LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 14, 17 July 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The net result of a public meeting held at Blenheim in connection with Ml. R. F. Goulter's shipping scheme was _ that after very free and full discussion the Farmers' Union, which has been aiming at the establishment of a farmer-owned line of vessels to ship away Marlborough produce at a reasonable freight, and the Chamber of Commerce, which is aiming at an improved passenger service between Picton and Wellington, have joined forces, and will make inquiries with a view to bringing down a combined scheme catering for a fast passenger service across the Straits, and for cargo carriage at freights controlled'locally. After full discussion it was resolved (reports a Press Association message) that the matter of shipping for Marlborough be deferred until after the Chamber of Commerce has met' the Union Company and conferred with the Farmers' Union Sub-commit-tee, when the matter should again be brought before the public of Marlborough. The estimates for the ridjngs of Porirua and Makara, in the Makara County, for the period 1922-23, have been made as follow (after allowing for subsidies):—. Porirua £4319, Makara £944. For general management tie estimate is £1100. To meet the necessary expenditure a general rate of 1 19-32 din £1 would be required, on the basis of capital value, for tho Porirua. Riding, and l£d in the Makara Riding. In opening the new wharf at Turna, Thames, a few days ago, the Hon. G. J. Anderson, Minister of Marine, said that the produce from the Plains was marvellous and the land was marvellous —there was no better farming land than this river silt. They had some peat, but that could be got rid of. The cheese produced on the Plains amounted to 1,812,7001b, and butter to 2,535,7001b. This was a wonderful performance. It was claimed that there was probably no richer area in the world than the Hauraki Plains. Here they had the distinction of having a county that had the largest amount of swamp land in the Dominion. It was one of the youngest counties, but its products vere most remarkable. It was only a few years ago that the drainage of this land was commenced, but he believed he was stating a fact when he said it was his predecessor, the late Dr. M'Nab, who was the first to take the matter seriously in hand and formulate a scheme for the drainage of the Plains. He was a man with a large vision. In New Zealand there were 525 dairy factories, and 17 of these- were at work in the Thames Valley. After patiently listening from Monday to Friday through an involved case concerning the sale of a sheep farm, a special jury of twelve, on being discharged' at the Christchurch Supreme Court were thanked by his Honour Mr. Justice Adams for the care and consideration they had shown, in connection with their duties. He asked the Registrar if it was possible 'to excuse the jury from further services for the remainder of the year. "This is only done in murder cases," said the Registrar. "However, they will not be called again this year for this particular class of case." "At any rate," said his Honour to the jury, "you have the satisfaction

No fewer than six remits protesting against the imposition of the amusement tax on agricultural and pastoral associations have boen received for consideration by the Council of Agriculture at its annual conference in Wellington on Wednesday next. The Egmont branch has also a remit requesting the Government to make it compulsory for local bodies to exempt A. and P. Associations from paying rates on their property. The fair sex hold some terrors for the ranger of the Hea'thcote County Council, judging by his protest to that body last night (reports the Christchurch Press). This Was in respect of a young woman who, he stated by letter, "rescued her horse from me and would have fought me for it." Ho thought it wise to let the horse go and take the matter to Court. The Council decided that the case should be taken to Court if its solicitor approved. An improved lethal chamber for the destruction of stray dogs is to be erected at Auckland as the outcome of representations by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Reporting to the Auckland City Council, the City Engineer, Mr. W. E. Bush, said the society asked that a destroying chamber should be provided to accommodate the larger dogs, and that, instead of coal gas, car-bon-monoxide gas should be used as the killing agent. He submitted plans for a new chamber, to be operated by a charcoal and coke furnace, at an estimated cost of £31 10s. . "It is with regret that I note in your last letter," wrote Mr. C. Kirkley to the Southland Acclimatisation Society, "that the expedition that was to go in search of the moose and wapiti has not done so. It seems a pity; that these animals have been there so. long, and no one seems to know anything about them at all. What is the trouble? Cannot an expedition be financed or what is it? I would be pleased to find out how the herd, if there at all, has done, so that we can have some sport." The society at the same time received a letter from the Department of Internal Affairs, stating that the society's suggestion regarding the desirability of an open season for wapiti next year had been duly noted, and would be considered in due course, but, as kt present advised, it was not thought desirable to declare an open season pending further information. The belief that the cost of house building would shortly drop has caused many a man to go on paying rent during the _ past year or two (remarks the Dunedin Star). Whether the delay has proved profitable is on bare figures an open question, for the prices have not come down in anything like the amount that is represented by the difference between paying rent to a landlord and paying off to secure the title deeds, and whatever sentimental value attaches to being in one's own house is entirely lost. People in Dunedin are now beginning to realise that further postponements are of no avail, since the charges for material and labour are not likely to come down any more for^a while—not, at any rate, to the extent of warranting continued delay—and men who provide plans and arrange for contracts say that there is in our city quite a stir in the direction of putting up dwellings. At present the movements are mostly of a preliminary nature, but they are taken as fairly sure indications that the long-post-poned boom in house building is about to commence. A point of some interest was raised at the marine inquiry at Auckland on the striking of the Rona, when Mr. V. R. Meredith objected to questions put to one of his witnesses, a master mariner, by Mr. Selwyn Mays, with a view to obtaining .his opinion of the actions of the captain of the Rona. Counsel contended that the expression of such opinion was the privilege of the Court, but not of witnesses. Mr. Cutten, S.M., replied that, according to the English rule, the evidence had to be confined to the actual 'facts of the case, and the opinions of experts were not admissible, on the ground that the assessors supplied the expert and technical knowledge required by the Court. He had found that the rule precluded the admission of helpful evideEce, and as a practice did not enforce it. If he had done so in this case he would have had to rule out the whole of Mr. Meredith's evidence by other master mariners. Mr. Meredith did not press the point, and the inquiry proceeded without further reference to the English rule.' From the employers' point of view, there is a certain "worker" engaged amongst the watersiders in coal-boat operations whose "job" is an absolute sinecure. He is known as the "turkey," though his official designation is "deckman." A Westport witness in, the. watersiders' case in the' Arbitration 'Court-at Christchurch (states the Lyttelton Times), said that the "turkey's" duties were absolutely nil, a statement which he adhered to -under strict crossexamination by the workers' agent. The only reason for the "turkey's" presence, he said, was that the railway "hookerson," when loading a boat, would not work unless he were there. There seemed to be an arrangement amongst the workers that there should be no work unless a "turkey", were employed. He was merely a relic of the "shute-loading" days. The employers' agent remarked that probably the "turkey" derived his name from the fact that all he had to d^ was to "strut and preen his feathers." It was to be hoped that the -'unnecessary bird would be consigned to roost forever." ' "The goldfields of Otago attracted thousands of men of fine physique and great hardihood, many of whom were tempted as much'l by, the love of adventure as by the lure ,of gold," stated Professor James Park, of Otago University, in a lecture at Dunedin. "After tho cream of the gold had been gathered at Gabriel's Gully and Weatherstone they spread over most of Central and Western Otago in the\ search for new finds. Every creek and river, valley and gorge, ridge and mountain top was carefully prospected. There is hardly a nook in this wide territory that escaped their notice. Much to the dismay of the runholders, they dug pits everywhere and discoloured the clear mountain streams with sand and sludge. Some of the more fearless built themselves boats and searched the sounds and western slopes of the great divide. One of the few now surviving is the veteran Mr. G. M. -:Hassing. . Others whom I knew and met in my early explorations were William Doeherty, of Dusky Sound; Maori Bill, of Big Bay; Donald Sutherland, of Milford Sound; and Qninton M'Kiiinon, of Te Anau—all I of them men undaunted by danger and privation, unafraid of the solitudes of the wild, all of them born with the roving instinct that makes the true explorer. . Docherty travelled through South Westland with' Hassing in 1865, eventually crossing to "Wanaka and Cardrona-by Haast's Pass. 13ut the scene of his chief exploit!! lay in the high country between Dusky Sound and Wet Jacket Ann. Sutherland explored the Cleddau. Donne, and Arthur Valleys, and was tho discoverer of the fanv ous falls that " now bear his name. M'Kinnon, his contemporary and rival, was a man of great modesty—the man that grows upon the explorer as he becomes conscious of his own feebleness as compared with the titanic strength of the mountain-torrent,-of his littleness as measured by the massive neaks that have resisted the storm and stress nf many thousand generations!. Most of the exnlorers whom he.had known soon learned to .stand with bowed heads before

The Postal authorities have received cable advice from Sydney that the Ulimaroa left at 1 p.m. on the 15th instant for Wellington. She carried 171 bags of mails for the Dominion, including 115 from Australia, 6 from beyond, and 50----parcel receptacles. i Defendants in maintenance cases are always in poor circumstances, and they go to a deal of trouble to wove it. One hit upon a novel idea at the Magistrate's Court to-day. "Why," he said, "I was ao short of money that I had to call my solicitor aside and tell him he -would have to wait for his fee a few days." The Coroner (Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.) held an inquest regarding the sudden death of a man na..ned George Paradise Nash, an inmate, of the Ohiro Home, who collapsed after climbing the Ohiro-road hill at a swift pace on Friday ©vening. Dr. B. 0. Whyte testified that death was due to heart failure, caused by exertion and advanced age. A finding was returned accordingly. A scheme for the establishment of a local municipal fish market has been submitted to the Dunedin City Council. It is estimated to cost £4000, including £2000 for the purchase of a quarter-acre section and £2000 for a building. Provision is made in the buildng plans for the sale of fish, both wholesale and retail; but meantime neither smoking nor chilling rooms are allowed for. "Sneak thieves are not wanted in this town," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., today when sentencing a . man named 'Albert Edward EdwardeF to a month's imprisonment on a charge of theft. According to Sub-Inspector, M'Namara, Edwardes went into the Britannia Hotel about 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, found his way upstairs, went into the complainant's room, and. stole a tooth brush and paste, a shaving brush and soap, and a boot-cleaning outfit, valued at 17s 6d. In view of the controversy going on in Australia over the cut in weather reports to country districts, the following remit from Pelorus to be submitted to the forthcoming Dominion conference of the Farmers' Union is:, of interest:—"That this conference of the Farmers' Union advocate country Post and Telephone Offices being, furnished daily with the weather report; this could be posted up in the office in the same manner as the official war bulletins were treated, and would be of the greatest practical assistance to farmers in the getting in of crops and other agricultural and pastoral pursuits." The ancient Maori was a born naturalist, and, like the modern scientist, tried to find an explanation for every happening. The red beak of the pukeko, which he brought with him from far off Hawaiki, did not escape his critical observation, and his explanation as to how it came about is humorously quaint. When Tawhaki was going up to Heaven he pinched the nose of the pukeko coming down, and it has been red ever since. Professor Park, who quoted the old Maori legend, informed his audience at the Otago Institute meeting last week that Tawhaki was at one time a celebrated hero throughout Polynesia. Residents of .Khandallah who found their tank water yesterday tinged a blush-pink wondered if they had managed to catch a piece of the elusive rainbow. The water drawn from several of the tanks was a decided pink; even a piece of ice had" the effect of a slab of coloured glass. Several of the neighbours commented on the strange happening, and. it was found that most of the tanks were affected in the same way. , Water drawn off and allowed to stand, remained pink, and then changed to autumnal brown, with a thick sediment spread at the bottom of the receptacle. Khandallah is still wondering about its "pink Sunday." " ■ '.. To be referred to. as "the worst'1 woman in Wellington" was the fate, of Mary Johnston when ehe appeared before Mr. P. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court to-day. I Johnston, who had several aliases, was charged with drunkenness and being an idle and disorderly person, in that she consorted with thieves' and .prostitutes. Sub-In-spector M'Namara said that the woman was making her sixty-sixth appearance. She had recently undergone a term of reformative detention, but this had had little or no effect on her. The Magistrate said that he had received a circular from the Justice Department suggesting that women of the clasr of the accused should be sent forward to the Supreme Court for sentence., as the small terms that, could be imposed in the lower Court ■were no deteiTent. Johnston was fined 5s for drunkenness and was Temanded for a week on the vagrancy charge. Although the Postal Department sometimes takes thirty odd years to deliver a letter, it is not always to blame, and it is immensely proud of itself when it can trace the mistake to the complainant himself, says the Melbourne A;??. In the ' annual report of the Post-T&ster-General tabled in the House of Repr*-, sentatives a number of such cases' ar» gleefully printed as being typical of the sort of complaint a faultless Department has to waste its valuable time investigating. A lady last year reported. trat a parcel she was expecting had failed to turn up. There-was naturally, a sensation among postal officials that such "an astounding thing should have occurred, and inquiries- were frantically set en footi The parcel, however, never turned up, but it wasn't the Department's fault. The lady had been informed by a spirit at a seance that she was about to receive a parcel, and when it didn't turn up she,, of course, blamed 'the Post Office. The soulless, unbelieving Department^ on the contrary, blamed the spirit- for neglecting to post the article, and to this day refuses to do otherwise. On another occasion an infuriated gentleman, probably with a purple face and bulging eyes, complained that a wire he had sent had never been delivered. That >.iystory was cleared up when it was found that the gentleman in question had addressed the wire to himself at his own club, and signed it with the name of tho person lie was sending it to. Two first-offending inebriates were dealt with by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court to-day. Ruby May Smith and Michael Murray, who failed to appear on charges of drunkenness, were ordered to forfeit their bail. Joseph Peters, on a charge of breaking and entering the premises of the Nireaha and Sterling Co-operative Stores, and stealing goods valued at 12s, was remanded until Wednesday. The sale of the year for men. It will pa,y a man to inspect our stocks. We have to reduce stocks for "August, and prices will convince men we mean business. Fowlds. Manners-street. —Advt. Here's value! Pure Spun 'Silk for jumpers, stockings, socks, etc., in |lb hanks; cream, 11s 6d per hank; natural, 6s lid per hank. At Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd.—Advt. Mr. A. W. Martin, rupture specialist and sole controller of the Dr. J. A. Sherman method of treatment, without operation, will make ITis seventeenth visit to Wellington on Thursday, the 20th July, and may be consulted free to Saturday, the 29th, at the Hot-el. Cecil. Hours, 10 a.m. to 12.30; 2 p.m. to 5.30.-—Advt. Success treads on the heels of every right effoit; hence our remarkable success since abolishing washboard slavery with No-Rubbing Laundry Help. J. F. Turnbull, Agents for No-Rubbing.— Advt. ' Physical fitness depends on nervous energy. Athletes take Cei'egen, the great nerve food, to build up nerve force. AlLc,he.MMßjt3»,.,2s. 1 M..i:&,..^^4A~^