LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 23 July 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The British Imperial Oil Company was the successful tenderer for the supply of .bitumen for road surfacing to the Hawera County Council lor next season’s work, the quantity to be supplied being 2uo tons of Alexphaite.

Two cases in which dividends of 20s in the pound are payab.e to creditors of bankrupts’ estates, appear in the notices in last week’s Gazette. One is that of H. D Forbes, land and estate agent, Wanganui, and the other that of A. A. Richardson, hardware merchant, Ashburton.

It was ascertained this morning from the Hawera public hospital that Alfred Hayward, who fell from an electric line pole yesterday, had received injuries to his back, but this condition was not serious.

The condition of the child Alary Lee, who was injured on Tuesday afternoon, was unchanged this morning. Her injuries are of a grave nature, including a fracture of the skull. “With all this clamouring for houses it is difficult to find accommodation for the needy,” said the. Minister for Health, Sir Maui Pomare, at the opening of new wards at the Auckland Infirmary. “This would not be if children put aside their picture money, their cigarette money and their silk stocking money for the day when they will want a house. That is what I call thrift.” An Assessment Court will sit in Hamilton to deal with 330 objections to the Hamilton valuations. The Hamilton Chamber 4 of Commerce has filed 150 objections on behalf of property owners. An effort will be made to secure an order for setting aside the recent assessments and granting a fresh valuation, or, in the alternative, a general reduction in the values assessed will Ire asked for.

Buyers of drapery and clothing will find the new lines advertised by the Melbourne Ltd. much to their liking. Blankets, sheeting, flannels, calicoes, men’s socks, singlets, shirts, shorts, and men’s trousers and suits are particularly striking bargains.—Advt. THAT’S A GOOD IDEA— One of your own, and possibly yon don’t think much of it; but, another man may to-morrow —and make a fortune out of it. Find out its hidden possibilities by taking the advice and protection we offer you. Henry Hughes Ltd. (Directors: W. E. Hughes aud T. J. Hunter, Begd. Patent Attorneys), 157 Featherston Street, Wellington. —3

“Are your people alive?’.’ asked Air. J. W. Poynton, S.M., of a young man aged 25, who appeared before him in Auckland. “No,” was the astonishing reply. “They are in Dannevirke.” The annual •conference of the New Zealand Real Estate Institute commenced at Dunedin yesterday morning. There are .some twenty delegates front various centres, in welcoming whom the Mayor, Air. H. L. Tapley, mentioned that since 1922 the Dunedin municipality .had borrowed locally £1,552,635 without prejudicing local building operations. The magistrate at Christchurch has reserved his decision in the charges against James Blackburn and Reginald Stillwell of using the Caledonian hall a«s a common gaming house. The cases were brought to decide the legality of euchre tournaments. It is not submitted by the police that euchre is illegal, but that it is illegal as played in theiSOf tournaments. In the Auckland Police Court David Logan Alorri.son, aged 43, and Frederick Walter Defaur, aged 21, were charged with having been drunk while in charge of a motor-car, resulting in a collision with other vehicles. The former was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment and the latter to fourteen days’ imprisonment.—Press Assn. At the meeting of the Pukekura Park Board at New Plymouth, the chairman reported that permission had been given to Air Horton to attend the Hawera Show and supervise a combined forestry exhibit made by the Taranaki District Council, New Zealand Nurserymen’s Association. A letter was received from the' association expressing its appreciation of the board’s action, arid asking . whether- it would prefer a cash donatiori of £lo or a donation of trees to the value of £ls. The matter was referred to a committee. At last week’s meeting of the Alain Highways Board the statement of works carried out during the month made reference to the Auckland-Wellington; via Taranaki, main road as under: The necessary buildings have been erected at the site of the Alokau Bridge. A crusher has been installed, and necessary supplies for commencing the work are coming to hand. On the Alaketawa-Rugby road section in Inglewood County, 75 chains of foundation course have been completed. The actual construction of the Whiritoa Stream bridge has been completed. The remains of an underground forest have been discovered at Ariimoko, where excavation work for Alessrs Kempthorne, Prosser’s fertiliser works are in progress. Large quantities of totara in a good slate of preservation have been uncovered at a considerable • tb, and it seems quite clear that a fine totara forest existed in the val’ey at one time. The timber appears in successive layers, sandwiched between a clay formation.

To-morrow (Friday) a grand ball will be held in the Te Kiri hall, when the arrangements will be of the best. A strong committee is working hard to see that everything is carried out well. The services of Newberry’s orchestra of four instruments have been engaged, and special attention has been given to the supper arrangements. The floor will be in perfect order, and everything will combine to make a most successful evening.

Registration of New Zealand engineers under terms of statute passed last session is proceeding. The Engin. eers’ Registration Board has held two meetings and its regulations are in operation. Mr Furkert, Chief Engineer and Under-Secretary of the Public Works Department, ha s been ejected chairman, an)! Mr W. D. Newnham, of the Public Works engineering staff, is Registrar. Until March 31, 1926, it is possible for an engineer to obtain registration without examination, but after that date an examination will be required unless the applicant ha s a recognised certificate. The board has dealt with 56 applications, some of which have been declined, and others referred back for further information, though the majority have been granted '•egistration. A large number of further applications await consideration. Mr. James Guyton, who has been in the Cromwell district for some time under instruction from the supervisor of th© Amalgamated Kawarau Gold Claims, to inspect various claims on the Kawarau River held by that company, has on a number of occasions during the past week secured splendid prospects. He has confined his efforts to a number of claims in the vicinity of the Cromwell Development Company’s work. It became known in Cromwell that Mr. Guyton was meeting with success, and a state of excitement prevailed in th e business community over some very fine samples of rough gold, which were shown. Mr. Guyton secured 16dwt in two days in pieces that could be picked up by hand. One nugget turned the scale* at 4dwt, another at 2dwt, and six pieces averaged l£dwt. A conference, between riie master grocers and the Union at Wellington resulted in a complete agreement for a new award. The chief feature is the restoration of nine o’clock closing on Fridays instead of 8.30, it isi understood at the initiative of the union, lit return the employers concede closing at 12.30 on Saturdays instead of 1 p.m. Wages were fixed on the new bflisis of age pins experience, instead of age alone. The minimum for an assistant of 23 years of age or over is £4 12s 6d as against the .present rate of £4 ss. Mr. D. Mac Kay Darroch, rhe wellknown boat builder of Devonport (Auckland), who is an authority on New Zealand woods, eta ted recently that submerged forests were found all over the Dominion in both Islands, and often when they were found people were of opinion- that they had been covered up by some subsidence or upheaval of quite recent* times. He did not share that view, and thought that most of -the forests had been underground for -a much longer period than most people dreamed of. This was a new country, and they had not much data to work upon, hut it was wonderful how long timber kept when it was -sealed with some substance which kept the air out. This is what had happened with most- of our submerged forests. They o had been covered up by lava or some other substance, which preserved them from decay, and' if it could only be brought to the surface he believed there- was enough (sound timber underground to build houses to accommodate the population of a big city. BUCKRELL'S JftEMOVAL SALE. We are making every reasonable sacrifice to quit our present stock so as to enter our new premises with an entirely novel display. Ladies’ costumes from 35/-. wooilen coats from. 27/6. velour coats from 49/6. We cordially invite inspection.—Union St., Hawera. —Advt. In the Mahoe Hall on Monday next will be held a grand bachelors’ ball, for which the bachelors of the district are making very special preparations. They have engaged Boulton’s orchestra and are arranging a sit-down supper. The lion, secretaries are sparing no effort to secure a successful evening.

The Duk e of Rutland left an estate of £930,000, whereon £286,000 is payable in death duties. The will says : “I leave nothing to hospitals or charities, as the heavy taxation is intolerable and the super-tax lenders such action impossible.”

It is understood that it is the intention of tli e Okoia dairy factory during the coming season to keep secondgrade cream apart from first-grade and churn it separately. Such action will have the effect of improving the quality of a large proportion of tli© butter, and it will be advisable for suppliers to send first-grade cream to the factory in the future, especially in view of the fact that produce will most likely he taken on the grade system -by the Dairy Control Board. Work at the Ngaruawahia. military base is jxroceeding steadily. The branch lin© into the camp has been completed, and material is now delivered by rail. The building of magazines goes on apace, and they are to be surrounded by a barb wire entanglement eight feet high. The barracks for single members of tlie permanent staff are completed, and several cottages for married men are now under construction.

An experiment so far as New Zealand is concerned is the building of an electric dredge for land-drainage purposes. This method has been used with great success in the United States and on the Continent of Europe, and to apply this in New Zealand opens up a new field for the use of electric power. The dredge is a suction one. with a cutter head which cuts on the bottom of the river or swamp, and the spoil is then drawn by centrifugal pumps and pumped over the stop-banks or to any position where it is to deposit it. It is being constructed by the Public Works Department at Paeroa. After hearing representatives of the tobacco trade, the Chamber of Commerce at. Wellington passed the following resolution: ‘‘That tills chamber, being convinced that the interests of the retail to-bac-co trade are being detrimentally affected by the amount of illegitimate trade now taking place as a result of the ineffectiveness of the present law in suppressing after hour sales, is of the opinion that the Government should enact immediately such legislation as will afford to lawabiding -traders a of protection which they have the right to expect-.’ ’

“I don’t want to do this man any harm, but he is aru-unmitigated liar,” was Mr L. A. Taylor’s comment in referring to a defendant at the Hawera, Magistrate’s -Court, to-day. To the defendant’s credit, however, he afterwards paid the amount of the debt, and the case was struck out, hut, to a Star reporter who raised the point, Mr Taylor explained that this fact did not alter in any way the description previously given of the defendant.

The sale of work of the Methodist Women’s Missionary Auxiliary was completed very successfully last night, the satisfactory sum of £64 10b being obtained. The whole of this amount will go towards the salaries of sisters and nurses in the Solomon Islands and home Maori work. The hall looked quite gay last evening, when there was a large number of people present. The various competitions did splendid business, and before closing time very little was left in the stalls. During the evening an enjoyable musical programme was given by the following: Mrs Tozer (song), Mr and Mrs Cate (duet), Misses Dixon and Joan Tonks (recitations), and Messrs Carter, Dowdle, Hulbert and ,Squire (quartette).

A case possessing extraordinary features was heard in the Magistrate’s Court at Oamaru yesterday. Constable Voyoe some weeks ago missed his bicycle. He saw a machine in a street which he identified as his, and he asked the man who claimed it from whom he had procured it. The man stated- that he had found the body of the machine in a rubbish heap some years ago and had assembled it. As the number was missing the constable laid an information against the man for theft. After the case for the prosecution had been heard counsel for the defence asked for an adjournment to enable him to produce another bicycle which had been found in a stable. When the second bicycle was produced Constable Voyce identified it as his. Senior-Sergeant Shanahan then said that an hondst mistake had been made, and asked leave to withdraw the charge. The magistrate said there was no doubt an honest mistake had been made. He agreed to the withdrawal of the charge, and made an order that the publication of the name of the defendant be suppressed. Five firm-si were charged ait the Dunedin Police Cbui't- yesterday with having in their possession shoes, the soles and lie-els of which consisted partly of leather without a' statement of the materials comprising .same upon or impressed into such article. Pleas of guilty were entered in most cases, the explanation being that the goods were purchased from an agent, and that it was very difficult to detect- the defect. Evidence was given by one of the defendants respecting the identity of “all leather’’ and “compo” footwear. Defendant held that there was no infallible test a« to whether the stiffener of a shoe was of leather or of good “coimpo,” but good “compo” was always better than inferior leather. Women disliked all leather heels, which thev condemned as being “heavy as lead.” In eaeily ipne-tenths of the fine foot-wear made .to-day the heels were of “compo.’! The magistrate treated the cases ttis_fcest ones and inflicted small penalties in several instances. • t •