LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 February 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A heavy thunderstorm, accompanied by torrential rain, passed over Dunedin last night. Following the very dry season the rain was very welcome.

Building permits totalling £8954 were issued for the month of January by the Hawera Borough Inspector. The Borough Ranger had a “pair of white gloves” as regards straying stock on the streets during January, not one being found wandering.

After an excellent run of seven days’ sailing time from Auckland, J. McLean’s forty-foot yacht Restless arrived at Wellington heads at the end of the week. The vessel carried a complement of five.

The monthly report from the abattoirs for January showed the following particulars : Stock slaughtered—s bullocks, 107 cows. 48 heifers, 358 sheep. 88 lambs. 26 calves and 75 pigs. Stock condemned:3 cows. 1 calf, 4 pigs and 3 sheep. Fees and rents totalled £lll 13s 8d (£lO2 17s and £8 16s 8d respectively). At the quarterly meeting of the executive of the Otago Patriotic Association the report of a sub-committee showed that, during the first nine months of the year grants and allowances to soldiers totalled £2SOO, or £9OO more than in the corresponding period of the previous year. This is attributed to Ihe iarge number breaking down after battling hard for many years.

The monthly statement of the Town Clerk submitted to the Borough Council last night showed that the net debit balances at January 31 were £3179 15s 9d. He also showed that total estimates for all services were £20,795, of which £16,735 had been expended, and balances left amounted to £4060.

An effort is being made to form a W.F.A. class at Mnnaia, and a meeting in furtherance of the proposal is advertised for Fridav evening next in the Manaia School. These classes are open to all adults, and all who are interested are invited to be present on Friday evening.

The Borough Council has decided that, in view of the epidemic, permission for hand performances be withheld in the meantime.

Because of the installation of the inhalation chamber in the Borough Council’s meeting hall, the ordinary meeting last night- was held in the Mayor’s room.

A special meeting of the Eltham Horticultural Society, held last evening, decided to abandon the annual, flower show, states our correspondent. This year the annual meeting of the National Dairy Association will he held in I-lawera. To assist the Winter Show Executive, who are arranging for their reception, the Borough Council have agreed to allow the association the use of the Borough Chambers for meetings.

The provision of private paying wards at the Christchurch Hospital was discussed by the North Canterbury Hospital Board recently, and the finance committee was recommended to make early provision for such wards.

The fees collected from the abattoirs for January were £3 9s 6d less than for January of last year, and for the 10 months to date were £4 17s 3d in excess of last year.

The Railway Department is sending two more officials abroad. Mr \\ . R. Davidson, assistant chief engineer, and Mr J. Pickard, of the Wellington traffic office, will leave by the Makura on a tour of investigation in Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Europe.

A Brisbane message states that as a result of an inquiry into the grounding of the steamer Havre the Marine Court suspended the certificate of the second mate for three months.

The bodv of Percv William Hadfield, a well-known Blenheim landscape gardener and prominent in howling and rifle shooting circles, was .recovered from the Omaka River yesterday afternoon. It is believed that he shpDed in and was drowned.

George Clarence Wilson • pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court at Napier yesterday to four charges of obtaining money by means of valueless cheques, the amount involved being £72. When arrested Wilson told the police he got the money while on a drinking bout. Accused was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. On the Eltham Road, near Mangatoki, county workmen are busy widening the tarviated road to the length inquired by the Highways! Board, namely, eighteen feet. It will be recalled' that a year or two ago the Counity Council widened the tarred surface on the' other side, making it equal to fifteen feet. The extra width will be a great facility to through traffic.

A Greek Government 7 per cent refugee loan, 1924, of £7,500,000, was notified in English papers of November last. The loan was raised under the auspices of the Dengue of Nations, and placed at the disposal of the Refugee Settlement Commission, who will apply the same and lands assigned to them by the Greek Government for promoting the establishment of refugees in productive work upon the land -or otherwise in Greece.

The refitting of the interior of the Grand Hotel in Dunedin at a cost of £16,000 is being so designed as to provide specially for the adequate housing of the Governor-General and suite (savs the Dunedin Star), and also for anv call of a like nature in the future. The whole suite of ten rooms on the first floor has been set apart for the coming Vice-Regal visit—eight bedrooms, a private sitting-room, and a private dining-room. In the presence of a large assemblage, Bishop Brodie, of Christchurch, on Sunday afternoon blessed and formally laid the foundation stone of the new Convent of Mercy at Greymouth, costing £30,009. The building is semi : Gothic in style, and fronts Tainui Street. The Mayor (Mr. W. H. Parfftt), Mr. J. O’Brien, M.P., the Rev. Kennedy, of Hokitika, and others made congratulatory speeches. Father Long 'announced that £22,000 had already been raised, while the collection realised over £360. -

A serious climax has arisen in the coal mining industry at Hikurangi, North Auckland, by the dismissal of a further fifty men, in addition to thirty last month The Hikurangi Miners’ Union has telegraphed to the Prime Minister (Mr. W. F. Massey), asking for immediate relief by insisting on the utilisation of local coal in place of the imported article. This coal has been used continually for the past thirty years by the railways and other State enterprises. The union asks whether the Minister will permit the industry to be crushed by Australian competition, entailing such serious consequences to the progress and deveiopmen tof the North. 1

On, an Auckland, suburban bus (says the Star) besides the youthful driver, there were as passengers two ladies and three men. one a barrister aged possibly 45 years, one a merchant well over 50 years, and one other gentleman older than either, whose profession is not ascertained. The ladies, obviously strangers, asked the busman, “Where' is J —- Street ?” The busman in a, most friendly fashion l turned to the men generally and asked. “Any o yous, blokes know where Street is?”

Amono- the beneficiaries under the will of the late Joseph Newall, organ grinder, whose death occurred last year at Auckland, is included the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association. The Association has been informed by the trustees that £5 would be bequeathed to it: and members recall a small kindness that the old organ grinder showed towards it some time ago in sending 5s to provide a meal each for five soldiers. The late Mr. Newall was always kindly disposed towards the ex-service men ‘and had himself been a soldier and a sailor during his eventful life. Whether chance 'or fate controls one’s destiny is a moot, point, but it is interesting to recall just now that when the cure of St. Michael s, Christchurch, became vacant m. 1,891, the then vestry offered the position to the vicar of a large narPli church in North, London (says, the Press). That gentleman, replied by cable as lollows: “Regret unable accept; just received preferment; strongly recommend my senior curate.’’ The vestry adopted the advice, and the senior curate (Rev. A. W. Avevilli will, on April 2<> next, become Archbishop and Primate of New Zealand.

PUTTS TO MEASURE. We are exports at tailoring and always up to dae with our cut in suits to measure. We will build you a good strong colonial all-wool, good wearing tweed suit, to your own measurement from £5 19s Od. Our suits are well known all over the Dominion as the best wearers, and if it’s IT.B. it’s sure to he good. Call upon us for your next suit to measure at the New Zealand Clothing Factory, TTawera. —Advt. Prices for cotton, silk anil wool have advanced, hut. during the end-of-season sale ITarrop’s prices are lower than ever. This is your opportunity to restock at prices much below normal values.—Harrops Ltd.

A first offending inebriate who appeared before Mr E. Dixon, J.P., this morning. was convicted and discharged. Donald Seaeroft Freer, vicar of the Port Chalmers Anglican Church, appeared on remand before Mr Hi.* W. Bundle, S.M., at the Police Court at Dunedin on two charges of having indecentlv assaulted two boys, aged ten and seven. The accused who was represented by Mr W. G. Hay, pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence (says a Press Association message).

In commenting upon the cold snap in America, the San Francisco Examiner of December 27 had the following to eay: “For the first time in the memory of many old-timers, a ship came to the Golden Gate with ice on her decks and rigging. She was' the Union liner Tahiti, from Australia, via Pepeete, and passengers aboard enjoyed an impromptu skating party on her decks as she steamed into the harbour.” A Wellington resident who commiserated with the officers of . the Tahiti upon their experience, was told that this was the first they had heard of the vessel running into a blizzard. The report, they said, must have emanated from the fertile imagination of a San Francisco pressman. “New- Zealand has a perfect right to feel proud of her journalism. I was. in my younger days, a member of the Dailvs News staff in London, and follow journalism in whatever country I happen to he with perhaps greater enthusiasm than most men, and I do not knoiv of any other country that can boast of such good, clean, highclass journalism. Travelling lately across America, I bought the American papers en route, hut they seemed to be chiefly advertising sheets w r ith a few splashes of sensational, and often inaccurate information. There w’as no order, no proper classification of news or advertisements, and the whole bore the ugly trail of yellow' journalism. It is so different here. New' Zealand upholds splendidlv the best traditions of the best British journalism.” Thus said Mr F. C. Glass, the author and explorer, in a conversation with a Southland News reporter.