LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17764, 11 December 1929, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A reminder is given that an A.A.A. patrol will be at White’s Garage today and to-morrow to adjust members’ cars’ headlights. A building permit was granted to Mr. Johnson, of Te Aroha, for a cottage at Tapu, by the Thames County Council at its meeting yesterday.

Kippers are now being sold at Hom,e without bones, which are extracted by a special machine which draws the 2500 bones from a herring in l^secs.

Tn pursuance of the Shell Co. of N.Z., Ltd’s policy of assisting the “Safety First” movement by educational means, at has distributed a little over quarter of a million of blotters to the various, schools throughout New Zealand containing useful advice on t ' t ‘Unfoixr -TMraf. -v -

Commencing at 10 a.m. to-morrow, Bishop Cfeary’s memorial service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral will he broadcasted from IYA.

A Belgian student was relating his experience in studying English. “When I discovered that if I was quick I was fast, that if I was tied I was fast, that if T spent my money too freely I was fast, and that not to eat was to fast, l was discouraged. But when I came across the sentence: ‘The first one won one one-pound prize,’ I gave up trying to learn the English language at all.”

Excellent prizes have been donated for the euchre party to be held in the Miners’ Union Hall to-morrow evening in aid of the Sports Queen. The committee has made every possible arrangement for the comfort and convenience of and it is expected that some of the prizes will cause a great deal of merriment.

A reminder is given of the pleasant little dance which is to be held in the Fire Station on Saturday evening in a : d of the Sports Queen in the Waiomo Queen .Carnival./ Excellent music has been arranged for and the committee is going out of its way to ensure that patrons, will have the best of jolly times. At the dance the public decision in the “Popular Girl Contest” will be announced and many novelty items will . undoubtedly add to the gaiety of the evening.

During a discussion on the value of insurance policies covering A. and P. shows, at a meeting of the Matamafca executive, a member related that a man having taken oht a death policy read the conditions on the back aVid found that tuberculosis, miner’s pthisis, consumption, galloping diabetes and so many other diseases were excepted that he asked the agent if there was any disease he could die of. “Well,” replied the agept, “if there is it has been overlooked.” (Laughter.)

The latest Abstract of Statistics issued by the Government shows that for the first eight months of the current year, Gisborne has the lowest death rate of Dominion cities, the figures being 7.66 per 1000 of population as compared with 7.97 at Timaru, 8.76 at Auckland, 9.05 at Wellington, 8.87 at Christchurch. 9.46 at Dunedin, 8.79 at Hamilton. 9.67 at Napier. 9.20 at Hastings. 9.7 at New Blvmouth, 8 40 at Wanganui. 8.6 2at Palmerston North. 12.261 at Nelson, and 10.12 at Invercargill.

Til© Womens’ National Reserve gave the inmates of the Old People’s Homes a treat the other day by *£ving them a motor-car ride out in the country. There were five car loads and they were taken as far as Hikutaia. It was an eye-opener for the old people, who had not been in the countrv for a long time and the fine appearance of the pastures caused them much delight. The old people were afterwards entertained at tea at the Homes by the Reserve, who deserve great credit for their unselfish action.

The Scots Yeark Book contains the following sketch of the Premier, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald:— “MacDonald’s face is athletic, >not ascetic; it belongs to the constructive, not to the critical type; the combination of brow and jaw indicates that in him the intellectual dominates the instinctive purpose masters impulse; the face is that of an egotist, but not of a self-satisfied egotist; MacDonald is of those who give rather than take; .... he is not a

self-immolating Tolstoyan, but a fighter. Admittedly, he is without arrogance, and with much charm, neverthe less domineering $ he wants loyalty rather than comradeship, and his aloofness hurts—qualities, these last, on the debit side of a ledger.”

One of the disadvantages of wireless breadcasting is the fact that the microphone occasionally picks up more than it is intended to. Not such a long while ago, when an Australian airman was landing in a hack-country town after a memorable flight, elaborate preparations were made to broadcast the reception. The “mike” was placed on a lorry, used also as a platform by the speakers. The populace knew little of microphone mechanics, and listenersin throughout Australia were regaled with a conversation, ruddy with tynical Australian idiom, between two sons of the soil who leant against a front wheel and spoke their minds in things in general. Tom Heeney once electrified Wellington listeners-in with his views on Shakespeare. Thomas being bliss-> fully unaware that his audience was any larger than the few people in the room.