LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3239, 6 December 1930, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The monthly meeting of the Borough Council will be held on Monday next.

Evidence of vandalism along the highway between Te Kuiti and New Plymouth is contained in the fact that some irresponsible persons have knocked down a number of notices erected by the Auckland Automobile Association. In one or two places between here and Pio Pio notices have been knocked down, and a service car driver told a Chronicle representative yesterday that other notices further along the road had also been removed from their supports.

'"One thing I do miss is a cup of good tea," writes a former Wanganui resident who has settled in Los Angeles (reports the Wanganui Chronicle). "You simply can't get it over here. As for liquor, there's plenty of it about, but you can never be sure that it's the 'real McKay.' They utilise genuine labels to camouflagetheir bootleg rubbish, so one can never be sure of it. But, oh for a cup' of tea!"

A Press Association message from Sydney states that Mr. W. H. Parsons, aged 84, who joined the Aorangi at Auckland, became seriously ill off the Australian coast on Thursday night. Arrangements were made to transfer him yesterday to the Ulimaroa, to which he was hurried in a car just before sailing time, but the officers of the steamer considered he was too ill to travel home, and he was returned to the Aorangi. Soon after being carried up the gangway he died.

It was a nonplussed motor mechanic who in giving evidence at the Supreme Court at Napier the other day, claimed that if a man was travelling on his correct side of the road and he was negligently approached by another car he should keep right on. "You are quite wrong," said Mr. Justice Blair "The law says that you should do everything in your power to avoid a car that is approaching you in a negligent manner. Few people seem to know that fact."

"As one looks back over the last 30 years one realises how the great majority of the developments that have taken place in the various phases of our life are due to electricity," said Dr. D. E. Hansen, in the course of an address to the Christchurch Electrical Traders and Contractors' Association. "I am glad to have lived in this period, and I also look forward to the next 30 years, as I believe that these 60 years will showextraordinary development in electrical and mechanical engineering."

"One ragwort flower this year will produce at least 500 plants next year," said Mr. R. Hatrick at a meeting of the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce when suggesting,that many of the unemployed who were hot suited to road work could be put on to destroying this and other noxious weeds. Sodium chlorate, he said, had been proved effective in the eradication of ragwort, which was at present overrunning the country, especially in up-river localities. The meeting approved of the suggestion, which is to be forwarded to the local Farmers' Union for consideration.

"The question of finance for topdressing is receiving a good deal of consideration from the small farmers of Hawke's Bay just now" (states a writer in the Napier Telegraph). "I was on a property of 30 acres, all in grassland, sitauted not 50 miles from Napier, only the .other day, where the owner is very fully aware of the fact that his paddocks are badly in' need of stimulation, but with the price of butter-fat down so low is just making a bare living out of the farm, with certainly no money to put aside for the purchase of superphosphate. There must be dozens of others of his type in Hawke's Bay in a very similar position."

Damage running into thousands o±' pounds was caused by a severe frost experienced in the Wairarapa on Saturday morning last, which affected all sorts of plants, and has wrought havoc among the tomato crops. Masterton was the heaviest sufferer, the

frost registering 14.4 degrees. One nurseryman lost 3000 tomato plants, and another 2500, while acres of potatoes, beans, pumpkins, and marrow plants were blackened and badly cut about. It is hoped, however, that the potato crop will recover. So severe was the frost that the tops of plants were iced up. Orchardists are as yet unable to estimate how seriously their trees have been affected. Growth of all young plants has been badly checked. The tomato-growing industry, which has shown considerable development within recent years, has hjsen dealt a crushing blow, as the season is now so far advanced that it is almost impossible to sow new seed. The frost was experienced all over the Wairarapa, with six degrees at Pahiatua, Carterton, and Greytown also being sufferers. Most unseasonable weather has been experienced in the district lately, and several losses of stock through the wintry conditions are reported by farmers. The most serious is the loss of 150 newly shorn ewes by Mr. J. W. Spiers, of Raukokopatuna.

To-morrow afternoon (Sunday) the Maniapoto District Silver Band will play a number of selections _at the Hospital grounds, commencing at 2.30 p.m.

Intending patrons of the Waipa races to be held at Te Awamutu on 13th December are being well catered for in the matter of special trains and cheap rail fares. Particulars will be found in our advertising columns in to-day's issue.

A London Press message says that Messrs. Lindrum, McConachy, Davis, and Newman have requested the Billiards Association Control Council to adopt a napless cloth and to consult them regarding the financial terms of the English r&nmpionship. Both requests were ignored, and consequently Lindrum and Davis announce that they are not competing in the championship.