LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 13, 29 December 1931, Page 6

LOCAL & GENERAL

The “Hawke’s Bay Tribune” will NOT be published on Friday next— New Year’s Day.

The athletic entries received in connection with the combined Onga OngaMakaretu sports gathering on New Year’s Day eclipse all previous Central Hawke’s Bay records, and a great success is therefore assured.

Hogmanay—as perfervid Scots call the last day of the year —will be celebrated in old-time fashion by the Has tint’s and District Scots’ Society on Thursday evening in the Favourite Hall. Proceedings will begin at 9 p.m.

The Railwav Department's advertisement appearing in to-day’s issue gives particulars of the local extra trains to run o" January Ist and 2nd. Cheap fares will be obtainable on January Ist. Special arrangements are made to cope with race traffic at Hastings Racecourse.

The value represented by building permits issued in Auckland City in 1931 is £231,265, less than one-third of the 1930 total, which, in turn, was less than half that for 1929. The city’s peak year for building was 1928, when the value was £1,6” 104. There was a slight drop, to £1,509,389, in the following year, but 1930 showed a serious fallingoff to £744,430.

However little the man who breeds and feeds and milks the cow may make out of his capital and toil, it looks as if the man who sells the ultimate products doe? not do so badly out of them. According to recently received English papers Aiderman John Alfred Watson, of Knowle, War.rickshir one of the founders of the Maypole Dairy Coy., Ltd., who died last July, aged 66, left an estate of the gross value of £416,741 t

The steamer Breeze, which was extensively damaged when she went ashore at Port Robinson on December 18, has been abandoned to the underwriters, who intend dismantling the ship and sinking the hull. The damage to the hull and keel is more entensivc than was at first supposed, and the cost of repairs would be more than the value of the vessel. The company will carry on with the Calm, the Gale and the Storm, and will replace the Breeze with a new ship later.

A well-known Chinese resident at Wanganui stated the other day that he had written home to a relative who is a merchant in a big way in China, advising him that now was the time to make investments in New Zealand. The merchant had replied that he was coming to New Zealand early in the new year and that ho would have a very substantial sum available to lend to his countrymen for development purposes in connection with their businesses. He was coming to the Dominion to make an inspection.

An American dollar bill and a collection of twenty-one coins, among which were a half-sovereign and a farthing, wore included in the offertory at St. Matthew’s Church, Hastings, on Christmas Dav. The offertory on that day and on Sunday was a special offertory in aid f the church restoration fund, and the bill and the coins referred to were contained in an envelope in which was enclosed a slip of paper bearing Hie words “A tribute from a traveller.” Among the countries repre rented in t l, collection -ere the Dutch East Indies, Holland, the United States of America, India, Ceylon, Straits Settlement, and France. The money is easib- convertible into British currency. and is probably worth 35/- or £2 altogether.

We acknowledge Christmas greetings from Collett & Son, Ltd., and the N.Z. Shipping Co., Ltd. A reminder is given of the plain and fancy dress ball to be held in the Haumoana Hall on New Year’s night (January 1). Free buses will run from Westerman’s corner, Hastings, and Clive Square, Napier. Athletes are reminded that entries for all events for the sports to-morrow night at the Mardi Gras, Napier, close with Mr Edgar Berry, Clive Square, to-night at 6 o 'clock. The events will commence at 7.30 o’clock. There will be no charge for admission. •« At the Esperanto Congress now on at Christchurch, a Press Association message reports that a motion was carried urging the New Zealand Government to approach the League of Nations with a view to having Esperanto taught in all the schools of countries belonging to the League because of its influence in prompting world peace. Registrations of new companies are reported in the “Mercantile Gazette" as follows: —Davis (A. B.) and Sons, Ltd., private company. Capital: £2OOO, into 2000 shares of £1 each. Subscribers: Napier—A. B. Davis 1700, R. H. Davis 100, L. A. Davis 100, A. L M. Davis 100. Objects: To carry on business of builders, structural engineers, and general incidental. Ellison’s shoe Store, Ltd., private company, Napier. Capital: £5OO, into 500 shares of £1 each. Subscribers: Napier—Annie C. Ellison dO't S. R. Ellison 100. Objects: To carry on business of boot and shoe importers and vendors, and general incidental.

That there were a few months ago at Porirua Mental Hospital 147 exservice men patients paying the greatest penalty of war that a man can suffer —loss of reason, will come as a shock and grim reminder that the aftermath of war is still with us. It falls within the activities of the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association as champions of the Digger to pay fortnightly visits to this hospital and, together with the Red Cross Society, to provide comforts in the way of cigarettes, tobacco, sweets and literature to these sufferers. Unfortunately this number is increasing as the strain suffered during the Great War becomes more and more evident with the adl vancing age of tho Digger. These visits and comforts are greatly appreciated by the Digger patients, as they bring a little ray of light into their darkened lives.