Local and General.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 243, 27 September 1922, Page 4

Local and General.

A petition in bankruptcy has been filed by Robert Blair Sim, sheepfarmer, of Mohaka. A loss of £1344 6s 6d has been recorded on the first year’s running of the Palmerston North Borough busses. Depreciation is not included in the above sum. A King Country correspondent sends t° the a nttle story of a. pacific gentleman at a recent iqeeting up ins waj, where two factions clashed rather badly. In endeavouring to calm the air this well meaning gentleman said; “I would like to pour a little on the—er-—on the boiling water.” The R.M.B. Tahiti, being ahead of her timetable date of arrival at Wellington the inward ’Frisco mail is now expected to reach Hawke’s Bay on Friday evening. Outward mails for Australia by her will dose Friday next at 8.30 a.m,, not Saturday, as previously announced. A persistent rumour was afloat, in Wellington yesterday that in view of the situation iir the Near East thers was to be a general mobilisation of .New Zealand troops. The rumour war referred to Ihe Minister of Defence, whose answer was that he had not issued orders for even a single man to be called up. The Arahura’s stokehold hands re--fused to sail from Auckland yesterday with six seamen for Napier to join the steamer Baden Powell, which is not under the agreement, and therefore can employ non-unionists. Finally the seamen came on shore and the vessel sailed for Gisborne an hour late. The Arahura’s own seamen did not take part in the dispute. On Sunday (relates the Palmerston North “Times”) a harmless little green lizard found in tlie Esplanade was snown to some local Maoris, who one and all gave it a wide berth. Considering the absence ot any venomous reptile in New Zealand the superstitious horror of all Maoris for creeping things is not easily accounted for. Possibly it is transmitted from some ancestral Malayan or Polynesian. Mr A. McNicol, M.P., who recently made inquiries on the matter, has been informed by the Hon D. H. Guthrie, Minister for Railways, that it has been decided that all petrol, whether known as benzine, motor spirit, or gasoline, is to be charged at single rate, class “A/’ A general direction has been issued directing that refunds are to be made in cases w’here motor spirits have been charged at the higher rate since July 27th. An optimistic note was struck by a speaker at a meeting of the Ashburton Co-operative Dairy Factory Company, when reference was made to future prices for butter. . The outlook for butter was very bright, he said, and a good price would probably rule right up to February. From what he had learned recently, he was sure export ngures for dairy produce would show a remarkable increased this year. He had recently l>een iu the North Island, and had found that the Taranaki dairy companies were turning out 50 per cent more produce than was the ease for the corresponding period of last year. Many farmers who had been devoting themselves to the fattenning of stock were going in for dairying. If the standard of quality in our manufactures were maintained, all would l>e well for the dairy farmer. Miss Lila Rugby Rowe’s name was omitted from the list of successful candidates at the recent examination of the Trinity College of Music.