News from all Quarters

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 127, 24 May 1932, Page 7

News from all Quarters

Purloined a Bible Some amusement was caused at the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court on Friday by a man who had been dealt with. He had been told peremptorily by a constable to remove his hat which ho did after a second command. When the door had closed behind him it was discovered that the Bible in the witnessbox was missing. Tho constable overtook the man and recovered the volume before ho had left tho precincts of the court. \ Multiplicity of Returns “Nowadays there are so many Government returns to be supplied that a farmer has to turn himself into a ‘half pie’ solicitor,” said Mr T. T. Murray (Toko) at the annual meeting of the Stratford sub-provincial branch of the Farmers’ Union. He was speaking in favour of the appointment of a commercial man as secretary and stated that such an officer could assist farmers in making their returns. Case Must be Proved. “In the criminal cases the position is precisely the same, whether it is grave or mild,” said Mr Justice Blair when addressing the jury at the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday, before it retired to form its decision. “The position is that the Crown undertakes to establish the guilt of accused, and if it fails in establishing his guilt, then he is entitled to be acquitted. In some countries they have a middle course, and where the jury considers that the Crown has not proved its case a verdict of “not proved” may be returned and tho case is concluded. But in New Zealand tho jury must be satisfied that tho Crown has established its case or not.”

Aviation Tuition Scheme

A novel adaption of the principles under which building societies operate is to be made by the Auckland Aero Club with the idea of making flying instruction available to a larger public. The main feature will be the formation of groups of intending pupils, who will pay periodical subscriptions into a fund, which will finance the cost of instruction of all the members of the groups in rotation. The rotation will be decided by ballot and provision for residence during training will be incorporated. The scheme is at present under the consideration of the New Zealand Aero Club and it is expected that it will form part of the Dominion scheme in which all aero clubs will co-operate.

Dinner Foregone

Members of the Lyttelton Harbour Board applauded vigorously recently when told they would have to forego their annual dinner. The chairman (Captain H. Munro) said it was customary for each chairman to give an annual dinner to members of the board after the annual meeting. With such widespread distress prevailing, he felt the money could be expended in a more valuable manner in the relief of distress. “The members round this table look well-fed, and I think they would be quite prepared to do without this dinner,” he added. Captain Munro said that, with the approval of members, he proposed to donate 20 guineas to the Salvation Army to help those who were down and out. Mr W. T. Lester congratulated the chairman on his proposal, and the members expressed full approval with a round of applause.

Gold in Pukeko’s Gizzard.

Among the numberless stories of adventure that have been heard concerning man’s search for gold, there are records of the precious metal having been discovered in some strange places, and it is this element of uncertainty that has led many a prospector on his fickle quest. But when a sportsman in the Lawrence district recently commenced to clean a pukeko which he had shot his thoughts were probably far from gold and everything connected with it. His attention was arrested, however, by something shining among the contents of the bird’s gizzard, and on a closer examination, this proved to be gold. .Two pieces were found, each about the size of a large pinhead, and they were polished smooth as the result of the grinding process to which they had been subjected.

Expert’s Theories A Masterton mechanic of long experience, who was called to give evidence in tho Supremo Court in Wellington in actions arising out of a motor collision, was nothing if not frank. Replying to counsel, he said that the reconstruction by experts of accidents after they have happened was mere guesswork, in his opinion. “‘Expert’ means quite a lot to me, but I have never seen one yet,” witness added. “Not Evidence” “These notes are not evidence,” said Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., during the hearing of a civil claim in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court recently, referring to a list of working hours put in by counsel for plaintiff. “They arc not evidence until they have been cross-examined upon,” said His Worship. “Hundreds of times I have had the same thing put to me. Councl seems to think that a man can make out his own time-book as evidence in his own favour. A man cannot make evidence by writing down his story in this way.” Adding Insult! That some farmers in the vicinity of Stratford killed their own meat and even went so far as to sell it to the public without tho necessary license was the statement of Cr. N. B. Fletcher at the meeting between the deputation from the Stratford master butchers and the Mayor recently. An instance was given where women-folk even canvassed the town for orders, one of them calling at the residence of a local butcher. Of course nc business was done. Really Friends Professor A. H. Compton mentioned after his lecture at Wellington the relationship between the British and American peoples. He was sure, he said, they sometimes did each other an injustice by paying more attention to criticism than to something more constructive. But, in spite of casual clashes in words and temperament, they were fundamentally imbued with friendship toward each other. In the United States they were not all of British descent, nor were all their traditions British. But for all that, they were fundamentally alike. If the two peoples were more different they would perhaps allow each other more differences. “It’s because we’re so nearly, the same that we expect each other to have the same ideas towards things; and our A Maori’s Mistake. An amusing story of a North Auckland Maori who drank his shaving liniment by mistake, although fortunately, without fatal effect, was told by Miss Esther James, who is walking New Zealand to advertise locally-made goods, Miss James said she was lecturing in a small town where her audience consisted almost entirely of Maoris. She was endeavouring to sell a sunburn cure and a shaving liniment. “I could see that a sunburn cure would not be much good,” she said, “so I told them the stuff was good for the whiskers When I was a few score miles j further south a service car driver [ stopped mo and told me there was a big fat Maori looking for me. He hand-

cd me a note from the Maori, and it read something like this: ‘Dear walking miss, the stuff you sell me, he no plurry good. I keep on drinking it but the whiskers still grow.” Pomeranian. Held Prisoner For several days a family holidaying at Manly, on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, heard the barking of a. dog in the bush. A search was made, but no dog was seen. As the barking continued, another search was carried out, and this time it was successful. A Pomeranian dog, which had been in the habit of going into the bush to chase rabbits, had got its tail caught in the lower strand of a barbed wire fence, and in its efforts to get free, had securely “tied’’ itself to the wire. The job of tho dog took more than a few m’’nearly every hair in the animr”? tail had to be pulled out before the dog could bo released. The “Pom” had been held a prisoner by its own tail for four days, but was remarkably patient while efforts were being made to let it free. Once released from the wire, the dog made a bee lino for the nearest water.