LOCAL AND GENERAL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2101, 9 April 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There will be no publication of the "Chronicle" on Easter Saturday.

A passenger carnage will be attached ito the train leaving Te Kuiti for Taumarunui to-night at 8.36.

Although many of the recent battlefields in France have been placed under the plough, and laid down in crops, there is still an unmistakable indication of the locality of heavy shelling. When mentioning this fact, Mr N. A. Tily, who has recently returned to Palmerston North from that area, stated that where the shellholes have been filled in the earth has sunk, while the .surface is pock-marked all over with chalk.

An American journalist who has been travelling- through the Dominion was expressing his admiration of the scenery and then spoke of the refreshment rooms at the railway stations. What he could not understand, he said, was why, since - New Zealand exported such a huge (quantity of dairy produce in which cheese came second on the list, cheese was never obtainable at any of the restaurants on the railways. And no one could tell him why.

The Christchuroh City Council has decided to apply for a further loan of £20,000 for the erection of workers dwellings.

A petition has been lodged with the itown clerk at Wanganui, signed by 900 ratepayers, asking for a poll to be taken at (the municipal elections on the question of rating on unimproved values. ~

The encouragement given to young players in Syuney cricuet calls for a protest from "Thjej Arrow" :—"Onco upon a time a 'colt' in sport was a r-% youth in his 'teens—now he can be an old man of 30 years, stiff-jointed and blase."

The Farmers' Co-op. Auctioneering Co. have received the following• wire from its London office: Australian butter 158 sto 1625; New Zealand 164 s' 1 to 1665. Cheese is steady at 100 sto 102 s.

The formation of the Te KuitiKopaki Road, has been completed by the Public Works Department, and it is now open for traffic. It presents a serviceable clay' and pumice surface, which is a great improvement upon .the former track.

The attention of dancers is called to the special Easter ball and euchre party which the Te Kuiti branch of the N.Z. Labour Party will hold on Monday evening next. Special prizes are offered and Swift's orchestra will provide ithe music.

At the meeting of the Oamaru Harbour Board the,other day, Mr C. Marshall asked, if the wharf labourers were satisfied with the improvements carried out on the wharf (stages the North Otago Times). The Chairman (Mr Lane-: "No! They expect hot and cold water to be laid on foir them."

"I have just learned that when the new motor plates arrived in New Zealand they weighed 32 tons," remarked Mr G. Nathan at the Wellington Automobile Club meeting. It was intimated to.the meeting that there was some prospect of 'the registration being done on a block system next year, so that the district the cars come from could be recognised.

In conversation with a representative of the Nort h Otago Times the other day, Mi- T. G. V. Blakey, of Dunedin, who has spent several years in China, stated that the opium-smok-ing habit was fast disappearing in that country. Gambling, however, was part of the Chinese nature. They loved it and lived for it, and it would, never be suppressed.

Speaking at the Empire Theatre last week, Captain Toombs, ex-Labour M.P. for Hurstville, New South Wales, declared that while the basic wage in New Zealand was only £3 17s 6d a week, it ought, comparing rents and prices in the two countries, to be qver £5 a week |to equal the Australian basic wage of £4 2s a week.

Bad writing was one reason given why a certain railway man waß "not promoted at the Appeal Board at Frankjton, and the man's advocate, commenting on this, said: "I never knew before that a man's writing was to be a factor in deciding his capabilities. Why, some of the world's choicest characters and most capable men were notoriously the most rotten penmen."

Final returns for the financial year ended March 31 are not yet available m regard to the railways,, but it is not expected that they will show a. profit after payment of interest, though goods traffic is well maintained and is showing that business is coming back to the railways. The passenger traffic lias seriously declined, owing to motor competition and the infantile paralysis epidemic. The late Eiaster also prejudices financial results by throwing this traffic into the next financial year.

At Wanganui recently a man was fined for placing a broken bottle on a road. It would be good if a similar course could be taken with whoever it was who broke (two bottles in the tracks of traffic at the junction of the Devon and Mountain roads recently (says the Taranaki Herald). A motorist reports that the glass had been so placed as to be a menace 'to cars taking the turning in the direction of either Waitara on New Plymouth.

"I don't think many people know that they have.to stop before coming; into contact with a railway line when driving a vehicle," remarked. Mr C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., in the Wellington Magistrate's Court. "They have to ease up to ten miles an hour when approaching a crossing. The idea of Parliament in passing the Act was nodoubt to reduce accidents to a minimum.'i

An arrangement for the delivery.. of goods consigned by rail has been entered into by the Railway Department, and the Master Carriers' Association* of Hastings, and if it works successfully it is the intention of the menrt to extend it to other towns. At a conference between the carriers and Messrs Marshall and Wilson, commercial officers of the department, the plan was discussed and accepted.

Comment has been made to the effect that they name of a Maori who' died of influenza has been engraved, on the Native War Memorial at Wanganui amongst those killed in action, or who died of wounds (states, the Chronicle). A loteal resident interested in the matter stated to a reporter the other day that admittedly the native died of influenza, but he was invalided home, and his demise' was hastened by the nature of his; wounds He added that the nameswere all submitted ito representative: eniets before they were engraved.

The problem of deteriorated land: was discussed by the Minister forLands (Hon. A. D. McLeod) during: S B *^ 81 *,.* 6 , °P° tiki - The Minister saidi that he had good reason to know that unfortunately for the country, there were hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the Dominion in the same position. He sympathised with the settlers, who had put up a great struggle against big odds, and he was trying to find a satisfactory solution of the problem when he brought down legislation dealing with the deteriored lands in the Dominion.