LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 September 1930, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gossip in the Parliamentary .lobbies indicates that fcho session may end in three or four weeks.

Bitteiily cold weather prevailed in Inglewood on Monday morning and a ligint. fall of snow was experienced about 7.30 a.m., continuing lor about U) minutes.

The car from a Hawera service garage which was removed from the Waihi 1 Road, where it. had been parked on ’Monday, was found yesterday afternoon about two and a-half miles away on the Wirihana Road. The car was considerably damaged by fire. Writing from London to a Hawera friend, Mr F. V. Lysons states that it was astounding to see the number of bus services and fast inter-town coach services operating. Most of them seemed to be doing fairly well and he would not be surprised to see the same conditions arrive in New Zealand. The volume of traffic was terrific and seemed to be speeding up more and more every day The court of inquiry to investigate the loss of the Tahiti comprises Mr E! Page, S.M., chairman, Captain L. O. H. Worrall, one-time master of the Make ra, and Mr W. Parker, the lastnamed a retired marine engineer, who has been appointed assessor in view of the fact that the loss of the Tahiti was due to a mishap to the propelling machinery. The inquiry will open on Thursday.

Messrs. L. O. Hooker and R. Syme, president and captain of the Mt. Egmont Alpine Ciub respectively, left for Wellington this afternoon to attend a conference of delegates of alpine and tramping clubs, to be field on Thursday for the purpose of consideration ot forming a federation. On Thursday evening Mr. Syme is to deliver a lantern slide lecture on mountain activities at which His Excellency the GovernorGenerai will be present. Visiting a partly furnished house on the Glover Road, Hawera, last week the owner found evidence of an attempt to break into the premises during a short period in which it had been unoccupied. Putty from one of the window sashes had been chiselled away in an endeavour apparently to unfasten the latch, but the attempt had not been completed. Some time previously the same house was entered and a quantity of linoleum and other articles was taken. The state of some of the back roads in the Patea county is shown by the experience of the county engineer in the course of his work ot inspection oi load work along the Waitotara Valley. He has been out several times latey, ploughing through mud and doing part ot the journey on horseback. Last week, however, he had the roughest experience, taking from 4 a.m. on the one (lav till 2 p.m. on the following day to cover a distance of 25 miles and back.

Three members of the Wellington Rugby team that won the Ranfurly Shield from Southland had their over coats, stolen at a hockey dance they attended that evening. This among other things was mentioned' in the report of the team’s manager, Mr J. N. Millard, presented at to-night’s meeting of the Wellington Rugby Union. The players were Ball. Bilhy and Cooke, though, the report said, “Cooke was fortunate enough to recognise his on a fellow passenger on the ferry steamer on Saturday night. The other two, however, are still minus their coats.”

A collection of old newspapers am. periodicals published during the earnest years of the Dominion s existence has been given to the Auckland Public Library by the trustees in the estate oi the late Mr. Charles Williamson. Mr. W illiamson was a member of the start of the “Southern Cross,” one of the first newspapers, published in Auckland, ih© gift includes a map drawn by Richard Todd, in the ’sixties, showing the location of the European and Maori forces on the banks of the. Horotia River, and a pen and ink sketch, signed op D. H. Hutton, depicting an attack by British troops on a Maori pa. The newspapers range in dates from 1841 to 1880.

Ail inspection of light concrete poles, designed for “service” lines, was made at the Hawera works of J. W. Tong, Ltd., on Saturday by engineers representing the South Taranaki, Wanganui and Taranaki Power Boards. Two poles were, placed under tests to demonstrate their breaking points., an increasing strain being, applied until they snapped. The tests proved satisfactory mi every way. Similar test® were successfully made with the heavier type ot concrete pole some weeks previously before Public Works engineers. ike Hawera firm is now supplying concrete poles to the followng electricity supply authorities: Palmerston North, Wauga-nui-Bangitikei, South Taranaki, Norik Taranaki and Kaponga Town Boa :d.

The New Government lighthouse steamer Matai., which is .being brought out under Captain Manning to replace the Tutanekai, is expected to reach Panama Canal to-morrow. Cabled advice has been received that she left St. Thomas, in, the West Indies, on Saturday, and the distance from St. Thomas to Colon is just over ] ,000 miles. It is thong,lit that the Matai probably called at. St. Thomas to shelter from the tornado which wrecked Sail Domingo, which is situated to. the north. The Matai will replenish her fuel oil bunkers at. Panama and will also take, on hoard oil in barrels to provide sufficient to -see out the long trip across the Pacific. The Matai is expected to arrive at Wellington about the middiie of next month. There, are two churches within the Tower of London; St. Peter and Vincula, near the site of the scaffold, and St. John, inside the White Tower.

Lieutenant Buckeridge, who flew to Hawera from Palmerston North in a Spartan-Simmonds ’plane, left on his return flight this morning. As there was no business for t.he quarterly meeting of the Egmont Incensing Committee at Eltham yesterday the meeting lapsed. The observation ear on the Rotorua “luxury” express from Auckland has been taken off the train till inrthei notice. It is understood that the car has not been well patronised of late;. A visitor to New Zealand every spring, the shining cuckoo, or pipiwhiarrauroa, is welcomed by ah who are familiar with its notes. It has made an early appearance this year, according to reports rrom the north..

The Eltham Progress Committee has decided to increase its number of committee members and has invited Messrs, 0,-. H. Mann, H. Drahbly and H. L. Kasper to accept seats in the committee. Mr. I. J. Bridger lias been reappointecl chairman of the committee.

When the valuations, in the Jflgmont Jaunty were .being considered at yesterday’s council meeting, the chairman said that according to the present ..K.es it would lie necessary to alter the ruling representation on the oounal, but that could be attended to later. A Hawera, motorist had a narrow escape, from serious' injury when ins sports model car somersaulted twice on cue Dutliie Itoad and crashed upside down in a ditch, fortunately the driver had the presence of mind to throw nimself to the floor of the car as it overturned' and, although the windscreen was shattered and the lnood wrecked, his only injury was a sligiuly .ait ear by a fragment ol flying glass, l'nc accident was due to the hreaKing of a pin in the steering gear. .Some of the opossum trappers in North Canterbury this season scarcely made wages. Tde period tor sending m the skins expired recently, and only 4464 had been stamped this year, as against 16,000 last year. The skins have been of good quality, but the prices are the lowest on record. One trapper stated that after he had paid the royalty of a shilling per skin and nisi license fee his, net profit was only 2s 6d a skin, whilst he had taken two months to get fewer than 100. Receipts from ltugby football matches .mute up a considerable sum for a season’s activities, especially when interest is aroused to great Heights, as in the case of this season’s visit from a British team. Where do the profits got Til© question was touched upon by Mr. Gf. B. Bradley at a Rugby referees’ function at Wellington on Saturday night. The New Zealand Rugby Union, he said, had often been criticised for the profits it made, but the fact was that every penny went, bacik into the game by way of assistance to local unions.

“When travelling in various districts I have been noticing the amount of New Zealand butter and cheese offered for sale under its own label, and it would do some of the suppliers of various factories good to come over and ua,v© a, look round,” states Mr. F. V. Jaysons, in a letter from London to a Hawera resident. “It is, of course, possible to find a shop heie and there sporting the New Zealand iemleaf on the window, but two that I went into had only ‘Empire’ butter, which turned out to be Australian. The brand ‘Empire’ is, in my opinion, not going to be in the best, interests of New Zealand. Life Dairv Produce' Board want to get busy and tspend some real money in 1 .tting New Zealand produce on the market properly under its own brand. Quite a. few packages of butter I have purchased were very stale and had a strong flavour, and it seemed' to me that it had been too long out of cool storage.”

A n&huke was administered at a meeting df the Auckland City Council to dev. Jasper Oalder, who on Tuesday severely criticised the new clause in the city bylaws giving the council power to control the. colours used by advertisers on city buildings, walls, and fences (states the ‘‘New Zealand Herd.l"At the last luncheon of the Auckland Advertising Clmb, a body which had every right to consider the council’s proposals, Bov. Jasper Oalder referred to the bylaw as a ‘piece of impudence, ’ and delberately asked business people to defy it,” said Mr. T. .hoodworth. “1 submit that it was not the proper kind of conduct this council is entitled to expect .from a gentleman who holds a leading position ,n the city. If I and a, few others had recommended such a .course we would have been branded as Bolsheviks and the police would have been put on our tracks for inciting, the. people to* rebelion. I think Mr. Calder should at least lave used more moderate language than lie did, or taken the trouble to find out what was in the bylaw before, he spoke about it.”

Exception to. the action of the United States wireless authorities' on board the Ventura and at Pago Pago in refusing to accept Press messages for New Zealand and; Australia was taken by Bishop dsn nett, who was one of the passengers from the Tahiti who returned by ' che Tofua. Bishop Bennett had received a request by wireless from the United Press Association of New Zealand to isend an .account of the loss of the Tahiti, but had to wait until he reached Apia before the message could be sent. It wa© the first, really connected account of the disaster to be nhlished. in New Zealand. “I tried to get my message sent by wireless from the Ventura,” Bishop Bennett said, “.but was told thiat owing to the length of reports being sent to American newspapers mv message could not .be ao■epted. I received the isame replly at Pago Pago. I certainly think that there should be some international arrangement whereby, in a case like this, there could be some assurance that messages would be sent first to the countries most closely interested in the disaster. There can be no doubt that New Zealand and; Australia, were far more eon coined than, the United States.”