LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

■ Mrs E. P. Symes, of Waverlev, lias donated to the Stratford A. and P. Association a handsome tea and coffee service as a trophy for competition in the open hunters’ event at the show. The annual balance-sheet of the Waimate Plains Trotting Club shows that the year’s operations resulted in a profit of £612 12s 6d, the report stating that the “annual fixture, held on Easter Monday, was, as usual, a very popular gathering, and the wisdom of giving high stakes was again emphasised by the good fields produced and the high standard of trotting witnessed.”

There was brisk competition among buyers at the horse fair held by the Farmers’ Co-op. yesterday, especially for heavy horses, several* of which brought from £SO to £6O, the top price being £BO. Milk carters wer.& also in demand and (realised up to £4O. The fair is being continued to-day. The New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board has received a cable from its representative at Buenos Aires, South America, advising the following shipments to the United Kingdom for the fortnight ended August 9, 1924, from Argentine and Uruguay: 162,850 quarters of chilled beef, 15,983 quarters of 1 1 ozen beef, 26,310 carcases of frozen mutton, 38,467 carcases of frozen lamb. £^-i C * Uan^^ r s^PPe d to the Continent of Europe during the same period was: 103,800 quarters frozen beef. 7000 carcases frozen mutton, 900 carcases of frozen lamb.

Happily, unemployment in Wellington has at no time during this winter been 6o serious a problem as during several past winters (the Post states). The number of applications for employment made at the Labour Department’s bureau for the past week was 147, the total being mainly made up of labourers 74, hotel workers 16, clerical workers 12, storemen 8, seamen 7, and drivers 4. In 13 other trades there was only one application m respect of each.

During an informal discussion on matters connected with the Wanganui Woollen Mills, the chairman of directors, Mr W. J. Poison, stated on Wednesday that the mills were practically completed. The contractors had done their work satisfactorily, and with the architect had given a mill second to none. He was proud to say that while the mills were not the largest, they were among the most up to date in the w r orld, and that was saying a lot. They were in the hands of men who, like the machines they worked, were the product of Great Britain, and were familiar with the best phases of the work. —Herald.

One of the best things about the Otira tunnel is the fact that it is electrified. Were the smoke nuisance present to such ah extent as in other tunnels on the Midland line (says a Greymouth paper) most passengers would be suffocated. There are over a dozen tunnels between Christchurch and Arthiir’s Pass, and when the last of them was passed one day last week the passengers in at least one firstclass carriage on the west-bound express were dirty and disgusted, being nearly choked by the thick smoke which poured into the carriage, despite the fact that the doors and windows were closed.

The Railway Deoartinent is evidently preparing for a visit from the Commission along this coast (says the Wanganui Herald). In Wanganui the station buildings are receiving a coat of paint, and the whitewash brush is being applied liberally at Eastown Workshops. Further up the line the asphalt on platforms is being repaired, and at Patea station the base of the signal levers has even been blackleaded.

“1 think money soon will become cheaper,” said the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives, ‘ ‘and when it comes down to 4 per cent it will be the duty of the Government to raise money and nay off the debt we owe to the Imperial Government.” At a meeting of the Palmerston North Retailers’ Association the other day, it was unanimously agreed to lodge an emphatic protest against the proposed amendments to the Shops and Offices Act, which provide, inter alia, that assistants will not be employable for more than one late night a week, allowing 15 minutes’ overtime for the completion of the day’s work and reducing the working week to 44 hours. These proposed amendments will he introduced in the House by Mr McKeen.