LOCAL AND GENERAL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 1859, 8 September 1923, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At a poll to borrow £BOOO to extend the Hamilton Borough's gasworks, out of 4000 names on the roll, only 85 ratepayers exercised their vote. The proposal was carried by 44 votes to 41.

Exports from New Zealand in July were valued at £2,642,354, showing a decrease of £1,086,211 compared with the previous July. On the other -

hand, the value of imports, £3,643,444, shows an increase of £1,438,822.

Owing to the steady tone in the London market a rise of one penny per lb in the local price of butter is announced. This makes the retail price of superfine butter Is 8d per lb, first grade Is 7d, and second grade Is 6d.

The petition being circulated for the establishment of the Waitomo Power Board is being well supported. Mr H. L. Tempest has already secured 59 signatures to the petition from the outlying districts, the number required being 90.

An Eketahuna farmer, in conversation with o an Age representative, stated that, although a large number of farms in the Wairarapa have been producing good results for many years without an ounce of manure being used, this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely, and the farmers of the district should wake up to the fact..

At 11 o'clock this morning the Railway Department released nine crates of pigeons for Auckland and two crates for Palmerston North, under' the direction of the Auckland Pigeon Club. After circling gracefully aloft, the pigeons divided into two groups, the consignment getting away slightly before the north-bound birds.

The Bank of New Zealand has been advised by its London office that the wool sales have opened with strong competition and a large attendance of buyers. Ah active demand exists for wool by all branches of the trade. Coarse crossbreds are %d in advance of recent prices, medium, fine and half bred have improved by %d, and merinos are Id dearer.

"When China progresses Japan' is bound to become the Great Britain of the Pacific," Mr- Alexander Hume Ford told a New Zealand Times man. "And she will need every man she has to run her factories. There has been a wonderful system of electric power from her waterways under course of construction, and when it is finished Japan will be the cheapest manufacturing country in the world."

A poll is to be taken by the Electoral Department, in which all suppliers will be asked to vote as to whether the compulsory clauses of the Dairy Control Bill are to be adopted. All registered dairy factories are to forward full lists of suppliers by September 14, and each individual supplier will receive direct by post a voting paper, which must be returned to the Chief Electoral Officer in Wellington by October 14 next.

The potentialities of Pio Pio as a cattle raising district were again forcibly demonstrated recently-by a glance at a mob of 70 splendidly grown bullocks in the railway cattle yards, on their way to Westfield freezing works. Included in the consignment were six splendid Herefords of extraordinary size and weight, raised at Pio Pio on the farms of Messrs Petch Bros, and Johnson Bros. The three largest beasts are expected to kill out at 14001bs, whilst the others are expected to average from 1250 to 13001bs.

The Taumarunui police have received information that a man named John Christie Brown, farmer, of Nihoniho, wandered away from the Hotel Cecil at 4 o'clock on Thursday morning. He was discharged from Auckland Hospital on Wednesday and arrived at Taumarunui by that day's express with his brother: They booked a room at an hotel and retired to bed. J. C.~Brown got up at 4 a.m. and went outside, telling his brother he was not feeling well. Exhaustive inquiries have been made as to Brown's whereabouts, but so far no trace, of the man has been found.

Attention is drawn to the free lecture on health to be given on Monday evening by Sequah, the wellknown health specialist.