LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3304, 16 May 1931, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Those of our readers who are desirous of attending the Te Kuiti races at Te Awamutu on 23rd and 25th May will be pleased to know that cheap fares and suitable trams are being arranged by the Railway Department. Particulars will be found in our advertising columns in this issue.

On another page of this issue will be found a report by the Borough engineer (Mr. B. J. Drake) in regard to works, maintenance, etc., carried out in the Borough during the month of April, and containing also a number of recommendations which were adopted by the Council at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.

But for the fact that she dashed out into the open when the shock commenced, a young woman sleeping on the veranda of her house in Whataupiko would have been severely inured, if not killed, in last Thursday morning’s earthquake (reports the Poverty Bay Herald). One chimney of the house was dislodged, and fell on to the roof of the veranda, which collapsed. Roof and chimney crashed down on to the bed below, which had just been vacated and the weight of the bricks completely wrecked the bed.

The Minister of Labour (Mr. S. G. Smith) is not in favour of superannuated civil servants and the wives of men in good circumstances competing in the labour market at present. He stated at a meeting of the Citizen’s Unemployment Committee in Christchurch on Monday night that the question was a personal one, and he thought employers of such persons should be spoken to sharply, as they should have some responsibility in the matter.

On Jersey Island, famous for its pedigree stock, practically all the butter used comes from New Zealand. Mr. A. M. Perredes, who with his brother owns the largest herd on the island, and is a visitor to New Zealand, stated at a gathering of farmers at Bunnythorpe that the New Zealand competition had resulted in only sd. a gallon being received for milk, which barely paid working costs. The Dominion butter was of excellent quality, and when he left the island was selling at Is. 6d. per lb. It had no competition from other countries. The Jersey Island butter was sent to London, where it was used in the big* hotels.

A judgment debtor at the court in Wanganui last week stated that he drove to work in a car frequently, and that he could not ride his bicycle on account of having a sprained ankle (records the Herald). He lived near to the tram, but could not travel on it because he had no money. His benzine bill had cost him only Bs. since February, but that amount he still owed. The car belonged to another person who allowed him to use it. The magistrate, Mr. J. H. Salmon, said: “I don’t like it at all. I think you are suppressing something. You say you drive frequently to work and the benzine account was only Bs. This is a trivial account owing for 18 months. I am going to make an order.”

Irish hearts in Christchurch seem to be yearning for the homeland to some purpose just at present (reports the Sun), for no fewer than eight or nine Irishmen were booked last week for return passages to Northern Ireland. The travellers are mostly from the artisan or labouring section of the community. All intend to come back to New Zealand. Prominent among the inquiries beingmade at the Christchurch office of a tourist agency just now are requests for information about the prospects of emigrants from New Zealand to Kenya and Rhodesia. Frequently, however, the condition of an immigrant entering those territories having to possess a fixed minimum sum of money is a barrier which would-be settlers cannot surmount. Canada also is asked about, but the financial restriction is heavier still in this case.

Although the wife of a West Coast miner is claimed to have been the first woman to cross the Alps over the Browning Pass, it was a Maori woman who made the first journey nearly 200 years ago, says the Christchurch Sun. She was a mad woman, a member of the Ngatiwairangi tribe, which had lived on the West Coast, unmolested, for two and a-half centuries. Wandering over the ranges, she came across Maoris in Canterbury, the Ngaitahu, and showed them greenstone. They had neither known about greenstone nor of the existence of the Ngatiwairangi in Westland, apparently. At their request, the mad woman guided them over Browning’s Pass. They established commercial relations with the West Coast Maoris, buying their greenstone. But soon they sent war parties, with the result that later, when the white settlers came and Her Majesty the Queen purchased 7,500,000 acres of West Coast land from the Maoris for £3OO, there were only 110 natives left to sign the deed of purchase.

In the course of a letter to a New Zealand friend a farmer in Norfolk gives, for purposes of comparison, interesting particulars regarding his returns. “I have a dairy of 160 milkmg cows,” he says. “The milk I send into Norwich at Is 6d the gallon. This is our mainstay. We have been growing sugar beet, a very useful sideline. I giew 80 acres last year and the crop averaged £35 an acre, leaving £ls per acre profit. Our corn prices are very bad, wheat lls a sack of 18 stone, oarley 10s to 26s per sack of 16 stone, oats about 7s per sack of 12 stone, t * a big to farmers. Band that was sold in war years at f 0 can be bou S;ht to-day at Qnn m £ , l2 „ an acre - I keep a flock of 000 black-face ewes and they producer?- , out a l am b and a-half, which we think a good fall, but sheep that were sold last June as lambs up to 50s and 60s are now sold as fat at 75s to 85s, leaving no profit to the grower Dairy cows are worth to £4O, young horses to £BO, good two and threeshear ewes about £6 to £B, and pigs about 13s per stone when fat. Wages are 100 per cent, above pre-war level,”