LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19504, 4 February 1926, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

An inquest on the death of the child Albert Thomas Bish, who was fatally scalded at Aramoho on Tuesday, will be conducted at 10 a.m. to-day.

The hay crops in the. Feilding district this year are much lighter than last, owing to the exceptionally dry winds that have been experienced.

Chrysler and Oakland motor cars, driven by Messrs Roberts and Halligan respectively, figured in a collision at the corner of Dublin Street and Wicksteed Street on Tuesday evening. Both the cars were damaged.

The Hon. F. J. Rolleston, Minister of Justice, states that it is not intended to make a permanent appointment immediately to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Mr M. Hawkins, Chief Inspector of Prisons. The position will be temporarily filled by Mr B. L. Dallard, Inspector to the Public Service Commissioner’s office.

Californian thistle is reported to be spreading in the Rangitikei district. Isolated patches of the noxious weed have made their appearance on many farms in the district, while at Bonny Glen a fine crop is in full bloom. Farmers would be well advised to mow down the thistle before the seeds are disseminated by the winds.

A South Taranaki farmer, who has been experimenting with lucerne and concentrates during the dry season, remarked to a reporter yesterday that pastures had come away to such a remarkable extent as a result of the warm rains that stock would not look at his special food. The conditions prevailing in the Taranaki district at the present time were more like spring weather than anything else.

“I find on my travels I am worried with the language question,’’ said Commissioner D. Lamb, of the Salvation Army, speaking at Auckland. “For fnstance in New Zealand we motored to one part and they said it was dry. I did not know whether there was a drought or whether there was no liquor. In America a grafter is one who does not work, but in Australia, we find that a grafter takes his coat off to earn his living.’’ *

Tn a maintenance case against a Syrian named Gabriel Sasien, at Palmerston North, the local magistrate refused to accept a doctor’s certificate. He said: “Sasien comes here time after time, always in bandages or with something else wrong with him, and says he can’t pay £1 a week for three children. He is shamming illness. I won’t have a medical certificate. Bring your doctor here and let him be cross-exam-ined.” The case was adjourned.

The road from Raetihi to Taihapc, through the Karioi plains, is at present being graded, and is in better order than it has been for a long time. Nevertheless heavy rain soon plays up with the road, the surface for many miles being innocent of metal. Nearer Taihape the metalled portion is in good order, and from Taihapc to Marton the only bad stretch is on the hill road between Taihapc and Mangaweka.

A canvasser who operated in rural districts round Wanganui recently left very little to chance. Interviewing farmers while they were ■working, he had with him cheque books on four different banks, so that the excuse, “I haven’t ray chequebook,” rarely caught him napping. If a farmer said he was too hard up to be interested, the canvasser was willing to assist. No selfrespecting farmer could withstand such obliging solicitations, and the philanthropist did a lot of business.

To find a gold ring in a loaf of bread was the unusual experience of an Ashburton resident the other day. Realising that it must have fallen into the dough in the bakehouse, there being little chance of it having previously been in the flour, he took it to the baker’s shop where he had purchased the loaf. Here it was claimed by a young man who had been unable to account for its disappearance. It probably slipped off his finger while he was mixing the dough.

If detectives do not soon discover the identity of the person who abandoned a two-weeks-old baby girl in an outhouse on unoccupied premises in Waltham Road, Christchurch, the little mite will be given a ready-made name, and will be committed to the Receiving Home (says the Lyttelton “Times.”) “She’s a bonnie little kiddie, and she’s getting along fine,” said the matron of the Essex Home, where the child has been since she was found cold and shivering. Chief Detective Gibson said that no clue had been found as to the identity of the child’s mother. The baby will be kept at the home for a week or two longer, and then, if her parents are not forthcoming, one of the Christchurch magistrates will give her a name, and she will find a home in one of the Government institutions that are provided for unwanted mites. As the story was related by a railway man, no apology is made for its presentation (says the “ Waikato Times”). With a view to keeping a check on the speed at which drivers were taking the Limited over the various portions of the journey from Auckland to Wellington, a speedometer of the tape variety was recently installed in the guard’s van. After the arrival of one of the trains at its destination the “man in the cab” was brought before some of the officials at head office, when the speed was the subject of test. As the automatic tape was unwound to the extend of yards and yards, everything was going off favourably until 50 miles per hour was shown at the period when the train was standing at the Marton platform. It is almost needless to remark that that automatic tape tester has been relegated to the scrap heap. A strong contingent of Wanganui athletes journeyed to Hawera last evening to complete against and see the American visitors, J. V. Scholz (sprints) and Lloyd Hahn (distances). The local competitors proved successful on the evening, and secured places in all the principal events. Scholz won the 100 yards handicap in even time, and Rosser (9yds) and Rusden (Byds), both of Wanganui, filled the second and third places respectively. Scholz also pulled off the 220 yards, doing the distance in 22 l-ssec.‘ Again Rosser ran into second place, with Tomens (Patea) third. Hahn carried off the 880 yards in 1.56 l-ssec—l 3-ssec. short of the N.Z. record held by D. A. Leathern, South Africa. C. Gilmour, New Plymouth (25 yards) was second. Maitland, Wanganui( 10yds) ran a great race in the 440 and beat Hahn by three yards. The time was 50 4-5.