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Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 227, 25 September 1922, Page 4

I — j -The appeal of the flower-girl em-bodied I in that old-time refra.in "Pleaee give mc; I a penny, sir," would appear to be con- I strtied in a totally different manner toI day A gentleman in the city on Satur-1 day was accosted by a friend who said, j "Hitvc you got a penny on you?" "Yes,, old Aport," replied the other, digging out | of his pocket one of the popular tram ; i coins. In return the giver received a '•. '■ neatly printed oard with tlie following ! inscription: "You are now a member of i j the Mugs' Copper Club," and in smaller, I lettering "If you want your penny back j then catch another 'mug.' " In response 1 to the "P.T.0." the reader turned the j card over to see the following candid:. piece of advice in black type: "Don't be ; a mug, learn to take care of yourself. From ." A firm's name then mdi- i cated to the holder that in addition to j having the doubtful honoxir of being j made an involuntary member of this ' novel modern institution, he had paid ; something towards a publicity scheme! I Report, are coming to band of the depredations of wild pigs amongst the j lambs in the Aotuhia district (writes a] '•Stratford Post" correspondent). The ■ pest is one that ought to be taken in . hand at once. The Covernment made a half-hearted attempt to check the , marauders by laying poison in their j bush reserves, but this has proved quite ; inadequate. The pigs seem to swarm ; worse than ever. One farmer has killed i five within the last few days, all of them amongst his ewes and lambs.. The same farmer last year sustained a j loss after lambing of 35 per cent, of his • lambs, which could only be attributed to ' the ravages of wild pigs. At a recent annual meeting of share- j holders in a certain Manawatu dairy j company (states the Levin "Chronicle") . •four of the original directors were rejected and new men put in their places. ! The defeated directors evidently con- j sidered that if they were not good ' enough to remain on the board the company would have no need of their financial backing- They therefore withdrew their joint and several g-uar-j antees at the bank, with the result that ' when the 20th of the month came the : suppliers did not get their milk cheques. It is stated that the signatures of all the shareholders are now required to '■ the guarantee before the needful finance | will be available. ;

A start was made to-day with the work of sitraigi.tenirag the tram lines in Upper Queen Street where they curved off at the recent site of the Grey statue. About four chains of the route require to be dealt with by the gang of workmen employed. _ Shortly after ».30 a.m. j a tram outward bound jumped the rails \ at the scene of the alterations, and for I half an hour trams on that portion of ] the route were d-ive-rte.l up W elleslcY . Street until the offending car was , "jacked*' back to the line. The Avondale Jockey Club's Spring ! Meeting opened at Avondale on Satur- I day in fine weather, and the racing was | decidedly interesting. The big event, j the Avondale Cup, was won by the j locally-owned Royal Present, which de- , feated the favourite, Gasbag, by three- | quarters of a length after a great race. , Tho Avondale Stakes, the tirst classical . two-vear-01.l event of the season, fe.ll to , Bathos, a youngster owned by the (lis- ' borne sportsman. -Mr. A. B. -Williams, Which won in convincing fashion. Di.t- j ing the afternoon the sum of £55,.T0 was passed througli the machine, which represents a dcerea_-<- of i-40S. 10' on the amount handled on the correspond- I ing day lasl year. There was a record aUondanee at the meeting, the gate receipts being considerably ahead of . last year. Hitherto the Income Tax, Department line accepted the figures . supplied by the various clubs, but a ; new departure was made on Saturday, , when two utlirials were present and . checked the gate receipts an.l other , sources of income. ; 1 An official of the Labour Department ( .hat. caused a stir among Te Awaimitu ; shopkeepers by pointing out that it is illegal for them to keep open on Friday ! nights. This position has arisen through j an oversight in not gazetting the present I | hours. Tlie cutting awfiy and shifting of the , ; ferro-concretc launch landings, or stair- : ways, at the .brina-stwork beside tile Kerry | i Buildings, in preparation for the water- i [ front railway construction, was started ! ,by the Harbour Board's engineering ; staff during the week-end. There are | four landings, and it is intended to 1 place two of theni at the breastwork on j | the eastern side of Queen's wharf, and I 1 two at the new wharf adjoining the I I present launch IH-rths. It is something | ■of an engineering .'eat to cut away the j I landings and shift them bodily, as they | I are reinforced throughout by steel bars, I j and each land'ng weighs something in I the neighbourhood of 80 tons. At low tide on Saturday a start was made on the first of them, the concrete being | chipped away at the junctions with the (piles at the foot and the breastwork at | the top, to bare the steel bars, which I were cut through expeditiously with an oxy-acetone flame. Quite a number of people were interested in this application to common use of what they had only previously read of as one of the higher branches of tlie gentle art of burgling & steel safe- The same process is being used for welding the bars again I when the landings are placed in new positions. The severing of the first stairway was completed on Sunday, and in the afternoon the floating crane Mahua I ("the big lift") justified its name by raising the 80-ton monolith and float- j ing it round to its new position on the j eastern side of Queen's wharf, where it '■ was sweetly dropped into its new posi- j tion on foundations that had been pre- j pared. Tlie shifting of the other three landings will be carried out during tlie week, as the tides permit. In reference to a tv-eaflher forecast recently mentioned as Slaving been made by Mr. F. R. Field, he points onit to us tihat amongst the days upon which he stated broken weather mi.g%t be expected were the last two daya of nest month, not of this month. The report of the geological survey of the Dargaviile subdivision by Mr. H. T. Ferrar, and Mr. W. H. Copp, just issued I by the Mines Department, contains some interesting information regarding the : economic geology of that district. It! states that minerals of high commercial value are practically absent, and the coal j measures arc of sporadic development.' The report, however, states that of first importance to settlers are the deposits of high grade limestone occurring in different parte of the district. 'These deposits have now been mapped, and | estimates of the quantities available i : made. Notable localities are Takahawai | or Whangarei Harbour, Waipu Caves, |. and in the Avoc_ district. Large areas j of hydraulic .'.mestone suitable for j cement making have been traced inland from Wilsons New Zealand Portland: Gement Works, similar deposits in Hobson County have been partly deline- '■ ated. Reference is also mad', in the report to the kauri gum swamps and the value of the same for dairying once the resin has been removed and the land drained. Six types of soil, each of which ' requires different treatment, have been ; recognised in the Dargaviile district. In I addition clays useful for brickmaking, and other industries have been located,! las well as swid useful for glass i , making. ! Owing to Mr. P. Hally, the Concilia- j tion Commissioner, having to proceed to i i Wellington on urgent business, the bio- j ! graph operators* dispute, which was to I '■ have come before the Conciliation Coun- ' cil on Wednesday, will not be taken till I next Monday. j The Education Department (states j the Wanganui "Herald") sprang another | surprise on the Wang&nui Education j Board when it sent a circular letter ; along stating it would be glad to have i particulars of the nature, time, etc.. of | teachers absent through illness. "What I next," remarked a member. "They I will want to know soon how many false j teeth the teachers have." Another j member: "We should be glad to nute ■ , that the Department has a thirst for I knowledge." The letter was received., and the board speedily passed on to the next business on the order paper. ' There were several aeeident." in a Rugby sewn-a-side tournament played ; ;at Wanganui on Saturday. S. Marsden, of Ar.moho. sustained concussion and Ainsley. of Kaierau, a broken collarbone. Many dairy farmers in this district (writes, our Te Aroha correspondent) are interested in the judgment in the case Mac Donald v. Xormanby Co-opera- \ tive Dairy Co., Ltd., in which Sir Robert i Stout, -Mr. Justice Hosking. and Sir John Salmond allowed the appeal in-favour of i the appellant. A few years ago the baMs ; iof butterfat for a £1 share was 1251b, but by a large company operating in this district it has heen reduced to 701b for butter and cheese, while in the case or skim milk powder the number of shares per cow has increased alarmingly, and the liability of dairy farmers is consequently very heavy. Shares have also been allotted for timber milling and coa! mining ventures, but it would appear that by the recent judgment of the Full Court any abnormal allotment of shares to factory suppliers will now be stopped. . while it is quite on tlie cards that many j who hav_ been allotted shares without i applying for them may be seeking reela--1 ruation_.

' Sir Sydney Kidman, of Adelaide, known as Australia's "Cattle King," who arrived by the Makura this morning, and is en route to Vancouver and America, told a "Star" reporter that the States of South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland have never exI perienced such a bad season as the last ! for many years. Store cattle were cxi ceedinglv cheap, 2000 store cows of from I three to"five years old recently sold only ! realised 18/6 per head. Fat cattle were I scarce and dear in Melbourne and ! Sydney, bullocks which were railed 1200 | miles from the back country fetching I from £14 to £16. The prospects for beef I were not at. all bright unless the country . was favoured with rain. The prices for ] sheep and lambs were high, and wool : was bringing ifonderfully high prices, i particularly merino wool. Sir Sydney i Kidman said further that the great slump 'in the overseas meat market was the j reason for the prevailing low prices for j cuttle, but he hoped that soon the posi--1 tion would revert to normal again. The firect:ce of throwing things from : the windows of upper floors is a dangerous one, yet it seems to be growing in Auckland. On Saturday night, just before 10 o'clock, a large electric ! light bulb crashed into the foot of Queen Street, narrowly missing a grot.-p of young women. Earlier in the evening some one hurled a big red carrot , into the middle of the busy thoroughfare outside the Victoria Arcade, and on : Saturday morning a "Star" reporter j saw a box, probably the former resting . place of a millinery creation, sail gaily I out of a high window and land upon the jtop of a passing tram, from which it I bounced to the street. The Rev. C. J. Tocker, Moderator of ! the Auckland Presbytery, speaking on | Sunday morning, at St. Paul's Church, i Devonport, on the subject of church | membership, spoke at length on the j methods adopted to bring such about. | Methods, however,were only external, and I every member of the Presbyterian Church should be able to give a good reason I why he was a Presbyterian. There was | the far broader question to face of toleration to the opinions of all others, never mind of what name called, who "believed in the same central facte. He I believed in church union, 'but only on I the broad basis, which he had mentioned, jof a broad interpretation of other men's i beliefs whose fundamentals were the I same as our own. Men and women could i not run away from the obligations the I membership of a church imposed upon j them any more than a man in secular ! affairs could run away from his legal and binding obligations solemnly entered ! into, here was as much responsibility j resting on the "one talent" man aa there I was on the twenty talent one, and this I was the crux of the whole question, each person working to bring about an effec- | tual and aggressive church. The great I church reunion would draw nearer wlien church membership in all departments of Christian life was lived up to Christ's standard, for that meant a drawing together which no power on earth could withstand because it was a power which came from God. Community singing will be held at the East Street Hall, off Karangahape Road, this evening, in commencement of j a series of Monday evening gatherings. iThe Bongs to be submitted will be popu- | lar ballads and folk songs of the kind 'which prove most suited to large gatheri insrs. This evening the Rev. P. N. ! Knight will preside, and Mr. L. E. Falkner will act as song leader.