Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 199, 5 January 1942, Page 4

Local and General

Spread Broken Glass For spreading the glass of a broken milk bottle for 150 yards along a footpath, a boy, aged 15, appeared before Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M., in the children's court at New Plymouth repe*ntly. He was severely reprimanded *and placed under the supervision of the child welfare officer for two years. Great Wars "You served in the Great War? ' asked counsel of a witness in the Supreme Court in Wellington. Before witness could reply, His Honour, Mr Justice Callan, said: "You should make it clear what you mean to ask in view of the war that is now going on. Perhaps you should ask witness if he served in the last Great War. It is getting somewhat confusing nowadays." District Maize Crops Work on the district maize crops is now in full swing. The fields which are looking particularly well, are being scarified and hoed. It is noticed that in some instances growers, Maoris in particular are still clinging to the hoe, as the best method of keeping the crops clean. In this respect too, a trip round the countryside will show that the work is considered mainly a woman's job.! Dredige Doing' Good Work One of the Lands Department's Ruston dredges is. now working about seven miles from Whakatane on Piatt's drain after having deepened the lower end of the. Eastern Drain and the Q'rini Creek. Settlers owning hundreds of acres of lowcountry between Awakeri and Thornton are optimistic that winter flooding will be reduced to a minimum as a result of the work the dredge is doing. At present the dredge is about halfw r ay between the Eastern and Western drains and is in the centre of a block of about a square mile of scrub and rush-covered land. Horsesi for Courses While racehorses have been getting their names in the news throughout New Zealand not so much has appeared in print about that forgotten horse, "Old Dobbin," who has been toiling in the local hayfields throughout what only people call "the holiday period" Holidays indeed! Old Dobbin would snort indignantly at the mention of it. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day—and days in between —he has been drawing mower, hayrake, haysweep in between milking times.- For men must make hay when the sun shines, and they couldn't build a stack without Old Dobbin to supply the horse power to house the hay.