LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, Issue LVII, 9 April 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The date for closing of nominations for Kaponga Athletic Sports meeting has been extended to April 16.

A grand social in aid of Okaiawa Football Club will be held in the hall on April 15.

On and after April 11 the business of the Bank of New South Wales will be conducted in the new premises on the old site, Princes street.

The Department of Lands has arranged to open for selection 17,000 acres of th© Hauraki Plains estate on the optional system on May 16.

Mr J. Grant, of Taiporohenui, returned from his trip to Sydney (whither he had been with a consignment of horses) on Thursday evening. On the boat by which Mr Grant sailed there were about 50 horses, and most of the vendors expressed themselves as being fairly woll satisfied with the market results. Mr Grant himself had hard, luck in losing a valuable filly, which had contracted pneumonia, about 12 hours after landing in Sydney. The annual meeting of householders to elect a Technical School Committee at Patea was poorly attended. The balance-sheet presented showed a debit of £109 3s Id on buildings and [ furniture. There was a deficit of £22 on the working account. After discus- | sion it was decided to defer the appointi inent of a committee until the meeting of householders to elect a school committee Was held.

Several days ago the railway station at Ongarue, on the Main Trunk line, was broken into and a case of beer was tampered with. With such a bait in a prohibition country, it was only natural to expect that the station would receive another visit, and so Constable Owen took up his watch there to be ready to receive any midnight visitors. He was not disappointed. Last Sunday two men were seen to cautiously approach the building and force the door. The constable then made himself known and arrested a man named John

Thompson. The second man, Duncan Mcßae, got away, but was captured shortly afterwards. The prisoners were taken to Te Kuiti, where they were charged and remanded. Yesterday we published a letter written by Mr A. R. Barclay on the new death duties, showing how a small estate was taxed. In justification of the alteration of the law made by last

year's Act, the Hon. Dr Findlay, At-torney-General, states that under the. new system substantial relief is given to estates under £1000 going to near relatives of deceased persons. The exemption from duty was increased from £100 to £500, and a reduced duty is charged on estates between £500 and £1000. Substantial increases were only made on large estates. As very great relief was given in the case of estates going to support dependents, it is only right, in Dr Findlay' s opinion, that strangers in blood receiving , benefits from an estate should pay an increased rate, and in the case referred to by Mr Barclay all the bequests were to strangers, and that — and that alone — was why any duty was payable.

The Piopio (King Country) correspondent of the Auckland Star writes: — "A large native gathering, consisting of some 500 natives from all parts, has been held at Aria, a few miles away, this week. A large meeting house and a Roman Catholic Church were opened, and a ton of potatoes, a ton of flour, half a dozen bullocks, also sheep and pigs were consumed. The native convert evidently does not believe in fasting. The meeting terminated with the recent hurricane wrecking the large marquee and blowing down a number of the tents and cooknoyses, but I have since learned there was nothing left to be cooked, so the sale, to the native, was a blessing in disguise, but not so to his pakeha neighbors, many of whom lost stables and outbuildings. Brick chimneys in some cases were demolished, and oat-stacks blown to the four winds. This was the worst tempest ever experienced here."

In the matter of the sculling championship to take place on the Zambesi river next August, Mr Charles Janson writes: — "It will be of interest to relate that Ernest Barry, the English champion, who is to row Richard Arnst, is a younger brother of William Albert Barry, who won the Doggett's Coat and Badge, on the River Thames, in 1891. Ernest Barry won the Doggett's Coat, Badge and Freedom in 1903. The Field newspaper said of him: — "He bids fair to make a name for himself. He stands 6ft in height, possesses undoubted strength, reaches out well, and rows with a' good body swing. The establishment of the coat and badge was instituted in 1715 by Thos. Doggett, a celebrated comedian, in honor of the Hoxise of Hanover, to commemorate the anniversary of King George's accession to the throne of Great Britain. The prize was a red coat, with a large silver badge on the arm — bearing the white horse of Hanover, and the race had to be rowed on the Thames on Ist August annually by six young watermen, who were not to have exceeded the time of their apprenticeship by 12 months. The deferred payment system has now been extended to many lines, but from enquiries made by a Dunedin Star reporter, it is in th© furnishine; business that the system reaches its maximum of good" or evil. One firm in Dunedin estimate that, roughly, something like a fourth of their trading is done on these terms, and they say that it is a source of interminable trouble. "You have practically to live with some of them to get the payments." Another gentleman controlling an even larger business in Dunedin begins right at the first cause, which is marriage without means. He says: "A young fellow comes to me and says, 'I'm going to be married, and I want to furnish. I can deposit a fiver. Can you fix me i up?" He tells me, perhaps, that he draws a wage or salary of £3 or £3 10s a week; that he has drawn it for six years ; and he has only a fiver 1" "How do you expect to keep another?" I ask, "when you haven't saved a penny from keeping yourself in six years?" "Oh, he says, "easily. I'm going to be thrifty now." He means well, but has never' kept a house before, and he does not know the thousand and one things he never reckoned upon, which creep insidiously into his bill of costs. Perhaps he falls ill, or his wife falls ill; perhaps the duet soon becomes a trio; perhaps he loses his billet. At all events ho cannot keep up his payments, and unless a man has a heart of stone he cannot force bailment and remove tho bed from under a sick woman. We are practically in their hands."

"Students for wool-classing will meet ]0 a.m. Tuesday and Saturday, 12th and 16th inst. respectively in the Hawora Technical School. No classes will bo hold at Ararata and Mokoia in the meantime.

£500 given nway. — Varnishine, the brilliant polish for tan boots and linolpiinis; easiest, quickest, brightest. Particulars in each 6d tin. All grocers. Fireside Phonograph is the one big hit ; tho best seller of the season. Only £0 10s at E. Dison and Co.'s §

The Rev. F. W. Boys, who returna from the South to-day, will conduct tomorrow's services at Hawera morning, and evening ; Matapu in the afternoon.

The ex-borough foreman of Inglewood! has issued a public challenge to any councillor to resign, "and," lie adds, f T will contest the seat with him as a protest against the Council's action re the* organisation of the staff."

It is understood that Mr Herbert,, who has temporarily been in charge ot ; the Bank of New South \> ales at Greymouth, will arrive in Hawera next weekto take charge of the Bank's businessuntil the return of Mr Webster.

There were only three householders; present at Thursday night's annual., meeting in connection with the Eltham Technical School. These three — MessrsE. Parrott, L. Hill and G. D. Gow — with Mr Blackhall, were elected a com--mittee for the ensuing year. Considering the fact that there are 184 OQthe roll it is surprising that so~> little^ interest was shown by parents. The-balance-sheet showed a loss on the yearof £20 19s 3d. Mr Braik, in the courseof an address, introduced Mr McGregor,, the wool-classing teacher, and expressed the hope that this class would re^ceive the support it merited.

The Waihi Magistrate's Court heardl a charge of assault against R. Burgess,. a member of the Gun, Club, the informant being the Secretary (G. F~ McFlinn). It was alleged that defendant was using bad language at a shooting meeting, when McFlinn remarked that he was "no sport." Defendant, 1 it was alleged, suddenly struck McFlinn a violent blow on the jaw, knocking him down. Informant; it was stated, had his hands in his pocket at the time. A large amount of evidence was adduced, after which Burgess was convicted and fined £1 and costs £3 13s.

A message from' Waihi says that Mr H. B. Devereux, F.R.M.S., in view of the liability of the district to tropical disturbances and storms, recommends /the adoption of a system of flood-warn-ing such as is adopted by the Queensland Meteorological Department. The .main features of the system are: (1) The placing of flood gauges in the upper reaches of main rivers; and (2) preparaof a map based on the experience of former floods, showing the heights to which the flood may be expected to rise in the lower parts of JJbe river as a consequence of certain definite rises in the upper reaches, an approved individual is relegated to watch the gauges, and as the waters reach the several stages shown on a colored diagram (with which he is supplied), he distributes telegrams or messages at intervals of three hours, six hours, or one hour. With such a scheme instituted in the district the County Engineer in Paeroa would receive messages, say, from Waihi, Waitawheta, and Matamatba, and would be able to plot the movements of the rivers or tributaries up the country, and would thus be able to forecast the flood level in Paeroa. The cost of such a system would be very small, and it would be the means of preventing a considerable amount of loss, and farmers would , have time to remove stock from the flats ,to tho higher levels.