LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 13 April 1929, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Two Seatoun bathers, Mrs Elsie M. Ci'ighton and Mrs Petty, while bathing this week at Seatoun, narrowly escaped being caught by a huge octopus (says a Wellington message). It got its tentacles to them, but. not .sufficient to prevent tlieir escape m terror. In connection with the Flock House scheme, the Y.M.G.A., in conjunction with the trustees of Flock House, has undertaken to appoint an advisor in country centres. The advisor will take a friend!v interest in any Flock House boys in his locality and will establish contact with them so that the boy needing advise will always have a friend available. On the other hand, if Flock House needs to make an inquiry regarding .any boy they will be able to do so more easily throagh the .advisor. Mr F. tV. Horner has consented to act as advisor for Flock; House at Hawera.

The Auckland Headmaster’s Association yesterday passed a resolution that whatever form the reorganisation of the present educational system might take it was in the interests of the children that they should continue from the age of 11 to 15 in the charge of experienced teachers now carrying on primary school work. The association considered the suggested division of children from the age of 11 into lour groups for the purpose of commencing specialised work in commercial, industrial, agricultural and academic courses was not desirable in pre-adolescent stages. The most pressing need at present in the schools was the reduction in the size of many of the classes. An effort is being made in Opunake [ and district in aid of the funds of the • Federal Band, which will be competing at the band contest in New Plymouth next week. The amount needed is fairly considerable, and in order to lielp the fund a ball has been organised for Monday evening in the Town Hall. Special arrangements have been made to ensure success, and everything points to this lieing one of the events of the season in the district. The committee has engaged Coburn’s Star Orchestra, and there will he a sit-down supper. The floor will he in excellent order. There will be novelty dances and many other attractions. Free buses will run from Eltham and Man a in.

Owing to the absence erf Commandant and Mrs Ad amis, of the Hawera Salvation Army Corps .at the. conference in Wellington on Wednesday evening, Sergeant; Major J. Dowdi’ie conducted the sendee celebrating the oentenurv of the. founder of the Sail - ration Army, William Booth. A large congregation assembled. Three of the founders songs were sung and further appropriate features were gramophone records, giving extracts of addresses delivered bv the General. An inspiring! address, concerning the 'life and character of the army founder, was given by the Rev. Mr. Curran, who received. personal congratulations from a big proportion of the congregation at the close of the service.

“The elimination of the. scrub bull can be done only by education and. not by compulsion,”’ remarked Mr. TV. A. lorns, chairman of the Dairy Control Board, at a meeting in Gisborne, when he was answering a question. This, however, was not a matter for the board, but he agreed that by means of testing farmers would gradually exclude the scrub bulls from their herds. The' use of fertilisers was also doing a great deal for the dairy farmer, and he mentioned that indication in older dairying districts were that one-man farming was gaining in popularity. The fifteen Alaskan dogs brought out for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition are' thriving well during their period of quarantine on Quail Island, Lyttelton, and are apparently enjoying the colder weather (says a Christchurch paper). Most of the dogs are easy to handle and feed, although they are part wolf. One, however, a three-part wolf, is so wild and man-shy that he tugs madly at his chain even when approached’ at feeding time. That they are not to be trusted entirely, however, is the opinion of the custodian of the quarantine station, Mr. J. Troup, and sternness is necessary at all times. To provide exercise for the dogs and to keep them fit a sledge and harness has been improvised, and the dogs do some of the transport work on the island.

Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau) speaking at the Labour Party social in Wellington last Tuesday, related liow, during his visit to England he found that men were, feeling that they were being neglected by their wives, who were not “mothering” them as they did in the old days. At a meeting an appeal was made to those wives willing to “mother” their husbands, and only one stood up. The chairman appealed to the audience. “Is there only one woman here willing to ‘mother’ her husband?” “Mother him ” replied the solitary one. “I thought you said ‘smother him.’ ”

Mrs George Moir, of Eltham, who has been visiting North Auckland, and is now in Auckland on her way home, claims to be the oldest resident of her town (says the “Star”). In 1880, with her husband, who died 16 years ago, they took their belonging in a bullock dray into the heart of the bush, where their section was and where the town of Eltham now stands, and that night reached the whare which had been built to house them, and with their young family spent the night on improvised bush beds. There was not another settler within miles of their dwelling, which was built beside the stream which still runs through Eltham.. Mrs Moir was delighted with what she saw in the north, and says that the spirit of the pioneers still exists there. The young settlers seemed very optimistic about the future, and she' bad great hope for the success of many of their ventures, which were just as courageous as in days of long ago.

Three cars were involved in a collision which occurred on the Waihi Road near Normanby at about 7.30 o’clock last evening though, so far as can be ■ ascertained, no serious personal injuries were suffered. The vehicle most damaged was a car returning to Normanby from patea 'with several Maori passengers. In the vicinity of the point known as Winks’ crossing on the Hawera side of Normanby the Maoris’ ear come into collision with two others proceeding in the opposite direction. Damaged only to a comparatively slight extent the south bound ears were able to resume the journey, but the other, after crashing into- a fencing post, could not be driven away and was still on the roadside this morning.

' “It is a sorry state of affairs into 1 which our branch of the union has degenerated when we have to go begging to get a man to till such an important office as president,” said Mr. F. R. H. Brice at the annual meeting of the Marton branch of the f armers’ Union, when efforts to find a new president fer tlie ensuing year were of no avail. Almost everyone in the room was given an opportunity of holding the. position, but in turn each declined. After half an hour the present chairman, Mr. J. Gornfcot, reluctantly decided to carry on. When the position oi secretary had to be filled, Mr. K. M. Little, of Feilding, the provincial secretary, was suggested, but several members described the idea of going out of the town for a secretary for local organisation as “a retrograde step.” After discussion however, Mr. Little was appointed. The retiring secretary was voted a handsome honorarium.

Mr Noel McPherson, a. private inquiry agent, ox Edinburgh, has discovered in a back room of a Christchurch chemist shop a bangle which he claims can be traced to Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary, it is claimed, gave to a favourite gallant a rare and beautiful bangle, to be handed to him through his line as an heirloom. A hundred years ago the bangle was traced to New Zealand, but not located. Queen Victoria, offered £SOOO for the bangle unsuccessfully. Finally, Mr Noel McPherson’s father pursued the quest. He travelled everywhere, and eventually located the bangle at Christchurch by advertisement. Mr McPherson and his father are now leaving for Scotland to see whether the old offers, particularly that of the McPherson clan, still hold good. The bangle was brought to Dunedin by an old woman, whose name was McPherson.

The dissatisfaction that exists in the North in regard to the late running of trains, particularly the expresses, is also felt in Dunedin, says an exchange. At a meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce Mr F. E. Tyson said he had had to meet a number of trains lately, and on nearly every occasion the train was late. It was a disgrace. Mail trains should always be up to time. Pie suggested that the Railway Department be written to to see if some effort could be made to run trains to timeable. Mr A. H. Allen suggested that a committee should wait on the district traffic manager to ascertain the cause of the trains running late. If no satisfaction was obtained, he said, the matter could be discussed again at the next, meeting. Mr Allen’s suggestion was agreed to. “The future of tins country is in the hands of two departments,” said Mr E. iS. Pope, who recently retired from the position of Assistant Director of Agriculture, at a. farewell function in Wellington. “It is in the hands of the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture. The other departments which seem so large and important are small ■ as compared _ with these departments. If the education of the young is guided on the best lines, and the agriculture on the best, lines, this country is going to continue to prosper and lead the world. You should realise that the matter is in your hands. that the lowest, ‘under-strapper’ is doing tremendously important work, and that on the sincerity and honesty with which he does his work depend,s the future of this country more than upon anything else.”

The attention or people in the Te Roti district is drawn to the notice in to-day’s “Star” calling a second meeting for Tuesday next to elect a committee for the hall.