LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 1 May 1934, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Flthnm vital statistics for the month ended on April 30 compared with Hie figures for the corresponding por.oil liist vear in parenthesis were as follow: Births 5 (3), deaths 2 (1),. marriages 1 (0). Fewer births were registered at Hawera durinor the month of April just ended, the number being 10, as aga.nst 26 for the corresponding month last vear. There w T ere 11 deaths and three marriages as against nine deaths and nine marriages in April. 1933. “In a small piece of bush close to the house a moko moko was beam simring on Friday.” writes our Ohapgai correspondent. “Oil making lnquries 1 was told that more than likely it was a late bird, and not strong enougn to take the migratory journey. It is well known that'the late birds do not fl v and if able to live the winner, n the bush, come out later in September and early October.”

Yesterday the angling season for 1933-34 concluded. Anglers m the South Taranaki district have been matin rr tlio most of the fine weather experienced and all will agree that to the truo angler there is a no poor season, but some may be better than others. The work of the-Hawera Acclimatisation Society in liberally stocking the rivers of its district has been fully and freely acknowledged by members. Another sea monster is exciting the people of Kawhia, according to a report from the seaport town, states tlio Taiimarumii “Press.” Evidently Loch Nes.s has .started a fashion, as recently motorists passing along the main road between Kawhia and Oparau observed activity in tho shallow waters. Men armed with long poles waded about- in tho shallow water, while from vantage points on the hills marksmen n ith rifles ready kept an anxious loojv-out. Somebody ‘had seen a monster—an unknown visitor from tho ocean. Its presence was affirmed by more, than one, in a manner that silenced the doubter. Though what it was, fish or beast, nobody could say. Loch Ness in New Zealand 1

A contrast between the money allowed for feeding the animals' in tlio Zoo and the wages paid' to relief workers was made by a speaker at a- meeting held at Auckland to protest against the increased price of milk. At the Zoo, he stated, the tigers and lions cost 10s each a week to feed, while the anteater, whoso diet consisted of condensed and malted milk, honey, and dried ants specially imported, cost £l. Some ol the birds in the aviary had even more expensive tastes, and. were fed with honey, malted milk, and nuts, all luxuries, which the relief worker could not afford. The speaker remarked that there was a- certain irony in his being told, when he was obtaining this information from the Zoo authorities, that each hippopotamus usually cost £1 per week to feed, but that at- Christmas time they had cost more, n.s no relief workers were available to cut grass lor them.