LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 November 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Eltham School Committee have secured Thursday, February 19, for their annual seaside picnic to Moturoa. ' Plans have been received by the Eltham School Committee of the “lay out” of the new school grounds, and when the work is completed it will be an up-ta-date playground in every way. Crossing the Pacific en route from New York the steamer Easterner, oh the U.S. and A Line, sighted a large school of whales. They were making to the northward, and ran across the steamer's course. CSaptadn Schofield altered the course of the ship to m iss them, but they quickly sounded on the approach of the steamer. They were all humpbacks. A . glorious sight was witnessed by those who travelled by the s.s. Theresa Ward to Stewart Island last Wednesday (state® the Bluff Press). On the voyage a large school of whales was encountered in close proximity to the vessel. One large, fellow fully 40ft. long showed his agility by leaping out of the water like a "trout. In the vicinity of the corner of Waihi Road and High Street, Master Charlie Blackwell, son of Mr. G. H. Blackwell, Waihi Road, met with a nasty accident yesterday evening. It appears he was riding a horse piloted by an older youth, and travelling at a fairly fast rate, when in some unaccountable way he was thrown off. The lad, who appeared to. be rather badly hurt, was taken home by kindly hands. Although not seriously injured, he was unconscious, and sustained slight concussion and severe bruises. Chi enquiring this morning we learned that he is progressing as well as can jpe expected. ■ w ? & stated by a debtor in the Balclutha Cou.it (reports the Free Press) that a property at Lovell’s Flit of 1000 acres■,had no fewer than three mortgages on it totalling £9OOO. There were 600 sheep on the place, or threefifth® of a sheep to the acre. The debtor in answer to examining counsel admitted that there was coal on the property—“better than lignite”— but he> had been unable to do anything with it. “You can have a shot at it,” he remarked to counsel, amidst laughter, “if you are looking for a good speculation.” The days when a man could pitch a tent almost anywhere he liked and take up bis abode, in it seam to liave gone as far as,our boroughs are concerned (says the Auckland Star). An old man past the allotted span of life, who had been accustomed to camp life, recently erected a tent on the waterfront of oneof the marine boroughs, and got a rude shock when ,he was told, that he would have to get a permit to put up his canvas house, and as he did not comply with this rule he was warned that he would have to take his tent down.