LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6545, 18 November 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr L/ Andrews, F.S.M.C., eye specialist, may be consulted on Saturday) November 29th, at Mr C. W. Pierson’s, chemist.-

The improvement in British trade for October is shown in the Board of

Trade returns. The imports total £120,488,000, and exports £68,586,000, increases of £19,563,000 and £5,303,„000 respectively, compared with September. ; ■

' . y ' . , “You have the lowest birthrate in the world in New Zealand,” remarked Dr. Vaughan during his lecture in the Municipal Theatre at Inyercargill. “In America we’re trying to catch up you, but you keep forging ahead and beating, your own records.”

Seven thousand men were employed on public works during September. This is .a record tin the history of the Department. Jn addition, there were many men engaged on contracts under the Department—the construction of the Arapuni works and a section ,qf the East Coast railway.

“Some local bodies in Taranaki pay people to drive ayvay .visitors .from their towns; instead of encouraging trade by welcoming motorists, to their their streets they send them' away by all kinds of irritating by-laws,” said Mr Gordon Fraser in an address to the Waitarp Chamber of Commerce.

A resident of Gore recently wrote to a Melbourne'firm anent some engines in which it dealt,. remarks the “Ensign.” He has now received a reply in which the following illuminating and frank passage occurs: “We regret that we do practically nd business with New Zealand, and do not know the financial standing of any firms over there. As a matter of fact we do notv know where Gore is.”

The unsightly appearance presented by empty benzine tins on the roadside prompted the Manawatu County Council some time ago to decide to prosecute' offenders in this respect. At a recent .meeting of the council it was reported that the decision appeared to have had little effect, as fresh tins were to be seen along the roads. In reply to a question the traffic inspector (Mr Barry) said that he had not caught anybody yet.'

THE germs of Colds—Catarrhand Influenza are having a great time—fight them with Nazol.

Within the last eighteen months the rental values of eligible shops in the principal Dunedin thoroughfares have appreciably risen (says the “Star”). One of our leading agents computes the advance to have now reached about 50 per cent, by comparison with the rentals of two years ago. The increase in the number of shops is quite remarkable. They are spreaing in all directions, supplanting residences in several parts of the city and appearing on new sites in the suburbs. \

The value of sleep •to brain-workers cannot be exaggerated. In a recent lecture Dr. Malins said that the bi'ain requires 12 hours of sleep at four years, gradually diminishing by hours and half-hours to 10 hours at 14, and thence to 8 hours when the body is full-grown and formed. Goethe, in his most active production period, needed 9 hours and took them. Kant —the most laborious of students — was strict in never taking less than 7. Nor does it appear, that those who have systematically tried to chief nature of this chief right have been, in any sense, gainers of time for their work. It may be a paradox, but it is not the less a truth, that what is given to sleep is gained to labour.

Why is the stealing of motor cars so common? At the Darlinghurst (Victoria) Sessions, {he Crown Prosecutor (Mr L. J. McKean), speaking for the police, said that there was a belief abroad that some owners, who had not been able ;to keep up their payments on time-payment cars, encouraged thefts.so that Would be able, to claim the insurance money. Judge Holm said that perhaps the number of thefts would be reduced if the insurance companies refused to insure motor cars unlesS they had an understanding, from the owners that when left unattended in the streets, the cars would be securely locked. He refused to believe that some means could not be found of locking the mechanism.

The unique experience of being conducted by a murderer over a large American prison befell Mr Mainland Foster, of Gisborne, during recent visit to California. “On a visit to the San: Quentin /prison,” said Mr Foster, “I was met by a polished and cultured yound man and conducted' over the finger print department, in which there are hundreds of volumes of records of crminals’ finger prints, from the greatest to the smallest! Every phase of this branch of prison work was explained to me by this young man,, after visiting the other portion of the prison, and, as I was leaving, the young man explained that he was a murderer vsio was sentenced to death .but was repreved and sentenced to life imprisonment. He said he would never get outside the. prison walls, and would rather have died.”

There is onq humane and certain way (writes a correspondent of the Guardian”) of stopping (or at least Of interrupting) a dog fight. If a puff of air either from the mouth, or, say a handy bicycle pump, be directed into one ear of the dog with the effective grip a separation will instantly take place, and perhaps the combatants may be kept from further mischief. The Simple treatment will cause any dog to drop from his mouth a stick or bone, or even to loosen his grip on a foe. The best way to stop a dog fight (says Mr Jerome Kv Jerome in the “Daily News”) is to throw your coat, cloak, or shawl over the dogs’ heads. In nine cases out of ten the sudden darkness startles them into letting go. Then seize your own dog, with the coat still round his head. He will strugle violently. You must hold on tight. The other dog will dance round for a while and then cool down.

“Some of you who are familiar with that wonderful old book ‘Aesop’s Fables,’ may possibly remember the fable of the oak tree and the reeds: A verydarge oak tree was torn up by the roots, and fell beside a bed of reeds. It said to the reeds: ‘How.is it that you who are so weak and tender escape these terrible gales?’ ‘Ah,’ said the reeds, ‘you, trusting in your great strength, fought against the winds of heaven, and thus you are destroyed. We who are weak and slender bend down before every breeze and thus we escape injury.’ That fable is said to have been written 60Q years before the birth of Christ. I feel sure that could the great Aesop be with us to-day I should have at least one adherent to my views, for the oak tree typifies the time-honoured, but, in my opinion, mistaken and mischievous methods of endeavouring to protect the banks of the river; the reeds typify those which I am endeavouring to place before you.”—Mr C. J. Monro in; bis address to the Palmerston North Lunch Club on “How to deal with the Manawatu River.”