In Town and Out

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20013, 2 December 1927, Page 6

In Town and Out

“How do you spell that word ‘sool’?” asked Mr L. Cohen in the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court yesterday. “In shorthand it’s easy.’’ replied Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., “but I always spell it s-o-o-L”

From to-morrow until December 19 the Defence Department office in Wanganui will be closed. During the time stated local staff members will attend the refresher course for defence staffs at Trentham.

“For shooting hares, rabbits, rats. Government Inspectors and other pests” was the answer made by a district farmer to the question “Purpose for which firearm is required” which appears in the form of application for registration under the Arms Act.

“Does it ever do anything here but rain like ?” asked a visiting tourist, who had arrived on Wednesday night, to a local watersider yesterday. The w’harfie thought for a moment. “Sure,” he said. “Sometimes it blows like !”

Judgment was given this week at the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court in the case in which J. Bourne, a farmer, was charged with the negligent driving of a car, the case arising from p collision at the junction of Portal Street* and Anzac Parade. The defendant was fined £1 10s with. costs.

“When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug-of-war.” A modernised version with a local application might be “when hog meets hog At any rate yesterday morning on the bituminised surface of the Great North road, the stamping-ground of local roadhogs, was to be seen tlie pathetically flattened body of a hedgehog. Dead to provide a proverb!

When the road along the left bank of the Ongarue River from the Ongarue bridge is completed, it will form an important link of the Te Kiiiti-Bulls main highway, and thus will be of direct interest to residents in the Wanganui district. Al) railway crossings between Taumarunui and Ongarue will be eliminated when this road comes into use. The road from Taumarunui to Ohura has been greatly improved and several motorists made the journey last week in a little over two hours.

It happened in the suburbs yesterday. “Come on, giddap,” bawled the driver to his horse, giving a fierce tug at the reins to emphasise his exhortation. But the horse wouldn *t budge. Out came a vicious-looking whip and the driver, a kind-hearted fellow, gave his steed some gentle flicks. The horse moved restlessly about, but not a yard did it advance. The driver was preparing to use the whip with a good deal more force when the truth flashed upon him. The horse’s eyes were fixed on a placard reading: “Road Closed.’’

Appreciation of the hospitality shown by the Mayor and Mayoress of Wanganui (Mr and Mrs W. J. Rogers) has been expressed in the following letter received by the Mayoress from Mrs L. C- AL S. Amory, wife of the Secretary of State for the Dominions:—“l should like to thank you again for the warm welcome you gave us both to Wanganui, and the kind way you met us at the station. I enjoyed meeting you and Mr Rogers so much, and only wish our stay had been a little longer.”

There axe some people who either imagine that they know more than experts or else are exceedingly careless of their own and other people’s lives. Such was the impression made on a passerby yesterday by a motorist who was filling his benzine tank from a bowser and at the same time calmly puffing at a cigarette. This sight is not uncommon, but even more carelessness than usual was displayed when, in lifting the dripping nozzle of the bowser pipe out of the tank, the smoker passed it within six inches of the brightly glowing end of his “fag.”

Within a week or so the Australind Shipping Company’s vessel Atholl is expected to reach New Plymouth from Nauru Island. The steamer will later come to Wanganui, on her third visit to this port. Her cargo of phosphates will be unloaded for the Aramoho fertiliser works.

During November, 1927, 8285 books were issued from the Wanganui Public Library, the issue for the same month last year being 7810. In the eleven months from January to November, 1927, 90,718 books wore issued from the institution, the number for the corresponding period in 1926 being 84,894.

From time to time Wanganui farmers arc able to tell of freak lambs with more or less remarkable deformities, but all the accounts pale into insignificance before the experience related by a Southland farmer. In a paddock containing about 250 ewes 50 per cent of the lambs born were abnormal and had to be destroyed. Two heads, two tails or extra legs were carried by more than 100 lambs —a percentage that is probably without parallel in the history of shcepfarmiug in New Zealand. The owner of the lambs has a theory that Chewing’s fescue, which was the main pasture of the paddock concerned, was to blame for the occurrence.

There are two sides to the unemploy? ment question. Some, admittedly the minority, maintain that there are those who do not want work. The other side refutes this idea and affirms that work is not to be had. That there is some truth in the statement of the minority however is borne out by the following story: A burly Irishman well over.the average height who had been placed in a position by a certain employment agency reappeared at the office two or three days later and volunteered the information that he had “tossed in” his job. Further questioning elicited the answer in a rich brogue, “I had the toothache. ’ ’

The time was midnight. The house was wrapped in silence, and the humans were in the arms of Morpheus, when suddenly through the stillness came au eerie chord, and another, followed by rapid, hair-raising ascending and descending scales. Visions of ghosts and spirits leapt into the imagination of the unfortunate head of the house as he cautiously opened the door of the drawing room whence the sounds came. Judge his relief when the family cat jumped down from the piano. Shut by mistake in the room, Tommy had evidently wanted to keep an appointment with his lady friends. Finding that mere mews were insufficient he had remembered the great soundemitting instrument and realised that it would wake the inconsiderate sleepers, if nothing else would.