LOCAL AND GENERAL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2063, 6 January 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tourist traffic in New Brunswick during the past summer left nearly £600.000 in the province, amount almost equal to the total provincial revenue. Approximately 70,00(1 tourists visited the province. The various cities, boroughs and town districts in New Zealand occupy a total of approximately 513 square miles. Considering their population as "urban," the urban population has a density of 1,542.27 per square mile, and the rural population a density of 4.80 per square mile. A resident of Southland has been receiving letters for some time past threatening to accuse a member of his family of a crime, and demanding money as n price of silence. The letters apparently come from Dunedin, and the detectives have been makingenquiries, and Detectives Beer and Farquharson arrested a man at Dunedin, who will be charged with being the writer of the letters. He was brought before the -magistrate and remanded. Archbishop Julius, in conversation the other day, mentioned that when he and the Bishop of Nelson were motoring to Waiau recently, as they passed through Woodend their attention was attracted to a venerablelooking cottage (says #he Church News). It was clearly an old-timer, for its timbers were of pit-sawn roughness. Inquiry elicited the information that it was the old house of the Rev. John Raven. This, therefore, is probably the first vicarage. in North Canterbury, probably also the only one surviving of the oldest vicarages. A Wanganui resident, who was formerly a settler in South Africa, showed a Chronicle representative a letter he had received from a friend in Johannesburg. The letter stated tha 1 . things were in a very bad way as thf result of the Smuts Government's term of office. When the new Government came into power it was> found that one in every four of the white population was holding a position in the civil service. The industrial outlook in Johannesburg was far from bright, as it was dependent upon the gold industry, and some of the best mines were showing signs of petering out. According to a circular issued to shareholders in Taranaki Oil Fields, Ltd., an application by the company for oil prospecting areas, totalling 25,000 acres, of Crown land in the Westland province in the South Island of New Zealand, has now been granted. This property was. geologically surveyed by Mr P. G. Iforgan, director of the New Zealand geological survey, and is considered well worth prospecting for oil. The company recently purchased 7000 fully paid 20s shares, and also has the call on a further 10,000 shares at par in the Gisborne Oil Pty., Ltd. This company has a nominal capital of £60,000, and was formed to obtain oil rights over an extensive area of the North Island of New Zealand. "Immigration must be one of your great problems, as it is in New Zealand," said Lord Jellicoe, in an interview with an Argus representative in Melbourne. "You need population, but how you will obtain it must be decided by you. New Zealand is making a success of its plan of encouraging boy migrants. I think that boys are much better to a new country than men. The boys are so keen, can be trained in the way desired by the country, and will grow up real New Zealanders or Australians as the case may be. The Flock House plan in New Zealand, under which sons of deceased British seamen are being brought to the Dominion, is progressing rapidly. The immigration is being conducted by sheep owners, who are financing the plan out of woo! profits made during the war. The boys are taken to a huge station called Flock House, and there trained for work on the land. Already there is a keen demand for the services of the boys.'

Members of a county council which prides itself on its irreproachable administration were somewhat surprised (relates the Wanganui Herald) when the Audit Department returned the balance sheet with .an annoying "tag" against the item of councillors' expenses. One councillor draws £2 for each meeting he attends. The department, on tagging this item, eveidently thought this councillor was adopting a get-rich-quick scheme, but he is not. In deference to the wishes of the council he submitted a detailed account of his expenses. He leaves home at 11 a.m., the day before the meeting, and has to travel 12 miles, per horse, before he can reach the railway. He does not charge for travelling to and from his homo to the railway other than a modest 6s for stabling and feeding his steed while away. Train fare costs £l, taxi from station to council room, 2s. He does not reach home until 10 a.m. the day after the meeting. He must stay two nights at an hotel, and cost of bed per night is 3s 6d. Then theie are meals, which brought the total up to £2 6s. Loss of time and othor incidentals do not count. It will be seen that council work, as far as he is concerned, is not a money-making scheme.

Nepia, the All Black full-back, has played in over 30 consecutive games for New Zealand, easily a record for a Dominion representative.

Two first offenders for drunkenness ~*were arrested on the 5.15 express on > "Saturday night and lined 20s and costs at the Police Court yesterday by Mr J. McCarrol, J.P.

Messrs Dalgety and Co., Ltd., are in receipt of the following cable from their head office, London, under date 300 h inst.:—Butter: Since our last wire prices are 4s lower. Cheese: Market firmer.

A well-known professional man in (his district (says the Bay of Plenty Times) recently made a. request for Hie payment of an account in the following original terms: "The enclosed account is again a visitor, known but not welcomed. If yon are 'stonier' than I let us discuss terms. If you are as stony as I let us get together and sympathise. If I am stonier than you, assist in elevating me towards your happy monetary level by a cheque on account."

"What about a children's Highland dancing competition?" asked a member of the Castle-cliff Gala Committee, when a call for suggestions was made. "Not on your life," countered another member. "This gala will never be an advertisement for Scotland as long as I'm connected with it." The Chair-

man: "Don't worry, gentlemen. From what I can see of it .Scotland is not backward at advertising itself. At least, it doesn't need a gala to do it."

An American tourist who happened to be in Waimate on Christmas Eve got into conversation with a local citizen over a glass of hops. Said the New Zealander: "London is the biggest city in the world." "No," said the Yank. "New York can beat it by a million." "Say," barked the Maorilander heatedly, "the only time New York was bigger'than London was during the war."

The man from Samaria. Scene: A scorching, blistering sun on a hot, white, blinding road, a punctured tyre, two cycles, and two cyclists trudging back to town from the Viaduct through the dusty heat. A hail from the driver of a. passing car, who pulls up, calls to the disconsolate pair and produces

two foaming glasses of —. "Oh." "Ah," "Thanks," "Cheerio." "ChinChin." The motorist lots in his clutch ■;m\ glides off before the two can finish wishing him the rewards promised to the giver of even mere rups of cold water.

A Menkes Ferry farmer has found a new use for his tractor in using it as a rabbit exterminator (says the Soutlffeud Times). The method adopted is to fill up all the burrows and nests, leaving only a small inlet into which he inserts a tube connected with the exhaust pipe of the tractor. By running the engine for a few minutes on a rich mixture, sufficient smoke and gas are driven into the warren to destroy effectively all the rabbits therein. Sot far the results have been most satisfactory.

Hundreds of householders during the past few days have been puzzled by a plague of flies such as has never before been experienced in Palmerston North. Every known remedy has been applied without success and the usual spasmodic public effort may be made to modify the evil, but with the first breeze, both the danger and the flies will be forgotten. When many thousand troops were similarly troubled at Trentham, a Government officer applied a remedy with success; but the nature of that remedy is still an official secret!

The popular description of Taranaki as the "butler" province is no longer justified, pride oi" place in this connection being easily taken by Auckland, according to figures published in the Official Year Book just to hand. Taranaki, however, forwarded for export in 1923-24 more than twice the amount of cheese

which was forwarded by her nearest s~ competitor, Wellington. Taranaki Ijt' comes second and Wellington third in butter production. Disregarding dual-plant factories, the returns for last season indicated an average of I 404.10 tons per factory for butter and 183.80 tons for cheese, whilst if dual-plant factories are included the averages are 319.03 tons and 161.95 tons respectively.

In replying to an address of welcome at Auckland on the occasion of the Vice-Regal official visit, considerable amusement was caused by the Gover-nor-General's disclosures as to the secrets of an old diary of her Excellency referring to their early associations with Auckland. Sir Charles Fergusson said that every tree, bush and jfirtjfcT at Government House had associations for Lady Fergusson. "I happened to find lying on her table this Wg morning," said Lis Excellency, "her P diary of 1892, the year when she camo ■* . here, and from curiosity I turned to the record.—(Laughter.) It. read something like this: 'Arrived in Auckland by the Hinemoa about 11 o'clock. Drove through the streets in procession and felt very "gjaiid.'—(Laughter.) There is some mojie-'coming," said Sir Charles, _and lie quoted the following extract: "In the afternoon played leapfrog," which called forth tumultuous laughter.