LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2804, 23 November 1931, Page 5

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wet weather again interfered with the sequence of tennis matches on the Plains last Saturday, when most of the courts were practically inundated. All summ?r sports in which Paeroa ■players were to take part on Saturday last had to be abandoned owing to the heavy rain that fell throughout the afternoon. The Labour Party’s organisation throughout the Thames electorate was finalised at a meeting at Paeroa on Saturday evening. Mr J. M. Crosby was appointed chief organiser for the electorate Quite a number of offers of personal and monetary assistance were received from men who were well known as staunch United or Reform supporters, but who are now anti-coalition. There are times when one can he uncomfortabl". yi-t perfectly happy. On Saturday last at Pipirioa Domain, one player with cold streams of water trickling down his neck and water squelching out of his cricket boots, remarked cheerfully that “he didn L mind if he got half drowned, so long as the same amount of rain was falling on his farm." After a long period of'fine weather during which pastures began to show the effects of the want of moisture and domestic water supplies to run low, heavy rain came throughout the district on Saturday*-last and relieved the growing feeling of anxiety. The country was given a thorough soaking for, according to the gauge at Paeroa, 1.12 inches of rain fell. The heaviness of the fall and the fact that the weather has since cleared will mean that the maximum amount of good will be done.

One of the many unusual manifestations of private economy reported from Europe is the reduction in the Vatican’s “Peter’s Pence." Before the war these totalled 10,000,000 lire, but now they total only 1,000.000, the major portion coming from the United States. Peter’s Pence originally comprised an annual tribute paid to the Pope. It was said to have been at first a voluntary offering by Ina, the King of West Saxons, and amounting to a penny a year levied on all families owning land of the annual value of 30 pence. The tax was continued down to the reign of Henry VIII.. by whom it was abolished. It is still customary to call contributions sent to the Pope, “Peter’s Pence,” but nowhere arc such payments enforced today.