Bay of Plenty Times. MONDAY, DEC. 13th, 1918. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 7113, 13 January 1919, Page 2

Bay of Plenty Times. MONDAY, DEC. 13th, 1918. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Daring the recent epidemic a Well ington n-'irkieiit had a narrow esc;->p from Ooing buried alive. Ie appear? that the son of a well-known Government cfficial was pronouueed dead Tho father, who had been assisting in connec ion with the epidemic, together with the undertaker, was standing hlongtide the coffin containing the body of the bon, when the father heard a bound coming from the lut-idc of the casket. Investigation was made, and it was discovered that the " corpse " was very much alive, fhe son is now fully recovered, and considers that he has ha 4 a very marvellous escape from being buried alive.

Letaiis of the raising of New Zealand's warloans, amounting to„G4.000, 000, have been supplied by the ActingMinisttr for Finance, the Hon. A M Myers. Of this amount £!, 110,000 iiad been raised at 3k- per cent, £4,750,000 at 4 per cent, £38,000,000 at 4A-per cent, and £19,500,000 at n per cent. Of the total, the Minister added, £22,500,000 had been raised in London, and £41,500,000 in the Lominion.

The annual show of the Matamata A. and P.. Association has been fixed for March 20i:fa.

The roads from Palmerston North to Southern Taranaki are in <.-xceedingly ij.ood condition, and are an absolute pleasure to travel on. North of Wangauui a good deal of asphalting has been dune, which seems to be standing very well. The oul) disadvantage in this is its narrowness.

Some of tbe Boy Scouts a;e camped at Mr W Allele's bash farm at Ake Ake. One day last we. k a party of them went into the bush to gain some knowledge of bridge building, leaving two juuior scjuis to gc-.i dinner.- Ail tku greeted tbe hungry working p^rty on their return was a note to the tffeet that tho embryo cooks had left for come. There is some talk of a courtnmtial. Am>ii<r visitors sta\iu^ at Guildford are Mrs M <i Euddcck and the iiisas Kuddock, Miss Berry, Tak-^ona, Mr and Mrs Kus^bs, Rotorua, M*r It Lurd, Auckland, and tir A Lee.

An illustration of the despatch, with which one can get round the district by motor car as compared with travelling by tho btage coach of some tUiie Bgo itfurniahed, -jays the Waihi Telegraph, oy trips that aie daily undertaken by local cars. An example nas just been supplied to us by Mr J hobsoo, a Waihi motor driver. Starting in his now car from Waihi on Suuday at 20 minutes to 11 with passengers, he arrived at ''aur ;nga, a distance of over 40 inilee, at lunch time. lie spent an hour in the town, and got back to Wuihi in time for early tea. Waking into account the rugged state of tho road, the journey might be taken as a | very creditable performance. Motorists j who have travelled over the splendid ! Waikato roads aud who have had ex- | perienca of the roads iv this district, i are well aware of ths vast difference between them

In conversation with a representative of tue Kotorua Chronicle last week the Hon. W D S MacDunald, Minister for Tourist and Health Kesorts and Agriculture, said be had meant to go to Taupo, but had been recalled to Wellington unexpectedly. He had certain proposals in regard to'Rotorua which he intended to submit to the Cabinet. Iv reply to an inquiry, the Minister said that the work on the Government experimental farm at. Mamaku was goiijg on satisfaeioriiyo With regard to ihe bush sickuet-s,: research fead been so far successful hat the district couid now gr»ze and; fatten cattle all the year round, Tue; aim now,was to find out the minimum auiuunt of top-dressiog necesary to attain this end, and that, of course, took time to ascertain.

An elderly man named James Sullivan, employed by the Whakatane County Council as a surfaceman, dieappeared from T&neatua on Saturday, the 4th inst. His body was found in the river near Taneatua yesterday. mi iuquest is to be held to-day. De ceased was a widower whose daughter died duting the epidemic.

Complaints reach us from two quarters that the Borough Inspector wight with great advantage to the Borough, and the appearance—if uotning else--of the slopei abutting oa the beaches, take steps to put a stop to the practice of tipping rubbish over the bank from tho various dwellings along tne waterfront, and from the uas of the Avenues.

Whita tho greatest strides ia the

•;dvancß of vital statistic^ as a science have been made in rece t yea s, their origin may be traced to centuries before Christ. Imbed, Herodotus tells us of a census of Egypt tdien about 3050 B. C for tbe purpose of making arrangements for the construction of the pyramids, iilsewhere this same author refers to a second census, taken about 1400 B. C. in Egypt by Kamoses 11. for the purpose of re-apportioning all the land of Egypt among his subjects. Ihe Bible tells us that Moses counted the tribes of Israel to determine their fighting strength, and that David, about 1018 B. C, took a census for the same purpose. There is a record of a census taken in China about 1200 8.C., when data of tbe provinces were collected by Uking.

Is tho race deteriorating ': Not if this ttory be true. A lad of twelve or thirteen—one of a fairly Jar°-e famiiy—found himself in charge of the J home during the recent epidemic He ! set out to clean the stove, and after much labour was much pleassd with his efforts. The brightness of the steol work, and the justifiable pride in his labour was dimmed by the fact that mother was too ill to se3 and appreciate it, so he unshipped the oven door aud took it into her lor inspection, and all was well, The same lad had also to do the family wash, including a pair of blankets. ' Djn £ t you tell Mrs that I washed those blankets," was tha preemptory command to his mother, " I won't be a bloomin' girl altogether. If you tell her I won tdo another bloomin' thing" If _ c will glorify ail his labour with the same modesty we can one day look for hia name up among the great men. 'ihree foreigners wore charged at Marylebone (Loudon) wi h po?sesiijg forged Spanish nationality certificates. lhe prosecution stated that oue carried anaivhist propaganda urging eoldiers to lay djwn their arms

British Columbia, which has heeti the victim of the baldest kind of land (■■peculation by which the law was evaded, tho Government tricked, .nd the settler fleeced, is (states the 3S ew York Public) recovering much of the alienated land by rneuis cf tax s-cales. Some of it goes to actual settlers ; the remainder reverts to the Government. British Columbia has a land tax heavy enough to effec:ively discourage land aggregation and land monoply.

It has been ono of Ge.raany's boasts that no country could compete with her in thu production of potash, and that the world would have to depend upon her for supplies of it. It was one of the fcouomic weapons on which she relied to regain her place in our commercial markets. She w Till, it is understood, suffer another disappointment. British and American chemists have destroyed the German monoply by their discovery that potash can be obtained by utilising the w*ste from cement plates and iron foundries, and from other sources. Steps will now be taken to exclude German potash from Allied markets.

An attempt is being made to improve the Sahara Desert—to wit Cameron Hoad—by carting more sand on to it, or to describe it m-ire correctly flour of the fiiifs-t quali;y, except in colour. Cyclists, motor cars, horses, podestri ans, all are enveloped in a cloud of dust the moment they venture on it. What it will be when the rain falls we cannot venture to suggest. What it will be when the next westerly gales get among it cau bo better imagined than described. One universal wail of indignation comes from Cameron Itoad residents and those who use it.

A motor cyclist had an embarrassing experience in Dunedin a few days ago says the Otago Daily Times. Princess street was receiving its periodical tar coat, and the tarring outfit occupied a considerable portion of the fairway, fraific was temporarily confined to narrow limits, and two motor oars were slowly f. lowing an express van, when along came a motor eye ist who was -obviously in-a hurry. He had no time to follow in the wake of the slow-uiov. ing traffic, so he made a das.ii across the liberally tarred, but unsanded part of tbe road, where his machine skidded depositing the rider in the tar. A small crowd assembled to assist with tha usual goud advice, and the motorist retired very much tarred but a wiser man. Mr E S Heady, now residemt in Cambridge but a one-time resident of fauraoga, and for several years secretary of the Chamber of > ommerco, paid us a visit on Saturday last It was a flying vi--.it as part of a Holiday tour, which, said Mr Heady, who is looking ia the best of health, had been the most enjoyable he could remember. The visitor had still a very soft spot for I lauranga. In fact, like all others seemingly who remain here a few years, they fall under its spell and nowhere else ever after satisfies, A meeting of the Committee of the i Bay of Plenty Jockey Club will be ! held m the Borough Council ChumbeM j to-morrow eveniug at 7 45. '

To transact important business a meeting of tbe loal branch of the Returned feoldiei _ Association will be held in the Foresters' Hall on Thursday afternoon nest at 3 o'clock. The cocksfoot harvest in the Bank* Peninsula bays this season promises to be the most prolific fcr the past five years, due doubtleaa to early rain showers, followed by sunny weather, it is .eared, however, that tha supply of reapers will hardly equal the demand, which will be. unfortunate, especially , n viow of the tU accorcing to present indicat: o is, prices should be fairly high, Gws-seoaiuß operations will commence in the course ot a few weeks. Already a num Jer of men from the Lyttekcn district have gono to the various baye m anticipation of an early start