LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 257, 11 August 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

White herons appear to be increasing in number in lllenheim district s the “Express”). Last week a pan; ot tiiese rare and beautiful native birds were seen to fly from the direction or liiverlands and alight in paddocks at the back of the sandhills.

The opinion that, following on a favourable winter, the Manawatu and adjacent districts were entering on a new dairying season with excellent production prospects was expressed by the director of the fields division of the Department of Agriculture (Mr J. t\ . Deem) last week.

A claim to very earl- experience as a motor-car driver was made by a witness during the hearing of a motor accident claim in the Supreme Court at Auckland. He said lie started driving a car at 11 years of age and when 13? rust after lie had left school, he was driving a service car. “That was before' you had to be 21.” said witness.

Unless £3OOO is forthcoming, the Wellington Young Men’s Christian Association is faced with the possibility of having to close its doors (says a Press Association telegram). A public meet»no- tc-night, presided over by the Mayor, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, decided to launch ,immediately throughout the city, a vigorous campaign for funds. It was reported that more than £l3O had been collected during the day.

The coincidence of two patients being admitted about the same time as a result of having swallowed foreign objects occurred at the Cook (Gisborne) Hospital. The first case was that of a Maori child, Tutua Aupouri, aged five, who had swallowed a halfpenny. An operation wajs performed and the coin removed, from its unusual lodging place. The second patient was Mr Hubert Edward Clarke, aged 69, who had accidentally swallowed a pin. In this case also the object was recovered by operation.

In the Ashburton Juvenile Court before Mr G. R. Orr-Walker, S.M., this morning, a boy aged Isj years,, was charged with breaking and entering and the theft of a sum of money and was placed under the supervision of tho Child Welfare Officer (Mr W. Cunnings) for three years

A Wellington Press Association telegram states that the cup donated by Mr W. Stuart Wilson for the best boy or girl farmer in. the agricultural clubs of the Dominion was won by Master M. Lind, Rongotea School, Manawatu. A gold medal and photograph of the cup will be given as a oermanent record.

The gradual rise in the level of the water in Lake Coleridge was continued during the week ended yesterday. The rise in the previous week was three inches, and in the last seven days an advance of ,4ft was recorded. The reading yesterday was 1670.525 ft, compared with 1670.125 ft a week ago, and 1663.05 ft on August 7, 1932. Tne . overflow level is 1672 ft.

The first attempt to stock New Zealand with sheep—made in 1773 by Captain Cook—was a dismal failure. Tiie circumstances of the case were related last evening by Mr G. H. Holford, speaking at a meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Economic Association. Captain Cook, he said, liberated a ram and an ewe at Queen Charlotte Sound. However, they ate tutu the same evening and died.

Members of the unemployed woolclassing class are making good progress under the instructor (Mr B. C. Donnelly). A test was held on Wednesday evening and all the members qualified. Yesterday afternoon members, accompanied by Mr Donnelly, visited the woollen mills and were shown the various processes through which the raw material passes.

Company registrations during the last week include the following: Ashburton Wool and Skin Buyers, Ltd., registered as a private company August 3, 1933. Office: Corner Smithfield Road and Main South Road, Ashburton. Capital, £IOOO. in 1000 shares of £1 each. Subscribers: Ashburton, W. Hedges 501, R. A. Hedges 499. Objects : To acquire and carry on the business of William Hedges, wool scourers and merchants.

A valuable “mauri ihia,” or 1 sacred Maori stone, has been presented to the N.ew Plymouth Museum by Mr William Stanley, of Hillsborough. The stone was taken from the Mangaoraka River. at the back of Mr Stanley’s farm, near Union Road. Doubtless it was placed there by an old-time Maori tohunga to propitiate or attract the protecting “atuas” (gods) of the river fishes. This “mauri” is made from trachyte, a. soft river boulder. Like others of its class, it is circular in shape, pierced by a circular hole from top to bottom.

There has been less destruction of papers and magazines in the public reading room of .the Ashburton Library during the past few months than for some time previously. Considerable damage is often caused by the carelessness with which the papers are used and there are always those who selfishly clip articles or pictures from the magazines. At some periods this practice has become very common but within the last month or two this lias not been the ease. The newspapers also appear to have been more carefully handled.

People who leave things on the sea bottom sometimes cause trouble to others. A firewood barge which had been anchored at Kawau the other day, was towed a good part of the way to Auckland the next dfiy before its anchor was discovered to have picked up about 400 fathoms, or nearly half a mile, of rope that had once formed part of a seine net. This trailed a long distance over the bottom and made progress a good deal slower than it would otherwise have been. The rope was not discovered for some time, because the anchor of the barge was heav’ and its flukes had not been hoisted dear of the water.

Nominations having recently been invited by the North Canterbury Labour Representation Committee for Labour candidates for the Parliamentary seats in its district, the Amalgamated Engineering and Allied Trades Union, decided, on Tuesday, to nominate the -bitting members'for Christchurch East, Christchurch South and Avon (Messrs H. T. Armstrong, E. J. Howard 1 and D. G. Sullivan respectively), the Rev. J. K. Archer for Christchurch North, Mrs E. R«. McCombs for Lyttelton, Mr G. T. Thurston for Riccarton and Mr Morgan ‘Williams for Kaiapoi.

“Too many strange dogs about lately,” said aii Okoia farmer recently, when an animal with collar, chain and all, was caught on his property. “I’ll find out who owns this one.” Accordingly he went to the telephone and rang the Wanganui county clerk for information as to whom collar numbered so-and-so bad been issued. The farmer was so taken aback when told that the collar had been registered in his own name, that he forgot to say “Thank you.” Memory then recalled that he lent his next-door neighbour a dog collar to take the place of an essential part of a set of harness.

What is thought to be a probable record has been created by a ewe on the property of Mr C. W. Dagg, of Newman, Eketahuna. The ewe was five years old when Mr Dagg took over the property eight years ago, and each year since then it has reared twin lambs. Although now thirteen years old it is still in excellent condition. Born 15 years ago and still lambing is the record of a owe on Mr George Queale’s farm at Lochiel, Otago. Fourteen vears ago, the ewe. then a _year old after being roared on the bottle by a little girl, was -iven to Mr Queale s daughter. Sinco ilioii it- has laniocci every year, producing twins more often than not.

The fortnightly meeting of -the Loyal Ashburton Lodge, M.U.1.0.0.5., held last evening, was attended by a larger number than usual, the N.G. (Bro. R-. H. Biggar) presiding. An invitation to be represented at .the Loyal Waterton Lodge’s annual ball next Thursday was accepted with pleasure. Dr. H. S. Billcliff’s name was added to the list or lodge medical officers, as from next month. Sick pay amounting to £l9 16s •Sri was passed in favour of 19 members. The lodge agreed to the postponement, for a week, of the card match and debate against St. Stephen’s Club. ,P.G. Bro. J. 11. Stevens reported on the last meeting of the- district committee of management, announcing that P.G. Bro. K. Thompson, of Ashburton Lodge, had been appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Bro. Winchester, and that it had been decided, subject to the date being suitable to the lodges, to hold the next purnle degree lecture at Methven on Wednesday, November 29. Three candidates were elected and two initiated. The lecture master conferred the white degree on four brothers and two sisters.

So heavy has been the demand for accommodation on the two special .trains which are to run from Invercargill to Christchurch for the Manfully Shield match to-morrow week, that the Railway Department has decided: to dispatch a third train.

Stones used for the purpose of the original survey of Auckland in 1840, from the summit of Mount Eden, arc to be re-erected shortly on a favourable position on the mountain. It is considered that the stones have a historical value, and the Mayor of Mount Eden (Mr T. McNab) reported to the Borough Council that a tablet, probably of bronze, would be provided to give the history of the stones.

“How many countries are there that can produpe regularly 32 bushels of wheat to the acre?” asked Mr W. Machin, president of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Economics Association, at a meeting of the association at Christchurch last evening. “And how many can produce 37 or 38 bushels? I doubt if any other country but New Zealnad can do that.”

“This concession will be appreciated by exporting manufacturers who cannot write Chinese,” said the chairman of the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association (Mr .J. A. C. . Allum), when it was pointed out that a regulation requiring goods exported to China to be marked to show the country of origin in Chinese characters had been amended to allow the language of the country of origin to be used. Advice to this effect was received from the New Zealand Department of Industries and Commerce.

“The dangerous periods in a man’s career as an aviation pilot are when he has completed 100 hours’ flying, or about 10,000 miles, and when he has completed 500 hours,” said Mr E. It. Boucher (president of the Auckland Aero Club), in an address to the Auckland Rotary Club. Mr Boucher explained that when he had flown for 100 hours a. man began to think he could fly, and after 500 hours he was liable to treat flying with contempt. Flying was really.p very safe means of travel—far safer than most people believed—provided the pilot was unceasingly on the alert and took every, precaution to avoid risk. It was not suited to the reckless; the good pilot was a man of stable mind and a thinker.” ,

A surprise aw'aited a party of gold prospectors who appeared in the Blenheim Warden’s Court last week in support of an application for an ordinary prospecting license over an area at Bragg’s Creek, below the Branch Waterfall, when they discovered that, quite unwittingly, they had contravened the provisions of the Mining Act (reports the “Marlborough Express”). When the warden was perusing the papers connected with the application he found that the party had staked a claim on freehold land without having first obtained consent. It was explained, on behalf of the party., however, that the owner of the land had received notice of their intention to enter on the land, and he had no objections to make. The warden said that that was not sufficient. It must be noted that, even in a mining district, no man had any right to go in and mark off private land without the previous consent of the warden.