LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 1 May 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A correspondent asks if the jubilee year of the Manaia school has passed unnoticed. Or is it still to come? An indication of the way grapes could be grown in ilie open was given when a bunch, well grown and nehriy ripe, was brought in to the Star Oliice to-day by Mr xt. J. -Betts, of Okaiawa. He said tliai with good effective sneixer and keeping the vines down and running along a medium height trellis, grapes could be grown quire well in the open. The vines were bearing very well.

Many friends in Hawera will regret to hear of the illness of Mr J. G. A'ichol, formerly of this town and for some time past a resident of Stratford and manager of the Farmers’ Co-op. there. In consequence of this illness he has been granted three months’ leave of absence, and has gone into the Craigholm Private Hospital. Harold Gordon Stanley Wolfe, 28 years of age, for stealing a bicycle, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment by Mr Justice Adams at Christchurch yesterday. Leslie Alfred Eastwick, for breaking into a shop, was admitted to probation for two years, and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution.—Press Association. At the Police Court at Dunedin yesterday (states a Press Association message) two vaudeville artists, a man and his wife, whose names were suppressed, were remanded to appear at Christchurch on Tuesday on a charge of the theft on April 10 of a fur coat valued at £55, the property of Roma Carey. William Henry Smith was fined £2 at Wellington yesterday for erecting a wireless plant without a license. The police said the postal authorities felt that sufficient publicity had been given by previous) prosecutions to justify asking for more than a nominal penalty (states a Press Association message). The instinct which made trout when blocked from going to the upper reaches of a river for spawning go out to sea and not return to that river was iemarked upon at the annual meeting of the Acclimatisation Society on Thursday when the need of a fish ladder at the Electric Light Company’s dam was brought u.p. It was agreed, on the motion >of Mr Duffi'l, to recommend to the new executive that the Company be asked, to erect such a ladder to enable fish to get over the dam. Mr. G. K. Buckeriuge, Hie lion, secretary of the local committee of the Church of England immigration scheme for boys, lias received advice from Auckland that 25 boys are expected on May 31, and 25 more have been sent for. Up to date the applications received total 47, so that the demand lias more than kept pace with the boys sent out. The Auckland committee has agreed to avoid overlapping by referring all applications to the local committee, andi a satisfactory arrangement has been entered into with the secretary of the Farmers’ Union executive. •

Sixty bushels to the acre is the yield of wheat threshed this year on the well-known “Holly Bank’’ property of the Betts family at Okaiawa. The area was only six acres, it is true, but there can be no question about the return, nor about the quality of the grain, a sample of which was shown to a Star representative this morning. The land from which the. crop was taken was in swedes last year, and the wheat was. of the Tuscan variety. Six acres of barley, taken from land that lias yielded in succession crops of swedes and wheat, threshed out at over CO bushels to the acre. The question arises: Which is the better proposition on Okaiawa land —butter-fat or wheat running a 60-bushel yield?

Patrick Anthony Lawlor pleaded guilty at Wellington yesterday to establishing a scheme by which a prize was to be gained by chance in connection with the journal Humour, ,in which a prize of £5 was to he awarded by the drawing of a coupon. The police said the plan was forwarded by the principals in Australia, and Lawlor acted in ignorance of the New Zealand Gaming Act. Counsel for the defence remarked that various schemes at the exhibition appeared to be lotteries, but were allowed. The magistrate said he was satisfied of accused’s innocent intention. He would be fined £3. —Press Association.

lii the Magistrate’s Court at Dunedin yesterday, J. E. Winsloe, Commissioner of the Southland Court, was charged with having conducted a lottery whereby a giant cheese was competed for. The chief detective said the cheese was sold in small pieces, each purchaser having a chance of securing monev prizes concealed in the cheese. The defendant did not benefit personally from the sale of the cheese, as the sale helped to defray the expenses of the court. The magistrate, in dismissing the case, said he could not see that any great harm had been done, particularly in view of the amount of gambling going on at the exhibition.—Press Association.

The report of the directors of the New Zealand Farmers’ Fertiliser Company, to be. presented to the annual meeting of the company at Auckland on June 2, states that the net profit for the year ended March 31 was £27,15:7 14s iod. This figure, together with the balance of £7192 l'ss lid brought forward from last year, makes a total of £34,348 10s< 9d to be dealt with. After appropriating £7OOO for writing down the rights and concessions account, there remains £27,348 10s 9d available for distribution, and the directors recommend the payment of a dividend at the ra*e of 7-1 per cent., absorbing £19,649 12s 6d, ~an<} that the balance be carried forward to next year’s account.

At- St. John’s Presbyterian Church to-moinro'W -morning itihe Hawera. Municipal Band will parade. It- will, take pa*t in .the musical portion of the -service and will render the chorus “The Heavens are Telling.” The bugler who sounded the “Bast .Post’’ at Gunner Wallace Luxton’s funeral on. Thursday was W. N. Hawkins.

Special -services will -be held tomorrow by the Baptist Church Sunday School on the occasion of its anniversary. Tllie gatherings will be held in the Scouts’ Hall, and will be marked by special singing by the -scholars. The Rev. Ij. O. H. Ba-nbour, the new minister will conduct all services. To-morrow will be observed by bands throughout) New Zealand as band Sunday. In Hia.wera the school flute and drum band will march to the- Methodist Church. The service will bei conducted by the Rev. W. J. Oxforov. In the evening -the choir will render “Sun of My Soul” and “The Lor-cl is M.y Light.” Anthe-m -soloist, Mist* M. W. Mills.

On Thursday next, May 6, in the Mia-tapu Hall, a- grand concert and operetta- “Aladdin,” will be put on by the school children, also presentation of school prizes. The proceeds are in aid of school prize funds.