LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 297, 28 September 1935, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

No notifications of infectious disease were made in Ashburton Borough or Ashburton County this week.

A final reminder is given of the change to Summer Time, which takes place, officially, at 2 a.m. to-morrow. The general change of the clocks (an advance of half an hour) will take place when householders retire to-night.

The school children living at Pukemiro Junction and attending the Roh> waro School are still on strike. The parents refused to allow them to return to school after the term holidays a fortnight ago owing to the Auckland Education Bbard refusing to issue Iree railway tickets to those who are ovei 10 years of age.

During the hard times through which the farmers have been passing, the stock and station agents stood between them and ruin, was the opinion expressed by Air W. V. Harkncss at a gathering of members of the Tariki (Taranaki) branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. Mr Harkness made reference to the consideration which these agents had shown farmers in the difficult times.

There has been an increase in the circulation of Hansard, the official record of Parliamentary debates, according to the annual report of the Printing and Stationery Department presented in the House of Representatives. For the year ended, last March the number of subscribers was l 134, and the amount received from subscribers and sales was £156; for the previous year the. number of subscribers was 115, and the revenue from sales £ll7.

At a meeting of the South Island Alotor Union in Christchurch yesterday, Air A. E. Batt said that the iP'ost Office in the last five or six years had made out of motorists a profit of £IOB,OOO to' which it was not entitled. It received Is- 6d on every license out of the Alain Highways Fund, Is profit on every number plate, and 6d cn each transfer. The meeting decided that the executive should join with the North Island Motor Union in an investigation into tire cost of motor registration with the intention of having the price of number, plates reduced to cost.

The British National Union has arranged for a party of Empire primary producers to make a tour of New Zealand early next year. It is hoped that the party will include not only primary producers, but members of allied industries, and the New Zealand Government and Dominion farmers, tlirough their organisations, intend to do everything possible to make the tcur interesting and instructive. The British National Union has previously arranged: tours to Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. On this occasion the visitors will spend 34 da vs in the Dominion.

A successful battle practice by the two cruisers of the Now Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, the Dunedin and the Diomede, was carried out yesterday in the Hauraki Gulf (says a Press Association message from Auckland). Several army and air force men were among the guests on the warship for the occasion. It was one of the few occasions on which the warship, on return to port, berthed at Devonport by night, and spectators were impressed by the ease with which it was accomplished. The Dunedin and theDiomede are to make cruises of the New Zealand ports. The Diomede will leave next Wednesday, and the- Dunedin on October 9. Both warships will return to Auckland on November 30.

The south-bound express train this morning was a very long one, drawn by two engines. The first five carriages were reserved for patrons of the Geraldine races. The rest of the train was well filled with passengers.

Though the new and lower rates for telegrams have been in vogue for some days, there has not been an appreciable increase in the volume of work at the Ashburton telegraph office. The reason for this is thought to be that the advantages of the new service have not been fully realised so far.

“There is no doubt whatever,” said a prominent Wellington piano dealer “that the pjano has come back to stay. Ne\v Zealanders are gratifying their desire for self-expression, and parents are realising their responsibility to give their children the facilities for developing their talents.”

His Majesty the King has commanded that in future the blue flag hearing the Imperial crown and lion, designated for use by Governors-General, shall be flown on Government houses and at other places on appropriate occasions. Lord Galway has given directions that this rule is* to be observed in New' Zealand as from October 1 (says a Press Association message from Wellington).

The Railways Board has decided, after careful consideration and subject to the passing of a Bill ensuring to the Railways Board public transport rights in the district, to provide suitable multiple electric units for the Wellington-Johnsonville line, which will be no longer a main line after the opening of the law a Flat deviation. The overhead reticulation involved will cost LOO,OOO.

“If I were asked what typified New Zealand I would take a boy 14 or 15 years of age, in his open neck shirt and ,shorts, with his stockings halfway down his calves as the fashion is,” said the Rev. H. Whitby James in the course of a sermon at St. Peter’s Church, Palmerston North. “They are a strong, virile type of young manhood,” Mr James proceeded, and h? hoped they would be a strong spiritual type so that the work that lav ahead of them would be the better for that.

In view- of the promising future facing the citrus fruit industry at Kerikcri. Bay of Islands, Mr D. Jones, a member of the Commission of Agriculture, announced yesterday that Cabinet had decided to make a grant of £SOO and a loan of £4500 to the co-operate company being started by Kerikeri settlers'for the purpose of putting up a packing and curing shed and the installation of the necessary machinery. The Commission had recommended the Government to investigate the question of the extension of orange growing in the Kerikeri district.

Recently a motorist coming through the Parapara Road in the Waimarino County had occasion to stop, and in the locality detected a peculiar smell emanating from over the bank, and at once came to the conclusion that there had been an accident ,there and that there was a body in the locality. This information he communicated to the police, and a constable on going to the place indicated soon discovered that the peculiar smell was due to ensilage which had been fed out to cattle

Assessing the gains and losses to the natives of the Pacific, through the encroachment of Europeans, Miss M. F. Morris, in an address to the Auckland Historical Association, said the progress of trade and industry, the construction of utilities, and the provision of doctors and hospitals, had proved an inestimable boon. Great work had been done by native and European school teachers. On the other hand, the rapid assimilation oi a foreign culture had not been exclusively beneficial. The most regrettable phase was the breakdown of the native social system. The greatest criticism of the European regime, however, it as the decrease in population.

How the residents of Norfolk Island have fared for the dissemination of local news, with a section for brevities of cabled information, is shown in a copy of the “Norfolk Island Times” received recently by Superintendent P. A. Milverton, of Palmerston. North, from Mr L. Ireton, a former member of the Palmerston North Fire Brigade, who now lives on Norfolk Island (says the “Manawatu Evening Standard”). The paper costs 4d per copy, and although it is usually in the form of oply six typewritten duplicated foolscap pages, the copy received was of II pages on account of a full report of a Magistrate’s Court case of considerable local interest. The pages were bound across the top, and besides several small illustrations, it carried a number of advertisements of a varied character.

More than 25 years ago Principal Dickie, Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, was minister of Jarland, a romantic Highland village of ancient origin on Royal Dceside, not far from Balmoral Castle, the King’s Highland home. Geologists have said that that part of the country belonged to the Old World, and there are still evidences of the days there when the ancient lake dwellers lived nearby. Druidieal circles are common, and on every side of it are some of the best examples of the old Piets’ houses aud their granaries, or storehouses. Speaking in Auckland, Principal Dickie said that during his long residence in New Zealand he hadi met few people who came from there, as they were a contented people, who loved their country and whose forefathers had lived there for many generations. At Davenport on Sunday, after the morning service. Principal Dickie was, however, visited in the vestry by two worshippers who had been members' of his old parish of Jarland, and was pleased to say that he had picked them out in the large number of people who faced him that morning.

Two valuable animals disappeared at night from the well-known Jersey herd of Mr B. Tippms, of Pukekawa, states a Pukekohe correspondent. .One, a pedigree heifer close to profit, vanished in August of last year, and there has not been any trace of it since. The other animal, a ten-year-old cow, was with the herd when it was put into a five-acre paddock fronting the roacl after milking, on Monday evening last week. Next morning it was missing, and an extensive search has failed to locate it. The cow was bred on the farm and was in milk. Had it jumped the fence and strayed, the need to be milked would have brought it back to the farm within 24 hours. It is presumed that it, as well as the heifer, was loaded on to a motor-lorry and taken out of the district. The matter is in the hands of the police. The heifer that vanished last year was valued by Mr Tippins at 30 guineas, and the value he placed on the cow is £25. The latter had put up one record of 5651 bof butter-fat under official herd test, while in each of three seasons over which she had been tested she had produced over 5001 b.

It has been stated, in connection with flower shows held in Ashburton in the last few days, that the season has net- been suitable for flowers, but it is pointed out by an expert that the season has suited flower growth, only that it is muclT later than usual. This has held back flower culture generally.

In the course of his farewell sermon at ISt. Peter’s Church, Palmerston North, the Rev. H. Whitby James mentioned the lack of candidates for the ministry in New r Zealand. He had been informed by the Bishop of Wellington, said Mr James, that in all Dr. Sprott’s experience in the See of Wellington he had never known such a shortage of clergy. Mr James emphasised the opportunities for young New' Zealanders in the ministry, and hoped that more would take tip this work.

The monthly meeting of the Tinwald branch of the*Mothers’ Union w r as held in the St. Andrew’s Hall on Thursday. Mrs M. P. Cooke presided. After routine business Mrs Cooke introduced Mrs R. S'. Watson, of Ashburton, who kindly came to address the meeting. Mrs Watson spoke about the Wellington League of Mothers, which w as very similar in its aims and objects to those of the Mothers’ Union. It had been founded in New Zealand by Lady Alice Fergusson. She then gave an instructive and historical account of the life and work of the Venerable Bede and the effects of his influence at the present time. Afternoon tea was served.

The anomalous position that the Government put every obstacle in the way of the sale of tickets for art societies’ art unions, whereas those for which the prizes were alluvial gold had sellers at every street corner, was emphasised at the annual meeting of the Auckland Society of Arts, states the “New Zealand Herald.” The art unions conducted by the society were purely to assist the artists in selling their* works. It was decided to protest against the disabilities of societies in this direction, and recommend to the incoming executive that the matter be taken up through the associated societies of arts.