LIFE’S LITTLE WANTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 December 1927, Page 4

LIFE’S LITTLE WANTS.

A Foster-Mother. > A farmer in a Main Trunk town saw an old broody hen in his back yard scratching a big hole. The hen, followed by a motherless kitten, clucked and pecked until she took the kitten under her feathers with the head peeping out. The kitten has now been mothered for over a week. * * • • Bees in Possession. A Parnell resident, who has become an apiarist much against his inclination, is still seeking advice on how to shift a swarm of bees which have taken a fancy to his house after obtaining entry through a small Mde beneath an cave. The use c>f aeetylen ga-s with , the aid of a long tube for “peaceful* penetration” was highly recommended by a neighbour, but- the effect jfcs to shift the family -out into the i’reSt air, while the bees remained and appeared to enjoy themselves thoroughly. Various bee experts in the locality have been tendering advice. One received a sting on his left ear while explaining how harmless' the little things were. * * * « Earth and Its People*. Apart from the Arctic regions, the earth’s surface has 33,000,000,000 acres. But only -10 per cent of this 13 arable. So that leaves 13,000,000,000 acres available. When account is taken of all that agricultural methods can do at present, or are likely to be able to do in the predictable future, the minimum requirement for each person is 2.5 acres. If this be so, then the earth would -support 5,200,000,000 people, and if the present rate of increase be conVv' tinned that will be reached in little - over a century. * # * * A Bold “Front.” A motorist ran over a dog whilst passing near a store. On his return journey, before he reached the scene of the -accident, he was informed by amassing acquaintance that an ev was awaiting him at the store. Forewarned is forearmed. On reaching the store he assumed a bold front and faced the owner. “Was that your dog I ran over?” he demanded. On receiving a reply in the affirmative he continued, “Well, I’m afraid it’s going to cost you a few bob. I strained a steering control as I went over it.” This aspect of the ease had not- occurred to-j----the astonished owner, who was alarmed to such an extent that his anger evaporated. “Oh, I think we’d better call it quits,” he said hurriedly. “It was a valuable dog.” ■“ * * * * Lights of London. In spite of the number of electric signs that have been erected above the largest thoroughfares during the past few years, It would seem that the famed “Lights of London” really have more notoriety than they deserve, since the British capital is one of the worst lighted in Europe, and cannot compete with Paris and Berlin respect. London’s lighting arrangements -are even worse than they were before the war, an amazing lack of proper organisation accounting for this in several of the principal streets. There are seven different- -systems of lighting in Oxford street alone, while the Edgeware road is lighter] on one side by electricity and on the other by gas. Where darkly-lit side streets meet brilliantly illuminated thoroughfares, there are always potential death-traps. * * * * A Fine Sprint. Like the terrors of a nightmare were the sensations experienced last- week by a Wanganui constable who sprinted up Victoria Avenue hotly pursued by a bull. The constable first became involved in the incident when a drover, who had successfully negotiated the Town, -bridge with a mob of cattle, raised his voice in eager frenzy and stockyard eloquence when a big Hereford bull broke loose from his companions and went careering up the street. The earnest if forceful appeal for assistance -igjujted in the - man in blue dashing out iWo the road to head off the oncoming animal. The bull had eased up, but as soon as he saw the uniform he put his head down and his tail up, and made straight for the constable. “I knew he meant business, and I did not stop running until I reached McGruer’s corner,” said the constable, when he later told of his hasty retreat and the timely arrival of the drover and his dogs. * * * * Obligations. t Mr Baldwin opened his speech to the Association of Girls’ Schools with a reference to the Working Men’s College in Camden Town, which he visited recently. The men who attended it in the evenings, he said, did so generally not from a desire for self-advancement or the improvement of their material conditions, but from an impulse deep in their hearts to get knowledge, to get somehow or another through those do-ors which had been open to his hearers from birth, and which led into the land of knowledge and learning atSfctmderstanding. Their opportunities mul been few, their obstacles life-long. “Y’ou,” be continued, “hardly know the meaning of the word ‘obstacles,’ and your opportunities are so great that yon. hardly realise them yet. Every advantage that can be given, by affection and foresight and money has fallen into your lap. Y'ou have class rooms and playgrounds, and the two best things in life —books and leisure —things that I have to do without. With all that I am amazed and rejoiced at the spirit that is running through the girls’ schools and colleges to-day that makes them seek, as those who enjoy great privileges, to recognise the obligations that those privileges entail.”