NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

An eel weighing 13£lb. was caught by a young schoolboy, H. Lawson, in the creek which runs behind his home in Rata Street, Inglewood. Ducklings have often had their legs bitten off by eels in this creek.

“History is not the doings of the great men of a country,” said Mrs. Paterson, Dominion president of the Women’s Institute Federation, at the Taranaki council’s annual conference at Inglewood yesterday. “It. is made up of the doings and thoughts of every man and woman throughout the generations.” “Although Sister Corkill has resigned and there is no immediate prospect of having a nurse appointed to succeed her,” said Archdeacon G. H. Gavin, president, at the annual meeting of the New Plymouth branch of the Red Cross Society last night, “we have decided to carry on with the work. One or two trained nurses at New Plymouth have volunteered to go on with the work until a nurse has been appointed. It is extraordinarily good of them.” Visitors to the forthcoming races at Hawera are being well catered for in the matter of special trains and cheap fares. Particulars will be found in the advertising columns.* Two and three-year-old Jersey heifers will be a feature of the Urenui sale to be held on Monday, which includes in addition a wide selection of cattle sheep.

“A statesman must know not only political history, but history in the full sense of the term,” said Dr. J. Hight at a meeting of the Historical Association in Christchurch. He declared that the statesman had to deal with all aspects of man's life, including love, religion and finance, and that it was no longer possible for the statesman to regard history in the old narrow sense of past politics. It was the whole life of man.

The first example of a school text book in history appeared in 1505, and it was not until 1630 that the first special teachers of history were assigned to schools. These facts were given by Dr. J. Hight when he addressed members of the Historical Association at Christchurch last week. The speaker* pointed out that the teaching %f history was a development of a recent period in the development of man.

Fire! A street alarm box roused the New Plymouth fire station to instant action shortly before 8 o’clock last night. The brigadesmen rushed to the corner of Powderham and Brougham Streets prepared to fight a conflagration. They found a smell of burnt rubber. The fact was that when a woman driver stopped her 5-seater tourer in Powderham Street outside the Salvation Army hall, she noticed an incipient fire issuing from the back of the engine. _ A passer-by (gave the alarm and, acting promptly, removed the fire before the brigade arrived. The wire connecting the switch and the horn had ignited and he removed it.

In the course of an address on travel in Wellington lately, Mr. Marcus Marks took what he said was his first opportunity of joining issue with Mr. Bernard Shaw on New Zealanders use the word “Home” - for Great Britain. “Bernard Shaw sort of, sneered and ridiculed the idea that we should call England ‘Home,’ ” said Mr. Marks. “Are we to have no sentiment at all for the land of our fathers? I entirely disagree with him. We are not taught to call it Home—it is intuitive. You call it Home because it is ingrained and bom in you. It is not a parrot cry or habit that makes us call England Home, but that wonderful instinct and affection for the dear old land.”

The sunspot mentioned in the cable news on Monday as the first prominent member of the solar cycle of activity which is just beginning, has been observed at a private observatory, in Auckland. The spot was of the “regular” type, almost perfectly round, with the deep black umbra surrounded by a penumbra of lighter shade extending to twice the diameter of the central portion. Some distance* away a minute sunspot was in sharp contrast. The spot is not a remarkably large one, but the fact that it is the first of average size that has been seen for a considerable time gives it added importance.

Wishing to present used air mail stamps to his sons, a Dunedin resident wrote to a friend in Australia a few weeks ago, sending a shilling’s worth of Australian stamps, and asking that two air mail stamps be purchased and attached to envelopes addressed back to New Zealand. It was intended that these envelopes should cross the Tasman in the Faith in Australia. Th® Dunedin man was greatly surprised when he received a note from his Australian friend stating that he was only too pleased to do a.good turn, and had therefore enclosed the air mail stamps in his letter, because the air mail might never reach New Zealand.

Reference was recently made to an operation which was performed in Auckland for the removal of a piece of shrapnel which had lodged in a man’s hip as a result of a war injury eighteen years ago. A more remarkable case occurred in Wellington towards the end of last year. Mr. F. L. Stewart, of Northland, received a head wound while serving on the Somme in 1916, and as a result of the injury he lost one of his eyes. Last year he consulted a well-known Wellington doctor, suffering apparently from chronic nasal trouble. An X-ray examination revealed a piece of metal lodged in a nasal cavity on the inner side of the socket from which the eye had been taken out. The foreign body was removed by an operation through the jaw, and it proved to be a piece of a high explosive shell which had been in Mr. Stewart’s head for eighteen years.

Sleep may be beloved from pole to pole, but one Whakamasa resident has no great affection for it. Recently a “swagger” asked him for work, and he showed the man a patch of gorse that needed grubbing. “How long will it take?” queried the farmer, and the swagger’s estimate was three or four days. During the third day the farmer, who had been providing the man with board and lodging, decided to inspect the gorse patch, and made a trip to it. He found that very little had been cut, and he could see no sign of his employee. Eventually he discovered the swagger sleeping soundly in the sunshine. At first he thought of immediately taking corporal revenge on him, but decided to wait until the man awoke, surprise him, and send him from the farm. The sunshine was bright and soothing to the temper; the farmer nodded, dozed. Some hours later he woke to find the swagger had made a wise and silent departure. Duck shooters from Wellington will be bereft of their chief gathering place on May 1, the opening of the shooting season, as Lake Wairarapa has been closed for the season. If the lake had not been closed by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society settlers would have prevented people shooting over their properties, which cover the greater portion of its shore, the only part of the lake that would have remained open being the Crown lands portion. The fact that the only other shooting areas closed are in the Arahuri (Palmerston North) district, will no doubt conduce to a great gathering of duck on the unmolested Lake Wairarapa, while the smaller scattered lagoons in other parts of the district, which are not closed, will probably be visited by fewer birds this season. It is a very general opinion that, in order to preserve the sport, the closing of the lake is a sound move. Public tenders advertisements appear on page 12, and trespass notices on page 2.

With the object of discussing the position of the dairying industry a meeting of coastal farmers has been convened at Pungarehu on Tuesday evening by Messrs. P. Brophy (chairman of the Cape Egmont Dairy Co.), J. Young (chairman of the Oaonui Dairy Company), and G. Gibson (a director of the Rahotu Dairy Co.). Mr. W. C. Green, ward representative on the Dairy Produce Board, will address the meeting*

Special values in new season s goods are featured by Morey's Ltd. on page 18 of this issue. This season's stocks are larger than ever and well selected and most reasonably priced to meet the times.*

Scanlan’s fine stock of ladies’ Winter Coats has been further augmented by the purchase of a range of London manufacturers’ samples at very attractive prices. Scanlan’s Coats this season have had a remarkable vogue, the firm’s buyers having evidently selected the right styles and fabrics for present day demand.*

The guessing competition for a fireside chair conducted in connection with the Poppy Day appeal in North Taranaki was won by Mrs. Farlay.

A dance and euchre party will be held at Okato bn May 11. Stewart Gordon, the blind musician, will be heard in solo and orchestral numbers.

The drawing of the “Lucky Cat” art union will take place in the Town Hall Concert Chamber, Wellington, on Tuesday, May 1, 1934, commencing at 9 aan.