev(eni>ig ijbis year, by suiodessfully imitating the siren of a fire-engine. The mimic travelled to New Plymouth with the Wanganui football team during the week-end, and at mid-night on Saturday felt impelled to give Kis war cry. The screech! of the Wanganui fire engines must be entirely different to the New Plymouth machines, for a healthy police* man fixed a suspicious eye on the footballer and enquired, thej reason of the noise.—Chronicle. * # * Poultry industry. "In somjO quarters % am called the pessimistic member of the Cabinet, but sometimes to be an optimist is to be a fool," said. Mr. A. D- McLeod, Minister of Lands, in replying to a deputation of poultry farmers in Christchurch. The Miiv ister said that he had tho rccordi ay between' 10,000 and 11,000 disci) urged soldiers who had been settled on the land! in every branch of farming, and the highest percentage of failures was in the poultry industry. Out of 154 soldiers who had been settled and financed in the poultry industry there had been 62 absolute failures. That, showed that the poultry industry was one that must be assisted if it was going to be enlarged. * * * Electoral Rolls. The Chief Electoral Officer states that the Electoral Act gives the Re" gistrar of Electors authority to authorise any person to witness the signatures "persons applying for registration, as electors. To facilitate the work of the political and licensing organisations. Registrars have hieen instructed that accredited agents of political and licensing organistiona may be given this authority in certain cities and boroughs. Where strfcefb rdukriibersi haYe J beehf" altered' by the municipal authorities, it has been found necessary to make mnn.v adjustments to the rolls, for which purpose letter carriers, by reason oi their local knowledge, have been employed. The Electoral Department is not employing clerks to collect ap plications "for enrolment! * * * Born Sceptics. Remarking that it was |he duty of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to see that all research workers were kept work Jig as one team, Sir John Russell said that every reseai-ch worker wa* a sceptic and an unbeliever. He would not accept the current opinions and practices as being absolutely right, but always suspected that they were 25 per cent, .wrong, and his job was to endeavour to find out where the error was. Results sometimes might be slow in arriving, but they were very valuable when they came. The cost was not anything to worry about. For instance,- the cost of all phospate investigations could easily be paid' for by the increased profits from one year's extra production in New Zealand. * * » Melanesian Mission. Bishop O.M. Steward, Bishop of Melanesia, who has retired owing to ill-health 'returned to Auckland by the. Southern Cross on Sunday night. Re expressed his pleasure at the appointment as his successor of Bishop Molyneux who would leave shortly for the headquarters at Siola in the Solomons and probably appoint an assistant Bishop to carry on the work in the south. He said that the missionary effort load been well repaid by the results. Head bunting and the worst of the savages practises common 20 years ago had disappeared,; (and approximately 10 per cent, of the natives TO the diocese were converts to Christianity. Another passenger by the mission steamer is Rev. A. H. Thomson, oi Mala Solomon Islands, who is to confer with Die New Zealand bishops as a delegate from the mission field.