News in Brief

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 335, 30 January 1932, Page 8

News in Brief

Burden of Hospital Levies. The Waipa County Council has decided to ask the president of the Rural Counties’ Association to convene a meeting of the association to consider hospital levies. It was claimed that the present system of hospital levies was unfair, and the cost of maintenance should be borne either out of the Consolidated Fund or by some method that would relieve the landholder of what was now a burden that became more oppressive every year. 3 M School Record Claimed. An Australian and perhaps a world record in school attendances is claimed for , the Moores family, of Coonamble, ‘New' South Wales. The five children of Mr and Mrs Con Moores have never missed even a half-day in their lives. Their attendance at school aggregates thirty-four years, and, with an average of 200 school days a year, they have to their credit 6800 days without a break. Three of‘the five have left school. Their terms were:—Juli, ten years; Courtney, eight years; and Victor, six years. The two still attending school are:—Nellie, seven years; and Cornelius, three years. Millionaire’s Hobby. An amusing incident was observed at Banff by Mr E. R. Guinness, who returned recently from, a tour of Canada and England, states the “ Auckland Star.” Mr Guinness had finished a round of golf at Banff Spring, and was passing the first tee on his way back to the clubhouse, when he noticed a man carrying a large bow and a quiver full of arrows on the tee. The man fitted a shaft to his bow and shot it well over a hundred yards down the fairway. On returning to the clubhouse, Mr Guinness asked a spectator if the man was sane. “ Sane,” replied the individual, “ sure, he’s sane—he’s a millionaire!’’ Mr Guinness said he discovered that it was quite a hobby in America to shoot one’s way round a links, and it appeared that millionaires were partial to it. Home-grown Tobacco. Tobacco is being grown in many gardens in Wanganui and district this season. One tradesman remarked that it was a sign of the times, and was practically the same as people _ making their own home-made brew. His firm had sold thousands of tobacco plants this season. A customer called early in the season and asked to be supplied with some young tobacco plants. . The firm raised a good supply of plants in boxes, and they were all sold, the buyers evidently intending to try growing their own tobacco. In the Auckland district the tobacco plant is not cultivated extensively on a large scale, although the head of one company said there were many suitable areas. He considered that tobacco required a poorer type of land, well treated, similar to strawberry land. On the richer soils it had a tendency to continue growing until too late in the summer, so that it did not ripen off thoroughly. There were at least a hundred small growers in the South Island, he said. One disadvantage in the Dominion was the fact that the sunshine was not as drying as in the tobacco belts of America, and was affected by the nearness of the sea.

Pepys’ Diary. November 9th, 1664. To White Hall, and there the King being in his Cabinet Council I was called in, and demanded by the King himself many questions, to which 1 did give him full answers. There were at this Council my Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Treasurer, the two Secretarys, and Sir G. Carteret. Not a little contented at this chance of being made known to these persons, and called often by my name by the King.