LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 June 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Owing to the inability t-o find accommodation in Haivera it- has been- found necessary by the J. C. Williamson “Lilac Time” Company to -order a special train to transport the company to Ne.iv Plymouth -after the -show on July 2. The train ivill -leave Haivera at 11.30 p.m., and will arrive- in New Plymouth at 1.30 a.m. The general public will be- permitted to travel by this train.

Six prize hens were -stolen from the pens of the Auckland Poultry Keepers’ Association- at Mount Albert (states an Auckland message). The birds were White Leghorn pullets, and were entered in the egg-laying competition on behalf of poultry farmers in various parts of the province. The value,of the six hens is estimated -at not less than £3O. The thief showed some discretion in his -selection of the birds, and must have handled them with the -skilL of a poultry fancier,' as the caretaker was not disturbed. The pens- were all locked, hut the thief adopted the simple expedient of cutting the wire netting with some sharp, instrument. Jjate on -Saturday afternoon John Henry Wylie, of 34 Jeffreys Road, was found! lying unconscious on Ferry Road, Christchurch. He -Was taken to Christchurch Hospital, where he iva-s given medical attention. Wylie does not remeimiber what happened, except that lie left Lancaster Park on- his bicycle. Aifiter lie recovered consciousness -he proceeded to his -home.* He wa.s not suffering from any severe injury.

The work on the cable station at Seddon, Marlborough, where the new telephonic cable across the Straits terminates, will he completed about the ends:of next, month, says the > Evening Post. The machinery to lie' installed should: arrive from England about that ’date. Some little time must elapse before the station is in complete working order, but when it is, telephonic communication between the two islands will be easy.

Unemployment figures ini Invercargill show that 63 labourers and a number of skilled workers -are looking- for billets-. The position has eased considerably since ia-st week, when there were 127 men awaiting employment, and now there are only 96. The Public Works Department- and the Borough Council have started relief works, and these have absorbed a great deal of available labour.

For -some ten days .past- there has been in Palmerston North a greater number of lions than is tq be found any win? re in- New Zealand, except in the Auckland- Zoo, says the Mana-iva-tu Standard. The lions are stated to be the property of Mrs. Baker, the surviving principal of a former well-known circus. Mrs. Baker joined -with another combination lor the Palmerston No-nth Winter Show season, and -upon finding that the animals had not -been unloaded from the -railway trucks, immediately paid the necessary charges, and attended to the transport of the lions -gto the grounds. There was a. severance of partnership between Mrs. Baker, anti the- proprietor of the other circus and -vaudeville- at the Winter Show, and- it is understood that the former is nc-iv endeavouring to sell the lions, and have them temporarily accommodated in the Wellington, Zoo. .She went- -to -the Empire City with, a view to effecting the necessary arrangements.

Hares seem plentiful around Waipukurau, judging from the reports of a party of sportsmen with guns and dogs who shot over two farms on the Onga, Onga flats- (says the Napier Daiy Telegraph). There were ten in the party, and they were out half a day. In that time they 5h0t.126 hares, and they -saw over 300. This was. a good- bag, and will relieve the farmers considerably from these pests. While some farmers,are advocating the killing of the hawk, others state that these birds attack hares, and that a wholesale destruction of the hawk is a big mistake. Of the two evils choose the lesser. One prominent farmer in central Hawke’s Bay says he i-s positive that now the naivk is being destroyed the hare pest will increase, and it is difficult now to find hawks in this district.

“We have gone from no autumn at all into a- very hard winter,’’ remarked a. well-known Hawke’s Bay farmer to a Daily Telegraph reporter last Thursday, “and as things are at present the stock which farmers sent away during the dry weather to more favoured feeding grounds can only come back in October or November, at the earliest, and then only if the spring is good.” He went on to say that at the present time there was still a decided. shortage of rough feed in the district. The colour was there all right, due to the recent rain, but there was no depth in it, so that even when the new feed did come, the stock, so long deprived, would eat so quickly that there would be no chance for the growth to come away