LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 31 January 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The danger to pukeko, ducks and quail in the poisoning of rabbits with oats was discussed at a meeting o! the council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society last week. It was decided to interview the secretary of the Hurunui. Rabbit Board with a view to having poisoning operations in the Hurunui riverbed carried out by means of poisoned carrots instead of oats. There is on view at present at T'e Awamutu a large piece of sandstone bearing the distinct impression of the teetli and jawbone of some ancient fish (states an exchange). As the sandstane was quarried at Te Rau-a-mon, well over 1300 ft above sea-level, the iind is interesting to geologists. In the same block of stone there was also found a tooth nearly 2in long and in a perfect state of preservation. The tooth was dislodged from the stone by ■one of the. finders, and is being, retained as. a curio. tin account of the dry spell the Ash-" burton River was reported last week to bo exceedingly low. The welfare of the trout with which it is well supplied this season, has been engaging the attention of the Ashburton Acclimatisation - Society. At a meeting of the Ashburton Unemployment Committee an application from the society for four men to patrol the river and remove stranded fish into the main stream was granted. 'This work will be carried out under the supervision •of the society, and will continue for two months, unless conditions improve.

The work of clearing and ballasting the Stratford-Main Trunk railway on the western side is proceeding satisfactorily and the district engineer of the Public Works Department, Mr. P. Keller, stated last week that as there was not a great deal left to be done on the length under the control of the Stratford office, it would probably be necessary at the end of the month to shorten hands. Those who remained on the work, Mr. Keller said, would be engaged almost entirely on ballasting. He expected that the work, as far as his department was concerned, would be completed on the Stratford side by the end of March. A somewhat appropriate coincidence was provided last week by the arrival at Napier shortly after ten o’clock of the large overseas liner Northumberland. The citizens of Napier have very vivid recollections of tlie assistance lent by the crew of the vessel after the earthquake of two years, ago, the vessel having been m port at the tims or the upheaval. The arrival of the vessel in the midst of the celebrations in connection with the opening of the New Napier .was therefore a very happy comeiclenct, especially as only a few days remained to the second anniversary of the earthquake. “Seen from the train on the way from Christchurch to Dunedin, the Southern Alps reminded me much of the Himalayas as seen from Simla/' said Sir Joseph Smith, speaking to the Auckland Travelmen’s Club last week (reports the “Auckland Star”). Sir Joseph was giving a talk on Simla to the club. “But there is one difference. While the country between Christchurch, say, and the Southern Alps is flat, with the mountains rising sheer from the jilain, that between Simla and the Himalayas is nothing but range on range of foothills swelling into mountains. And then away in the distance, some 60 miles perhaps, rise the Himalayas. Oil a clear day, so rarefied is the air, one feels that it might be possible to take a hop, step and jump and be right among the snow.”

Advertising by wireless will not be tolerated in .England. That was made perfectly clear bv Sir Ernest Bennett, M.P., Assistant Postmaster-General speaking at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, London, last month. He said, referring- to the extensive advertising campaign in connection with tlie postal services: “There is one department we might use for advertising which we shall not use, however, and that is the British Broadcasting Corporation - . . We shall never do this for two reasons. Hue is that it would interfere with legitimate interest of private enterprise, and the other is tha t 'the British public would not stand it.” The parks committee of the Auckland City Council reported to the council last week on the matter of the opossum menace. The Auckland Institute recently asked the council to support it in asking that, pending more definite information as to the effect opossums had on forests and plantations, protection of them should be withdrawn and further liberation prohibited. Tlie parks committee recommended . that the council support the view of the institute, but in respect of the North Island only. The report was adopted. An illustration of the mischief caused. by opossums occurred at a house at Mount Roskiil, during the holidays. When the occupants of the j house were absent for some days an opossum got inside by way of the chimney, and in its efforts to escape it raced round the walls and shelves damaging paper and furniture and breaking crockery. It had chewed into a window ledge in trying to work a way out. “The fleece of tlie sheep to-dav is still regarded by some as so much wool,” said Mr R. Waters, world research officer for the Massey Agricultural College, lecturing to the Auckland A. and P. Association last week. •‘Wool-buyers and breeders certainly distinguish between bad wool and good wool, coarse wool and fine wool, snort wool and long wool hairy wool and pure wool. Dr. Dry’s investigations however, have been concerned with the individual fibre types which go to make up the fleece, of the Romney. He is now able to recognise over 17 different fibre types, some of which are of the utmost value, whilst others may be regarded as weed fibres. His work is fundamental to the production of better quality Romney wool. His ideas will afford a more intelligent basis for the selection of breeding animals and for securing greater permanency of characters in the breed. If we are to make the best use of him we should prepare at once to commercialise his results as fast as he hands them out.” When a man was charged in the Magistrate’s Court at Timaru with fishing" for trout in the Opihi River without a license, he pleaded guilty, and candidly informed the magistrate, Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, that he was doing his best to catch fish. The magistrate: l have a- telegram here, presumably from a friend of vours, which reads: “The defendant was not trying to catch fish. He was practising casting with my wife’s rod.” Defendant: I know nothing about that. The magistrate : Evidently your friend’s good intentions have miscarried. Defendant was fined the minimum, £2 and costs (£1 11s).

At a meeting of directors of the Cooperative- Dairy Company of Otago, Ltd., held last week it was unanimously resolved to congratulate the Prime Minister (the Rt. H.on. G. W. Forbes) and members of the Government upon what was termed t'heir courageous action in increasing the rate of exchange to 2o per cent, (reports the “Otago Daily Times”). The opinion was expressed that the increase had come at an opportune time, when overseas prices for butter and cheese were at the lowest figure for 3Q years. The rise in price as the result of the alteration in the exchange rate represented an increase of approximately one penny per pound in the nrice of butter-fat. The benefit to all ~ primary producers was also evident in the higher prices for wool and meat. It was decided warmly to commend the Government on taking what as regarded by the meetin O- as the only practical method of redressing the disparity between farm prices and farm costs. The fortnightly meeting of the Monetary Reform' Association will he hold in the Borough Chambers to-mor-row (Wednesday) evening at S o'clock. The hon. secretary advises that inadvertently the wrong date was previously announced. The subject to- be discussed will be “The Galloway iSeries, on Douglas Social Credit.”