LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 November 1928, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Nine hundred sacks of biscuit have been brought to Dunedin (states ,thei “Star”) to be ground and thereafter conditioned as food for the dogs that are part of the equipment ot Commander Byrd’s Antarctic expedition. Thirty or forty crates of early strawberries, containing 16 chips apiece, are arriving daily at. the Aucicland city markets. Tins quantity can make little impression on the market, and wholesale prices ranged last week irom Is to 2s 3d a chip. The season will not be in full swing until the middle of the month. A challenge from the well-known athlete of Uairoa, Miss Stewart, to Miss Norma Wilson, of Gisborne, has not been accepted, Miss Wilson declining to meet anyone tins side oi Christmas. The association, however, suggests a mutch, with some other prominent Gisborne lady athlete, anci the secretary has been authorised to communicate with Wairoa on the subject. A. policy address is to be delivered at the Grand Theatre to-morrow night by Mr Robert Masters, Dominion chairman. of the United Party and ex-mem-ber for the Stratford electorate. Mr Masters’ address will take the form of a reply to the Prime Minister. The .strike at ithie Glcuaftom col Li c-iy was the subject of ai conference in Hamilton yesterday afternoon between the .miners’ representatives and the management of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company, the owners af the) mine. No" statement was obtained from either patty except that Messrs Dynes Pulton, chairman, atnd W. Goodfellow, managing director, will meet the miners at G'lenafton to-day. In the meantime the min'© is still idle. The monthly meeting of the Norman'by WjC.T.U. wa s held on Wednesday afternoon at the residence of the president, Mrs W. (Bevan. 'The attitude of. our Government regarding the licensing laws was severely condemned. Much election business was discussed and arrangements made for the coming poll. Afternoon tea was served by the hostess. A terrific explosion was heard over the whole of the Hauraki Peninsula, including the town of an a recent evening, Mrs. E. A. I lorance, postmistress at Port Charles, snvs that at between 8 and 10 p.m., there was a very brilliant flash of light which lit the whole place, followed later by a terrific explosion which awakened everyone in the neighbourhood. It shook houses and rattled windows. Another resident says he saw a bright flash of light travelling through the sky at a tremendous speed in a north-westerly direction, iust before the explosion occurred, somewhere between Great Barrier Island and Port Charles. The local theory is that the phenomenon was occasioned by the falling of a meteor of unusual size and brilliance. 11 [ (-an assure you that very soon there will he no need to import citrus fruit into New Zealand. Tauianga fruit is now known the best that can be 1 * produced, and New, Zealanders are goiiw to exercise their right to choose the best.” This statement was made by Mr. B. C. Robbins, secretary of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, to members of the Auckland commerce train party after they had been shown soe of the lemon groves of Tauranga. A euchre party and dance is to bo held at Ohangai on Priday in aid of the hall funds. The committee is making every effort to ensure a successful function.

1 “I remember when the item of greatest value in the exports from New Zealand was golden metal. Later that gave place to golden grain. Now the Dominion’s best asset is golden butter, and I believe that as a foundation for permanent prosperity butter is the most valuable of all our assets. Thus Mr. D. Rodie, commercial manager of the New Zealand railways, at a luncheon tendered to members of the Auckland commerce train partyfollowing a visit to the Frankton factory of the New Zealand Go-operative Dairy Company. Describing the habits of ipetrels in their nesting grounds, Mr. Guthrie Smith, in the course of a lecture at Wellington, said that by the manner of their return each night one was reminded of the feeding of the exiled Israelites by the birds which fell from the air. 'The petrels alighted so thickly . that they were caught by objects on the ground, and it was possible the next morning to gather them by hand. An upright kerosene tin wa 3 almost certain to contain two or three birds. An apt simile was used by Mr. Smith to describe the return of the petrels to their roosting ground. From a mutton birder ’s whare he had watched the birds arrive. At 7 p.m. the earliest birds began to alight. They settled with an entire absence of fluttering, and dropped the last few feet vertically. 'The sound of their landing was similar to that of rain upon a roof. Soon, however, .great numbers began to settle, and the noise was like hail till the even more numerous late comers arrived and alighted, but almost silently, like the falling of snow. Then followed an endless rushing about, each bird seeking its mate and calling aloud till the chattering was reminiscent of a flock of lambs at shearing time.