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Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 48, 27 January 1932, Page 6

Steady progress is being made with tire reconstruction of tlxe Napier I osb Office and it is anticipated that the department will re-enter tile premises permanently next May. .

When an application was made by the Railway Department to the Daunevirke Power Board yesterday to have the electricity charges for the engine shed at Woodville placed on a different basis, the board decided to inform the department that it was unable to meet the requests .>•

A Burns night without a haggis is simply not a Burns night, but that was the outlook on a recent evening, when the Wellington Caledonian 'Society held its annual Burns gathering (says an exchange). All the arrangements had gone along smoothly r and everyone was enjoying the evening until the shocking announcement was made in the chairman’s ear that the haggis was not cooked', not cooking and would not cook —the gas had failed. The position was serious. The bearer of bad tidings went away toMook for the trouble,, but it was beyond him. .The committee began to feel glum, but when the cook came back and announced that he had “fixed it” they smiled again. ..■ What was wrong?” lie wag asked. Jde did not know, lie could not fix the gas, but he had Axed the haggis. “How ?, ’ “I ve arranged for it to be cooked next door, he said, “at the Jewish Club..” '

Monday, February 8, has been fixed as. the date for the magisterial inquiry at Wellington into the Toss of the small motor-ship Kotiti. The Dannevirke Power Board, at its monthly meeting yesterday, decided to make a donation of £2 2s to the Woodville Horticultural Show Society.

A Press Association message from Tauranga says that Mr J. Mowlem, president of the Tauranga Deep Sea Fishing Club, fishing off Mayor Island yesterday, landed a striped marlin weighing 8201bs. This is the largest ever caught there.

Judging by the large number who attended the annual picnic of the City Council staff at Plimmerton to-day, the function would prove as enjoyable as its predecessors. Consisting of fifteen carriages, ■ the train is estimated to have carried about six hundred passengers.

Difficulty is being experienced in the local Magistrate’s Court in arranging dates for the hearing of defended civil actions and, in discussing the position with solicitors yesterday, Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., commented that it appeared that under the present economic situation many were contesting claims which in normal times they would have settled out of court.

When motor vehicles are relicensed for 1932, the new plates for all but motor-cars will carry an initial letter as a classification. For instance, a dealer’s number plate will carry a D as before; E will mean local body; P will designate omnibuses, etc.; T, taxi; S, service cars; L, light delivery vans; and H, heavy, trucks. Each letter suggests the classification of the vehicle.

At a meeting of. the council of the Feilding Acclimatisation Society last evening the chairman, Mr F. H. Stockwell, reported that an eel of lurge proportions had been caught recently in the Oroua River. It was 4ft 6ins long. 17 inches in girth and 321bs in weight. - There was no doubt, ho said, that these fish took a heavy tell of the trout and it.was a good thing that they were caught. • . “Mountaineering is gaining in popularity in New Zealand. It is fascinating, and it is dangerous, but I believe that the sport encourages qualities of mind and body that Will overcome the dangers,’’ said Mr G. W. Armitage, chairman of the Canterbury Education Board, when referring to the death of Mr 11. Smith and Mr C. W. Robbins, who died from exposure on Harman's Pnss. “They were tragically caught by a creeping death,” Mr Armitage added. There is on the property of Mr J. Nairn, in College Street West, a twoinch * artesian bore which has been functioning continuously for thirty years. . It has a depth of 218 feet and the flow of water keeps full four 1000 gallon tanks placed at a height of 26 feet. The flow has never diminished and the pressure is the same as it was thirty years ago. It is believed to be fed by an underground stream running parallel with the Manawatu River. Another well in close proximity has functioned similarly for a long period-.

The fact that the Napier City Council, since the earthquake, had expanded the sum of £43,000 on. wages in addition to £12,000 for the relief of unemployment, was referred to by the Mayor, Mr J. Vigor Brown, at the official opening of new premises in the Hawke’s Bay city this week. The Mayor also stated that of the total amount expended for the reconstruction of Napier not more than between one-eighth and one-quarter had been devoted to wages, the rest being necessary for the purchase of the materials.

Before tire commencement of routine business at the monthly meeting, of the Hastwell School Committee, in the Wairnrapa, the chairman, Mr G. McClymont, tendered his resignation on the grounds that the business of the committee was being divulged to outsiders. The resignation was not accepted, and the chairman then demanded the resignation of the whole of the committee. These were tendered and have been forwarded to the Wellington Education Board, which will probably appoint a commissioner for the remainder of the year.

“When we were 14,000 feet high on, the mountains of Central Africa,” said Mr H. Anderson, at the .Wellington Rotary Club yesterday, of his experiences in Central-Africa, “we tried to boil some cocoa, and found that it took us three-quarters of an; hour to boil. When it did boil you could pour it into a cup and drink it straight off without any fear of burning. your throat.” Mr Anderson explained that the difficulty of boiling the liquid was the effect of altitude.* All members of the party suffered from altitude sickness when, over the 15,000 ft. mark, but in time became immune.

Although no records were broken, the wind yesterday ranked high in the history of boisterous days in Wellington, the recording at Kelburn Observatory being 64 miles an hour shortly after 9 a.m. Several gusts of 55 miles an hour were noted. Wellington’s record is 81 miles an hour, recorded on April 2, 1931. The record for 1930 was 75 miles an hour. Strong westerly winds rising to gale force In the late afternoon and evening were also experienced in the Wairarapa yesterday. There is evidence of minor damage to gardens and fences about town, but no serious damage has been reported. . Cricket is becoming a popular game with women, and there are some optimistic enough to suggest that before very long it will displace tennis in favour'(says the Auckland Star). Several women’s cricket clubs have been established in the Dominion, and., a number of the players have shown a keen appreciation of the game. A few days ago Miss Esme Raines, of Ramaramn, captained a side in a match in wliiph both men and women took part. Miss Raines not only handled her side with distinction, but she set an example that might well bo followed by many skippers. In her side’s second strike she made 83, not out, by forceful cricket, and attacked the bowling fearlessly.. She displayed cleverness at the crease, and proved that she possessed more than an average knowledge of how to make runs.... \ :

The superiority of newspaper advertising over all other forms of publicity was emphasised at the annual High Court of the Ancient Order of Foresters at Cardiff recently.. In an endeavour to increase the membership of the Order the Executive Council have had under consideration the value of various forms of advertising with a view to starting a nation-wide campaign. After considering the question from all angles, the council reported that the best channels of advertising were the newspapers. “The chief objects of an advertising campaign,” the report states, “should be to educate the public about the value of joining the Order and the steps to be taken in connection with it.”" The Executive Council therefore expressed the opinion that if the High Court were to embark on a publicity, campaign Press advertising should be the' principal medium employed.’ Advertising, they said, played a greater part in . all business life to-day than ever it had done before, and the. comp ifcil were convinced; after careful' examination, that the expenditure involved would be well worth while.

Mr C. East, has returned from a holiday and is resuming teaching Monday, next.'-.

New Zealand’s death , roll through drowning has been 24 in, the. P since Christmas to last Sunday. At 12.40 p.rri. to-day the Fire Brigade were summoned to Fiedenc Street where a grass fire h?d br ok put. The fire was extinguished, little damage resulting. London’s newest great bmlding is the £1,000,000 Peace Memonal i ree masons Temple. It is in. the angle of Great Queen Street and Wild on the joint boundary of Holborn and Westminster. The b «fi din S gleaming tower of white Portland stone. ! A visitor to the Tongariro National Park states that the birch bnsh from the National Park Road to the moun tain is a mass of native mistlet > the present time. It has been in bloom since Christmas. There are two varieties of Now Zealand mistletoe, and yellow, and it is the red that can now be seen in the National Par serve. Mistletoe is a parasitical grow in and it clings to the bircA branches. It has no ground root and it is strang how it obtains a hold on the tree.

No more remarkable illustration of the fertility of the soil in the , raised Aliuriri lagoon bed lias yet been recorded, says the N.apier Telegraph, the enjoyable experience of a ,v> onshore resident. Several feet below former high-water mark on the lagoon, near the Westshore domain, he discovered a number of self-grown tomato plants. After keeping them under regular observation for some weeks, no was delighted to notice that fruit was beginning to appear. His household now has a copious supply.

A London paper states that the skill with which modern anaesthetists j v ork was well illustrated in the case of Mr Lloyd George, who did not know that he was going to have his recent operation until it was all over. . While Lord Dawson was chatting to him, another of the doctors in attendance made a hypodermic injection in the distinguished patient’s back, ■ with tire result that he passed into uncpnsciousneiss in the miast of the conversation. He was greatly surprised to find, on waking some hours later, that the Burgeons nad already and successfully finished their operation.

Referring to the fact that three hundred years have passed since British clockmakers got their Charter Of Incorporation, though the machine, ltsolf had already been known for' some centuries, a London paper says:—“lt is as difficult for us to imagine life in a pre-clock era as in an age which counted with Roman numerals. Till the twelfth fcr thirteen century mankind had contrived to get along with sundials, hour-glasses, marked candles, or by a general observation of the sun, the primitive method on Which many country folk rely to-day. It is not very useful for catching trains, but it has to bo remembered that punctuality is a very modern virtue.”