Local and General.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 231, 12 September 1922, Page 4

Local and General.

The Eastern Telegraph Company celebrated its 50th anniversary on July 24th. The company has 325,000 miles of cable compared with 8000 miles in 1872.

Siberia is one of the finest undeveloped countries in the world, ajid it is really difficult to exaggerate the enormous wealth of this gigantic region.

During 1921 11,026 books were published in Great Britain, 8329 in America, and 32,345 m Germany. The grand total of last year’s world output of new books amounted to 115,847. Among the peasantry of Spanish Galicia the women work hard all their lives, and are usually much stronger and better developed than their husbands, over whom they rule. The work of removing the reef on which several vessels touched a few months ago when entering the Napier breakwater harbour, has now been completed though final soundings have yet to be taken.

Certain flowers have their likes and dislikes. Sweet peas facte at once when put in a vase with other flowers. Mignonette, lilies of the valley, and certain kinds of poppy also have no friends in the flower world. Those interested in the doings of the Hastings branch of the New Zealand Labour Party will be pleased to know that a dance is to be given on Wednesday, 20th September, in aid of the head office fund.

The papier Fellowship met as usual in Scinde Hall on Sunday evening. Mr. H Arnold contributed a very thoughtful reading from Holyoake on the evil effects of the obligatory oath in the courts of justice. The music was in the hands of Mr. J. A. Binns who led a small orchestra of eleven whose selections were greatly appreciated. Mr. E. H. Greenhow was also encored for his rendering of “A Poor Old Bachelor.” The “magazine” was as varied and interesting as usual. A new city theatre is to be erected in Courtenay Place, Wellington. Negotiations for the purchase of the land nave been completed and instructions given to prepare the plans. The land is said to have cost over £35,000, whilst the cost of the theatre will run into about £40.000. The expenditure of about £BO,OOO in providing a new place of amusement should relieve the minds of pessimists who bewail the financial stringency «nd say there is no money available for the provision of things, such, for instance, as the Hastings Technical School buildings, which are urgently required in our daily life.

Approximately £300,000 will be spent on highways in British Columbia this year.

A portion of Australian mails, ex Maunganui, arc due this afternoon, and the balance of. the mail this evening. More than 100 men employed by the New Zealand Coal and Oil Company at Kaitangata are to be added to the ranks of the unemployed at this weekend.

“It seems to be of more importance to have a reflector on the back of bicycles than to have a headlight,” was the opinion of Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at Christchurch on Friday.

The Napier-Hastings register at the week-end showed 57 unemployed, 25 being labourers. Twenty w’ere new re. gist rations. Six returned men were pur on Crownthorpe during the week. Probably 18 men will he sent to Eskdale early this week. “Get busy now,” is the advice offered to prospective home-builders, by Captain L. Mclntosh Ellis (Director of Forestry), who has just returned to Wellington from a visit to the King Country milling centres from Taumarunui to Taihape.

Entries close to-night at 9 o’clock with the hon. secretary. Mr. P. F. Hunter, for the Hastings Horticultural Society’s Spring Bulb Show, which will be open afternoon and evening at the Assembly Hall, Hastings, on Friday next.

On Saturday evening a native named Pipiri Manaia, whose hearing is defective, was run over by the New Ply-mouth-Hawera train, at Turuturu road level crossing (near Hawera). The driver blew the wLisTTe approacliTng the road, but Manaia walked right in front and was terribly mangled.— (Press Association). The Minister of Lands (Hon. D. H. Guthrie) said on Friday that he thought the boards w|iich were to investigate the situation of tSe soldier farmers of New Zealand would very’ shortly be at work. “How long will it be before they start?” asked a member. The Minister replied, “As soon as possible.”

The first real “sky pilot” has come at last. Having learned to fly with the U.S.A, flying men during the war, a padre whose “parish” includes many of the scattered communities in a section of America’s great north-west has decided to turn his experience to good account by using an airplane for journeying from place to place for his services.

“In view of the very early requirement for land adjacent to the extension of West Quay to the south, it is proposed as a first effort of harbour dredging to reclaim an area of about six acres between the cattle yards and Battery Point, by material dredged in front of the West Quay,” stated the Harbour Board’s engineer to the board to-day. “The beekeeping industry continues to make steady progress,” states the annual report of the Department of Agriculture. “The number of registered apiaries is now 7386, representing a total of 96,051 hives. A pleasing feature is the number of returned soldiers who have taken up beekeeping ag a means of livelihood after having received a course of practical instruction in this subject at the training farms before launching out. The Rissington Women’s Institute held its eighth monthly meeting on the sth inst., when there were present fourteen members and two visitors. A message of greeting was sent to the new institute at Norsewood. A talk on first aid in some common emergencies was the chief business of the afternoon and was~?ollowed by a practice of triangular bandaging hy various members. At the next meeting, on September 26th., a list of exhibits for the spring show will be drawn up. A good substitute for lawn tennis is circlos, or deck tennis, and it is played on courts less than half the size of ordinary lawn tennis courts. The dimensions are 30ft x 17ft for doubles, and 28ft x 15ft for singles, so that anyone who has a fair-sized yard can play the game at home. Instead of racquet and ball the phryers use a circlet, which may be described as a rubber quoit. This is tossed back and forth over a net five feet high. It must be caught by the player and returned immediately. Either hand may be used, but not both, and the circlet must not touch the ground or the player’s body or arm. The score is counted exactly as in lawn tennis. Two black swans who live in the river near the Manchester street bridge receive their daily bread from a Nature loving bootmaker whose establishment fronts the river on Oxford, terrace, says the Christchurch Press. Regularly at appointed intervals during the (lay the swans leave their nest by the water’s edge and waddle up the bank and solemnly cross the road quite undismayed and unperturbed by the passing traffic. They station themselves in the side-channel opposite the boot shop, and if their food is not already there they wait patiently and w’ith certain hope until it appears. On occasions they are joined by a cat and a small dog, and the company then co-operate in a friendly dinner party. At all feeding times interested spectators stop to watch. The usual monthly meeting of the Hastings Industrial Co-operative Society’s Women’s Guild was held on Saturday, when a hearty welcome awaited the Napier Women’s Co-opera-tive Guild, numbering about twentyfive, who were the guests of the branch. Mr. Ralph gave a very interesting address on “Collectivism,” which, in other words, is mutual aid, qY co-operation, stressing the point that the women of the world are coming to the fore more every day. At the close of the lecture, several questions were asked and answered satisfactorily. Mr. Ralph, at the ronclusion of his discourse, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, carried by acclamation. A very happy social hour was spent, afternoon tea being dispensed, and the comradeship shown between the two branches augurs well for the future of co-operation. The meeting terminated with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” •

Owners of gardens (says the Otago “Daily Times”) should_ receive with considerable caution the attractive circulars which are being sent out here by one Gerald Telkamp, of Hillegom, Holland, offering varieties of bulbs from that well-known centre of the Dutch bulb trade. During the war a person of the same surname, occupation, and exact addiress —but. a* far as our informant can remember, giving a different Christian name—sent out piteous appeals broadcast begging lor small orders in the name of chanty to relieve the ruin from which he was suffering as a result of a cessation of the demand through the war - ur ”1" formant, the owner of a rather 'wellknown garden, sent £2 in response to this tearful appeal, which was accompanied by lavish promises of unusual value in bulbs for any kind customer who would take pity on the grower. The sender of the money, however, never heard any more about it—-it was a postal order, and dulv paid at the other end—and repeated letters have elicited no acknowledgment ot anv kind. Of course, the ‘ Gerald Telkamp who is responsible for the current circulars may not be identified with the author of the original Tclkamp “enterprise” ; but as both the present and the original Telkamp are bulb growers, and both hail from Hillegom, Holland, and both look for a field for their activities in distant ?»ew Zealand, the case, as we, have said, appears to be one for caution at least. The Greymouth “Star” savs that Laurie Cadman will he matched by the Greymouth Boxing Association with Whittaker or Pooley for the night of the Labour Day trots.