LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 6 January 1923, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

iAt St. Mary's Church oh Sunday evening at the close of evensong, Mr M. Newbury (violinist) and Mr Hillsdon Hutton (organist) will give a recital of classical music. The items to be played will be "'Le Soir" (Gounod), "Chanson Triste" (Tschaikowsky), and "Romance iii.F" (Vieuxtemps). It is surprising tbat the fine crops of cocksfoot on the roadsides in the Wairarapa are allowed to go to waste (says the Age). If they were in Otagp or Canterbury: school children would soon find tnem out and turn them into money. There are some tidy holiday cheques to be made by harvesting the cocksfoot, which is now ripe. The first of a series of Sunday evening beach services will be, held to-mor-row night, at 7 o'clock, in the home of Mr. E. C. Hayton. Preacher, Mr. J. W. Archbold. At a meeting at Greymouth on Sunday, Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P., referring to the political situation, said he anticipated that Mr. Isitt and other Liberals would give the Reform Party sufficient support to enable them to re?iin office. «*- ' -

On New Year's Eve, the Federal Band serenaded Pihama residents and met with a good reception, about £16 being donated, says the Opunake Times. Five young ladies in trampers' kit alighted' at Eltham from Thursday's mail. Then- intention is a walking tour of Mount Egmont and its environs.—Argus. A well-attended meting was held in the Winter Show Buildings last evening for the purpose of discussing the formation of a boxing association. Mr L. O. Hooker presided, and great interest was shown in the movement.' A provisional committee was set up for the purpose of canvassing the town for members and support. A further meeting will be held next week, when definite shape will be given to the new organisation. j Ngauruhoe whs first climbed in 1841 !by Mr. J. C. Bidwill, in defiance of the Maoris. He was not New Zealand's first mountaineer, for, as was stated in the Dominion the other day, a party from the Tory a year or two before climbed Mount Egmont, ""Worser" Kebberley, after whom our Worser Bay is named, being the first man to reach the summit. . The Maoris refused to let even Sir George Grey go up Tongariro or Ruapehu, and Mr. J. H. KerryNicholls, in ISS3, seems to have been the first white man up-. Ruapehu. At a meeting of the Taranaki Agricultural Society yesterday- the chairman reported that the sub-committee appointed to go into the question of prize money anil entry fees had founil that the society was paying bigger prizes in proportion to entry fees tban other societies, particularly in the, jumping classes. They had revised the allocation of prize moneys, reducing Some and increasing the prizes in other classes., The recommendations of the committee were adopted. A Dunedin business man who has his finger on the commercial pulse says that the reductions in the post and telegraph rates are regarded aa a most satisfactory instalment, and he I feels quite sure that the result will be a very large increase in the business of the department (states a Dunedin ex- . change). One of the concessions that is likely to be specially appreciatetl by> business houses is /that by which accounts and bills and such like packets can he sent for a penny. \TJndei the high tariff the mailing of such matter was systematically cut down. Now it will be made free use of. A recent Grey River Argus says: The cable message recording the deatl: of Professor George Samuel Sale ir ■England has more than a interest for%West Coasters, as" Mr. Salt was the most notable figure in, the earliest days of Hokitika, where lit was the principal agent in inaugurating the capital of Westland. He thus won the cognomen of "King," and his word was as much law as that of anj King. Officially he was "Warden' Sale. He was Deputy Superintendent Magistrate, treasurer, warden, ; anc many other duties fell to him, including that of amateur surveyor, for >ht "surveyed" Revell street, which is about 'the only crooked street in tht southern town. It was virtually laid out, however, before Mr. Sale looked it over. He designed the Court buildings, a relic of which is the Supremt Court Halk in Sewell street. Many local councils in Britain are anxious to cut; their losses over the houses they have built under the late Government's housing scheme. The activities of private enterprise and the _falf in prices of all building materials have upset the balance-sheets of many housing committees. At a recent meeting of the CharH.on Kings Urban District Council, Gloucestershire, it was announced that the Ministry of Health has given permission for the sale of the council's houses built under the official s&heme. They cost £1000 each to build, and the Ministry sanctions their sale at £400 and £450 eadh. At a meeting it was suggested that the Ministry's figurei was too high, and the council decided to write for permission to sell at £300. to £350. "Any firearms? Anything on whicl tjo pay duty?" queried a Customs off! cial of a new arrival in the wharf shec at Auckland on Tuesday (reports tht Star). A reply in the negative*and £ quick examination of the trunks resulted in the necessary permission to remove tlie baggage. A few minutes latei the same traveller returned for anothei bag which had not been .examined. This time an additional question was asked: "Any cigars?" "Not in this one, but there were several boxes in J the other trunks," - replied the ! stranger. "Oh, indeed, .were, there! j Then you can pay duty on them." ! said the official, getting busy with his pencil. "A few weeks ago I commented upon the wide range of articles displayed in the shop windows withy intimations attached to the effect that they were admirably suited for Christmas presents tor 'him' or for 'her' (writes the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne Argus). 'Since then the ranee "-.has ' been wonderfully increased. Que important real estate firm that deals largely in allotments urges .men folK to 'tell her in land.' -Glancing at the windows of the shops during the last few days, as the eddying of the flood of women and children occasionally allows, I note that- we are all invited to 'say if in pretty. well everything except, perhaps, pills and corn-plaster. A Pitt street seed and plant shoo had a card with the inscription 'Say* it in seeds,' and this rested on a fine specimen of the new odourless onion."

The presence of mind of Ci wen Hall I tlie nine-year-old daughter of Mr c! I Hall, of Masterton, saved her younger sister, Myra from drowning the other morning. The two children were play-' ing down on a flat neajr the river on the Te Parae station, while" the father was working on a terrace twenty feet above them, and out of sight of the river. Ihe younger girl fell into the river, which at this particular part is about ten feet deep; and was soon out of reach firom the bank. The father was called, but could not hear owing' to the wind blowing against the voices. | Keahsmg the dangerous... situation, the elder <j;irl waded into the river and > clinging to the rushes, stretched her1 leg out till her sister could grasp it, I and m this manner she was hauled to the bank none the worse fdr her sudden immersion. A curious incident which occurred at the Mount Eden tram terminus, Auckland, lias been reported to 'the police. A lady and her daughter, the latter carrying a suitcase, arrived at the terminus intending to take a tram to the city. While waiting for one to arrive, the daughter renaired to a nearby telephone box to ring up,a friend, leaving the suitcase in the possession of her mother. Jtfeanwhile, a tramcar 'tame on the scene, and the older woman boarded it with the suitcase. The arrival of the tram passed unnoticed by the girl in the telephone box, and all efforts to attract her attention on the part of her -mother failed. The tram moved .off, and the woman, not wishing to take the suitcase herself, threw it out on to the road for the girl to pick up. Meanwhile, it is stated, two women who were passing picked up the suitcase and carried it 1 off, and when the girl had finished her conversation neither her mother nor the suitcase was to be seen. The present position in regard to fire*blight in the Auckland district was. described on Tuesday by Mr. G. A. Green, a member of the local fireblight committee, telegraphed ihe Post's Auckland correspondent. He said ithat' the blight was now fairly prevalent throughout the Waitemata County and in other Auckland districts., but the outbreak was not regarded as very serious. In every instance it was still shown by observations throughout the district that pear trees wereVmore subject than apple trees to infection, and some types of apple trees were more prone to infection than others. In-some of the districts the blight appeared to be more virulent in one season than in another, and in this respect the experience of America was being reproduced. It was quite evident, added Mr. '• Green, that the main basis of elimination was the cutting out of hawthorns and of all ' mferted twigs and branches before the I "ooze" or suppuration stage was | reached. "New Zealanders are' thorough sportsmen, whether they win or lose/ said the American Consul-General (Mr. Wilbur), in the course of a brief speech at the welcome to the American athletes, tendered by the citizens at the .Wellington Town Hall on Friday afternoon. Turning to the newcomers, he said, "My young friends and fellowAmericans;, I have lived among them for two; years, and 1 want to tell you that, no matter what you may have already learned or gathered while you were on the voyage, you will meet here men in the finest sense of the word. In my twenty -years' in the consular service, during which 1 have travelled in many countries, I have never lived in a country where men and women not only,excelled, in hospitality and kindness, but made it a very sorrowful undertaking to part with them and their country.. I have endeavoured to build up friendly relations between New- Zealaiid and America, not because of my official position, but because of the inborn, natural hospitality of these ■folk, which, with the richness of .the country's soil and the opportunities offered, makes up a combination that one could not expect to meet elsewhere.!' N-