LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Age, 17 November 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

There is at present not a single acre in vineyard in the Wairarapa.

A party of Mastertonians made the ascent of Mt. Houldsworth yesterday.

Several officers in the Masterton office of the Defence Department aro shortly to bo retired. A distinct ffall in the temperature occurred in Masterton on Sunday, and intermittent showers of rain fell.

A Sydney cable states that the Mahono has arrived, aad that j;ho Makura sailed at two o 'clock on Saturday for Auckland. An Auckland telegram states that the transport Arawa had. an uneventful voyage, except that on October 1 a soldier was lost overboard.

The total area in commercial orchards in the Wairarapa in the 191819 season was as follows:—Masterton County, 32 acres; Wairarapa South, two acres; Featherston, 113 acres. Tho plantations in the Wairarapa are as follows: —Featherston County, 1409 acres; Wairarapa. South, 132; Masterton, 415; Mau.riceville, 22; Eketahuna, 58; Castlepoint, 169. A meeting of ratepayers at Marton Junction decided on ! Tuesday to amalgamate with Marton. Borough, and steps aro being taken to arrange boundaries for the proposed now borough. A Dunedin telegram states that the Union Company's now freighter Kaiwarra leaves Adelaide on Tuesday with a cargo of phosphates and salt for Lyttclton and Wellington. The Atua left Suva on Thursday night direct for Auckland with a full cargo of sugar. It is interesting to rioto that the present Prime Minister of England, Mr. Lloyd George, was appointed on February 13, 1903, by Sir Kobert Stout, Chief Justice of JNew Zealand, a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of New Zealand under the Commissioners of Supremo Court Act, for the purpose of taking oaths in England.

While one of Mr. A. D. McLcod's young sons was watching the Martinborough school children batho in the Ruamahanga Rivor last week, he was bitten by what is believed to have been a katipo. His condition for some days was most alarming, his temperature being' at one timo 106, but the young sufferer is now reported to be improving.

A good story was related at the Supreme Court at Palmerston North last week by Mr. Justice Chapman during the hearing of an appeal arising out of the decision in a case previously heard in Woodville, in which a dog had been run over and killed by a motor car. Counsel were wrestling verbally with the point at •issue, as to whether the driver had been guilty of negligence, when His Honour intercepted. Many years ago, said His Honour, a case was heard before a Magistrate in which a vehicle had come into contact with a cow on a* narrow road on a hill abutting the sea, and had knocked the bovine down into the water. The. animal was drowned, and p, compensation claimed on the grounds of negligent driving. After hearing the evidence, the Magistrate non-suited the plaintiff, holding that the cow, .having been on the wrong side of the road, was guilty of contributory negligence.

A sensational incident occurred on the Avenue, Wanganui, recently, when two men , came tumbling down staiYs from a billiard saloon, one excitedly accusing the other of having robbed him of £75, which sum was contained in a roll of notes which the owner vowed he had put in his pocket only a few minutes previously. The irate accused vehemently protested his innocence before the police and a crowd, who had quickly gathered, and the accuser as forcibly demamded that the accused should be taken to the police station and searched. The latter suggested that the operation should first be performed on his accuser, who thereupon again felt his pockets, and plunged one of his hands down a trouser leg, where, sure enough, the notes had been slipped in mistake for a pocket. Profuse apologies were forthcoming, it is needless to say.

A pitiable case came beforo Mr. Fisher, J.P., at Foilding on Wednesday morning, a small nine-year-old boy, the son of a Wellington wharf labourer, who stole the sum of £lO 10s froni a drawer in liis mother's room, a now bicycle, which he booked and bought a railway ticket to Feilding, and landed thero by the Main Trunk train 011 Tuesday afternoon, having been arrested by the police and brought before the Court. The Star states that the lad, in appearance, was a iniscrnblo little fellow, bare-legged and in slum-like clothing—a typical city gainin, grimed with dirt. That thero was keen intelligence and a remarkable memory behind his dirty, pasty face was proved by the details ho supplied to Sergeant Cahill. He accounted not only for every penny, but even for a lialfponny spent—his totals tallied, and thero was actually a halfpenny change in his pocket to make the tally. The lad was sent to SPellingtoa be dealt with. _