General News

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 2, 3 January 1936, Page 11

General News

Relief Worker’s Windfall. While the Christinas bonus was being paid at the Ohinemuri County Council’s office to men in relief camps, one of the recipients offered IDs to an official, telling him to treat the staff. The man revealed that he and three others in the camp had recently won £5OO in an overseas sweepstake. He drew from hie pocket a considerable roll of notes an i told the official that he would not be returning to camp after the holidays. Hastings Scholar’s T*:«tinction. among some 2000 entrants from all p:mUj of N.*ar Zealand, a Hastings boy, Gordon Palmer, son of Mr. A. E. Palmer, and a victim of the infantile paralysis epidemic, has won for the second year in succession the essay competition conducted by the correspondence section of the Education Department. He is in the high school grade, and his subject, under the title of “New Worlds For Old,” dealt with the work of the League of Nations. Geysers Celebrate. An old resident of Rotorua recalls that the Whakarewarewa geysers held their own celebration on -Christmas Day, when no fewer than four of the bust-known geysers were playing simultaneously for a period. While Pohutu gave an impressive display, the neighbouring Prince of Wales also played, while Waikorohihi was in full blast and Kereru, which has played very occasionally in recent years, shot to a height of more than 20 feet. The resident stated that it was most unusual, within his recollection, for the four geysers to play at the same time. No Sympathy from the Police. ”1 was stopping at a boarding-house in George Street. I had £2O, which I hid in my bed, and while I was outside for a few minutes it was stolen. I went out on to the street to look for a constable and make a complaint and when 1 did find one he said: 4 You had better come with me.’ ” This was the story told at the Police Court in Dunedin by a first offender for drunkenness, who pleaded guilty and was fined ss. The accused appeared in the dock minus his coat, yest collar, tie, shoes and socks, and, according to Senior-Sergeant Packer, this was the state in which he was found wandering along the street. Christmas Illuminations. Auckland seems to have lagged behind other centres this year in the matter of Christmas illuminations, says the New Zealand Herald. A holidaymaker who returned from the south said he had been very much impressed by the way in which the streets of Nelson were decked out with strings of coloured electric lights. He saw a good deal of similar decoration in Wellington and Wanganui, although he was not there at night. The (Square at Palmerston North, as viewed from the limited express, was worth going a long way to see. The fronts of the buildings were covered with lights of every hue. 31orc lamps had been hung across the streets and a tall tree had been festooned with them like a Christmas tree. ‘‘Surely the City Council the Power Board and .the retailers could arrange to have Queen Street and Karangahape Road decorated like this at Christmas and Nc w Year,” remarked the .traveller. Novel Marriage Ceremony. The Afahcno, the passenger vessel formerly owned by the Usion {Steam S'hip Company, which was engaged in the Bluff-Melbourne service last season, recently figured in a novel marriage ceremony. {Several months ago when the vessel was being towed to Japan to be broken up she grounded on Fraser Islam!, off the Queensland coast, during a storm. The vessel did not appear to be extensively damaged, but all efforts to pull her off the sand were unsuccessful. A Townsville girl journeyed to the island and at the Happy Valley tourist resort, half-way across, she was married to the Customs olliccr, one of the two men who are watching the stranded Alahcno, to see that the Customs obligations are carried out. After the ceremony the little party boarded the vessel and held the wedding breakfast in what was once the captain’s cabin. Surely this marriage would convince even a South Sea novelist that truth is stranger than fiction. Cost of Long Distance Flying. Comment on the future of private long distance flying is made Dy 31r. Frank Chapman, a son of 31 r. and Airs. -C. C. Chapman, formerly of Timaru and now of Yanna, Queensland, in an account of the attempt he made recently to fly from England to Australia. Air. Chapman, states the Timaru Herald, was forced down at Sasseram, when he was ahead of the record for the flight. Of the future of such flights Air. Chapman writes: “It appears that these will be come increasingly popular. The greatest snag is the cost of aircraft suitable for long flights. There are several machines on the market at present suitable for private ownership, in which a flight from England to Australia could be done in live or six days, but. the cost of these is something over £l5OO. We can only hope tha-t manufacturers will concentrate on cheaper production and put such machines on the market at about £600.” Buried Treasure. When two workmen were pulling down an old hedge at the week-end on the North Shore (Auckland) and grubbing out the roots, they came on a bundle of spoons well under the ground, which could not have been disturbed for probably 30 or 40 years, because the hedge had been very thick all that time. The spoons were branded with the name of a former well-known shipping company, and must have been taken from one of the ships, and for some reason hidden away. The spoons wore of very good quality, but probably their history will never be known. They are, however, reminiscent of the days in a part of the city which is now a park, when a well-known medical man of a former day with a large obstetrical practice amongst thee po »r people said that he hardly ever went into any of the houses of the peo-ple without finding some, quit’ or blanket on the bed with the brand of some shipping company on it, or an article of cutlery with a similar brand. Often, he admitted, they had been given to them by the shipping companies when the articles were getting the worse for wear, or to cover up a baby waeu the parents were leaving the ship on a cold night* Those were the days when nearly everyone arriving in the colony had a big wooden box in the bedroom, which they had brought out iro n Home with them to hold the family clothing, and was now used as a seat >'t the bedside.