THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE Motto : Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1934. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume VL, Issue 3132, 9 February 1934, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE Motto : Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1934. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Ohinemuri Jockey Club’s races at Paeroa are to be held on Thursday and Saturday, March 15 and 17.

A meeting of the Paeroa Chamber of Commerce, called for last evening, lapsed for want of a quorum.

While Mr J. W. Neate’s cream waggon was standing outside the Ngatea blacksmith’s shop last Monday morning the horses took fright and bolted along the Puhanga canal road almost to the Torehape road corner, where the vehicle ran off the road and capsized. No great amount of damage was done.

A sitting of the No. 2 Licensing Authority will be held at the Thames Courthouse on Friday, February 16, at 10 a.m., to hear evidence regarding the following applications:—Passenger service: Colville-Coromandel, R. S. Goudie. Goods services: Hikutaia, Mrs A. M. Meredith; WaimataWaihi, G. W. Brown; Puriri, C. H. Wright; Tapu (amendment), J. F. McMahon.

When advice was received at last evening’s meeting of the Paeroa Borough Council of the business in connection with the annual conference of delegates to the Municipal Association of New Zealand which would be held in Wellington on March 14 and the following days a councillor observed: Too close to St. Patrick’s Day. Cr. Flatt was of opinion the Mayor should be sent to represent the council and the council concurred, Mr Marshall being appointed.

“The Board agreed to wire the Minister for Unemployment, protesting against the drastic reduction in the number of unemployed in Te Aroha.” This paragraph from the “Te Aroha News” report of the Thames Valley Drainage Board’s meeting this week, will, if the report is' accurate, give an indication of the reasons causing the Unemployment Board to take steps to prevent local bodies abusing relief schemes.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning while Mr R. B. Paul was motoring ■ from his home at Ngatea to Paeroa the steering gear of his car broke and the vehicle ran into the Pekapeka Road drain. Mr Paul was not injured and the car was not greatly damaged.

The desirability of erecting a sign to warn motorists who were approaching from Thames of the King Street corner, and of the fact that school children frequented the highway on the Paeroa side of the rise was mentioned by Cr. H. H. Bray at last evening’s Borough Council meeting. The mayor agreed and suggested a sign painted on the road. It was agreed that application be made to the Automobile Association for a notice board, and failing this being forthcoming a sign be painted on the road.

A peculiar discovery was made by Mr A. H. McClean, of Waitakaruru, and some of his friends on Monday last. While inspecting the stopbank along the Firth of Thames the party came upon what appears to /be the frontal bone from the skull of an enormous animal, the nature of which cannot be ascertained. The; bone contains teeth which indicates that the animal lived; on herbage and was not a sea dweller. : It- is something the shape of the skull of a horse or a cow, but half a dozen times as big. The bone is being brought up to the main road, and when this is .done intimation will be sent to the museum authorities. The bone is in a good state of preservation, but it weighs about 100 lbs. so its removal is not an easy matter. The ten per cent, penalty on all Paeroa Borough rates and water charges remaining unpaid after February 28 was imposed at last evening’s meeting of the council. In view of the times it was pointed out that rates may be paid by instalments and that the penalty was not added to those instalments on the current year’s rates paid during this month. At the monthly meeting of the Kerepeehi School Committee on Wednesday evening arrangements were made to hold the annual school picnic at Thames coast on Friday, February 23. Notification was received of the appointment of Mr Percy, of Hikutaia, to the staff of the school under the Education Board’s rationing scheme. Gratification was expressed at this, as the roll number for some time past has been almost sufficient to warrant the appointment of an additional teacher. At last evening’s meeting of the Paeroa Borough Council approval was given the action of the building committee in granting permits for work totalling £526 as follows: —G. Lodge, to erect dwelling Willoughby Street for Miss E. A. Cock; W. Mar-, shall, to erect concrete piers in shop of Paeroa Theatre Buildings Ltd.; J. T. Brown, to renew present lean-to in dwelling of H. J. Wilton, Corbett Street. The bitumenising of the roadway on the Puke bridge is proceeding apace under the direct supervision of the county chairman, Mr W. Marshall, the weather having delayed the work at times . Motorists will greatly appreciate the new surface, for, on' account of the longitudinal planks having been greatly worn it was a difficult task to steer a straight course on the bridge.

Members of the Tiritiri Golf Club continue to enjoy pleasant games on the new links at Kerepeehi, and great improvements to .the greens and fairways have been effected by working bees. The greens have received special attention, and following the manuring recently given and the close mowing, they are now in very- - fair order. So far visitors from neighbouring clubs have not been numerous. Between the December and the February meetings of the Paeroa Borough Council receipts at the borough office totalled £2551 5s 8d and payments £1952 8s 7d. This included £451 10s for interest and sinking fund on loans. The accounts passed for payment at last evening’s meeting brought the debit balance at the bank to £157 10s lOd.

Questioning the engineer at this week’s meeting of the Thames Valley Power Board, Mr F. E. Flatt asked if it was possible for consumers to fraudulently extract electricity now that the three meter system was in operation. Mr McLeod replied that the system was thief-proof for any tampering which prevented one meter from recording, other than breaking the seals, which would be very obvious, would cause the other meters to record a greatly increased consumption. The N.Z. Co-op. Dairy Coy. Ltd.’s staff is holding its annual picnic at Waihi beach to-morrow, and in consequence all the factories will be working long hours to-day in order to let as many employees as away to-morrow. Permission to conduct a street stall on March 2 was granted the Paeroa branch of the Plunket Society by the Borough Council at last evening’s meeting.