LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 July 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A meeting of ratepayers in the Normanby town district- will be held in the Normanby Town Hall on Saturday next, with the object of considering merging into the Hawera county. The hon. representative a.t Hawera of the 'Associated Board of R..A.M. and R.C.M., London, (Mr F. W. Horner) has received advice that the practical examinations which were fixed for early in August, have been postponed to a later date.

One result of the appeal' for public support of the railways has been seen in the King Country recently. The King Country representative Rugby team (selected from an area of 10,000 square miles), was transported by rail to Te Arolia to play a representative team from Thames Valley. By the co-opera-tion of the Railway Department the King Country team left and returned home the same day. On another occasion the Ongarue team travelled to Manunui ground, which lacks a dressing shed. Again the railway officials cooperated by placing a car on the siding at Manunui for use as a dressing shed. King Country footballers warmly appreciate the railway’s co-operation during these didicult times.

A Lyttelton resident. na,s added a new page to the argument whether a wireless .set is a musical instrument. This

istener, the proud owner of a. new set,

nob content with the programme as sent out, added to the spi.ee of listening, by 'manipulating the controls so that the squeals of oscillating valves kept time to the music coming over the air. Though this aided his enjoyment, other listeners in the port poured maledictions on the head of the unknown howler, says a Christchurch howler. A conference of annoyed “fans” located the .source of the squeals anil gave the offender some of bis own medicine. .Now peace reigns on the air o’, nights, though the inventor of the effects misses greatly this self-made, obligato. HUNTINGTON’S; ’Phone 2118. For Ladies’ and Kiddies’ Winter Undies nothing could be more appreciated than our lovely Cosy Cloths, Winceyettes, and Yelva Cloth, and at the stocktaking sale prices is more appreciated than ever. 30im Floral Cosy Cloth, 1/8; 30in. Plain Coloured Winceyette, 1/2; 30in. Wineeyettes, 7d yard; and Floral Velva ciotli, 1/8 yard; are among the most favoured, and give great satisfaction.—Advt.

The Mangatoki Co-operative Dairy Company is paying out a. bonus of £6600 to suppliers on the 30th of this month. Including a. further bonus of £2350 to be distributed at a later date, this will bring the company’s total payments to suppliers for the year just ended up to approximately £81,500. This represents a payment of 12.107 d per lb of butterfat. About 5 p.m. yesterday a heavy mo-tor-truck and a three-seater car were involved in a head-on collision on the main road two miles from Waitara. The truck was undamaged, but the car was wrecked, the two occupants being slightly injured. The driver of the truck, William W. Johnson, was subsequently arrested and was to have appeared before Justices of the Peace at Waitara to-day. In conversation with a “Hawera Star’’ representative to-day the Mayoress, Mrs. E. A. Paeey, stated that it had been brought before her notice that persons claiming to be destitute were soliciting clothing and money from Hawera residents. Mrs. Pacey desired to point out that the Women’s National ,Deserve, in conjunction with other bodies, had properly organised channels of relief, and any person referred to her would receive every possible assistance.

A circular letter from the Commissioner of Transport forwarding representations regarding the exemption of farmers from heavy traffic fees in respect of heavy motor vehicles owned by farmers and used isolely for the transport of the individual farmers’ produce and supplies, was before, the Heathmte County Council at its meeting last week. It was seif, out that if this were done .there would be £30,000 Jess throughout the Dominion for road maintenance purposes, and this would have to be made good by rates. It was decided, after discussion, that the council could not support the proposed exemption.

“In the last year or two,” said the Government Film Censor, Mr. C. W. Tanner, in an interview in Wellington, “the film producers have been able to depict so much more than they used „to the things of human interest. But one of the problems the-y are up against is that about 90 per cent, of the people, I suppose, who go to the pictures, go simply to bo amused, to be entertained. They- recoil rather disappointed when some strong dramatic picture is shown—a picture with a lesson. Some of the pictures coming along shortly seem to be wonderfully sweet and simple little stories. t think there is a distinct improvement in the direction of finer pictures being made. But of course you have always those picture-goers whose mental level is not very high. And the demands of that section of the public have to he met. Nevertheless, the better sorts of • pictures are more frequent than they wore.”

Some amuseemnt was occasioned at a sitting of the Assessment Court recently at Blenheim by a good-humoured passage ' between 'the Government valuer, Mr H. Carmichael, on the one hand, and Mr Walter Payne, a wellknown sheep-farmer, on the other. Mr Payne was giving evidence as to his value of a .sheep property, and said he based it on a period of three years. “Why three years?” asked the crossexamining valuer. “Why not 33?” “Well, because I’m not a prophet,” retorted the witness. “No, nonq of us are,” confessed Mr Carmichael l , “but why not base your values on 33 years?” “Well, because the slump has been on three years now,” was Mr Payne’s parting shot, “and if I thought we would have 33 years of the present prices I would be looking for a job on the roads!”

Recently one of the leading physicians in the city wrote a prescription ordering a patient six quarts of milk a day, and it was to be his sole food for three months, reports the - 4- uc kland “Star.’’ Immediately those interested set about getting a" wholesale quotation for the, quantity required. Many small farmers said they would like the medical man to give a few more prescriptions of the same kind. The milk was to be taken as often as every half-hour till the day’s allowance was drunk, and it was said to be a certain.cure for the patient’s rather serious condition. It is said that once the patient'gets used to taking the milk as ordered, it is very hard to break the habit and get used to taking ordinary food again. Tor a long time there is a strange craving for the milk food, which the average milk vendor might well hope should be encouraged and not restrained, as it would mean A picturesque feature of life on the top end of the East Coast is the enthusiasm with which the Maori population turns out for anv bier sporti 11 cr event. The visit of ‘the, "Maori All Blacks to Ruatoria last week was an event of transcending interest to the Native inhabitants particularly, and from all parts of the coast they converged on the cross-roads, filling the township to overflowing and giving the tradesmen one of the brightest clays oi the depression period, says an exchange. Every hill track and byway, as well as every section of made "road had its quota of football enthusiasts heading towards Ruatoria. and on the afternoon of the match the main highway through the town presented a scene that probably could not be duplicated anywhere els© in New Zealand. Saddle hacks to the number of several hundred, at a rough estimate, lined the highway with their heads to the fences, the quality of the horses ranging from the sorriest of “weeds’’ to good-looking hunters with more than a trace of blood in them. The day was dedicated to football, and the traveller who passed through the township, instead of alighting to enjoy the sporting event, was regarded as being a little mad, at least.