LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 18 May 1928, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A retort made at yesterday’s Farmers’ Conference 'by the secretary, when the president (Mr Hodge) announced that the adjournment for lunch would be at 1 o’clock instead of 2 o’clock, caused much amusement amongst members. Mr Cameron observed that “Mr Hodge has not yet adjusted his watch.” No one enjoyed the joke more than the president himself, who stated he believed Mr Sidey actually had missed a train through the same cause.

Having .run their course, several of the locomotives imported by the Department in 1901 from America have been dismantled at the Newmarket Workshops. Tweney-.seven years would appear to be a rather short life lor locomotives we know them in New Zealand, states the “New Zealand Railways Magazine,” and the fact that •some of the engines imported from Britain as far hack as the middle ’seventies are still running well and giving good service is excellent proof of the staying quality of the British-made article. The Department has not ordered any locomotives from America since 1901 (with the exception of ten from the Baldwin Works at Philadelphia during the war), its locomotive requirements being supplied by its own and other New Zealand workshops (supplemented occasionally by locomotives of British manufacture.) With the completion of the Department’s workshops building programme, all locomotives and other rolling stock will be manufactured in the Dominion. In the course of a discussion at the Taranaki Education Board’s meeting at New Plymouth on Wednesday on the materials of which primary schools should be built, the senior inspector (Mr. N. R. McKenzie) remarked that the new open-air wooden buildings at Hawera. were the most perfect he had seen. There was plenty of sunlight, and the control of the air in the rooms was simply marvellous. The interior atmosphere had a freshness that he had not experienced elsewhere, ancl he was pleased to know the board intended to follow the design in other places. The Hawera. building was similar to the open-air room at Courtenay Street infant school. The board was most fortunate in its architect (Mr. C. H. Moore). The discussion generally faoured wood, as it permitted structural alterations to he made more easily.

The annual military training camp now being held at Waverley Racecourse will be open to visitors next Sunday', and it is expected that there will be a large influx from Hawera and surrounding districts. Special ’bus services are being arranged to leave the Post Office at 12.30 p.m. on Sunday, to convey intending visitors. The Egmont Tourist Motor Co. arc advertising in this issue all particulars in connection with the outing. That the rates charged for long distance telephone calls are as low as possible at present, consistent- with good service, is the opinion of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, as given in reply to representations made by the Hawera Chamber urging that steps be taken to obtain a reduction. In communicating the opinion the secretary of the associated body r intimates it has been arrived at after consultation with the department, but the Hawera recommendation would be placed before the executive at a meeting being held next week. It was mentioned at the last meeting of the Taranaki Education Board that schools in the district which required remodelling and additions in order to provide a separate room for each teacher were: Piharna, Kapuni, Midhi rst. New Plymouth Central, Fitzroy, Manaia, Normanby, Opunake and Westown. All these schools were grade I lib and upwards. Correspondence from the Education Department on this matter was dealt with, in which it was mentioned that there was apparently little prospect of dealing similarly with grade Ilia schools for some tine. It was hoped that three at. least of these schools .would l>e dealt- wth during the year. The department’s architect would make a special visit to Taranaki at an early date to discuss the- matter with the. board’s architect. So that as much time as possible should be saved, the board was asked to list- the most urgent cases and consider the most expeditions' means of dealing with them. The matter was referred to the finance committee for a. report.