LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 204, 10 June 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The “Gazette” last night publishes new radio wiring regulations and; regulations relating to the importation or agricultural seeds from the Commonwealth, of Australia (says a Press Association message from Wellington).

Applications from the St. Andrew s men's and Baring Square men’s and ladies’ hockey clubs for the use of the Technical School grounds lor evening practices were granted by the Board of Managers of the School yesterday on condition that the clubs provide a light where directed by the Principal. One of the proposals placed before the Minister for Native Affairs, the Hon. Sir Apirana Ngata, by Whangarei natives during his northern tour was that a native newspaper, to be printed 'in the Maori language and to be circulated' from Whangarei, should be started. The Broadcasting Advisory Council remuneration regulations, published in the “Gazette” last night, provide for a fee of a guinea a day lor the time occupied travelling or attending a meeting of the council. Provision is made for locomotion expenses and foi board allowance at £1 a- day for the time a member is away from his usual place of residence and occupied at meetings of the council. At a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board, the chairman (Mr W. Wallace) said he thought the number of patients in the hospital would tend to increase as many people in the city, owing to lack of sufficient body-building food, were now showing lesser resistance to ailments. “A large percentage of those in hospital comprised relief workers or dependents of relief workers,” said Mr Wallace. “I am anxious to learn as much as I can about New Zealand and her affairs,” said Mr E. P. M. Sheedy, of Sydney, chairman of the Australian United Press and chairman of directors of the Newcastle “Morning Herald,” who was a- through passenger by the Niagaia. “I am greatly impressed with the’"attitude of the Dominion Government toward the Ottawa Conference, he said. “I regard it as one of.the most important gatherings of our time. It is up to the British nation to get together in a spirit of close co-opera-tion and make the fullest possible use of the Empire’s wonderful resources. We have had our lessons in New' South Wales, and. extreme theories and ideas have been proved to he false. Me cannot substitute politics for work. 1 view with some alarm the fact that many British merchant ships are laid up, and I think that we -should not only buy British goods, but be British in every way possible.”

“Do you bet?” asked counsel for a witness in the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court this morning. “No man can afford to bet on relief wages,” replied the witness. The Magistrate remarked that many men laid bets even when they could not afford to do so. The unemployed returned soldiers of Christchurch, at a meeting yesterday morning, decided to ask that delegates to the Dominion Conference be instructed to press for a grant of £20,000 from the canteen funds for the purpose of relieving unemployment and distress among the returned men throughout New Zealand. The president of the Arbitration Court (chairman), the Public Service Commissicuer,. land the president of the New Zealand Public Service Association are appointed members of the Adjustment Committee set up for the purpose of dealing with anomalies and cases of hardship under Part I. (reducing civil servants’ salaries) of the National Expenditure Adjustment Act (says a Wellington Press Association telegram). The fact that two itinerant unemployed had once succeeded in obtaining bed and' breakfast for seven nights in succession, one from each of seven bodies in New Plymouth, was mentioned by the Rev. R. B. Gosnell in speaking to the New Plymouth Rotary Club. He quoted the instance to show the difficulties under which the relief organisations were working. New Plymouth had found that it had been making things too comfortable for itinerant unemployed. All itinerants are now dealt with by one man. Some indication of the effects of the depression in the United States is given in a letter received by a Palmerston North resident from a friend in San Francisco. It appears that there are millions of unemployed, and great distress prevails in all of the large cities of America. The writer of the letter says she and her husband are applying, for their passports as she would much prefer to endure hardships in her own country (New Zealand) than face those which are unavoidable in San Francisco owing to the'state of affairs existing there. Through the exigencies of the times the Wanganui Collegiate School football team is younger and lighter this year than it has been for some time, said a member of -the Wanganui football team which visited New, Plymouth last week. Most of the boys at the school were the sons of sheep-farmers, and in hard times the older boys had to leave to help on the farms. In other schools where the majority of the boys were sons of town-dwellers the opposite effect was observed. Boys at those schools were older and heavier than usual because they were staying on at school until they could find positions.

On this day, June 10, twenty-six years ago, died Richard John Seddon, Prime Minister of New Zealand. Mr Seddon had been on a. visit to Australia and the steamer Oswestry Grange, which was bearing him back to New Zealand, was 140 miles from Sydney Heads when the end came from heart failure. The steamer returned to Sydney, where the body was embalmed and the journey home was resumed. From 1879 till 1906—the year of his death —Mr Seddon was a member of the New Zealand Parliament, and from May 1, 1893, till his death he was (Prime Minister. It is probable that the building of some of the cottages under the small farm scheme will be begun in Otago and-* Southland: this month, states a Dunedin telegram. A number of suitable properties from which ten-acre blocks are to be chosen for settlement by the have been provisionally selected 1 and recommended by two executive officers sent out to inspect and report. The department has been singularly fortunate in securing the services of reliable farmers with sound local knowledge to act on subcommittees in consultation with the two executive officers. The executive committee of the South Island Motor. Union at a meeting at x Christchurch last evening received a letter from Mr F. W. Furkert (chairmap of the Alain Highways Board) in reply to the union, stating that the elimination of the dust nuisance was behind the board’s advocacy of tarring and sealing work. In the board’s opinion the cheapest and most effective way of dealing with the dust nuisance in "this country was to seal the roads with tar or bituminised materials. Two other methods were extensively used in America, namely, the use of light oils and calcium chloride. The cost of im> portation of these materials would be high, and it would entail an annual operation. . There is in the possession <pf Air S. Coad, of New Plymouth (says the “Taranaki Herald,”) an histone document giving the population and the census for the “Province of New Plymouth” for the year ended June 30, 1856. The district then had a total population of 2488, 1343 males and 1144. females. The census gives the nationality of the inhabitants, particulars of those who cannot read or write, the occupation of the inhabitants, aiid the numbers of children attending day and Sunday schools. The amount of land held in the district is stated as 24,649$ acres, while the area fenced is 9485$ acres. The area under cultivation was 10,223$ acres, and tile amount of. each crop is set out in detail. The soldiers of the New Plymouth garrison are given a table all to themselves. They numbered 20. Minor excitement lias been caused in the Raglan district (Auckland) by reports that polecats, those very smellsome and also very destructive animals, have been seen in that locality. One man stated that be killed one after it had engaged in a duel with a dog, while others had been seen about his property. He declared that a. number of liens had been killed, supposedly by polecats, about the district, and three animals belived to be polecats had been trapped. The animal killed during the fight with the dog was 25in. from, nose to the tip of the tail, while it weighed nearly 3slb. The animal had a characteristic odour, and after similar animals had visited henhouses the birds refused to roost in them, preferring to roost in the open. One supposed polecat was seen crossing a. road, and it trotted with an action like .a cat, not with the bounding fox-like gait of a ferret. This animal appeared to be pbout 3ft. long. An official of the Agricultural Department in. Auckland, said the miportation of polecats into the Dominion had never been permitted. It was probable that the animals were large brown buck ferrets, which were coloured like polecats, and which at times weighed 41b, while they would grow over 2ft. long. Large wild ferrets, which were very ferocious, would attack a dog, and thev were frequently known to kill poultry. If any polecats were at large it was almost certain that they would have attacked sheep and lambs, which ferrets had never been known to do. He had never heard of a true polecat being seen in New Zealand.

A Christchurch Press Association message states that the will of the late Air T. J. Edmonds makes donations of £IOOO each to the Plunket Society and St. Saviour’s Orphanage. The level of Lake Coleridge yesterday morning was 1667.35 ft, compared with 1667.875 ft a week ago, a fall of .52ft. The lake is now' 4.60 ft below the overflow' level. To-day and to-morrow the Jewish community will celebrate in customary manner the “Feast of Weeks,” or Harvest Festival, in commemoration of the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. It is customary during the celebration of 'this feast for the Synagogue and the homes of all Jews to be beautified with palm trees and flowers. In the days of Jew'ish independence as a nation the “first fruits” •were always taken to the temple as a thanks-giving offer. An unusual feature, interpreted as an indication that building prices have reached bedrock, was noted in connection with the tenders received for the alteration of the Queen Street premises shortly to be occupied by the Farmers’ Trading Company, Limited (says an Auckland exchange). Between the highest and lowest of a dozen tenders involving a sum of about £6OOO, there was a difference of only about £BOO. An almost mathematical precision divided the tenders, which progressed upward from the lowest in steps of less than £IOO. The recent toy dog show' in Auckland, in which some of the (best dogs in the Dominion were exhibited, and in which Pomeranians comprised the largest exhibit, recalls the fact that the first two Pomeranians in New' Zealand were introduced by Dr. Charles F. Scott, of Gisborne, who brought them out from Scotland with'him about 30 years ago. The dogs, male and female, were known by the names of Tiny and Topsy, and were particularly fine thoroughbreds. Dr. Scott had the pair for a number of years. Tiny became sick and died, and" Topsy was run over by a motor-car two weeks later. An ingenious device .for signalling the results in chopping competitions w r as used in the axemen’s events at the carnival of the Rotorua Athletic and Axemen’s Club. The device, which is the invention of a Rotorua resident, consists of a string attached to the top of the block and running through a pulley on the horizontal arm fixed above the chopping base. -The other end of the string is attached to a swivelled number, with the result that when the block is severed the fall of the top portion pulls the number into a vertical position. The attachment operates instantaneously, and not only gives the judges a reliable indication of the placings of the men. but allows the spectators to follow the progress of the heat with certainty.