LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17763, 10 December 1929, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The new Health Stamp will be on sale at the Post Office to-morrow.

A reminder is given of the Novelty Dance Club's dance at the Miners' Union Hall this evening.

Do your Christmas shopping early and do it in your own time! This is counsel to which everyone should be prepared to hearken at this time- of the year. "I resent the question—l don't wish to be interviewed on it," said Mr. J. McCombs, M.P., to a Christehureh Press . reporter regarding the £IOO bonus.

There was a regular stampede in the Vatican City when the new post office was opened, one buyer buying £32,000 worth of stamps. At the conclusion of the meeting of the Hospital Board yesterday the chairman, Mr. Hale, extended the good wishes of the season to the members of the Board and to the Press. Mr. J. W. Danby responded on behalf of the Board members, and Mr. CrawfordWatson for the Press.

Describing them as "puzzle sums" Mr. J. A. Valentine, 8.A.., ex-senior inspector of schools, in a lecture on Thursday evening commented strongly on seme of the arithmetic questions he had seen in a recent school examination paper. One of them he had not seen for 50' years. They were a "cruelty to the children," and some of the history questions were more than he himself could easily answer.

Several of the girl visitors on the Malolo when the vessel was in Melbourne appeared at the English-speak-ing Union ball wearing evening dress, but with bare legs. As a matter of fact, it was so little obvious that it was detected by only a few of the Melbourne guests. Apparently it is quite a frequent thing for stockings to be discarded in California at ceremonial occasions as well as at sports and pictries, but California is looked upon as being less conventional in such matters than her sister States. Nor is the fahion popular with most of the women passengers on the Malolo.

Tests being'made on the Bendigo goldfield with the Fraser-Hertzian wave ore-finder are proceeding satisfactorily. It is stated that the instruments have demonstrated their capabilities in determining the position of reefs on the south section of the New Red, White and Blue property. Quartz deposits have been located. Some of the ore bodies, it is stated, are of good extent and value. No official details of the discoveries have yet been made available, but the progress of the tests hag, awakened public interest, and investors are hopeful that the new system will bring about a revival of mining on the field.

An unusual method of presenting one of the guests of the evening to the Boy Scouts' concert at New Plymouth was adopted tp introduce Major Sandford. Commissioner D. E. Brown, who was speaking, had just announced that Major Sandford could not be with them for a rew minutes when there was .a loud hail from the door informing the Commissioner that a large box was there addressed to him. Quickly the services of some lusty young scouts were requisitioned and the box., labelled "fragile" and "perishable" deposited en the stage. Hammers were soon forthcoming, the top was; lifted and the whole front fell away, revealing Major Sandford sitting comfortably in the box and cheerily waving to the onlookers. The incident was immensely enjoyed by those present.

The dignity of the law, or at least one sturdy limb of the law, was rudely upset during the cotirse of an advent at the Oreti Beach carnival held at Invercargill last Saturday afternoon. The event wais a motor-cycle race, and the main actors in the miniature drama a "speedster," his mount, the fence surrounding the ground, and, last but not least, a "man in blue," who was standing on the wrong side of that fence. Suddenly there was a skid just in front of the stand, a long wobble, and, when the dust had cleared away, fragments of a motor-cycle clinging to the fence, a startled and excited constable clutching mother earth, and, further away, a dazed and apprehensive rider tenderly picking" himself up. There had been a crash, but, when he had recovered his senses sufficiently, the ex-rider was heard to mutter: "You have nothing on me this time, constable l —but look at my bike!"