TOWN AND COUNTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19783, 5 March 1927, Page 2

TOWN AND COUNTRY

ITEMS OF INTEREST The class for home-made, beer at the recent Kaponga show drew several entries, one of which, however, was scarcely the genuine article. Thinking to play a joke, one exhibitor secured a bottle of beer, made by a local brewery, and, after erasing the label, adding a few currants to the liquor and tying the cork down in the approved fashion, entered it in the class for “home-made” beer. His hopes were not realised, however, for his entry won neither first, second nor third placo. Th e well-known “Tipapa” estate, the property of Mr. H. Acton-Adams, situated in North Canterbury, was offered for sale recently in small blocks. This is another of the North Canterbury stations to be subdivided. There was a large attendance at the sale, and, although the terms were particularly easy, no sales were made. Most of the bidding almost reached the reserve placed on each block, but each lot was passed in, A Christchurch angler, Mr. C. Piper, landed a quinnat salmon just over 301 b. in weight on the Waimakariri, near Brooklands, last week-end. Subsequently he brought to land another fish which when cleaned tipped the scale at over 401 b. This is said by Christchurch anglers to be a New Zealand record. An interesting history attaches to the address from the people of the Islands of Tokelau, or Union Group, which was presented to the Duke and Duchess of York by Toelupe, a representative of the Samoan people, at a function at Government House, Auckland. The Union Group is isolated from other groups by hundreds of miles of ocean. The address was drafted by the chiefs and was sent by wireless to Samoa by equipment erected by the radio superintendent of Western Samoa. The address was transmitted by a Samoan, who was trained at the Apia wireless station. Poverty Bay farmers have for some time past (remarks the “Daily Telegraph”) been uniting their efforts to secure a wool sale in Gisborne, contending that this would be much better for them, as they would not then need to go to the expense of sending their wool to Napier, nor to the trouble of coming south to attend the sale themselves. Buyers, however, are opposed to the suggested change, as it will mean that they will have to travel the extra distance to Gisborne for the sale. In Owaka a good story, which has the merit of being true, is being told concerning the stock sales last week, and a remarkable mistake made by a farmer of the district. At a big sale of sheep and lambs recently this farmer sold a line of old ewes at the low price of 4s a head. He attended th e regular fortnightly sale with the intention of adding to his breeding stock with a line of good ewes. Accordingly he purchased what he considered would meet his requirements at Ils per head. It was only when he was proceeding homeward with the mob that he discovered that he had bought the sheep he had sold on the previous occasion at 4s. What he had to say about the matter has not been recorded. It was mentioned recently by Mr. H. H. Sbarpe, inspecting engineer to the Public Works Department, that most of the Speaker’s chair and canopy in the House of Representatives is made from stout puriri stringers, which were in the original traffic bridge over the Waiwakaiho River at New Plymouth. Mr. Sharpe recalled the hunt for suitable puriri timber which engaged attention at the time, and remarked that, notwithstanding the long time the stringers were in use on tho bridge, the wood required a considerable amount of seasoning before being ready for fashioning into the chair. At least one son of China, residing at Greymouth, promises to become a keen business man in course of time (says the “Star”). He is now only about five years old, but his business instincts are pretty well developed. The fire which destroyed Uddstrom’s furniture factory the other day, also caused damage to the cabbage crop in the garden at the rear of the Post Office Hotel, and ruined the vegetables. Along came smart Alec, with his soap box on wheels, entered the garden, and started in to uproot and load the cabbages. The owner was informed of the proceedings, and asked the young Chinese what he was going to do with the cabbages. The answer came quickly —Alec was going to take them to his father’s shop. What for? To have a fire sale! “I have heard that Caroline Bay is the finest bay in the Southern Hemisphere, but Australians, when thinking of their own beaches, will do anything but admit this,” said Mr. G. Dash, Mayor of Waimate, at a luncheon held in Tirnaru last week. Mr. Dash told a story of an argument between Australian and Dominion sailors which took pplace in Tirnaru recently. One of the visiting seafaring men centred the discussion around sharks. He boasted that he was immune from sharks, and no matter where he bathed no shark would molest him. One of the New Zealand sailors asked him the reason. “Well,” replied the Australian, “on one arm I have tattooed a picture of Caroline Bay, and on tho other is inscribed the words, ‘Caroline Bay is the finest in the Southern Hemisphere.' No shark would swallow that.”

The ancient sage who was responsible for the adage that “horses should never be changed while crossing a stream,” evidently possessed the power to foretell the future and so worded his axiom that it would apply with equal weight to the modern motor cat. The aptness of the old-time saw was amply justified in Napier recently -when a young woman and a male friend went for a jaunt round the district, the former being at the wheel. On return to Napier, and when opposite the brick works in Hyderabad road, a change of control was affected, the young man in question attempting to take charge. The result was a calamity, the car seemingly objecting to its new pilot, making a swerve to the right and charging full tilt through the fence bordering the roadside and very nearly landing in the sticky tar and mud deposits situated in that unhallowed locality. Fortunately, the car suffered only minor damage and the occupants escaped uninjured. In the Owaka Valley, and, in fact, throughout the Gatlins district, ragwort is proving a great nuisance to the farming community (reports our correspondent). At this season of the year the yellow flowers of the weed are seen everywhere, and along the edge of the bush it seems to flourish with astonishing luxuriance, the gaudy flowers presenting a massed appearance that,

though, perhaps, attractive to the casual observer, is deplorable from the agri culturist’s point of view. It is said that sheep will eat the weed greedily enough in the early spring when grass is scarce, and the shoots of the weed are green and tender. Later on in tiro year, however, when the weed becomes rank in growth, stock of all kinds pass it by. The Clutha County Council has removed raggort from the operative clause of the Noxious Weeds Act, and how to deal with it is becoming a problem to the bushland dwellers. The weed has now spread to such an extent that its eradication by methods formerly favoured by the noxious weeds inspectors would be practically hopeless. “Please let me have the name and address of the worker, and I will send him the day’s wages, which any decent owner would have been only too pleased, to have parted out under the circumstances, ” writes “Disgusted,” of Christchurch, in connection with the paragraph which appeared in the “Auckland Star” about three weeks ago, telling of a man who worked all day in clearing a section, only to be refused payment for his labour. The man who did the work had been unemployed for weeks. He was on the verge of starvation when a section-owner gave him a day’s work in clearing a suburban plot. However, mistaking the directions, he cleared another man’s section, and the owner refused to give him a halfpenny. The paragraph was reprinted by the “Christchurch Press,’’and the “Star’s” correspondent felt so keenly about it that he wrote the offer quoted. The pity of it is that his philanthropy cannot be accepted (states the paper), since the unfortunate man is now in America, friends in San Francisco having sent sufficient money for the fare of himself and wife.