LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 August 1930, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

IMr Jj. M. iMoss was elected president of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce at the annual meeting of that body ,'ast night. “We find it difficult to field a strong team, as the oows are coming in,” was the reason advanced by a Rugby club in a letter to the Metropolitan Rugby Union (Wanganui), when applying to have a. player reinstated. Members of the management committee sympathised with the club’s misfortune, but decided that the suspension could not. be lifted.

The opinion that engineers are. “the •salt of the. earth” was expressed by Mr F. -C. Jacobs at a social arranged by the Auckland branch of the New Zealand) Institute of Marine and Power Engineers. '“ln these days of things mechanical, the .world would stop if the engineers were to stop,” he declared. Another speaker, in referring to the fact that many difficult tasks accomplished by engineers were never heard of, said that the engineer’s besetting sin was modesty.

An Ashburton man has surely reached the limit in economy. Four months ago he had a, horse fitted with shoes. Recently he took the horse to a blacksmith, who found that one of the shoes had been worn down on one side until half of its length was missing. The other side was very little worn. The blacksmith was overwhelmed when the owner of the animal asked him to cut off the worn side of the shoe and weld on another piece. Favoured by an improvement in the weather, lambing is progressing satisfactorily in the Manawatu district. Lambing commenced earlier than last year, and unless severe weather is encountered in the remaining portion of August it is believed that the averages will be good. The dry weather is good for the new-born lambs, while recent warm showers havei proved beneficial to the ewes. The flocks ai’e stated to be in good condition, and to have wintered well. Cats are said to have nine lives. Probably they have, but one that is .suspended over an Onehunga resident’s garden to keep away troublesome winged invaders is as dead as it possibly can be (says the “Auckland Star”). The owner of the garden, a keen horticulturist, found that owing to the ravages of sparrows and their feathered friends he reaped little of what he sowed. T'he ordinary type of scarecrow proved of little deterrent to the raiders, so he conceived the idea of killing the first cat that trespassed on bis property, stuffing it and using it to keep the birds at bay. The ruse lias worked admirably, and one of the finest gardens in Auckland has sprung up while the cat’s skeleton lias bobbed about in the breeze.

It is doubtful whether there is a more happy lot of school' children in the whole of Canterbury than a party of eight Maori scholars attending the West Lyttelton School. The children attended the school at Rapaki until the end of last year. After the summer holidays the Education Department 'decided to close the school owing to the small attendance and for reasons of economy. It was then arranged that the children should attend the West Lyttelton School. As the distance from R-apa.ki to the school is three and a-half miles, the department arranged for the pupils to be conveyed to and from the school by taxi. Wot or fine, eight little Maori children reach the school warm and smiling, and never late. They enjoy their rides to school in the fine limousine taxi immensely. Rabbit shooting fno-m motor cars with the spotlights burning is a well-known method of destroying the too frequent

“bunny” in the country, and the idea was recently appMied to deal with deer which had grown wise to the ways of stalkers in the Waikaia Valley Southland. The' nocturnal habits of these animals have deprived settlers of an appreciable quantity of winter feed set aside for stock, says the “Mat-aura Ensign.” Selecting a dark night, a -party of several rifles equipped with powerful spotlights adjourned to an area sown in turnips, to which the deep had given close attention inthe hours of darkness. Waiting till the night was well advanced, and at an arranged l hour, the spotlights were turned on, and a number of deer were seen quietly feeding among the turnips. Few, if any. of the deer escaped across open country to the hush.