Invercargill gift to Plunket

Mr W.D. Hunt, who is well-known in commercial circles, has presented to the Invercargill Plunket Society the homestead block of the Bainfield estate. The gift comprises a commodious residence and 12 acres of land valued at nearly £5000. The property will be used as a Karitane home. The Bainfield homestead is situated on the outskirts of the town, just beyond the suburb 

of Waikiwi.

 

At the meeting of the Taieri County Council yesterday, Cr Scott referred to a nuisance caused by residents on the boundary of country roads leaving hedge cuttings, principally gorse and hawthorn, on the roadside instead of burning them. Further, many people burned the cuttings at or near the centre of the roadway. When stock, especially sheep, were being driven along the roads they trod on the cuttings, which adhered to the wool and were dragged wherever the sheep went. In the case of other stock the thorns inflicted wounds. The burning of the cuttings on the roadway left piles of hot ashes, which the unsuspecting motorist would drive over, with disastrous results to the car. The council decided to request residents to discontinue both of the foregoing practices.

 

A certain elusive section of the community is at present engaged in the profitable hobby of collecting hats which do not belong to them, their operations being confined chiefly to the hotels. Speaking to a Daily Times reporter last night, Chief-detective Lewis pointed out that it was the simplest thing in the world for a thief to enter a hotel and take a hat from a peg. "You see a patron going into a hotel for a meal," he said, "and trying to deceive himself into thinking that the place is far too up-to-date and respectable for his hat to run any risk of being stolen. And yet his meal is a failure, because he is constantly trying to see round the corner where his hat is." In other centres many of the hotels and restaurants provide chairs with small partitions under the seats where a man could keep his hat in safety and enjoy a meal with an easy mind.

 

At a representative meeting of retailers yesterday, the question of holidays to be observed at Christmas and New Year were discussed. The regular holidays — Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and January 1 and 2 fall on Thursday and Friday. It was unanimously agreed not to reopen on the Saturday morning, thus giving the employees a complete break.

 

A police constable can feel the sting of an insult just the same as any man. Therefore, when John Frederick Hammerley followed Constable Maynard up Maclaggan street at 5.35pm and used "nasty insulting language" to him, asking him "How did you get in the Police Force? What are you wearing a blue uniform for? Can’t you get anything better to wear?" and finishing up by informing him that, among other things, he was a young fool and that all the police were fools, it is only natural to assume that the representative of law and order was, to say the least of it, offended. "If I hadn’t been in uniform," said the constable, "I would have struck him." Hammerley was charged at the City Police Court yesterday before Mr H.W. Bundle SM with having used insulting words and behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace. — ODT, 25.10.1924