LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3440, 8 March 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Autumn Horticultural Show to be held under the auspices of St. Luke's Church, opens to-morrow (Wednesday) afternoon at 2.30 in the Parish Hall. The Show will also be open on Thursday, the times on both days being from 2.30 to 10 p.m.

At the Vickers' gun shoot, held on the rifle range, several ladies who were watching the shoot tried their hands at the guns. They proved themselves to be a serious rival to the Territorials themselves, one of the ladies scoring a hit on the target. Several children also shot a few rounds, but were not so successful.

Gisborne now possesses the finest and largest meeting house in New Zealand, states the Times. This has been erected on the land side of Kaiti Hill, near the saleyards and harbour pool, and within three minutes' motor drive of the town. The house is fashioned after the accepted Maori design.

A Maori woman from the Chatham Islands revisited Lyttelton last week after an absence of 64 years. When she saw a big liner at the wharf and, later, motor cars in the street, her amazement was unbounded as she was seeing these, and many other modern things for the first time.

In spite of the fact that a good area has been tar-sealed recently, the dust on the primary school playgraund caused a great deal of annoyance in the high wind' yesterday. The play ground is of pumice and, in addition to the ordinary wind, the contour of the hills round the school causes many whirlwinds, which draw up the dry dust and whirl it across the playground in flying walls of dust. No windows facing the wind could be left open, in spite of the heat.

"I cannot see the sense of a man killing toheroas on the beach and trying to break records," said the Hon. G. Witty in the legislative Council during a speech in which he contended that people to-day wasted too much money on amusements and on unnecessary things. "What does it matter if he does break the record? Someone else will only try and break his neck. It's utter futility, and I don't think it should be allowed."

| While the Thames Valley Power Board's staff has been replacing poles that were unsound, opportunity was taken to examine the cross-arms on the poles also. Several rata arms have failed during the last twelve months, after a life of about only ten years. Rata arms in some parts of New Zealand have been in service over 25 years, and are still sound. Commenting on this Mr. F. M. Strange said the rotting of the arms was due to the timber being cut out of dead rata trees.

I To have killed well over 1,000,000 sheep and lambs to date is the combined record of the two Hawke's Bay freezing works in operation this season, and this large figure esaily beats a previous record established in Hawke's Bay in the middle of February, says the Napier Telegraph. Up to the middle of February the Whakatu works had killed, in round figures, 560,000 sheep and lambs, and the total for the Tomoana works to the same date was very similar. It is understood that this is a record killing for Hawke's Bay, even in seasons when the Paki Paki and Wairoa works were also in operation.

"There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the attitude the farmers have taken up with regard to the exchange question," said Mr. J. D. Hall at a meeting of the executive of the Canterbury Farmers' union. "All they ask is that the amount of money in London, which is theirs through the sale of their produce, should be dealt with as they like. The banks, on the other hand, want to have the handling of it."

How to do without some of the surplus meters in the Thames Valley Power Board's district was the question raised at the board's meeting on Tuesday. The engieer is to prepare a report as to whether the present system of having two or more meters in each house or shed, one for light, and one for power, .etc., could be altered in favour of a system of a uniform rate for all power used. This would mean the use of only one meter and would be a saving to the board.

"The British Fleet in the Far East would be in a very parlous positionshould serious trouble develop there at present," said Mr. J. J. Dougall, chairman of the Navy League Committee, which met at Christchurch on Thursday, reports the Christchurch Times. "The British Fleet is inferior in strength to that of the United States, and hardly superior to that of Japan. This is an excellent reason for work to be continued on the Singapor Naval Base."

The danger of playing a stream of water On electrical equipment while the line is "alive" was referred to at last Tuesday's meeting of the Thames Valley Power Board. Recently a fire occurred at a transformer station in Paeroa due to a fuse contact becoming overheated and setting fire to the rubber of the low tension cable. Had the fire brigade played their hoses on the fire before the power was cut off the result might have been fatal to the men.

A- novel method of raising money, which was devised by King Henry 111. in 1252, was mentioned by Sir John Hanham, Bt., in the course of an address to the Numismatic Society last week. Raising money was always a difficult business, said Sir John, and in 1252 Henry announced that he was going on a. crusade One-tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues were set aside for this purpose; the design of a crescent and star appearing on coins from this source. Henry, however, found a better use for the money and remained at home. It was only fair to add that in 1269 his son, Edward 1., did go to the Holy Land.

■ Seven people, representing three generations in one family, are at presnt occupied in harvest work on a farm in Ashburton County, says the Guardian. This unusual state of affairs has been necessitated by the lack of finance in the family coffers, but it has proved to be a satisfactory method of harvesting and stacking about 40 stacks of wheat and oats. The first and second generation representatives have carried out the heavy work, while the third generation have been engaged in the more congenial task of carrying the lunches to the fields, varying this task on the hot days by frequent plunges in a nearby pond. This is the first time in 40 years that outside labour has not been engaged on this farm.

The Public Health Department has been active in connection with the sanitary provision being made by the natives for the health of the large gathering now in progress at the local pa. The Inspector had an amused twinkle in his eye yesterday when the native committee waited on him objecting strongly to the action of the Railway Department allowing a dozen sheep trucks to stand on the loop line adjacent to their eating and sleeping quarters, which the natives declared to be a "menace" to the health of the pa. With prompt diplomacy the Health Officer left to interview those in authority.

While a Parawera settler and his family were absent from their home for an hour or two on Thursday, a wayfarer called at the house, and finding nobody at home, he entered and had a-general clean-up, including a shave, and then donned a nearly new suit belonging to the farmer. When members of the household returned home they quickly realised that there had been an intruder, and information came from a neighbour that a man was seen earlier in the day to enter the house and some while later leave it wearing a new suit of clothes—a very great contrast to the dusty and tired looking traveller of earlier in the day. More is likely to be heard of the matter.

To stop and offer assistance to a driver who appeared to be in need of a helping hand was an ethical point among motorists, but of late there has been a change and the majority are no longer sensed with an obligation to extend the little courtesy of proffering assistance where it might be required. At the meeting of the Stratford branch of the South Taranaki Automobile Association held recently, a member related that in the course of a tour of 1000 miles he met with engine trouble when only seven miles from Stratford. Over a hundred cars passed him on the roadside, yet only one driver stopped to offer aid. "It has got to this stage now that nobody stops," commented the president.

Departmental co-ordination does not appear to be a strong point in Soviet Russia if the story of a Moscow journal is true. Two artistically designed posters were received at the same time by the manager of a State vodka shop. One warned citizens that vodka was a dangerous poison and that vodka was the Soviet's deadly enemy. The other stated that the State's anxiety to do the best for its citizens had compelled the decision to keep vodka shops open until ten o'clock at night, and to put no restrictions upon sales. The notice of the extension of hours was placed on the outside, and the warning on the inside, of the door. The encouragement to buy attracted people to enter, and the warning that they had taken a deadly poison faced the patrons as they left. Both State Departments must have been satisfled. J

"There's a tip for Mr. Downie Stewart if he wants to get rid of New Zealand's deficit," said Mr. H. F. Von Haast, after reading, during an address on China in Napier, the following paragraph: "In Yonshi, Honan Province, the Government in 1928 collected taxes for the years 1931, 1932, and 1933." ■

An increase of over 160,000 in the number of dairy cows" in New Zealand, the total being over 1,600,000, a new record, is shown by returns published in the Abstract of Statistics of live stock as at 31st January, 1931. The total number of all cattle exceeds 4,000,000, which is also a record.

"Australians warned us about New Zealand before we came over," Mr. J. H. Tandy, manager of the South African cricket team, remarked when speaking at a dinner at Christchurch on Monday "They told us that New Zealand was a great country, and that New Zealanders were wonderful people. That, coming from Australians, is not bad, I might say."

Indications are that potato crops throughout Canterbury will be light, giving a yield considerably below the average, a Christchurch Sun reporter was informed. Some farmers who have dug small areas of their crops have been surprised at the number of small potatoes on the roots. The recent rain will help the laterplanted crops, but for the bulk of the crops the fall came too late to be of much use.

In the course of a brief address at the Chemists' Conference at Rotorua on Monday evening, Mr. Edmund Smith, of Auckland, president of the Pharmaceutical Society, referred to the sale of poisons, and said it was a question which had occupied the attention of the society for some considerable time. He considered that an amendment of the Pharmacy Act was necessary to provide for the licensing of all persons handling the sale of poisons, and gave several instances of the dangers which arose from carelessness by inexperienced persons. When the society previously asked for an amendment of the law in this direction, objections were raised by chambers of commerce and other interested circles, who feared a chemists' monopoly. But he ridiculed the idea that chemists wished to go in for the sale of sheep dips or horticultural poisons. All they asked for in the interests of public safety was that persons handling poisons should be licensed, so that they would understand that there was more responsibility attached to these products than in dealing with tea and sugar. As the law stood at present, any person could purchase drugs and peddle them around the country. However, the society was pegging away at the Government, and hoped to secure the necessary legislation some day.