General News

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 25, 30 January 1934, Page 4

General News

Systematic Thieving. Not only did they remove a dozen gooseberry bushes, but marauders in a Eitzroy, New Plymouth, garden ou a recent evening dug and took with them a quantity of potatoes. The next day the owner of the garden, fearing further raids on his potatoes, dug the remainder and put them in a sack which he deposited in an outhouse. Sa*ck and contents disappeared the following night. Motorists’ Escape. Although their motor-car fell about 10ft. down a bank and capsized after skidding off the road between Waiwera and Warkworth ou Friday afternoon, Mr H. N. Ellerm, of Oakura. Taranaki, and his mother suffered no more than a shaking. The ear was stopped by a thick growth of tea-tree, and came to rest upside down, but the bows of •.he hood stood the strain, and the ocmpSkts were able to emerge without Jifficulty. The car was only slightly laniagcd. Free School Books. In reply to a communication from the North Canterbury Provincial Council of Unemployed, the Minister of Education, the Hun. R. Masters, has advised that provision is made for the supply of school books free, in necessitous cases, to children in primary schools. Some of the country unemployed organisations are meeting the school committees and acquainting them with .he needs of the children of relief workers. A Philosophical Scot. He came from Ayr years ago. Stocky, with an exceptional breadth of shoulder, he was equipped with all the good humour and the dourness that enable so many Scots to survive hardships after hardships without a souring of their spirit. He wanted a bed at New Plvmouth on Friday night. Ho had worked for his food, had been paid sustenance in a city, had waited for a job and become sick of waiting. Then, shouldering his meagre swag, he had set off on a long, long tramp through the country. A dav at ensilage here, a day ’s haymaking there, work for his food and a few odd shillings. but many days with only miles of walking. “Aye mon,” he said last night, “but I’ve got Robbie Bur-r-ns in my bag. An ’ sometimes when there’s nae wor-r-rk I sit on the grass by the road and read him. It’s graund hod he puts the pecker in ye. He kind o’ gives ye inair stummaeh to fave the wur-rld an’ a’.’’

Postmark Propaganda. For years we have seen “Use Your Telephone - ’ on our letter postmarks, and of recent times even the legend, “Post by Air Mail,” but a new note in official propaganda is struck in the action of the Tasmanian P. and T. Department in urging its public to aid . in combating one of the terrors of the | current summer in the island—bush fires. Latest envelopes from Hobart ! are stamped, “Prevent Bush Fires,’’ I and to judge from the cabled news j that in the past fortnight the dam- | age wrought by this menace has exj ceedcd £50,000, the warning is not untimely. Too Good a Target. Insulators on power lines form too good a target to be resisted by boys with stone-throwing proclivities, but the damage done by these young William Tells is too serious a matter to be passed over lightly. The Wellington Education Board has approved of a suggestion that placards warning children against the practice of throwing stones at insulators should be placed in the schools, and that teachers should be urged to stress the danger of stone-throwing at any time. Human Skull Pound, While securing a load of shingle from the shores of Lake Pukaki one day last week, Mackenzie County Council workmen unearthed a human skull (says the Timaru Herald).- The discovery was made at a spot about a quarter of a mile this side of the Pukaki Hotel. Up to the present it has not been established whether the remains are those of a European or a Maori, but investigations are being made. One theory advanced was that the remains were those of a member of a party which was overcome in the Alps some years ..go, and that the body was brought down by a glacier to the . terminal face, and thence washed down into the lake, eventually finishing up in the spot where it was found. Some years ago one or two shepherds disappeared in the Pukaki region, and the skull may be that of one of the missing men.