NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 55, 11 October 1928, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS

NOTES FROM ALL PARTS. THE DOMINION DAY Ey DAY. HERE. THERE, AND EVERYWHERE The Court Chuckled. A chuckle from the Dunedin Magistrate’s Court; —Counsel (to witness): “Your name?” Witness; “ —.” Counsel; “What are you?’’ Witness (promptly); “Anglican.”

—s— Must Paint the Shed, “I think the list df vice-presidents is getting mthqr large; it doesn’t look too good, you know,” said a member of the Timaru Rowing Club at the annual meeting (reports the Timaru Herald). “There should be some restriction, gentlemen. When is it going to stop ” asked the chairman (Mr D. C. Turnbull). “As soon, as we get the shed painted,” said another m, ember, amidst hearty laughter. —sx— A World Force. , “If the Y.M.O.A, bad originated in England it had found! expression in America, and re-expression in Europe,” declared Mr. J. W. Cook, a leader in the American Y.M.C.A. movement, who was welcomed! at Wellington recently The movement he; said, has spread to 57 different countries, each with its own ideals, expressions, and capacities. Its ramifications were universal, and it was without doubt an institution that was building up a united brotherhood of the whole world. —x — Will Still go Wrong. According to Mr. A. A, Mac Gibbon, a member of the Southland Power Board, the fact of possessing a { cash register is no- guarantee that the cash will always be right (says the Southland Times). In opposing the recommended purchase of cash registers built to specification for the Invercargill and Gore offices of the board Mr .Mao Gibbon remarked; “The money will go wrong whether you've got a cash register or not.” —xx— A Misplaced Adjective. • There are not many “coloured ladies” to be found in New Zealand if by that American term one may refer to the dark-skinned natives of ■Africa and their descendants in the Unted States (says thje Wanganui Chronicle). Tims ia may be assumed that a city like Wanganui their numbers would not be so large as, to necessitate a suburban draper carrying a stock of any particular article of attire for them, yet recently a retailer was overheard ringing up a warehouse to ascertain the whereabouts of an older for some “black ladies’ swimming costumes.” It was not till she heard the astonished gasp of the warehouse manager that the shopkeeper realised that the adjective could have been placed to botter advantage, and referred to the swimming costumes, and not th,e ladies. —xx— The Craze for Fame. Humorous references to the trials and disappointments of artists were made) by his Excellency the GovernorGeneral (Sir Charles Fergusson) at the opening of the New Zealand Academy Exhibition (reports the Wellington Evening Post). His Excellency said he supposed that sometimes just as a golfer smashed his best driver and wondered why he ever took up the game, so artists felt inclined tothrow the palette and brushes across the rjoom. “I believe it is so,” he said, “because I live in close association with two struggling artists.” —Laughter.) Later, His Excellency mentioned criticism, and said that sometimes there was worse than criticism; when there was no criticism or complaint at all. “When I saw a young artist reading this evening’s paper with downcast face I thought ‘the craze for fame, is in us one and all, better be d atoned than mentioned not at all,” he said amidst merriment. —xx— Ragwort Parasite, Some months ago it was decided to release a moth called Tyria Jacobaeae which it* was anticipated, would quickly made an end of ragwort, one of the many weeds cursed by farmers all over the Dominion. But , owing to a report having been received by the Noxious Weed Committee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research that this moth has a penchant for potatoes, the permit the release has not been acted upon. In the meantime, Dr. Miller at the Cawthorn Institute, Nelson, ia making comprehensive trials with 19 varieties of potatoes to discover if the moth really does attack them. It is anticipated, however, that ttiese trials will prove the rumour to bo groundless, it having arisen from the fact that ragwort often grows amongst potatoes, the Tyria when seen around potatoes, being attracted by tire ragwort and not by the. potatoe plants. Dr. Tillyard says that during the recent, summer in Britain, conditions were favourable foil the Tyria and large numbers could be seen, but in no case which ho investigated could thev be found attacking potatoes. H-wever, no risk is to he run in the n. minion, and Tyria Jacobaeae will not he liberated until it is proved that it does not attack potatoes