LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8465, 2 June 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

This year walnuts. have commanded a good price in Ashburton. One resident gathered nuts to tho value of £10 from one tree.

The hairdressers of Ashburton held

a meeting this week and decided to advance the price of matches. The half-penny box will in future* cost a penny.

Shags" are reported ■ to be fairly numerous along the Ashburton riverbed just now. * Recently a party shot 12 of the birds in less than an hour. At 2s 6(1 a head, this is rather a paying proposition.

During the heaving of charges against .motorists in the Ashburton Court this morning, the County Inspector mentioned that in the Easter holidays no fewer than 1200 motor-cars and motorcycles passed over the Ashburton traffic bridge.

The little owls which were introduced sonic few .years ago into the Timaru district as an antidote to the small-bird pest, alter being occasionally seen shortly after their liberation, disappeared, and it was thought that they had died out. At the present time, however, several of the owls are to bo seen about the north end of Timaru. ■ They settle on :the dwelling-houses, and

arc • very tame. A heavy penalty -attaches to killing them.

At the Ashburton County Council meeting to-day the /chairman reported that the recruiting scheme to date had cost the council £142 17s. The number of names on the original roll of men to be approached totalled 1954, and 205 additional names had been added by the recruiting officers. ■ Dp to May 27, 1204 names had been reported on, 216 men had enlisted, and 07 names were discovered that should not have been on the roll. There were still 672 men to be reported upon. . >

At the meeting of the Canterbury Land Bourd yesterday the following transfers were approved : —Small grazing run. Land Aetj •ltim'lOl, Mount Peel and Aclund districts, 3312 acres,* L. W. Connelly to \V. Conneily;. y. : 545, Gections 18, It. 1237, lta,ngitata, 79 acres 3 roods 4 poles, David Peareo" to John King; E.R. 29, It. 931, Hinds S.D., 144. acres 3 roods 8 poles, W. T. Oakley to R. A. B. Stevenson; E.lt. 130. X, 1551, Hinds S.D., 137 acres. 1 rood 37 poles, J. Price to C. Dunstan.

Two. Ashburton poultry fanciers were' successful at the Christchurch Poultry Club's annual show yesterday. In'the open class for Plymouth Rocks, Mr V. P. Boot scored a first prize for pullet and a second for hen; in the class for utility Plymouth Rocks,' white cock or cockerel, he gained a/ first prize; and in the White Leghorn class his cockerel was awarded first prize against 24. other competitors. Mr C. W. Nicoll scored

an easy first in the class for Rhodo Island Reds. ■-<■■

'At the Ashburton Court to-day, before Messrs T. E. Upton and Henry. Davis, J.'sP., the following were fined 20s and costs for driving motor-cars too fast over the Ashburton traffic bridge: William' Pollock and T, Knowles. For a similar offence Robert Daziel . was fined 10s and costs. For riding motorcycles over the bridge at an excessive speed, J. Cade, John C. Gibson, Noel L. Vale, and George L. Handeock wore fined 20.s and costs. Andrew Christie (County Inspector) prosecuted in each cose.

The delegate from the East Coast (Mr O. Keegan) to the Farmers.' Union Conference at Auckland is an advocate of the desirability of the Government opening up the 600,000 acres of land comprising the Urewora Country. He stated that ho considered the land would be broken in at a cost of about £4 per acre. This would mean'an out-

lay of-about £2,500,000, and it would produce about £1,000,000 per year in revenue. At present the Government was building a railway along the boundary, and the settlers were establishing freezing works at a cost of

£100,000. A Duiiedin message, says the ceror mony of laying tho two foundation stones of tho new medical buildings took place yesterday afternoon. Mr W. Dawson, to whose generosity tho practical initiation of- the scheme for

erection was due, and the Hon. J. Hanan, Minister of Education, performed the ceremonies: Mr Hanan congratulated Duuodin on tho position it occupied as regards educational matters, and paid a high tribute to tho medical profession and nurses for their labours to avert, as far as possible, the wastage of war, to alleviate suffering, and to reduce the percentage of infantile mortality. A correspondent writes:—Death has removed yet another of the early settlers in the person of Mrs English, who died at tho residenco of her daughter, Mrs McKenzie. Mrs English was born in County Down, Ireland, 79 years ago, and came to New Zealand with her husband and young family in the ship Glenmark, landing "at the old Heathcote Ferry, 51 years ago. After living on the Lincoln Road, Christchurch, for a few years, they made their homo at Greenpark," whoro Mrs English lived until the timo of her death. There aro'four daughters and two sons and their families' left to mourn their loss. Her husband predeceased her 33 years ago.

Tho eilVcfc of the .shortage of paper, in the Oid Country is apparent in tho sizo of somo of the London newspapers arriving by la.to mails. News is condensed to its utmost. "The Times" of April 21 was 1 down to 10 pages, and the "Daily Telegraph," another of the 'penny journals, was similarly curtailed: Tho c.'uio of the halfpenny papers, which, of. course, have to "deal with huaro ■.circulations, i.s even more striking, for the "Daily News" was brought down., to six pages and oven-to four oages for one. issue, and tho "Daily Chronic-Jo" and tho "Daily Express" to . six. According to private advices advertisement, rates have been advancing persistently, and an indication of tho tendency is given in the domestic notice eolunui of "The Times," which ivp.fi charging 7s 6d for four linos, and is now charging 10s 6dfor three lines anrl half a crown for every additional line.

Nothing helps to ]«i«s away a winter's evening, like good music. This has been brought within the reaoh of every one by tho Graniaphone. It will pla.y. cinq, or recite It brings tho vmrlcl's host nrtists uito your own room.—H. V. Evans, Burnett Street, lias Gr:un.n.j)lion«,s a-ml 'Phonographs from ;C4 ICY; to £76, and hundreds of Records to select from. 100