LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXX, Issue LXXX, 14 February 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A Cairo message states that the effect of the British military occupation has been a vast improvement in sanitation, decrease of crime and rascality. Our report of the unveiling of a Roll of Honor at Tokaora appears on page 6. A London message reports that unprecedented prices are being realised at Perth (Scotland) sales for Shorthorn bulls; 486 animals realised an , aggregate of £147,191. Government consent has been ob- ' tamed by the following bodies for raising loans for the amounts mentioned: Kaponga Town Board £10,000, Eltham Borough Council £4000, Stratford County Council £900. The Argus reports that a very snccessful garden party was held in the grounds of Mr W. C. Clement on Thursday under the auspices of the Eltham Methodist Ladies' Guild in aid of funds for furnishing the new parsonage. The gathering was opened by Mr Oswald Hawken, M.P. , The stores of the East Coast Cooperative Freezing Company's works are now full of meat, their capacity being about 135,000 carcases (reports the Whakatane correspondent of the Auckland Herald). The steamer .Port Caroline was expected to arrive on Friday to lift 15,000 carcases, but this will only relieve the congestion to the extent of about five days' killing. It is expected that it will be necessary to restrict killing at the works. There was a notable gathering of Freemasons in Eltham on Thursday (reports the Argus) in connection with the annual installation ceremonies of Lodge St. John, when Bro. C. B. Martin was duly installed as W.M. for the ensuing year. The installation ceremony was performed by R.W. Bro. R. W. Sargent, Prov. G.M., assisted by Grand Lodge officers and past mastersMr Newton King has received a cable from his London agents as follows: "Wool sales opened. Crossbred, medium and fine, no change; crossbred, coarse, neglected; limits not being reached." Territorials desiring exemption from training must new apply to a Magistrate. During "' the ,war period this regulation ■ was relaxed, commanding officers being empowered to grant exemption. A London message states that the P. and O. Company's new steamers Naldera and. Narkunda are nearing completion. It is hoped to despatch the Naldera to Australia on April 9. Advantage is being taken of the opportunity afforded by the Parliamentary party leaving on the Mokoia for Samoa to send an urgently needed shipment of about 100 tons of foodstuffs to Niue and Mangaia. Both places, owing to a dislocation of the •island steamer service, are experiencing food shortages, which are in.danger of becoming acute. Had the Mokoia.. not been available the Islanders would have had to wait until April or May for supplies. An indication of the number of properties changing hands in Auckland may be gathered from the fact that during the past six months 400 transfers have taken place within the Mount Albert borough. In reporting to this effect at a meeting of the Council, the town clerk stated thakit was also quite (Likely that many transfers had not been notified.—N.Z, Herald. The light-fingered gentry have been particularly active in Taranaki of late (the News reports). Going down to the Hawera races the other day, a well-known New Plymouth resident made room for a flashly-attired passenger who got in at one of the wayside stations. When he arrived at his destination the New Plymouth man found that from his trousers pocket had been extracted a wad of notes for a fairly large amount. The flash joker had been busy. Moral: Watch your pockets when travelling in trains to a race meeting with strangers. The Dunedin Star has been shown a \letter from a West Coast coal miner, which, the Star says, supports Mr Massey's statement as to why men are leaving the work there. The writer, an expert, states that he is clearing out from the West Coast because of the tyrannical rule of the men, that nobody man earn more than 15s 6d per day. He has a big familyj and cannot afford to live on such a wage, or less, with broken time for meetings, when better wages are obtainable elsewhere, and he adds that all the steadiest and best men are going-. At the Pafcea Court on Wednesday, A. H. Fisk was charged by the Collector of Customs that on November 23, being master of the s.s. Waverley. which had remained in the port of Patea with more than 2000 gallons of petroleum on board, he did not between, sunrise and sunset display at the masthead a red flag (the Press reports). Anton Hansen was also charged on the same date with smoking tobacco on or about the s.s. Waverley whilst petroleum was being discharged from the said steamship. The cases were adjourned on the application of counsel for the Collector of Customs. Mr John Finlay, in moving a vote of thanks to Mr R. Masters and the Rev. Grant Cowen, who officiated at the ceremonies in connection with the opening of the new additions to the Tokaora school and the um*eiling of the Roll of Honor, delved a little into the past history of the district. He stated that in January, -1886, there was an engagement at Otapawa, near Hawera, between the Imperial troops and the Maoris, in which a number of men were killed and buried at Ohawe. The following August the township of Ohawe was surveyed, being cut up into quarter-acre sections. This was some of the land on which the Tokaora school "now stood. The sections facing the river were allotted to friendly Maoris, who ultimately disposed of their interests, and this land, with the quarter-acre ' sections, was ultimately purchased by pakehas.. Later two acres at £50 an acre was purchased from Mr McLean for a school site. To-day land was being purchased adjoining for additions to the school grounds,,for £100 an acre. For the first school the men's whare on the late Mr.Livingston's homestead section was used. This was about 16 years ago, "and there were then 16 pupils. There are now 47 pupils, and as many. as 60 had attended the school. The first land for a school was purchased on January 23, .1907, and in July, 1908, the present school was opened. The attention of the farmer is drawii to the advertisement of _ the Huia Milk Weighing Machine Co. This machine will "he on exhibition at the A. and P. Show, to be held on Wednesday and Thursday next. The company is now prepared to book orders. • RELIEVES SORENESS. Soreness of the muscles, whether duo to violent exercise or injury, is quickly relieved by Chamberlain's Pain Balm. For muscular rheumatism, pains in" the side and chest, nothing gives such quick relief as Chamberlain's Pain Palm, Sold everywhere.— Advt,

A London message states that silver is quoted! at 89£ d. An address on "Gambling—the Foe ot Sport and Religion," will be deWed in the Hawera Methodist Church on Sunday night next. Number three company G f the Wellington Milk Vendors' Association was convicted yesterday and fined ,38s 6d on each of three charges of selling milk deficient in butter-fat contents. A Wellington telegram states that the Maori is to be overhauled. It is expected that the Wahine- will take up the Maori's running on Tuesday. The need for a definite policy of afforestation in New Zealand is shown by the I fact that highly developed countries such as France and Germany have respectively 17 per cent, and 26 per cent, of their total area under commercial forests. As against this in New Zealand the total area of forest still owned by the State is only 15.9 per cent, of the total, while the area of milling forest j owned by the State is only 2.08 per ! cent. People are frequently heard to assert that New Zealand forests cannot be protected from fire. These assertions are characterised by Mr E. Phillips Turner, secretay to the Forestry Department, as unreasonable, in view of the effective fire protection that is practised in Swedjin, Norway, France, Austria, India, South Africa and Japan, where the summers are on the whole hotter and drier than they are in New Zealand Fire protection, h ? states, is simply a matter of staff and the correct methods. Even in forests where fire protection is practised fires occasionally occur, as they do in cities where'fire brigades are kept; but in the former case there is no more reason for accepting fires as unavoidable than there is in the latter case. "I think it is about time this idiotic law was repealed; everybody seems to be taking advantage of it whether they are entitled to or not," remarked Mr J L. Stout, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court at Palmerston North, when an order for possession of a house was applied for, and the defendant as an excuse pleaded that he could not get possession of another house which he was purchasing, and on which he had paid; a deposit. | What is called by the Prelident "a .. surprising increase"" in the cost of barb- | ed wire was mentioned to the Auckland A. and P. Association. "I used to buy : this -wire at about 35s a cwt.," said the president, "but whenl went to buy a cwt this week it cost me 635." The suspension of «xc weekly auction sales of tea" in Colombo is notified in a private cablegram, dated! February 3 received in Auckland (says the Herald)! I The message states that th c rate of exchange has further advanced, being now 2s 9d per rupee. " No further information has been received, but the cessation or the auction sales is regarded as being due to the banks experiencing a diiffi- ! cutty m negotiating bills of exchange, me London exchange quotation on January 20 was slightly under 2s 5d per rupee. Surprise is expressed at the sapid advance, especially in view of the statement cabled from London on February 1 to the efrect that the India Office has received a recommendation from the Currency Committee to the effect that the value of the rupee should be stabilised at 2s Id. The par value is Is 4d. The fact that the tea auction gales'have been suspended is not ret garded as implying the cessation of private sales. j At- a dinner the other night some one told a curious little story—remarkable because it is not possible to give a decision on the question it involves. Here is the tale (says a London paper) A certain just man built a gallows on a bridge. Everyone who came across the bridge was asked where he was going. If he gave a true answer he was allowed to go forward without harm. Anyone who did not speak the truth was hanged very quickly. One day a man came along and the owner of the gallows asked him the usual question. "I am <*oin e ' J*L be,, hanged," sa i d th c traveller j Now, » said the owner of the gallows, 1 don t know what to do at all If I hang you you have spoken the truth, and ought not to have , been hanged according to my rule. On the other hand if I d o not hang you your answer will have been false Then you will deserve the hanging because you have told a lie." Everyone started at once discussing what the man with the gallows ought to have done, and no one.could decide-. What is the answer ? Our solution is that the man should go, and be hanged!