NEWS IN BRIEF.

Thames Star, Volume LXI, Issue 16277, 22 January 1927, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Bow Bells. The famous Bow Bells, which recalled Dick Whittington to London, are silent owing to a defect in the tenor hell which makes ringing impossible. Tlie church itself shows signs of decay. It was badly shaken by the Silverton explosion during the war, and the walls and now cracking. The rector says £IO,OOO is needd to save the church and the bells, and unless this is forthcoming the hells will never be heard again. Paradise for Fish.

During the past couple of weeks, and continuing at present, there has been a remarkable congestion of ka nuwa at the mouth of the Tula Tuki river at Clive Grange, near Napier, says a Hawke’s Bay paper, and fishermen have been living in an unex- i pected paradise, although owing to tlie great number of fish .there has not been a great deal of sport afforded in catching them. The fish are there in thousands, all in a limited area, and so dense are they that their fins can he seen above the water, and a favourite pastime is to stone the fish from the bank. A miss is almost impossible, and when a. fish is stunned it is not a hard task to get it out of the water. Some idea of how thickly the fish are gathered may be judged from the fact that several ingenious lads have devised a three-pointed harpoon This is simply thrown in amongst the fish and it is seldom that the harpoon is brought to shore' without at least one fish “jagged” on it. Some great catches have been recorded, one fisherman bagging 210 fish in a day, whilst on Saturday afternoon two hoys with a small net brought in 29 fish in one haul. The shoal during the past two welts has not moved more than a few yards.

They Lost Faith. A group of farmers in a certain district on the Hauraki Plains are not now as enthusiastic about the advantages of Avireless as formerly (states the Gazette). When they had to depend on the newspapers for the weather forecast it A\*as seldom read, but, Avith hearing it broadcast a.t 9 o’clock every evening, they have come to work their plan accordingly. The cutting of hay was therefore deferred owing to forecasts of rain, which did not CA r entnate, and the hay was cut- in spite of the warning.

A Good Story. A stood story is being told round Geraldine. A certain business man, who had been persuaded by a hospitable farmer to stop to tea, was led into a bathroom, which avus somewhat dark, to do his toiiet. While there, the fair dame of the house crept silently in and bestowed a large kiss on his cheek with the words, “Harold, dear, Ave’ve no meat in the house.’’ We have not yet heard the end of the story. Amusing.

An amusing incident in his -early days as an actor was recalled by Mr. Maurice MoscoA’itch, the Russian actor, when chatting with a representative of the Press, last week. “In one play,” lie said. “I had to Aveep over the photograph of a very beautiful girl, and when I took out the protograph the propertyman had given me, I found that it Avaa one of a prize-fighter stripped to the Avaist.”

Putting a “Tag” on Him. The municipality of Zurich, in Switzerland, has rejected the demand of a well-known Communist member of the State Council Avho wished to register his newly-born son under the name of “Lenin.” The leason given by the authorities for the refusal is that the father has no right thus to express his political opinions which may prove prejudicial to his sou’s career.

Cars for Hire. NeAv Zealand will shortly have a new form of transportation, according to Major H. A. Yagle, of the United States, AA T hp is at present visiting Wellington. This neAv form of transportation, lie explained, will embrace a system of automobiles for rent, driven by the renter, for Avhich the user pays only for the service used. Major Yagle stated that this system had spread to more than 300 cities in the United States and Canada, and that the service was being used by millions of persons yearly, both in business and for pleasure.

Cow Gored by a Bull. An occurrence which, so ‘ far as my experience goes, is unique, took place on a farm on the Normanby road a feiv days ago. Avlien a cow died through being gored by a bull (writes the Okaiawa correspondent of the HaAA r era Star) The cow had only the two punctures through which the hull’s horns had penetrated, but evidently they were in a vital spot, as she died in a few minutes. As is Usually the case, when an animal is killed or dies a natural death, the cow was one of the best in the herd. The incident is another argument in "avour of dehorning.