LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXX, Issue LXXX, 29 January 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

An Auckland message states that the Ruapehu arrived in the stream at 6.10 a.m. to -day fro*m Liverpool, with 150 returning soldiers. The southerners will leave hy the train at 7.30 p.m. Patea Borough on Monday night decided in favor of the weekly half-holiday being observed on Wednesday. There was delightful weather for the Sunday schools picnic at New Plymouth and Ngaere Gardens yesterday. The Methodist and Presbyterian schools, with their oountry comrades, went to the seaside, while the Church of England schools spent the day at Ngaere. The ratepayers of Palmerston North yesterday authorised loans totalling £126,275 for various local works. The Post Office advises that delay on United Kingdom cable traffic is nracticali.y normal. Deferred messages'* and American traffic are still subject to considerable delay. { A cable from Sydney says that owing to the heavy cost of paper the Sun is ! raising its prioe to three-halfpence. The ! morning papers raised their prices several months ago. George Haworth, dairyman, of Wickhffe Bay, Dunedin, was fined. £25 at cue Police Court for supplying the Wai- i taki Dairy Factory witn cream out of j ruthy cans (states a Press message), j ITie defendant pleaded that in mistake j he had tipped the cream into cans ! usually used to hold skimmed milk for pigs. The cost of painting may be gathered (observes the Auckland Star) from the fact that a shipment of linseed oil by the Mahia will cost 10s a gallon, and white lead stfei holds its price. Oil drums, which formerly sold at Is each, are now worth nearly live times that amount. Tlie difficulty in securing supplies of prepared paint may be judged from the fact that consignments have just reached the south which were ordered in England from eighteen months to two years ago. The adjourned annual meeting of the Women's National Reserve will be he.d in the Borough Chambers to-morrow evening. It is hoped that there will be a large attendance of members as sev- \ era] important matters are to be discussed. Unless more interest is taken i in the Reserve it is probable that the advisab'eness of disbanding will have to be considered. It would be a pity were the Reserve to cease its activities, because it rendered much yeoman sei-viVe i during the war,, and there is yet a wide j scope for good work. ' We have large stocks of boys' flannel shirts, shorts, hose, ties, and underwear. Also 'his initials woven on mercerised tape. Bring your boot repairs. Jury and Co., Hawera.—Advt.

[It is not only in New Zealand that sugar is in short supply. A New ZeaIt.fu writin S from America, states TW aZ°! H a general sh°rtage in the i United States, and stores sell one pound I only, which costs from 8d to lOd The price is predicted to reach ls 3d per pound Prices generally, h e writes, are very high Butter is 3s per pound, cheese 2s, ham ss, pears 6d to 4s 8d each, apples 3d to 6d each. Suits are £15 to £20. He saw in a New York window a blouse ticketed up at £749 it was of rose point lace. A grilled steak costs from 5s to 8s 6d, and anything else provided is extra, such as bread Bd, coffee 7*d, potatoes lOd. A breakfast on the train, consisting of fish and bacon and eggs, with bread and coffee, costs 8s 6d, besides tips to attendant and waiter. Victoria stands head and shoulders above the other States of the Commonwealth in regard to the profitable working ot its telephone system. The telephone exchanges in this State (says the Age) are proving a prolific source of revenue to the Commonwealth Postal Department For the last financial year they showed a profit on the year's working of approximately £60,000, which is over £18,000 in excess of the profits derived from the same source in feouth Australia, and more than double the profits earned by the telephone exchanges in New South Wales during the same period. The Sydney exJS *: hi<& earned the huge sum of £460,099 during the last, financial year from a total of 39,296 subscribers, yie.ded a net. profit on the year's working of only £35,500. An extraordinary incident happened at Hay (New South Wales) a few days ago. A gang of men were working at a siding at Groorgal, under the direction of Mr Argyle McFarland, manager of Groorgal Stationyloading sheep on railway trucks. Thirteen trucks, had been filled, three others were at the trucking race, audi several empi^ trucks were standing on the loop line when at about 5 p.m. a terrific wind and ram storm broke. Tlie party sought shelter behind the ends of the trucks at the race. Th© empty trucks were started by the force of the wind, and dashed into the stationary trucks. The wheels of one truck passed over Mr McFari-and's left leg above the ankle, shattering it badly. A young man named Alwyn Page had his right arm shattered near the shoulder, and the other men narrowly escaped. The injured men were bcought into- Hay Hospital, where Page's arm was amputated. Tenement cases, are a regular feature of the Wellington. Magistrate'a Court. Among those which, came before M r W. G. RiddeU, S.M., a few days ago, was one in which G. Vadala sought to remove Charles Hedderwick from a house, on the ground that he wanted it for his own purposes. Defendant said he paid £1 a week; he had a wife and four children, and could find no other place to go to. Vadala had told him he could stay on if he paid £1 15s a- week. Plaintiff also claimed the sum of £8 2s lOd, rent alleged to be due at the end of three months' notice, which expired some /-eeks ago. Judgment was given for plaintiff for the amount of rent due ; as to the claim for possession, the Magistrate said plaintiff had bought five houses and claimed that he required all of them fo r his own use. That was absurd. The application for possession would be refused. With reference to a recent cable message intimating that the Ministry of Health in England had warned the public agaihst purchasing Japanese shaving brushes, as several! eases of anthrax (some fatal) had been traced to the use of these brushes, it may be remembered (says Melbourne Age) that two years ago. the Commonwealth quarantine -authorities, made the discovery that anthrax and malignant germs were gaining admission to Australia in a similar way, their hiding place being among the bristles of brushes of various kinds'that were imported from Asiatic countries. Prompt action was, taken to safeguard the community from ali* danger of infection, and a proclamation was issued prohibiting the importation into the Commonwealth from Asiatic countries- (including Japan.) of any toilet articles containing anmal hair, unless accompanied by a certificate from the Government Health authorities stating that a.l the hair used in the manufacture of the articles had been effectively disinfected before exportation. Since then the Commonwealth has been free from any suspicion of a case of anthrax from this source. It is stated, however, by the quarantine authorities that many consignments of brushes have arrived in the Commonwealth, unaccompanied by the necessary health certificates. In every case these have been destroyed. Four or five years ago (says tlie Christchurch correspondent of "an exchange) property agents were up early every morning hunting for buyers. Nowadays they often miss breakfast in the hope of landing a house whose owner wishes to. sell. In Christchurch there is hardly a house to let at any price. "Here's a letter from the south just in," said a land salesman. "A lady coming here to live wishes to rent a four or five-roomed house; all conveniences, haudy to the Square. She hasn't > a chance. We cannot get them at any | figure. In the days before August, 11914, it was usual to sell a house on the | instalment plan—£so down, and the | balance as rent under a sale and purj chase agreement. That's a thing ©f the past. The buyer now pays a third of the purchase money, and the agency arranges about the rest on a first mort- [ gage. The presence of the cash buyer has brought about a change. There are any amount of buyers about. The difficulty is to get the houses to sell. The mam reasons are the general prosperity iof the country and the fact that the I business man who previously preferred |to rent and to have his capital invested | m his business, ha s come to realise that a home is essential, and that the only way to own it is to buy it." The Feilding ram fair is advertised to take place on the Show Grounds Feilding, on sth and 6th February, the two ! days following the show. The rams are all from well-known and successful breeders, and those in quest of good stock cannot do better than fill tW reqimements at this fair. The new sale rmg, which is quite the most convenient and up to date in the Dominion, will be greatly appreciated by the public. J

About fifteen daring cheque frauds i are alleged to have been perpetrated on Auckland business men during the last month by a well-dressed man of middle age. His modus operandi has been simi lar in each case. It i s stated that the man presented himse.f generally at land agent's offices, where he made propositions to buy land. In the course of the negotiations the stranger produced a cheque for several hundreds of pounds which he represented to be the proceeds of the sale of a motor car or a farm He followed this up by mentioning that his wife had not yet come into town with his cheque book, and after gaining the confidence of the land vendors, persuaded them to cash smaller cheques some for a few pounds, and one for £s(>. In several instances the deception was a'so successfully played on grocers and merchants. In all, sis firms are reported to have been duped, some of them on repeated occasions. A suspect has been arrested. A remarkable case of .self-ignition that occurred in a natural gas well is reported from California. When the gas was tapped by the boring tool it blew out so violently that the friction created by the sand in the bore ignited the gas, and the flame, which was 200 ft high, could be seen for 80 miles ) and its roaring could he heard for nine j miles. Efforts to extinguish it with steam, mud, and water were not successful, for the gas continued to burn ! above the effective zone of steam. The heat became so intense that the fire- ' fighters had to work behind metal shields, and it was also necessary to keen them drenched with water. Some artillery officers who were on the scene suggested snuffling out the flame with a 6in army field piece, but decided afterwards that the fire was too big to be dealt with in this way. Eventually dynamite in combination with large streams of carbon tetrachloride was tried, and this proved successful, for immediately after the explosion, turning a dull red, dTed out in a pfuff of blacit smoke. In fighting the fire 20 boilers 13 pumps, 100 barrels of cai-bon tetrachloride and 1501b of dynamite were requisitioned. M»9ic„ said Mr Verbrugghen in Wellington last week, was the subtlest* of all. the- arts. By its means one was able to express one's inner self—one's soul—more directly and effectively than by any other art. It was recognised as ■ one of the most powerful levers of the moral standard of the: community: it was with a full understanding of these tacts that, the New South Wales Government had seen fit ta establish a national conservatorium.. In New South Wales they felt estremly proud tq* have taken a lead, amongst all ttfa English-speaking people* in founding the first State-subsidised permanent orchestra, not only in. tfife: British Empire, but in the world.. Music was at very exacting art, and unless almost perfect -conditions were1 made possible one could not secure its full benefit. Continuing, Mr Verbrugghen said that* when he started the orchestra he did so on very modest lines indeed. He' did so first of all in face of a good deal of criticism and scepticism. If, as had bees stated!,, the performances' of the orchestra constituted a musical treat, it was because each performer was a complete artist, and was enthusiasticin his work. When he- had made it clear a year ago that unless it was to he on a permanent basis the orchestra would not he a success, some might have thought him mentally deficient, but the Government was far-seeing; enough to give the project assistance, and ilhe result of the conclusion of the* financial year would show a substantial profit.