Local and General

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 14 November 1934, Page 6

Local and General

The Hawera Fire Brigade received a call at 7.1.3 p.lll. yesterday, but it proved to be only a rubbish fire ill Union Street. No damage was done. A meeting will be held in the Eltham Borough Council Chambers tomorrow night of representatives of the Taranaki Education Board and the Eltham School Committee, and all others interested in the request that has been made for the establishment of a district high school at Elltham.

A pet lamb is to be found in many country homes, but a “freak” lamb is the proud possession of Alma, daughter of Mr Eric Baker, “To Karaka,” Tuakau. The lamb, born some weeks ago, has five legs, the “spare” leg. growing in between the two forelegs. Although not as long as the other four legs, the extra 'leg is fully formed and has two separate hoofs on it, with two distinct toes on each hoof. No inconvenience -is caused the animal .by the-;'extra’ leg; and-.it-js. thriving.

Up to date about a thousand bicycle mudguards have been painted white free of cost to the owners by two Blenheim firms, which were appointed by the Marlborough Automobile Association, and are to be reimbursed to the extent of threepence apiece by that body. A new by-law in Blenheim requires cyclists to have the rear guards or rear forks of their machines painted white, and the association is assisting cyclists to observe it in the interests of motorists as well as themselves. To be celebrated is to incur many penalties. In the pig pens at the Wai kato show there was one huge animal, a sow. It filled one pen, and wanted to overflow into the adjoining one. It grunted disgustedly, and wheezed, and in the hot pavilion it possessed the 1111 mistakable piggy smell. Due care had been given to the choice of its name It had to be aristocratic, like the pig. a princess among her kind. The owner had called the pride of his heart “Marina.”

The Tourist Department has received a report from its representative in tlic High Commissioner's Office in London to the effect that half a dozen of the leading travel agencies in both Edinburgh and Glasgow- have been appointed booking agents for New- Zealand. Nearly all the agents have offered window space for displays, and a campaign of advertising and newspaper write-ups is by now well under way. A representative of the department will visit Scotland every two months to assist in supervision of The displays. At the same time special efforts to interest wealthy retired folk who usually spend the winter at English south coast resorts are being made, and good results are confidently expected from this strongly potential field. A recent result of Mr Upton Sinclair’s promise to make jobs for all if he were elected Governor of California had been that people from other parts of the country Tiad entered the State in large numbers in the hope of finding work, and they were now- presenting something of a problem, said Mrs TV. A. Foss, a passenger by the Maunganui, which arrived in Wellington yesterday from San Francisco. The election campaigns had caused a great deal of interest, she said, and opponents of Mr Sinclair had been quick to parody his slogan. “End Poverty in California” (the EPIC plan), by maiung it “Easy Pickings in California.”

“I think that land in New Zealand is altogether too dear for the pastoralists to make any progress,” said Dr. Thomas Oliver, D.Sc., principal emeritus of the Scottish Woollen Technical College, Galashiels, speaking in Palmerston North. “Land in the Lowlands around Edinburgh, and similar to that here, is leased at £5 an acre,” said Dr. Oliver. “It is within easy access of city markets. ■ Your land purchased at £IOO an acre and 1-2,000 miles from the market cannot possibly produce good results. The London market, I am informed, demands first-grade lambs at 361 b. That is absurd, because the lamb is killed just at the time when it is making the most growth. It has been estimated at half to a pound a day. We sell lambs up to 501 b quite readily in Scotland.”

,Melbourne is just now very much in the public eye. Mr Alfred tie Bathe Brandon, of Wellington, recalls that as far back as 1874 the complaints about the breadth of the principal streets were rather bitter. Collins, Rourke and Lonsdale Streets were so wide (for those times) that the business of the town centred more particularly in the “little” or narrow streets which intersected thfe blocks between the wide streets. Of course, at that time there was no telephonic communication, and everything had to be done either by messenger or personal interview. Now these wide streets are the glory of the city.

“The fishing here would be a revelation to the average Auckland yachtsman,” writes one of the members of the crew of the Auckland yacht Ngataki, which is on a leisurely cruise of the Pacific. Referring to an anchorage off Sunday Island, he adds: “We had an hour of fishingafter tea, and during that time we lost most of our hooks and two or three lines. In the first five minutes we had enough fish on board to last us a week. They wore mostly of a species about the size of a small kingfish, electric blue in colour, and very good to oat. One of the crew was about to land one of those when a large grey fish appeared from the depths, swallowed the other fish, and ran off with tiie line. Tt. took us an hour to play it. When we got it close enough, wo put four shots into it from a rifle and then found it was a hapuka. It took two of us on the staysail halyard to get it on board. We cut about 301 b of steaks off it, cooked these, and bottled them in vinegar. This kept us in fish until ivc reached Tonga.”