LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 172, 4 May 1936, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A number of articles, valued at £o, were stolen from the Ashburton bug ' School farm during the last month and the police have been notified of the case.

Good traffic at the Ashburton railway station still continues to lie heavy, with large consignments of sheep, grain and timber being handled. Difficulty in providing trucks for sheep is being experienced. The total quota of trucks is usually booked up two or three days ahead.

There promises to be some activity in the building trade at Ashburton during the next few weeks. Many prospective .builders are making application to take advantage of the Imemployment Board’s building subsidy. (Seven applications, alii for houses ill the Borough, have been made to the Ashburton Employment Labour Bureau during the last four weeks, the total cost of the buildings being £4263. The subsidy is payable only on dwellings costing under £7OO which are approved by the Unemployment Board.

Before the withdrawal of the Unemployment Board’s scheme for subsidising the purchase of farm implements at the end of April, there was a rush of applications from farmers of the Ashburton County, who wished to take advantage of the subsidy. Afore than 50 applications were handled by the Ashburton Employment Bureau and in all eases the subsidy was allowed. The applications covered a variety of farm machinery, a preference being shown for ploughs and topdressers. The subsidy, which' applied only to machinery of New Zealand manufacture, was based on £2 for the first £lO, increasing by Is 4d in the £ up to £IOO, thereafter 8 per cent, up to £2OO, and 5 per cent, in excess of that sum. The subsidy was granted on the net invoice cost of the implements.

A tale of a famous tree, the poliutukawa at Cape Reinga, revered of the Maoris, was told by-Mrs H. Carr Rollet in the course of- an Author’s Week address in Auckland. The polmtukawa. was that on the branches of which, so tlie Maoris said, the souls of the dead used to gather, while they contemplated the plunge into the sea beneath on their way to the caves leading to the underworld. For many years the tree grew there and flourished, but after the wars of Hongi Heka, the Ngapuhi chieftain, wlio brought the musket to make wars terrible, the weight of souls on the brandies was too great, and the tree died. The speaker added that in 1895 Cheeseman, the great New Zealand botanist, visited Cape lteinga, and there found all that was left of the pohutukawa, a white stump. It was sufficient, however, to show the basis of the Maori legend.

Tlie following private schools in Ashburton are registered in the New Zealand Gazette :—Sacred Heart Convent and St. Joseph’s Convent, Ashburton; Mothven Convent, St. .Ita’s Convent, Rakaia.

A pole which was blown down in the Drum-arc area by the wind on Saturday evening extinguished the electric lights in Allenton and some other areas till the.broken wires were repaired. Lightning blew a number of fuses in the north-east section of the County yesterday, hut repairs were quickly effector by the Power Board staff.

“There is not an untenanted house in Ashburton, and I have at least a dozen people who are seeking places to rent,” said a land an house agent in Ashburton this morning. “Some people who. have been looking for houses for some time and have had to vacate their present premise,:, are buying houses. Tiie medium-priced house is the one in demand, but they are not to he had, even though there was much) building some little time ago.”

Takings at the bazaar held at the Ashburton High. School on Saturday afternoon and evening totalled £94, and after the deduction of expenses it is estimated that the school library and sports funds and the Old Pupils’ Association will benefit by about £4O each. There were large attendances afternoon and evening, though the weather conditions were unpleasant, and the stalls transacted good business.

A sum of about £62 was raised at the annual bazaar in aid of parish funds, which was held, in the Tinwald Parish Hall on Saturday afternoon and evening. Considering the unpleasant weather, there was a good attendance, and the sum raised was considered to be satisfactory.. There still remains some produce to lie sold, and it is hoped that when this is disposed of that there will be £BO in hand.

Reports indicate that the opening of the game shooting season in Ashburton has been very successful. Most sportsmen who have been out report good bags of an average of about five or six ducks. An indication of the success that has been met with is given by reports of increased ammunition sales by retailers. The demand for licenses is still good.

At a. meeting of the Ashburton Branch of tiie rlunket Society, the president (Mrs F. W. Seldon) presided over a large attendance. Tiie nurse s report stated that car mileage in the town totalled 68, and, in the country 688. Visits to homes in the town numbered 24, and to- icorns 549. Visits to hemes in the country numbered <7, and to rooms 234. Arrangements were made for the annual meeting to be held early in June.

What one speaker described as the perfect presentation was made to Dr. i j. Reakes in Wellington upon the occasion of • his retirement from the Director—Generalship of the Department of Agriculture. It was in triple form, providing tor his occupation, ins recreation, and his hours of ieisme. Io keep him occupied in what had been his life’s work, was a set of veterinary instruments; for his hours of leisure there were golf clubs; and for the hours of repose, after using first the instruments and then the golf clubs, was an armchair into which to retire.

“I don’t think you yet realise the greatest truth that the school endeavours to teach,” said Mr 1. M ‘? r^ n Kenner at the annual dinner of the Kongotai College Old Boys’ Association. “That is, that it is not the gettin(T and spending of money on the pinsuit of enjoyment that will give you any lasting 'happiness. The pleasure derived from such tilings is only evanescent. You are judged by the good you do to others. The school has endeavoured to teach you to live youi life, not merely gain your livelihood. It is easy to be ‘passing rich on £lO a year,’ 'but you can be miserable on £4000.”

The view that the name of the Southland province should be changed was expressed by Mr A. S. Russell at a recent meeting of the . Southland League. To those who did not know the province, Mr Russell said, the name Southland signified South Land, a territory in the polar regions. “Ue have been spending thousands of pounds on potential assets, he declared, “but does the very name, Southland, give tourists a good impression. Is it going to induce them to visit us. Mv own idea is that it should be changed' to Wonderland.” —(Loud laughter). “Wonderland would be a. better advertisement,” he added. Mr D. J. "Wesney said he did not think the name Southland was derogatory to the province. It was decided to record Mr Russell’s view and the fact that he desired the league to keep the matter in view.

Very high tides have recently washed away the top layer of sand between the rock's at the point known as the Margaret Casey Rocks at Molyneux Beach. A quantity of heavy black sand has been exposed (says a Balclutha correspondent), and goldseekers from Kaka Point have been finding this sand highly profitable to work. Even with the old fashioned digger’s cradle good wages are said to have been made. So infectious was the “gold fever” that on a recent holiday several parties were to be seen hard at work shovelling and washing. In this connection it may be mentioned that the alluvial workings on the property of Mr Telford Tilson, situated near the beach, have come under the notice of a Gore mining syndicate, which is understood to have acquired an option to purchase, with the idea of systematically working the property.

When a party of three deer shooters, Messrs P. Massey, of (Dargaville, S. Wright, of Karaka, and R. J. Crosbie, of Pukekohe, were stalking. Japanese deer in the Rangitikei district, one of the members of the party performed an unusual feat in the art of shooting by “killing the proverbial two birds witli the one stone.” Mr Massey sighted and shot one animal, and, then went to collect the carcass. To the amazement of all members of the party, they found another Japanese deer dead, about seven feet away from the first. Mr Massey bad seen only one deer, and could hardly credit the fact that he had shot two, especially when they were the elusive Japanese deer. An examination of the first deer showed that the bullet had hit behind, the shoulder and passed right through the body, striking a bone and splitting at the same time. The two pieces of the bullet had entered the neck and back of the other deer, which had evidently been standing in the scrub behind its mate, and out of view of the party, with the result that it was also killed.

The use of foot-warmers in railway carriages was commenced to-day. 'twenty fcot-wariners were sent to the Ash burton railway station for use on mixed trains.

With a roar like thunder a whirlwind struck the small township of Te Uku seven miles from Raglan early on Wednesday morning, partially unroofing the residence of Mr Arthur Moon, overturning a shed, and shifting another building several feet. The post office was damaged slightly, and a number of fences in the vicinity were levelled. No one was injured.

New Zealand and South Australia have much in common in that they both were originally settled under the system of colonisation first advocated by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. South Australia is a few years older than the Dominion, however, and so New Zealand was able to; profit from the working of the Wakefield system in that colony, and to make certain adjustments in it that South Australia’s experience had shown to be necessary. South Australia was proclaimed a British province on December 28, 1836, and will this year commemorate the hundredth anniversary of that event by a series of special Centenary celebrations, most of which will be held between September and .December. They will start with the Centenary Royal Show on September 5 and continue until the end of the year, finishing with an intensive gala period.

“Although when I went to Canberra I Avas prejudiced against the scheme I came away with the feeling that I had been witnessing the birth of a. nation,” said Dr. W. S, Buist, of Hawera, who returned to Wellington after a month’s visit to Australia. “I had Avondered Avhv the sum of £11,000,000 should be spent on such a. scheme. Noav I have no doubt it Avill be the means of cementing Australia into a solid Avhole. The city is an immense place, covering 25 square miles. There are many miles of splendid tar-sealed streets. In planning this garden city, a single coherent plan by a Chicago designer is being rigidly adhered to. Plain, single-storey houses are being built, only public buildings being of two storeys. It is going to be very beautiful. To ensure suitable afforestation, a valuable nursery has been established, to test trees for their suitability to the climate. The city is situated in charming surroundings. At the beginning of autumn the tints of the leaves of deciduous trees Avere really magnificent.”