LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 266, 22 August 1936, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Notification of approval of the amended rules of the Ashburton Acclimatisation Society is gazetted.

Ashburton County Council rates paid for the current year, which began on July 1, amount to £2IBB 6s j3d. The total rate levied was £26,350, compared. with £29,269 last year.

A slight decrease in the Ashburton register of unemployment was reported to-day, the number of men to receive sustenance payments next week being given as 393. There were 40i on the register this week.

With the .beginning of the school holidays railway traffic through Ashburton to-day was heavy. Relief trains followed the expresses, and all were well patronised. Passengers on the south-bound express in the morning included the Canterbury Rugby team, which was travelling to play South Canterbury at Timaru, and two engines were required to draw the train.

After lying for two days in a creek on the Waioeka Road a purse and its contents belonging to a Gisborne lady have been returned to their owner. Airs F. E. Wilson dropped her purse into the creek from a car in which she was travelling to Auckland, hut a search for it then proved fruitless. However, it was found two days later by residents of the district in the car tracks through the sfteam. The purse was open and notes and silver were strewn over the bed of the stream close by, while a pair of spectacles also was found. The spectacles, _ however, weie damaged beyond repair.

The fact that the consumption of milk in the Dominion is only a quarter of a pint for each person was commented upon at the monthly meeting of the executive of the Auckland provincial branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. A resolution was passed expressing the opinion that this figure, even allowing for the fact that consumption on farms was not included, was altogether too low. The resolution also slaved that the executive joined with Dr E. B. Gunson in his endeavour to impress on the Government the necesvvv of educati ig toe people of New Zealand ns to the value of milk and milk products.

Something in the natftre of a record in ailments and casualties has been established ov a i snluu" an family. A inert time ago she lather injured one of his hand;;, t.ie mother was at the time laid up with rheumatism; .me child had to 0r..0r th 1 hospital to undergo an operation ; another child was bitten by a -log; a third youthful member of the family fell off a roof and had to have six stitches in his head; a fourth child developed an abscess on the jaw, and, still another arrived home with mumps. To complete the tale of woe, a daugh-ter-in-law also had to go into hospital for treatment.

“There are more deaths from tuberculosis in New r Zealand every year than there are from accidents on the roads,” said Mr H. N. Moss at a meeting of the Stratford Hospital Board. His suggestion that the Board should indicate to the Ministers for Health and Agriculture its support of the principle that all milk for human consumption should be drawn only from tuberculintested cows was adopted. “While we hear so much, about road accidents, tuberculosis is quietly doing its work,” said Mr Mess. “The authorities .are just waking ui> to the fact, and Napier recently added its support to the movement for testing cows from which is obtained milk for human consumption. It is up to this Board to support any step of this kind.” ,

White butterflies have already made their appearance in Timaru, several having been seen in various parts of the town yesterday. It is expected that work on the new Ashburton Courthouse will be begun at an early date, probably within the next two weeks, according to a statement made this morning by Mr H. E. Herring, M.P., to a “Guardian” reporter. 11l a. case heard in the Invercargill Magistrate’s Court recently, comment was made from the Bench on the usefulness of photographic evidence. Ihe police soon had the opportunity of putting the suggestion into practice, for, favoured by the fact that a collision occurred opposite a photographer's premises the other morning, they had photographs of the scene taken from all angles, including a bird’s-eye view from the roof of a -building. Possibly portending an early summer, shearing has already been commenced by a farmer in the Winchester district. During the week he shore 125 stud Corriedale ram and ewe hoggets and yesterday expressed himself well satisfied with the clip. At present the sheep are pasturing on Italian ryegrass and have been an object of much interest to passers-by who have noticed them. At the Piping and Dancing Association’s annual festival in Christchurch, successful Ashburton competitors were: Operatic dance (under 11), Shirley Janies 2 (equal); Highland reel (11 and under 14), Maisie Wilson 2 (equal); Irish jig (11 and under 14), Maisie Wilson 1; South Island championship for boys and girls, gillie calUim, 11 and under 14), Maisie Wilson 2; sailor’s hornpipe (11 and under 14), Maisie Wilson 1. ' A Press Association telegram from Wellington states that the erection of a new observatory for the city in the Botanic Gardens is almost certain within the next two years. Funds have been provided by the Carter bequest, whiich now amounts to £12,000. Recently a conference was held with the Minister for Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) and a committee is being set up with the object of furthering the erection of the observatory.

An example in Auckland cf what he described as “the innate conservatism of old systems” was given by Sir Stephen Allen in the course of an address on transport control. He referred to the Auckland Transport Board “clinging to its old tramcars and rails, in defiance of modern conditions, which have forced almost every large city gradually to discard them for the more mobile omnibus system, or for the trol-ley-bus, which gives silent running without the rail nuisance.”

Though its incidence is stated to be no worse than usual at this time of the year, sleeping sickness among ewes is reported to be very general in the Manawatu district. One of the factors to which this is attributed is a shortage of feed for sheep, some farmers, owing to the very favourable summer and autumn, having overstocked their properties, with the result that _ they have had insufficient feed available for July and August.

During a ladies’ interclub golf match at Castlecliff a seagull participated in an interesting incident which was the cause of much merriment when ■related at tiie clubhouse. One of the players had driven off at the sixteenth hole, hut when she approached the ball a seagull swooped down and picked it up The bird flew 20 or JO yards with the ball, which it dropped but again swooped down to pick up the strange object. Several times the operation was repeated, and eventually the obliging gull dropped the ball on the green for the player to register an excellent figure which required explanation later.

“No wonder New Zealand is getting so much favourable publicity in the foreign press,” said Mr Mason Warner, an American journalist, who recently finished a tour of New Zealand, in a. letter of farewell and appreciation to the Government Department of Tourist and Publicity. “Nowhere else in the world have 1 found more intelligent and helpful co-operation from public officials than in your country. Your tourist bureaux, libraries, museum curators, railway officials, the Government hostel managers—everybody I met—were so genuinely friendly that I am at a loss to express my appreciation.”

“A Wellington master mariner of great experience, a captain of Union Company steamers lor many years, states that parts of Wellington Harbour are being silted up as the result of periodical floods in the Hutt River,” writes “Forest and Bird” for August. “The floods bring down increasingly heavy deposits of mud, the debris of river banks, and the hills laid bare by deforestation. The removal of the native bush, with its matted undergrowth removed also the original protection of the river banks. . . That the floods sweep huge quantities of earth into tlie harbour is apparent to everyone who sees the discoloured water after a period of heavy rain. The northern part of the harbour is vellow for miles.”

Faith, in the intermediate school system was expressed by Mr T. U. Wells (chairman of the Auckland Education Board) at a meeting of the Board. Mr Wells said that in the past there had been much waste of children’s talents because the system under which they were taught did not seek to discover their special aptitudes. “I believe the solution lies along the development of the intermediate school wherever the population warrants such an institution,” said Mr Wells. “It allows for the testing out of a child’s abilities—whether they should he developed on the manual, technical, or academic side. I believe if w© develop the intermediate school scheme in the larger towns it will do a tremendous amount of good for the children.”

“In the proposal to create State highways which is provided for in the Government’s policy, I anticipate that good will result through the standardisation of method of construction,” said the president of the North Island Motor Union (Mr W. A. O’Callaghan), at the annual conference at Carterton on .Wednesday. “A well-constructed highway contributes very directly towards safe inortoring. One feature of %me 0 f our best highways which could very well be extended is the place of white pegs to denote the limits of vehicle tracks. Another feature which it is hoped will he made universal is centre-line marking on curves. The proposal to undertake a national scheme of levelcrossing elimination is one which meets with the complete approval of motoring organisations, because past experience has shown that railway crossings constitute one of the greatest traffic dangers in this country.

A case of erysipelas at Mount Somers and, one at Fairton were reported to the Ashburton County Health Inspector this week. There were no notifiable disease cases in the Borough.

During the hearing at the Otahuhu Magistrate’s Court of a case of speeding, Mr Hunt, S.M., asked the prosecuting traffic inspector if he would still allow a margin over the limit when the new regulations came into force. The inspector stated that at present it was customary to allow a margin of up to 10 miles per hour where there were no dangerous circumstances, but in future there would he no allowance made at all, and all motorists exceeding 30 miles per hour would he prosecuted.

A proposal for the purchase of a suitable property for the purpose of making provision in the future for a civic centre in Nelson—including municipal offices, an early settlers’ memorial hall, and a town hall—was made hy Mr J. A. Harley at a meeting of the Nelson City Council. After briefly considering the suggestion, it was decided to obtain an option over a property on the corner of Halifax and Trafalgar Streets, with a view to considering its purchase.

Estates of a value of £520,153 were reported and accepted for administration by the Public Trustee during July. The total value of the estates under administration by the Public Trustee on March 31, was £60,660,310, and the new business for the four months ended July 31, was £1,975,014. Grants of administration made by the Court in favour of the Public Trustee numbered 175 for the month. During the month 394 new wills appointing the Public for safe custody by living testators and 365 existing wills were revised to provide for changes desired by testators. The total number of wills now held in the Public Trust Office is 86,719.

How three surveyors, becoming lost in the dense bush surrounding Palmerston North when returning from a shooting expedition in the Oroua district, found their way out again was related by Mr It. S. Abraham to the Palmerston North Rotary Club. He stated that they were without compasses, but were accompanied, by a Maori boy and a milch cow which did duty both as a. “pack-horse” and milk supply. Their plight, after they had been wandering for several days, was becoming serious when the Maori boy had a brain-wave. He took the hah. off the cow and hustled the animal to the front. With its animal instinct the cow headed straight for home, and the party were back in half an hour at their camp, which was situated on what was then the egde of the bush where the Palmerston North Boys’ High School now stands.