LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 166, 27 April 1935, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There were no notifications of infectious diseases .in the Ashburton health district this week.

Under the will of Mr Patrick Connor, who- died at Ashburton on April 5, are legacies of £SO each foi the general purposes of Mount Magdala and Nazareth House, Christchurch. The Public Trustee is executor and trustee.

A Press Association telegram from Taihape states that a waggon loaded with wheat on a goods and passenger train, bound from Mangaweka to laihape was derailed on Wednesday and dragged across the viaduct into the tunnel. The train was delayed, but no one was injured.

A general revision of the charges far lighting, cooking and heating, decided on by the Poverty Bay Power Board, lis estimated to lower the next financial Wear's revenue by £4300 (says a Press Association telegram). The reductions mainly affect domestic lighting and commercial lighting costs to the extent of a halfpenny a unit.

Afternoon and evening meetings at the Ashburton Salvation Army Citadel to-morrow will be of a novel nature, as those who attend will listen to a broadcast by General Evangeline Booth. As the General is unable to visit the South Island, a wireless set has been installed in the Ashburton Citadel to enable Ashburton residents hear her speak in New Zealand. The addresses by the General will take the place of the usual addresses by the local officers*

In June, 1934, the finding of a, ship's bell on the beach near Wesport was recorded, the name on the bell being "Bortonius, 1884, Sunderland." There was no record of a vessel of that name having been Iwrecked on the West Coast of the South Island. It was presumed that the vessel was the iron twiin-scriew steamer Bortoniuls, 339 tons gross, which was built at the port of Sunderland, England, in January, 1884, by Messrs. Kisb, Boolds and Company, but hew her bell came to be washed up near Wesport last year was a mystery. The report in the "New Zealand Herald" was copied by the "Sunderland Echo" last month and resulted in the ship being indentified. According to the "Echo" the Bortonius was built at Sunderland in 1884 and she was sold two years later renamed Lawrence, and registered at Sydney, New South Wales. In 1889 or 1890 she was re-sold to the Mokihinui Coal Company, Limited, Wellington, and was in that company's service until she was wrecked on the bar at the Mokihinui River, about 20 miles north of Westport on April 30, 1891.

11l operation since September 30, 1934, summer time will end tot-morrow morning. Clocks will officially be put back 30 minutes at 2 a.m.

For the year ended on March 31 last, Feilding borough had no fire losses, for the second time on record. In another year the loss was only £l4 (says a Press Association message).

That the granting of complimentary licenses to country constables would help to check the activities of unlicensed fishers and shooters was the. opinion expressed by Mr W. J. H. Haase at a meeting of the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. Mr Haase said that when the constables were given licenses they visited the rivers, but when the licenses were withheld they did not do so and unlicensed persons became more active.

All county councils elect representatives to the various district councils of the Main Highways Board for a term of three years, which expires nex't month. The Ashburton County Council has been asked to nominate its representative on the No. 15 Council, which embraces the area from the Rakaia to the Waitaki rivers, for the forthcoming'term. "Mr H. C. B. Withell is the present representative.

During the progress of the maiden chopping event at the Kaimata sports, Taranaki, one of the competitors, a youth named J. Mbratti, suffered a cut on the leg through his axe slipping. After pausing to ascertain whether or not the wound was a severe one, he picked up his axe and attacked his block vigorously until the event was concluded. He was then given first aid, when it was found that the cut fortunatelv was only a superficial one, although it was sufficiently severe to prevent him from competing in any of the running events.

Good progress has been made with the development of the Waikato Land Settlement Society's Aoto-o-rangi block, 400 acres being now in grass. It is proposed to work the area as one dairy farm during the coming season, and to individualise the sections for the succeeding season. The men employed in developing the area have been taken oft the No. 5 unemployment scheme, and placed under the small farms scheme. Their weekly payments have been considerably increased in consequence. A married* man with three children now receives £2 3s. Although not so far advanced as Roto-o-rangi, the society's Whatawhata block has been transformed from an area of waste land to a condition of productivity.

The well-known grass Paspalum dilatatum, which has been a summer standby for farmers over the Auckland province for many years owing to its virtue of providing green feed m dry weather; has become surprisingly unpopular in the Henderson and Swanson districts. It is as valuable as.ever for stock, but this year right through the north paspalum has been infected with a kind of fungus which easily comes off and is ruinous to clothing. Some of the outer suburban residents suspected that it was some kind of resm on the grass, but the official explanation is that it is a true fungus, and solelv caused by the warm and muggy weather that has been experienced.

A sum exceeding £27,000 was written off by the Southland Hospital Board during the year ended March 31, rJ3o. The figure was furnished by the acting secretary in response to an inquiry from the Mayor (Mr John Miller)/ who said he had been at a, meeting the previous evening, and his statement that the Hospital Board wrote off thousands of pounds annually had been questioned He said he considered that publicity should be given to the figure, as tHis'would dispel illusions. Other members said the publication ot the tact that £27,000 had been written off might prejudice the board's chances ol collecting accounts in future. It was, however, mentioned that writing oft accounts did not preclude the recovery of the money. Debtors who were considered "worth powder and shot could still be proceeded against.

The fact that the Unemployment Board had subsidised the boxmaking industry in the Nelson fruit-growing district was referred to in a letter received by the Hastings Chamber of Commerce. The letter, which came from Auckland, expressed the opinion that the Board should not subsidise 'any one industry in any one district, and that subsidies should be granted to new industries onlvl. It was stated that the Nelson boxmakers were up against serious outside . competition, but the secretary (Mr F. Perrin) stated that Mr C. H. Slater, of Hastings, had advised him that the same competition was evident m Hawke's Bay, and had expressed tbe opinion that any such subsidies should be universal. It was decided to refer the matter to the industries and commerce committee, with power to act.

"I am going to tell you a little secret now" said Mr H. W. Bennett, a prominent Wellington citizen in a recent address. He related how, when a boy, he was in the habit of going to the Botanical Gardens and' bringing home enough wood for the week. On one occasion with an older boy he went into a gully which to-day is part of Anderson Park. His friend looked at a good old tree and spoke of the firewood in it if the tree were down. Some dry leaves were gathered, a fire was started and they went heme. That, night the rata came down, ■ but the gully was nearly also burned out. On Monday morning the Governmentauthority which had control at the time offered a. reward of £lO to* anyone giving information as«to'Who started the fire. Some of the boys knew he was in the habit of going there on a Saturday and when they wanted him to do anything at school they promptly threatened to collect the £lO.

That glaciers the world over are on the retreat is an accepted fact, and this was stressed by Guide Alack, of Weheka, when commenting on the glaciers in South Westland (writes the Hokitika correspondent of the "Grey lliver Argus"). 'He says it is very alarming to see so little snow- on the Alps. In fact, he states, he has never seen the higher ranges so bare, the mountains "simply crying for it." In the last 12 months the neve of Fox Glacier has shrunk over 60 feet, and unless an adequate fall of snow is experienced shortly to check this, some of the mountains will he very difficult of access. Guide Alack considers that in 30 years' time the terminal face of this glacier will have undergone a great change, receding a considerable distance. In fact, all the glaciers will be affected in the same way, proving that the general climate is slowly changing. He considers also that the land is still slowly on the move, as he has noticed that three mountains, at the head of the Fox Glacier, formerly perfectly solid, are now continuously discharging rock avalanches.

A suggestion that an old-time smithy should be erected on the Great -South Road, between Auckland and Papakura, as a. memorial to the pioneer blacksmiths and farriers, has been adopted by the Great South Road Beautifying Society.

When blown against a barbed wire fence during a recent gale at Oakura, Mr J. West was severely injured about the face, the lobe of one ear being almost severed. Mr West had to be treated in the New Plymouth Hospital for his injuries.

What is regarded as a surprise move in Napier local body politics has been sprung with the announcement of a public meeting to which all candidates who have allied tihemselves with the "multifarious tickets" so far announced have been invited. The organiser holds the opinion that there is something irregular about the announcement of so many candidates and so many tickets, and proposes the meeting so that the whole question may be placed on a more regular foundation.

A bountiful autumn is being experienced in the Waikato, and the production in many districts iB now considerably in advance of that of the corresponding period last »ycar. Cows which showed a 25 per cent, drop during Januaryi and February and now yielding 15 per cent, more than they did in April of dast' year. The prospects are that with a continuance of the present favourable weather conditions, the returns for the season will not fall far short of those for last season, in spite of the serious setback received during the long dry spell in midsummer.

A small spider, completely black except for two greyish markings and a red mark on the middle of its body, taken to the "Taranaki News'' office in a bottle with some of its offspring, proved to be a katipo spider. On being placed in the bottle it immediately began to weave a series of .webs, and then laid two nests of eggs, which resulted in 50 or so small brown spiders, each with two rows of white spots down its body;, which were joined with , : a pale pink streak. As the katipo spicier grows, older, stated Mr W.-W. Smith, a New Plymouth naturalist, the red mark grows, and it is a peculiar fact that the nearer to the sea the spider is found . the longer the stripe on its body.

In an old broken--down and overgrown hut at Price's Flat on the Whitcombe River, a party of members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club who crossed the Whitcombe Pass in the Easter holidays found an interesting relic of the Government geological survey parties which mapped the district in the years 1906, 1907, and 1908. This was part of a copy of the ''Auckland Weekly! News" -dated January 10, 1907. The hut was one. of those erected by the survey party and neglected after the completion of their work. The story is that the hut was taken possession of by bees, and that the rare visitors to the district before the war found it impossible to drive them out. The hut soon became lost in the dense tangle of bush and scrub, and it was not until last year that it was again located by Mr Bert Cropp, of Kokatahi.