COUNTRY NEWS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 70, 16 December 1919, Page 13

COUNTRY NEWS

NOTES FROM VARIOUS CENTRES (from Our Special Correspondents.) HANAWATU At tho meeting of tho College Street School Committee at l'almerston North it was announced that the necessary arrangements had been n.adc for an overdraft at tho bank for the purchase of additional property for increasing tho accommodation of tho school playground. Tho amount has been sent to the Education Hoard at Wanganui to deal with, and a.committee was set.up to go into tho matter of improving tho grounds generally. _ When dealing with some breaches of the Liconsing Act at the Palmerston North Magistrate's Court yesterday, Mr J. Logan Stout said: "Bight throughout the country tho anti-shouting law is being more honoured in the breach ihan in the observance. It seemed impossible to enforce tho law unless thero were police on duty in every bar." At the meeting of tho Palmerston North West End School Committee it was reported that the present average attendance was now 318, the pverage to dato having been 293. This average, if maintained, would entitlo the school to increased staff. The annual prize-givtng in connection with the Palmerston North High School took place in (he Opera Hi use on Fridnv night. The chair was occupied by Mr. T. Ti. Hoddor. The prizes were, distributed bv Majer-GeneiMl Sir Edward Cliaytor, and. in doing so ho suitably addressed Hie scholars. The -mnual report was rend by Mr. .Tohu Murray, the director, and Mninr. Hardie rlso delivered an addross. Votes of thanks v.ere passed to the boarcf, to tho staff, and to the speakers. Miss Laura Skeet. 8.A., of the staff of the Palmerston North High School, has been appointed resident mistress in the secondavv department of the New Plymouth Girls' High School, ard Miss Bertha- Robson. of the Bulb District High School, has been appointed to a position in the preparatory department of the same institution. A farmer who recently left this district to take up land in llio Taranaki district, state that the country fo- 20 miles around his homestead is nothing but a hot-bed of noxious w?«ls, and lie hazards the opinion that in that block alono damage Jo the extent of .£IOO.OOO a year was being done by the spread of the blackberry. So far as tho Manawatu district is concerned very iitilo attention appears to be paid to the spread of noxious weeds. Many of the roadfides are lined with fennel to the height of four to five feet almost ready to -?eed, while everywhere Californian thistle is prevalent, and in some places blackberry rn-i.c ri"(-. wliil» that terrible curse, goat'snie is overrunning' all the low-lying lands along tho Manawatu Biver. At a special- meeting of the Pohangina County Council on Saturday it was decided to raise a loan of ,£7OO for the p.urposo of erecting a workman's cottage for the local roadman. ' Special orders were also confirmed for the erection of a house for the 1 county engineers, and also for a roadman's cottage in tho Coal Creek Hiding. v On Saturday evening the Old Girls' Club of the Palmerston North High School held a social gathering' to bid farewell to Miss Ironside, the president and late directress of the High School, who is leaving to tako up a position at the Victorian Girls' Grammar School, when a suitablo presentation was made and sho was fclio recipient of hearty good wishes for her future, welfare. Tl Seifert, a prominent flaxmiller, who has been absent in America during the past five months, has just returned to Palmerston North. In the course of conversation, he said that wbat most impressed him in America was the almost universal use made of labour-saving machinery. He points out that ni this_ respect the methods adopted in tills Dominion are extremely primitive As an instance, he mentioned the fact Mat when connn ? up tho Manawatu lino by tram he noticed a number of men ii & T aihvay truclts w itl> gravel. In the. States all that work was accomplished m quick timo by the aid of a portable steam shovel, which could be moved from place to placo along the railway lines. One reason why wages- were so liig'h in America was the fact that material was handled more cheaply and cost less There was a good deal of talk about the shortage of labour in New Zealand, but tins would bo minimised and very much more work would be better and more quickly done if the Public Workrf Department and the local bodies would only adopt American methods in this respect At the Palmerston North Magistrate's Court yesterday morning charges of a eiy interesting nature were read in connection with the recent Catholic bazaar and queen carnival. Edmond Lawther Jiroiid, as chairman of the Bazaar Com. inittee, was charged as follows:—(1) Being the chairman of the Catholic bazaar and queen carnivaj. in Palmerston North, he disposed of certain 'personal property comprising a thoroughbred mare anil .other goods to certnin persons by means 'of a device, to wit, tho drawing of tickei.contrary to tho form of Statute of such' cases, mado and provided in section 39 of the Gaming Act, 190S; (2) being the chairman of tho. Bazaar Committee ho flid establish a scheme by which a prize, racehorse named Nursing Sister and other goods were gained by a mode of chance, to wit. the drawing of tickets. Similar charges were also laid, coniointlv agamst Messrs. Alfred John Mah«i and Cornelius M Grath, as committeeman and scovmry). lho cases were adjourned •until January.