LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 7873, 7 January 1904, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

v One effect in New Zealand of the prospects of war between Ruse&a and Japan is that the price of rice has hardened.

In order to keep the Patea District High School going the Patea Borough Council has agreed to mako a grant of £15.

The Eketahuna Express which, is threatened with a libel action for a. reference tio Sir J. G. Ward wfcich it is alleged reflected on his personal honor in connection with some timber syndicate announces- that while it disclaims any intontion of attributing personal mjotfijves it will accept service of a writ.

It has been found that bacterial ceJs can grow anl multiply at the abnormally high temperature of 72deg. C. ; that they can be exposed unscathed to a temperature of as low as 190deg. C. for six months, and that they have even survived a temperature which is only 2fcdeg. above the absolute :ero. These results profoundly modify our conceptions as to the temperature conditions under which it IS possible for organic life to exist. The results might even be cited in favour of the cosmic tneory of tne origin of life on tue earth."

The many friends in this district of Mr C. F. Hill, for some time railway statiomnastfer at Hawera, will be sorry to hear that he has quite broken down in health, and has to secure an extended holiday. It is hoped that rest will setl him up again. Mention of Hiawera stationimlasters reminds us ttoat a visitor to- Hawera on New Year's Day was Mr Hewitt, ' who was first statiowmaster at Hewera, some twenty years ago. Mr Hewitt left tlhe service and went to America, but has come back with the* conviction that tfiere are worse places than New Zealand. He is, however, in first rate health and was busy looking up old friends.

A H'awera resident who had the pleasure of witnessing the performiance in New Plymouth of Sanford's American Players, who appear, in the Opera House to-nig>ht, is very eniihusdastic as to their merits. He points out that the Company are playing in Taramaki now just to fill in" the interval tbat had to elapse between the time of their arrival in the colony from America and the opening date of their engagement in Auckland. The opinion of the gentlc-ice-n referred to is one upon which the residents of this town s"hould be able to rely and his 1 verdict will no doubt be supported by those who take the op. portunity of to-night witnessing " The Power of GoM.V

At the monthly meeting of the) Patca Harbour Board (the Press reports) Mr A. P. Gairdner, applied on betoalf of the Iron, Steel and Metals Manufacturing Company, Melbourne, for the lease of 15 miles or more of the foreshore on the Patea beaoh. Mr Gtaindner also stated in a later letter, that his .comjpuny wanted a lease of the foreshore for tihe purpose of manufactoiring' iron and steel from the magnetic sand i thereon. The cost of the works tbat the Company proposed to erect would j be betvteen £50,000 and £60,000, ' and would be 'capable of turning out 1000 tons of iron or steel per week. He had no doubt but that the Company could start operations within six months. If the Harbour Board miade facilities for trading to their port the Company would be cfuite agreeable to pay a reasonable royalty on the output. It would be an impossibility for the Company to land machinery at Patea, as parts of the said machinery wore enormously hearvy. The matter was held over till 18th inst. Mr W. (I. Cloke, on behalf of Mr A. T. Bate, applied for leave to remove 300 tons of sand frorci the foreshore to the river for the purpose of shipping for experimental purposes. Granted. It now appears that the hope of averting the damaging consequences which it was foreseen might follow the shipment of stale stored Victorian butter without any distinguishing 1 mark to designate its age, and so to prevent its being palmed oS on London buyers as 1903-1904 season's make, the Victorian Butter Manufacturers' Association, at a meeting held in May last, determined that all newly mado butter intended for export should bear the brand " 1903-1904 " on the inside as well y.s -the outside of the oases in which it should be packed, as a guarantiee to consignees abroad that the butter was not drawn from the unplaced portion of the previous season's make,. And in order to leave no scope for trickery, fho Association kept this decision a secroti until the old stored butters were cleared out of the cooling chambers. It is generally believed by ' tjfrase most intimately associated -with the butter shipping business in Melbourne that the butter comlplained of was bought locally by a London importer and by him exported. Practically* the whole of the consignments was drawn from private freezing chambers, and so did not come under ihe supervision of the Agricultural Department until it was actually on 'board the steamers. The export of such stuff as comprised these particular shipments made forcibly apparent a weakness of the Exported Products Act to fulfil its nvain purpose. The Minister of Agriculture actuajly gave instructions that the shipper of the butter should be proseputed, but this course was not adopted because of a flaw in the Act. In order to meet the reqjuirements of the case the Cabinet, on 23rd November last, made a regulation to the Act providing' that : Every person intending to export) butter or cheese from the State of Victoria shall, at least before noon of the day preceding that on which such butter or cheese is to 'bo rem|oved from the coal store for oxport, give, or cause to be given, notice, in writing, to the officer in charge of the Government Cool Stores, Melbourne, of such intention, and such J notice shall contain full particulars as to the number of cases; kegs, boxes, or packages, as the case may be, in, which such butter or cheese is 'contained, together with the stamps or miarttcs' and weight of each case, keg, box, or package.