LOCAL AND GENERAL

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4575, 28 April 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

WELLINGTON BEATS SYDNEY. “Of the ports I have visited in various p'arts of (he world, I give the palm to Wellington for the most modern system of loading and discharging vessels, and handling caigo, said Mr Gordon Wesche, general manager of the P. and O.b.N. C 0.., prior to leaving New Zealand on Ins return to Sydney. Mr 'Weston added that he intended to tell the harbour '.authorities in Sydney that they could profit by following tho example set by 'Wellington. THE CIVIC CLUB. At the annual meeting of the Civic Club last night, the following officers were elected for the year: President, Mr A. E. Sandford; vice-president, Mr W F Br am well; committee, Messrs E. J. Wackrill, N. E. Gifford, A, J. Kcllow. J. R- Perry and G. Fitzpatrick. The subscription for the year was fixed at ss. JUBILEE OF ’FEILDING. One member of the Civic Club last ‘night reminded the meeting that Fcilding would attain its jubilee m 1924 Tiie suggestion was made that a sum of £IO,OOO should be raised in the town and district to be invested in various ways for the permanent improvement aud benefit of the community. RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT. The unemployment problem was : lentioned at a meeting ol the coml littec of the Wellington Central Progress League on Monday night. Dr. A. K. Newman, M.P., declared that the Government was not doing all it ought to do to relieve distress, and tiie committee decided to interview Ministers on the subject. “There are many people in great need ol woik,” .said Dr. Newman, “aud the Government has plenty of money to spend on providing work for them, jjut there seems to be a hitch somewhere. Tiie men are not being put on. The Government lias got five millions of new money, and it had a lot m hand. The Wellington corporation has got loan money. But the unemployed tell me that they cannot get any satisfaction from calling at the Government Labour Bureau. They call and call again until they get heart-sick.” FOOTBALL AND FIRE.

A strong smell of smoke other than that of the pungent friendly weed obtruded itself u.pon <ui animated discussion amongst.members of the M ellington Rugby Union on Wednesday night at its meeting in Mr McComisky’s rooms in Woodward street. A< general exodus of the members encountered a lively blaze in the passage. Two full wire waste-paper baskets, and other inflammable material, bad been removed from customary positions and piled against the gas cupboard, the whole being hidden by a large Folding screen. It was the flaring up of the latter which called attention to the dimensions of the outbreak. The stalwart football parliament promptly fell upon the small outbreak and stamped it flat, the only casualty being Mr Perry’s hat, wit'll which ho hurled the last flaming brazier into Westward street. FARMERS AT SCHOOL. Considerable interest is being taken in the farmers’ .school of instruction which is now in session at the Central Development Farm at Weraroa. The first of its kind in the district, the experiment will, if _ successful, lie made an annual affair. Further, the Agricultural Department will meet tiie farmers to the extent of holding future schools at a more suitable season in the year. Seventy-three students answered the first roll call, and they hailed from Gisborne, Taranaki, Fcilding, Manawatu to as far south as Paekakariki and Taumarunui. Their numbers are being supplemented by a number of farmers in the immediate vicinity of Weraroa who, while attending the school from day to day, do not board at the departmental farm. A large number of experts in the sendee of the Agricultural Department are also in attendance at the school. IT WAS A CONTACT.

Many folks turned out just after 5 o’clock" yesterday afternoon with the query: “Where’s the fire?” A remarkable thing had happened: A “contact” had caused the telephone hell to ring at the Eire Brigade Station, and this had naturally been taken for an alarm of fire. -

The distance from the earth to the sun is now stated to be between 92,822,000 and 92,807,000 miles. A timber-yard worker named Jacob Smith, aged GO years, was found dead in his bed at Wellington on Wednesday morning. A man named Bob Henna was lined £lO at Levin on Wednesday by Air It- At. Watson, S.M., for having shot two pukekos at the lake. The leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party (Mr H. E. Holland, M.P.), intends delivering a policy speech at Christchurch on Saturday evening. A wav memorial in tho.fovm of a wayside cross was unveiled by Sir Andrew Itusscll at Taumarunui on Anzac Day. Tho New Zealand Storemen’s Federation has decided by a two to one majority to link up with the Alliance of Labour. The Marylebone Cricket Club’s Australian tour resulted in a profit of £5265, of which £SOOO is being earmarked for the Marylebone cricket tours fund. . A man, who was described as one who “likes playing two-up,” was sentenced at the Wellington Police Court to three months hard labour for failing to pay arrears on a maintenance order. Following tli.e example set last year the meeting of householders at Featherston collected the sum of £25 10s towards the cost of the extra two acres to be added to the school playground. A white heron is reported to have been seen on a property a few miles south of Palmerston North recently. The ranger of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society lias visited the locality, but has failed to discover the bird. A Tuatara lizard was discovered on the rocks near Plimnierton. It was believed that it must have drifted across from Stephen Island, 50 miles away, as this is tho only place where they are now found. The foundation-stone for the new peace memorial church at Inglewood has been brought from Jerusalem. It is the best kind of limestone, called “mizzi-liello,” arid is chosen for all work where a good finish and polish are required, or where inscriptions are to be cut.

Mr Robert Sims, of Auckland, who is in his 80th year, and who arrived in New Zealand when nine months old, stated last week that he had only had one week’s holiday in tho whole of his life. He said that his father had lived to 90 and that he must beat that and reach 100 years. It was stated at a meeting of Presbyterians in Devonport that the well known chief Rua had presented the church with 60 acres of land, so that a school might be erected near his pa in tlic Urowera country, one. of the conditions being that technical instruction should be given to the young people attending the school. . Asked in the Arbitration Court yesterday what he considered a fair standard-of living, a witness said that when he was a worker, he kept a house on £3 a week. “How long ago was that?” he u'as asked. “Well,” he answered, -‘I was 22, and I am 66 now.” • It is rumoured that the delay in announcing the Government’s new railway policy is due to the General Manager -not seeing eye to eye with Ministers on many of the points involved. That the Government will get its own way eventually, nobody will doubt, once Mr Massey has taken the business in band, but it may be over the official corpse of the General Manager.