LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 110, 19 February 1937, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The harvest at the Ashburton High School Farm this year comprises 37 acres of wheat and 10 acres of oats. There is a flock of 100 ewes with lambs on the farm, and it i.s intended that a larger flock lie carried this year.

Prospects for week-end angling in Ashburton “County rivers are better than they were at the end of the last week. Although not yet in first class condition for fishing the rivers are in reasonably good order, and improving rapidly. Provided adverse weather does not set in they should be quite fishable. Plenty of salmon have been seen all through the week, although the water has been a little too dirty for any catches to be made. Salmon fishers, however, should obtain fairly good sport in the week-end.

“It is with regret that we record a falling off in the attendance at our sports’ fixtures. At our tournaments the attendance was so poor that collections were not even taken up, while the return from the down v. Country football matches was 2s Id. The annual sports provide a wonderful variety ot keenly-contested events, yet the patronage received from those vitally intciest ed —the parents* —is, to sav the least ot it, most disappointing,” stated Die annual report of the Ashburton Countj Schools’ Sports Association, presented last evening.

The familiarity with which counsel treated exhibits of gelignite and detonators during the hearing of an alleged breaking and entering case drew comment from Mr Justice Callan in the Auckland Supreme Court on Friday (states the' “New Zealand Herald”). The jury smiled nervously on one occasion when an orderly dropped the explosives and, when counsel persisted in laving the exhibits on a ledge from which’ they were in danger of being carried off by counsel’s sweeping ,-obes bis Honor pointed out that the deputy registrar was taking no risks in placing the packages in a safer position on his desk.

Although thoro have been rare instances of a waterspout being seen from other parts of the North Island recently, it is a long time since the phenomenon has been observed along the coast adjacent to Levin. A resident who was looking out to sea from a two-storey building on Friday last just before a hailstorm saw a laigo waterspout in the vicinity of Hokio. He was ablo to follow the course as it curled along the sea, some, distance from the shore. He described it as like a gigantic snake. The spout then merged into a storm, which was rapidly approaching land, and as it did so it appeared to he like a column of smoke. r lho iact that it could be seen from Levin shows that it must have been of very large dimensions.

A slight increase is shewn in the number of unemployed who will receivo sustenance payment in Ashburton, next week. The number is 212, compared with 202 this week.

Four cups from the Herbert Smith Trust have been allotted to the Alienton School for swimming sports. The committee will decide at its next meeting whether shorts are tc: be held for the cups this year. The baths have been closed to date.

Unusual circumstances attached to the recent sale of a team of six horses by Mr L. A. Oakley, of Mayfield, who negotiated the sale with a Rangiora buyer. The horses were aged 3,4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 years, and were all from the same mare. Two other horses from this mother two years and one year, are running in Mr Oakley’s paddocks, and yet another died shortly after it was born. It was the ninth foal. The exact age of the mare is not known.

Little swimming has been done in the Domain baths lately on account of adverse weather. The baths have not been without a use for schoolboys, however. Quite a large number, armed, with rods and angling gear, were fishing patiently in them this morning, hut there was no evidence of their having been rewarded with large catches.

An atmospheric phenomenon was witnessed at Birkenhead, Auckland, recently. The day was calm and sunny, and though there was little wind elsewhere, a whirlwind, with its centre iit Roseberry Avenue, lifted cut grass from the paddocks and debris high into the air. Some of this debris was carried a mile distant, and the area affected extended to the Birkenhead ■ reservoir, the highest point on the North Shore. Many of the residents had to close the windows of their houses during the disturbance to protect the contents of the rooms.

“I am the father of a child concerned and the girl who effected the rescue did a mighty plucky act and is deserving of highest praise, if not official recognition,” writes Mr Oliver P. Liddell, of Whitianga, Auckland, to “The Dominion,” referring to his two-year-old soil’s narrow escape from possible death when he was tossed down an incline by a bull at Hot Water Beach recently. The boy’s sc-reams attracted the attention of his cousin, Matilda Fyfe, of 13 Green .Street, Newtown, Wellington, who ran straight to the rescue. Her yells succeeded in their object and also brought other helpers to the scene, who found the youngster in a dazed condition. “I am naturally deeply grateful to this plucky girl,” concluded Mr Liddell. Miss Fyfe, who is 15 years of age, received many messages of congratulation, including a telegram from Mr J. Thorn, M.P.

Stories of the fecundity of the rabbit tribe are plentiful, and fairly u-ell known (writes the Auckland “Star s fe Awamutu correspondent). At a conference last week ot representatives of local bodies to consider amalgamation proposals as suggested bv the Go\ernment, one delegate remarked that all present doubtless had heard, the huge figures quoted by a certain rabbit inspector to show the total progeny of a pair of rabbits at the end of three years. Other delegates smiled, for it was an old story. But another delegate, who represents a rabbit district near the Waikato River,, rather startled the conference when he said that following one. comprehensive poisoning soon after the board was formed about four years ago the huge total of 340,000 carcasses was counted, including 11,000 on one property alone. This was an indication of the' need for a rabbit board in certain areas. Nowadays, continued the speaker, there are so few labbits in the district that they “are not noticed.” Delegates representing boards that were established about a decade ago point with pride to the success of their administration, for rabbits, once plentiful and a drug on the market, are now so scarce as to be regarded as tasty fare on the farmhouse table.

It is not often that the Mayor, borough councillors, and burgesses of a local body are prosecuted for an offence, hut at the Te, Awamutu Magistrate’s Court last- week (says the Auckland “Star”) the parties named above were defendants in a prosecution by Mr G. H. Webb, noxious weeds inspector of the Raglan County Council, who successfully maintained that the Mayor, councillors, and burgesses of the borough of To Awamutu, being the occupiers ;of certain lands in the borough of Te Awamutu, Pirongia West district, had failed to clear the land of ragwort, and keep it clear. The, Magistrate (Mr F. H. Lcvien) commented that the defendants were referred to as the Mayor and borough councillors j actually the burgesses of the borough should he included, and lie amended the claim accordingly. Mr 11. A. Swarbrick, the borough solicitor, stated that the work of clearing had been commenced the previous r rid ay, and lie suggested that the case be adjourned until next Court day. This the Magistrate declined to do, and recorded a conviction, with a fine of £2 and costs (10s), remarking that he must treat the defendants just the same as private . landowners, some of whom were in very Straitened circumstances, "yet were convicted of similar breaches.

The death at her residence, Cambridge, recently of Mrs Mary Ann Webber recalls (says the “Auckland Star”) the mutiny which broke out on the barque Queen of the Age on her voyage to New Zealand in 1874. The vessel carried 165 immigrants, including the late Mrs Webber. The New Zealand Shipping Company chartered the ship (757 tons) for one voyage to New Zealand, and she sailed from Gravesend on, November 10, 1874, for Auckland. After a somewhat eventful voyage, she arrived on March 2, 1875, making the passage under Captain Montgomerie in 105 days from Torbay. Severe gales were encountered nearing Tasmania, and, during the storm one of the immigrants died and one of the seamen was knocked overboard and drowned. Off Tasmania some of the sailors mutinied. The men broke open several eases and appropriated the contents, and when charged with the offence, threatened to burn the ship. Having saturated the men’s quarters with oil, they intended,, after firing the ship, to get away in a lifeboat which was discovered packed with stores. After the men had been placed in irons Captain Montgomerie placed a guard of passengers until the ship arrived at Auckland, when the men were sent to gaol.

It appears that there will be little swimming for primary school children this season. The combination of adverse weather and the infantile paralysis epidemic has resulted in the baths attached to: schools being closed most of the holidays, and, although the position may be reviewed when the schools re-open, the indications are that under present conditions baths may remain closed. In line with this is the decision of the School Sports Association to abandon its swimming sports,

In a special issue of the “Timaru Herald,” published this morning in connection with the New Zealand Press conference at the Hermitage, appears photograph reads: —A picturesque Office taken from the centre of Baring Square East. The text under the photagraph " reads: —A picturesque town —Ashburton, the chief town of Mid-Canterbury, is attractive in many respects. Idealising the beauty which native and other trees impart, the citizens have planted liberally, and some idea of the result may be had from the setting of the Post Office, at the corner of Cameron and East Streets. In the foreground is a statue to the memory of the late Mr John Grigg. “The Ashburton Guardian” (evening) is the only newspaper published in the town.

The menace to game birds of hawks in the Rotorua district was mentioned by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) when visiting Rotorua. ■ He said that he visited Reporoa, where hawks appeared to lie in numbers far exceeding liis expectations. “One would be very sanguine indeed to believe that game birds in the district could survive the ferocity of hawks,” said Mr Parry. In the Reporoa district the settlers were dealing with rabbits, and proposed, to go in for a. vigorous system of trapping. This might check the rabbits, but it would he a poor lookout for any pheasants liberated in the district. Somethino- would have to he done about the depredations of hawks and their extermination.

Finding several children she had undertaken to mind for the afternoon prostrate on the lawn of their Miramar home one recent afternoon, a ypung Wellington woman rail desperately for assistance. She had left the children to their own devices for a time, and on returning was unable to rouse them from an alarming lethargy. She feared infantile paralysis or food poisoning, but a sophisticated male who came in response to her cries suspected the cause when he found an open cellar door and a number of discarded vessels. When the eldest child recovered, consciousness the suspicions were confirmed. The juveniles had been drinking father’s bottled home brew. They were naughtily and hopelessly intoxicated.