LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 March 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Waverley school picnic will take place at the Ngaere Gardens to-mor-row. A special train will leave Waverley at 9.30 a.m., returning at 6.15 p.m.

A definite promise that he would introduce legislation for the registration of tobacconists was given by the Minister of Labour (Hon. G. J. Anderson) to a deputation from the Hairdressers’ and Tobacconists’ Association in Christchurch yesterday (says a Press Association telegram). Endeavours were made in Auckland yesterday to settle the dispute on the VVaitomo, but without result. The firemen are emphatic that they will not take the steamer to sea unless the cook is discharged (says a Press Association telegram). He was formerly assistant cook on the mail steamer Niagara for ten years, and the Union Company’s officials state that they refuse to victimise the cook at the request of the firemen. Another attempt to despatch the steamer was to be made to-day. Raymond Lewins, a young surveyor, who had been missing from Takapuna since January 2&f was found dead in a clump of grass and rushes at Takapuna yesterday (says an Auckland Press Association message). The indications are that he has been dead only eight or ten days, and what happened to him in the interval remains a, mystery.

Under the will of the late Reginald MacKinnon, of Southland, the trustees of the estate offer for competition a yearly prize of £SO for an essay on sohie subject bearing on the agriculture of New Zealand. The judges for this-year will be the Director of Canterbury College, Lincoln, and the Professor "of Agriculture at Victoria College, Wellington. There are 1290 tons of whey butter made in New Zealand, of which 682 tons are made in Taranaki, said Mr. H. Smith to the factory managers’ conference in New Plymouth. The average moisture content is 13.9, as against 14.7 for creamery butter. If Is per cwt. more were got for it, and the moisture raised by one-half per cent., Taranaki would gain nearly £llOO. I

At the New Plymouth show grounds on Thursday, the second day of the show,'Newton King, Ltd., are conducting a sale of purebred pigs on behalf of well-known breeders. An entry _of 45 pigs has been received, comprising Tamworths and Berkshires, and many splendid animals are to be offered. The fact that every animal entered for the sale must be exhibited at the show ensures a high standard of quality being set. Buyers are given a unique opportunity of securing some extra good stock at the sale, for it is representative of many of the well-known piggeries in the North Island. See advertisement in auction columns.

The West Coast correspondent of the Christchurch Press says that reports from Reefton state that inquiries are* being made by several leading London commercial firms with respect to antimony ores in the Reefton district. Antimony is known to exist in large quantities about Reefton, and was formerly regarded by mining experts there as an evil on account of its deleterious effects on cyanide. It is understood that several representatives of German commercial houses who are at present in the Thames district, North Island, making inquiries in connection with antimony-bear-ing country, intend visiting the West Coast.

Forcible illustration to the necessity for observing the recognised practice of riding one way only on cycling tracks was afforded at the Victoria Park, Kaponga, last evening, when an accident attended with painful consequences befell two youthful cyclists, Raymond McCarthy and Sidnev Blackwell, aged about 15 and 16 years respectively. Riding in opposite directions, the pair were racing round the track, with the result that they became parties to a violent head-on collision and were thrown heavily. The noise of the crash was heard several hundred yards away. Both machines were extensively damaged, and the boys were picked up in a semi-dazed condition. McCarthy recovered none the worse for the mishap, hut Blackwell’s condition necessitated medical attention, and he was found to have sustained a cracked collarbone. i

Strong feeling is being aroused in the Pukekohe district over the large number of Hindus who are settling there. A deputation from the White New Zealand League placed its views on the matter before Mr. E. D. McLennan, the member for the district, and pointed out that, although the Government of New Zealand placed high protective tariffs against British and other goods in order to encourage production in the country, yet it allowed innumerable Asiatics to enter and compete with Europeans. The pioneers made Pukekohe, and it was really a sacrilege to allow Asiatics to desecrate the ground upon which they, the pioneers, had laboured so hard to bring into good farming land. The large increase of Asiatics was presenting an alarming danger to the social and commercial conditions of the country. Mr. McLennan, in reply, said the league had his entire support, and he would take the earliest opportunity of placing the matter before Parliament, the Cabinet, and the Prime Minister. Mr. McLennan expressed the opinion that it was the splendid land on Pukekohe Hill,, and the fine climate of Pukekohe, suitable for intensive cultivation, that attracted Asiatics to Pukekohe. He agreed that the conditions under which the Hindus lived made it almost impossible for a white man to compete with them. Some of the “shacks’’ they were living in on Pukekohe Hill were a disgrace. In conclusion. Mr. McLennan promised the deputation his whole-hearted support of the ( movement, which should be a national one.