LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 82, 17 January 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tlie thoroughness with 'Which the British censorship authorities work is disclosed by an invoice received! this week by an Auckland department store. The invoice is from a famous Nottingham company whose waves are known throughout the world. Only the name and the figures were left on the document, the printed reproduction of the company’s mills and factories having been carefully cut out.

Two strangers in a motor car pulled up at the entrance to Coronation pier, Tauranga, oil a. (recent night, and one of them mounted a box and commenced to expound “pacifist” views. A returned soldier, calling on a. few others, advanced and pushed the speaker off the box, which he threw over '"the waterfront embankment. There was every likelihood of the two strangers following the. box; hut, thinking discretion the better part of valour, they made for their car and disappeared in a cloud of dust.-

The demand for supplies of water for campers at the County Council’s reserve at Hakatei’e has necessitated the installation of a pump on the grounds. The ■ distance to the' river and the uncertainty of supplies from this source when the river is in flood, often means the trespass of the Acclimatisation Society’s property where there is already a pump. However, the Council authorised the sinking of a well to supply the people who make use of its reserve, and it will not be long before the work is completed.

The Ashburton l troop of Ci|i‘l Guides completed a 10 days’ camp at Peel Forest this week. Twenty-four members took part in interesting and instructional training under service conditions. Members of the Ashburton committee visited the camp on various occasions, and an official visit was paid by Mrs V. Wilkinson (commissioner for the Methven district). Miss I. Chamberlain (Mid-Canterbury commissioner' supervised the camp, and the Ist and 2nd Ashburton companies were in charge of Mrs F. D Husband and Mrs D. Collins.

With the majority cf the. people of New Zealand either motor owners or drivers, common courtesies are the rule rather than the exception. A Whangarci motorist discovered one evening that ingratitude Mias still to he met with,' however. Near iHikurangi he stopped to assist a motorist whose car had ceased to function and when he discovered the trouble was a broken axle he offered to tow the disabled car to Whangarei. The offer was accepted and the car' was brought to a garage, the obliging motorist then driving the other man to his home. His reward for his trouble and the risk to his own car in towing the other vehicle was a brief good-night without a. word of thanks.

Caught by the tide at Cape Kidnappers (near Napier) a fisherman recently spent a most- uncomfortable day in the sun waiting for the tide' to ebb sufficiently for him to Return to wre shore. The fisherman had take’;,, up his position on the rock when the tide was on the flood;, but had beien so 'intent on the job in hand that he had not noticed the extent to which the water had surrounded the rock on which he- was seated. When hei finally decided to return to his home later in the day he found that the water was too deep, to wade to the shore, so lit remained on the rock until the cide had ebbed sufficiently for hftn to make the shore without [resorting to swimming.

A circuit- of the North Island of about 1141 miles has been made in record time on a- bicycle by an Auckland amateur cyclist, 11-. A. Walker, whose time for the journey was 8 days 19J hours. The course from Auckland took in Hamilton, Opotiki, Gisborne', Wellington, Palmerston North, Wanganui, New Plymouth and Hamilton. The time is recognised as official, the method of checking Doing a. signed record by the postmasters of the centres visited of the times ol arrival. Walker made the circuit last year in 11 days 5 hours. On his second attempt last May ho had to abandon the trip after making particularly good time to Waipukurau. His latest time would have/ been faster had he not lost a da.y and a-balf because of wet weather.

The. shortness of file holiday season owing to the war conditions will have a serious economic effect upon Rotorua, states a local correspondent. Although during the Christmas and New Year holiday period the volume of tourist traffic compared well with previous years there was a noticeable decrease as soon as the holidays ended and indications are that in the intervening months between now and Easter there will he little tourist traffic to the town.. Already hotels and boarding-houses are rot accommodat ing many more visitors than is usual during the winter months, while the motor camps are rapidly emptying. The decrease in traffiic is very noticeable on the main roads, which for some days have boon practically deserted.

* Buried in the sand, at the mouth of the Toreparu River between Raglan and Kawhia is an ancient wreck, believed to be that of an Oriental ship which may have gone ashore in days even previous to Tasman. The wreck was first discovered about 60 years ago, hut only three times since has it been exposed ■ through the action ol the river washing away the sand. It appears to he built wholly of teak and is of very solid construction. A massive bolt of solid brass, three feet long, taken from the wreck, lias been lent to the Dominion Museum, the Director of which (Dr. W. R>. R. Oliver) has recently returned to Wellington after a trip to Kawhia. When this holt was taken, with, others, from the wreck many years ago, there was also removed a bronze plaque covered with Oriental hieroglyphs, but this became lost in transit to Auckland for expert examination. There is a possible connection between this, mystery wreck and the Tamil hell now in the Dominion Museum. This bell, obtained by the missionary Colenso from some North Auckland Maoris, has inscribed round the rim in Tamil “Mohoyeddin Buies—His Ship’s Bell.” The Maoris, who used it for stewing sweet potatoes in, willingly exchanged the bell for a real cooking pot, and said that they had found the bell among the roots of a fallen forest tree. Probably a section of the bolt will be sent to England for expert examination, as an analysis of the alloy of which it is made might furnish some clue as to the origin of the vessel.

The Health Camp which is being hold at the Methven District High School will he. open to the public tomorrow. The Ashburton Silver Band will give a programme.

Local anglers are keenly anticipating the main run of salmon, which usually takes place in February anu Marcli. It is reported that salmon have .already been seen in the Rakaia and Eangitata. Rivers, and it is usual for odd ones to be taken during January. Floods and freshes in the rivers at this time of the year encourage the run of salmon, as these fish seem to prefer the cool and even discoloured water to make their way to the spawning grounds.

The unpleasant experience of waking up in the morning and finding that 17 100-foot potato drills had been turned over in one of bis paddocks and the potatoes stolen befell a Taieri farmer one day* last week. His only clue was that a lorry had been seen near the paddock on the previous evening, and on such slim evidence it is unlikely that the. culprit could be discovered. ’ Meanwhile the justifiably irate farmer has written down a very considerable quantity of new potatoes as '“gone with the wind.”

Freak potatoes are by no means rare, but this season it would appear that they are numerous. Several specimens were shown to a representative of “The Tim&ru Herald,” ,ns well as a number of samples illustrating the effect of the weather on' potato crops generally. The specimens came from a garden in Timaru, and all bore a second growth. The larger potatoes had a number of shoots as well as second growth, while smaller potatoes had all thrown out new shoots. Possibly this is the- result of the long dry spell, followed by the soaking rain experienced on Boxing J>ay.

Willow trees at Lake Alexand|rino had been badly broken by the weight of snow that had fallen over the weekend, said Mr W. Kidd at a meeting of the Council of the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The trees could not bear the snow when they were bearing foliage and large branches had crashed to the ground at the leserve where the huts were, the track being blocked in places. It was fortunate that campers were not there at the time as a number of large branches had fallen where caravans had stood at Christmas time l , he said.

Now Plymouth’s water supply has developed an objectionable taste, and although the water may be used for drinking purposes quite- safely, it is reported that pot plants and delicite ferns suffer. In the present hot, dry weather, the consumption of water rises steeply, and this means that the water is taking less time to reach the consumer after it has left the chip ; nating plant than when the consumption is less and .as a result the chlorine has not had time to- bo properly absorbed.

A ' contract system of employing wharf labour has been introduced at Patea, which is the first port in New Zealand to experience conditions under which ships are being loaded in half the usual time and the workers are being paid ordinary union rates, plus bonuses varying according to the tons an hour loaded. As an example of the teamwork that has been developed, 14 men in one day handled 480 tons of cargo for three vessels, comprising 3082 crates of cheese, 6732 boxes of butter and 36 tons of general cargo. Under the old conditions 30 to 40 men would have been required to clear the three ships of that amount of cargo in the one day.

Although there have been isolated cases reported of stock in tho Waikato being afflicted with facial eczema, it seems very unlikely that there, will be any outbreak of the disease this summer, states a Hamilton correspondent. Early in the summer the Facial Eczema Management Committee issued a circular advising farmers of a number of safeguards to prevent the trouble, and those farmers who followed .the advice should have no fears, about an outbreak of thei disease. Ample mature feed is regarded as one of the main factors in combating facial eczema, and a survey of Waikato farms shows that growth on most pastures has been steady and flushes of feed ha Vo been avoided.

The free use of Moturekareka Island in. the Hauraki Gulf for the duration of the war has been offered to the Minister of Defence by its owners, Mr Charles, Hanson and j!iis sister. Mr Hanson, who is a veteran of the South African of opinion that the island is an ideal place for use as an internment camp. A reply has been received from the Minister expressing thanks.for the offer, and stating that his department did not have use for it for the time being. If there was a likelihood of its being required later, however, he would have it inspected. Moturekareka Island is best known as the one on which the old barque Rcwa was stranded as a breakwater.

Mystery surrounds the discovery of two bullet holes in a cottage, at Collier’s Junction, near Taihapej occupied by Mr W. G. Hagan, a roadman employed by the Rangitikei County Council. Mr Hagan was in bed at about 11 p m. when he heard shots being fired, and was amazed to find a bullet bole in his bedroom wall and another in the roof. A bullet was found lodged in the timber and appeared to have been fired from, a rifle of heavy calibre. A settler in the district reports that on the night in question he heard a car pass Mr Hagan’s house, and he thought- that some of the occupants of the; car were firing at hares.