GENERAL NEWS

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15041, 14 September 1922, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS

The scarcity of new strawberry plants during the winter will probably' have the effect of greatly reducing the output of fruit this spring -at Auckland. A grower said he understood there had been a shortage of about a million plants, which is a very serious matter. An attempt to rescue an injured cow • from a ledge on the steep cliffs overlooking the sea at Happy Valley, Wellington, resulted in a somewhat seripus accident on Sunday morning. The animal's perilous position was observed by Mr J. Fleming, of Wellipgton South, and, with the assistance of some people who were spending the week-end at Happy Valley, he set about to. effect a rescue. In doing so Mr Fleming lost his footing, and fell down the sleep hillside—a distance, it is stated, of 150 feet —with the animal, which had also slipped from the ledge, tumbling,, a few yards behind him. A projection near the bottom of the incline providentially threw Mr Fleming a few feet clear of the spot on which the cow landed so heavily as to cause its back and shoulder to be broken. A ■ doctor was immediately summoned, and found that Mr Fleming was severely bruised, as well as suffering from shock.—Post. It is natural that the recent sale of the very rarest stamp in the world at the record price of £7OOO should have altracted considerable attention and have directed the minds of many persons to that curious and interesting branch of collecting known as philately. Many years ago, when quite a young man, says Dr. George G. Williamson, the noted collector, in an article in the London Weekly Dispatch, I was intimately acquainted with an old lady several of whose relations had gone to New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land in the earliest days of the settlement. She explained to me that she had kept all their letters. Each letter was in its original envelope, and there was a large box full of them. In proof thereof she showed me one envelope on which I recognised two of the very rarest of the large square New South Wales stamps. This, she told me, was by no means the earliest of the fetters she had. I did my best to explain to her that she had a fortune in thai box, but she was indignant at the idea of persons collecting such rubbish, or that she should make money out of a foible so absurd. The next time I alluded to the matter she told me that to avoid further trouble she had burned all the envelopes and retained ttie letters, which in her opinion were the only things of interest. So ended her chance of a fortune. - - "■■ ■ ""^