Week-Ending By Train Increasingly Popular.

Advertising for one of the week-end excursions from Wellington to Waitomo (313 miles)recently, had to be stopped some days earlier than usual beacuse bookings indicated that the limit of motor accommadation (300)had been reached, at the Waitomo end, between Hangatiki station and the Caves (7 miles).

A very convenient time-table which enabled the complete trip to be made without loss of business time and without accommodation costs, and the provision of first-class carriages and a low combined rail and motor fare, with effective advertising, all contributed to this happy issue. The Department was quick to announce that a further excursion would be run at an early date, thus satisfying those who did not book early enough to be included in the first excursion.

Bright and early the other morning an old Maori woman, wearing a man's battered felt hat and a brightly coloured shawl was seated on the steps of a warehouse in Customs Street, Auckland, calmly smoking a blackened clay pipe. Two smartly dressed laughing girls passed. Said one: “How happy that old thing looks!” “She's enjoying her after-breakfast pipe,” said the other. They seemed much amused. “I wonder,” said the first, “what kind of tobacco she smokes—must be something special, I should say.” “Let's go back and ask her,” said her friend, “just for fun.” So back they went and asked her. The old dame smiled, and said “Cut Plug No. 10,” adding that she always smoked it. It is one of the five famous toasted tobaccos: Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cavendish, River-head Gold and Desert Gold, and their rare flavour and delightful fragrance appeal to pakeha and Maori alike. And they have another outstanding merit—they are harmless! It's the toasting that eliminates the poisonous nicotine! But beware of worthless imitations!*