LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 19 December 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The postmaster informs us that, from January. 1, the rental of private boxes will be reduced to 10s per year • in cases where the holder lives outside the letter carriers' deliveries. During the gale at Patea on Tuesday i afternoon a large iron shed erected by the County Council to house its steam roller was laid flat, nad the roof of a trapshed was lifted off and carried some distance away. The\ heavy rain . brought down a big slip on. the Waitotara, Valley road, that is expected to take a month to-clear away. The Telegraph Department advises that the new wireless stations at Awa- ' nui (near the North Cape) and Awarua (Bluff) were opened for regular , work on the 18th inst. These two high power stations have a normal .range of 1200 miles^at night. A continuous listening service for distress signals will be observed, and commercial work will be transmitted daily from 6.30 p.m. to midnight. The rates charged are those at present in force at Wellington—tenpence per word . "You suggest that proceedings should • be taken against the cow," remarked Mr E. C. Cutten, S.M., at the Auckland .Police Gouirt, when Robert Henry Page, of Otahuhu, in answer to'the Charge'of having sold milk below the standard, said that he had been in possession of the place for one day only, and did not know then what sort of milk the cow gave. Some interesting relics of the fight at Omaranui, which took place in 1868, near Napier, were shown by Major Garner during an address at the Officers' Club in Palmerston North. He showed a broken bayonet, which had been cut clean in two by a bullet while he was carrying it; also the rifles of the period, and a Maori prayer-book left by a native. The member for Palmerston North (Mrßuick) ran atilt against Auckland in the House of Representatives, his ire being raised by a proposal to drop a clause (permitting municipalities to a<v quire motor-' buses) from the Municipal Corporation Bill, in the interests of Auckland. The whole of the rest of, the towns in the Dominion, Mr Buick remarked, should not be prejudiced on account of Auckland. "Auckland," he said, "is taking too much charge altogether. Towns like Wellington and Palmerston should be allowed to do wiiat suits them, without being tied to the apron-strings of Auckland. (Hear, hear.) Auckland is always in the way, and it should be cut out of New Zealand altogether. (Hear, hear.) That would be far better than that all other places should always be subservient to Auckland. The sooner that is stopped the better." (Hear, hear, and laughter). 'yyy,At the doie'^of the bearing iof ?:»; charge of assault and robbery, in company, against an accused person, at the Darhnghurst (Sydney) Quarter Sessions last week, Judge Docker, in summing up, said that a certain class of people seemed to have more, money .than they knew what to do with. It had been shown in evidence that both the mail assaulted and the accused had, with other men and women, been drinking in an hotel-in the city for; hours. Both : were unmarried men, drawing good wages, and with no one; dependent on them: A good deal, his Honor continued, had been heard lately of the cost of living. Wages from time to time were increased, the reason generally - given bemg that the sum previously re^ ceived did not constitute a living; wage. It appeared to him that men were in receipt of more money than they knew what to do with, and the only way they oould get rid of their wages quickly enough was in drink and in treating others. The Christmas Bargain Fair at the Economic, announced in to-day's paper, commences on Saturday, 13th instant. Bargains in every ..department. Men's and boys' 'clothing and mercery dresses, rain coats, and ladies* underclothing; , for Christmas presents, handkerchief^,' gloves, hose, and fancy lace and silk ties. W. Spence, Economic, Hawera.— Advt. Bnv a copy of the" Star Almanack for 1914. Diary andccast.book.inh t .book.in one.., Revised and, .up-tordate:- AH W>ksellers and stores throughout the district and at the Star Office, Hawera. —Advt. . Sykes's Drench. —Just what * cow requires after calving.—Advt.

J • A Manawatn farmer sold a line of ■ 250 fat lambs last week at 17s fed a head.

The summer excursions on the railways started yesterday, and to-day there was quite an exodus of people by the southward-bound mail train. A Press Association teleg* vm eejs that all arrangements are now complete for the Presbyterian Bible Class 'l'a«i'o to be held at Wanganui at tbe end <i the year. \.-:,rly three hundred delegates from nany parts of \ew Zealand will be in camp. When children are absent from school the State wants to know the reason why, and sends a form to parents for tilling in. During the Auckland strike a- girl was absent from school, and the usual form was sent out to the mother. The reason stated in reply was: "I kept .- away from school and sent her out to call 'scab' at the cockies." The Maoris of Ruatoki, a place which till recently was a stronghold of Hauhauism, have to a great extent returned to Christianity, and they have just given a touching proof of their earnestness. They have no church, and in order to obtain the money necessary for building one, they camped in the neighboring bush dtiring the m(>ntJ*s of June, July, and August, and cut 500 tons of firewood, which they are rafting down the river to a puri?onn ri w-° has a Sreed to give tnem £200 for it. In earnestness and devotion the Maori can sometimes teach a^ lesson to his pakeha, brethren. Poverty Bay Herald. "Wharf laborers are peculiar people to deal with," remarked a witness at the Auckland Magistrate's Court when describing how a certain shipment of salt had been unloaded. He stated that while superintending discharging operations,, he had requested the workers to adopt '■& particular '"me thod of unloading the bags, a great' many of which were broken, but his request had been ignored. "If the men wouldn't do as you wished, why didn't you discharge them?" enquired Mr C. C. Kettle, S.M. "Oh, your .Worship, if you were to put them' off, you would cause, a strike, replied the witness. "You. have to be very careful in dealing with them." In an involved land case at the Christchurch Supreme Court on Monday, a solicitor giving evidence was asked about an exchange of properties, and his Honor Mr Justice Denniston intervened by asking what was the reason for the exchange. "The property was mortgaged," said Mr Hosking, K.C., "and it was thought , that a freehold without^ encumbrance would be better." His Honor at once asked, "But where were' you. going to get a freehold without an encumbrance in Canterbury?" It was stated that the unencumbered freehold was in Otago. A^ remarkable record in the way of school attendance was mentioned at a school function by the lady principal of the Dunedin Girls' High School. Miss Allan stated that a girl, Dorothy • Clarke, had attended that school for four years and the George street school for seven and a hah* years' without niissing a half-day, making an unbroken attendance of 11 i years. The latest sfrike weapon—and a most infamous one—consists in sending anonymous letters addressed to the wives of arbitrationistß who are working on the wharves. The wives of several men in Greytown, and quite a large number elsewhere, have received these cowardly and lying letters, in which their husbands' fidelity to them is attacked. As a consequence, several wifely visits to Wellington have been made, only, however, to prove that the anonymous letter writer has been wilfully lying. Such letters should be placed in the fire, unread.—Wairarapa Standard. , The extraordinary spectacle of rival fire brigades turning their hose on each other while the fire they were called out to extinguish made merry progress was witnessed at St. Colomb Minor, near Newquay. A small boy playing with colored lights set fire to the thatched roof of ;the Farmers'; Arms, an ancient inn. Messengers were at once .dispatched for the fire brigades, and the Newquay men were soon at work. Suh^ se4uently the St. Ctoloml), Major fire brigade put in an'appearance, and differences of opinion arnse 'ofetween; the two brigades. Minor differences soon developed into a 'duel, the firemen., turning the hose on each otheri' Not until the combatants were drenched did the conflict cease. Hie inn, was completely burned out, only the furniture which had been hastily carried into the street being savedThe Melbourne's display of Christmas suits is unique. Nowhere else will you 6ee the assortment we show; everybody tells us so. Customers come directly from ether shops and make their selections because we show exactly the same quality of goods at considerably lower prices. As a store for "dad and the boys," the Melbourne 6tands supreme. —Advt.