News in Brief

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 456, 18 May 1932, Page 6

News in Brief

Must Revise Budget. A grave warning that the Otago University Council must revise its budget and curtail expenditure was issued at a meeting yesterday afternoon by Mr L. Deans Ritchie, the honorary treasurer. Speaking with emphasis, Mr Ritchie said it was not honest to continue on their present course under full sail. They were losing £IOOO a year of their income from investments. Many of their rents, amounting to nearly £SOOO, were in arrears, and would have largely to be written off. Next year they could expect a reduction of at least £IOOO in their income from the Training College, and probably in a few’ years’ time there would be no training college at all. Not Like Phar Lap. A novel and highly topical excuse w r as advanced at the Magistrate’s Court at Blenheim by a defendant charged with failing adequately to spray his orchard, or rather, his wife’s orchard. “We run pedigree stud cattle,” he told the magistrate, “ and it is the custom to tie the calves under certain of the trees in the orchard. On that account w r e have to be careful with the spray, for we don’t w r ant them nibbling at sprayed leaves and meeting the same fate as Phar Lap.” “ I’m afraid I know nothing of Phar Lap,” commented Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., in imposing a fine of £2 and costs. Farmer’s Unemployment Levy. “ A fellow on the relief works is better off than I am,” complained an Eketahuna farmer who appeared in the Pahiatua Magistrate’s Court last week charged wdth failure to pay tfie quarterly unemployment levy of ss. It was stated that defendant had not paid the levy since December, 1930. The defendant told the Court that he was a married man and was living on his credit. The magistrate said that the levy was only a small amount and that defendar.** must make an effort to pay. A fine of 10s was imposed. Grocers Defrauded. A ruse which has made its appearance periodically in the past is at present being practised by a woman who has duped a number of shopkeepers in the New’ton district, Auckland, says a northern paper. The woman has a number of grocers and ordered a lengthy list of goods which require some time to parcel. When the grocer has been assembling the goods on the counter she has remarked that she w’ill visit another shop for a small purchase and will then return for the total, adding as an afterthought that she might as well take one or more of the smaller articles with her in a bag or basket. Once she is out of the shop the woman has not subsequently been .seen. A number of complaints have been made to the police. The woman is described as between thirty and thirty-five years old, fairly tall and well built, with a dark complexion and dark eyes. A Dusky Diplomat. An illustration of supreme discretion was given to members of the Napier, Hastings and Gisborne Rotary Clubs by Mr Sydney Pascall, president of Rotary International. Replying to the welcome extended to him by the presidents of the three clubs, Mr PaScall jokingly recalled the plight of the Prince of Wales at a similar function. His Royal Highness, said Mr Pascall, was being welcomed by the chief of a tribe in Africa. The chief spoke at great length, addressing a gathering assembled under a broiling sun. As the minutes passed, the Prince became hotter and hotter, but still the dusky potentate went on. After an hour and a quarter the chief sat down and an interpreter rose to his feet. “ This gentleman was a person of great discretion,” said Mr Pascall. “ He merely got up and said to the Prince: ‘He say he damned glad to see you ’ ”