Local and General.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 70, 6 March 1923, Page 4

Local and General.

Horace George Jones, hotelkeeper, of Hastings, has filed a petition in bankruptcy.

On account of the annoyance caused to the public by continual street collections, the Canterbury Progress League has invited charitable and social organisations to send delegates to a conference at which it is proposed to discuss “the desirability of instituting a more satisfactory system of collecting funds for charitable purposes than the cumbersome methods at present in vogue.”

The Hon. J, G. Coates, Minister of Public Works, has been summoned as a witness by petitioners in the Eastern Maori election case, and will attend the Court at Tauranga on March 12. After sittings at Te Whaiti, Ruatahuna and Waihau the Urewera Commission has returned to Rotorua. At the former place several sub-divisions were finally disposd of, and eight subdivisions, totalling 15,000 acres, were approved of at Waihau. Native subdivisions at Umukahawai will be dealt with on March 20. Location of native interests has now been completed in the Waimana Valley, Te Whaiti and Waihau. twelve reserves on the border of Lake Waikaremoana and/ threequarters of the native interests in the Whakatane Valley.

The monthly demands in advance for telephone rentals, substituting the half-yearly demands, are now being issued by the Post and Telegraph Department, and the change of system is meeting with great disapproval from some of the subscribers. Yesterday there was a very irate countryman in town who declared that it was very inconvenient to him to be running to the Post Office on a fixed date every month to pay his telephone subscription. Sooner than suffer the inconvenience he would cut the telephone out. He would rather do that than blow out benzine coming into town to pay monthly. His irritation was added to by the Department refusing to accept his cheque for twelve months in advance.

Insure with the Northern. Assets exceed £15,000,000. All fire and accident risks .W. N. Cathro, agent, Russell street, Hastings.*

The work of constructing a new school at Waipukurau will begin immediately, as a tender of £11,340 12/6, by Messrs. McDonald Bros., of Waipukurau, has been accepted by the Hawke’s Bay Education Board for the work. This cost includes furniture and a hot water service.

Only three creditors were present at a meeting held in Napier yesterday in the bankrupt estate of Percy James Jones, contractor, of Greenmeadows, and no action was decided on.

As only the required number of nominations has been received for the Napier Licensing Committee no election will be necessary. Those nominated arc:—Messrs John R. Kessell, Henry Bates, W. J. McGrath, J. W. Hill, and A W. Pine.

A Nelson cricketer rather neatly turned into a joke Mr A. C. Maclaren’s remark that some of the combined team which met the Englishmen at Nelson did not know the blade of the bat from the handle. When going to the wicket in a match against Motueka he carried a bat bearing a tag indicating the difference —and with it made the top score, over half a century. At the Police Court at Palmerston North yesterday Margaret Josephine Winders, a war bride, pleaded guilty to a charge of bigamy. She was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. A youth named Ernest William Samson, 18 years of age x pleaded guilty to five charges involving false pretences and theft. He was admitted to probation for two year s under the Act of 1920.

Following the recent assurance by the Minister of Public Works that the installation of the Arapuni scheme would be put in hand as soon as possible. it is now reported that arrangements have been completed within the past week for the purchase by the Department of 22 acres adjoining the dam site at Arapuni. It is presumed that the area is required for dwelling sites for the workmen. Great preparations have been made for the big swimming carnival to be held, at the Maddison Baths on Fridaynext at 8 p.m. This season the Heretaunga Swimming and Life Saving Club has had splendid support from both swimmers and the public generally, and on Friday the baths arc sure to bo packed to witness the splendid programme of swimming and novelty events.

The territorial machine gun section from headquarters company left Hastings this morning for Wanganui, where they will compete in the command championship, for which there are entries from all over the central military command. This competition will be a tryout and the winning team will be sent to Trentham to represent the command in the army championship, open to all the territorial forces in the Dominion.

New Zealanders who recently visited Australia found the “rule l of the footpath” rather confusing. In Melbourne the rule is “Keep to the right,” as in New Zealand; but in Sydney it is “Keep to the left,” as with road traffic. As there are many visitors in Sydney the result was confusing, pedestrians in many, cases following their own sweet will in the matter. At busy times policemen paraded the centre of the footpaths, forcing people to keep to the left. In answer to a plea from counsel for time to pay a fine inflicted on a Chinese in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, on Tuesday, it was urged by the police that once the man left custody it might prove difficult to identify him. Counsel for the defendant ridiculed the idea, and went across the room to speak to his client. When it was found that he had mistaken another man for his client, loud laughter echoed round the courtroom.

An inquest held at Wellington yesterday on Myrtle Blacklock, whose body was found in the harbour near the Miramar wharf, evidence was tendered that the deceased got leave ol absence from her employers for some weeks. She came back and said she had lost a sister. Deceased had fretted considerably ever since. An employee of the Gas Company said he saw the deceased near the wharf and she called out as he passed: “Good-bye, you’ll never see me again.” The Coroner returned a verdict of suicide while mentally depressed.

At Wanganui yesterday Richard Lovegrove was fined £5 with costs for obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty. The charge arose owing to Loyegrovc being in company with a prohibited man and calling out a warn ing to the latter when he saw the constable approaching just as the prohibited one got on to licensed premises. The. Magistrate, Mr Barton, said the obstruction was clear and wilful, and in his opinion a man who assisted a pro hibited person to get drink was the worst offender under the Licensing Act. This offence was one of the hardest to detect.

At a meeting of the Manawatu Licensing Committee, Mr J. R. Stout, S.M., brought under the notice of tho police a number of complaints received concerning the sale of intoxicating liquors after hours. Complaints, he said, had been made of at least four local hotels carrying on the practice. The Bench was of opinion that it was a serious matter and time something was done to check it. Senior-Sergeant Fraser said the police inspected tho hotels regularly. There had been prosecutions quite recently. The hotels were kept under constant supervision. Mr Stout: Yes; but what is wanted is drastic supervision.—Press

An inquest was held at Te Kuiti yesterday on the body of Raymond Sefton, aged 28, a dairy farmer at Temapara. who was found on Sunday with a gun beside a fence, with nis head partly blown off. The evidence disclosed that the deceased left home to muster cows, taking a shotgun along to shoot rabbits. It was supposed the deceased rested the gun against the fence, and was pulling it through after him when* the trigger caught in a splice on the wire, thus discharging the gun at close quarters. A verdict was returned that death was caused by the accidental discharge of a shotgun. He leaves a wife and four children. It is in terms of eulogy that Sir Horace Bayer, a well-known English commercial man, alludes to Australia and New Zealand from the point of view of the British emigrant. Sir Horae© has made a comprehensive tour of the Commonwealth and the Dominion. “Both Australia and New Zealand,” he said ‘ * could teach the English people a good deal, and I fully realise that in the Old Country we generally fail to appreciate the possibilities which these countries offer to the energetic and resourceful Englishman. What has most forcibly appealed to me is the huge con sumption in Australia and New Zealand of British-inade commodities. I shall not forget the things that have most impressed me during my tour, and most assuredly, when 1 get back to Englanu, I shall preach the gospel of Australia’s and New Zealand’s possibilities whenever the chance arises. What is needed is to convince the good, solid type of Englishman that a really bright future is offered him put here as contrasted with, tho limited openings that are available in England.”