LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4952, 6 February 1937, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Much interest was caused last evening when a car and trailer containing about 10 dirt track cycles and *a midget racing car passed through Te Kuiti last evening en route to Auckland. One of the cycles was mounted on the running board of the large car, and the rest were contained in the trailer—even the midget car. The equipage belonged to “Putt” Mossman, the famous American dirt track rider.

A farmer at Rangiahua states that in his orchard at present he has a peach and nectarine tree in one. The one side is laden with green peaches, whilst the other has beautiful ripe nectarines. Some time ago he grafted the nectarine on to the peach, and the tree has continued to grow in spite of its foster-sister.

Among the passengers by the Maunganui this week from Sydney were several Germans and Dalmatians. Some of the Dalmatians were newcomers to New Zealand, but others were returning after a visit to their homeland. One said that he was anxious to reach New Zealand before war broke out in Europe, but he had been unable to bring his wife and children with him because of restrictions imposed by his country in connection with finance. Another remarked that he had come 'to New Zealand because the conditions of the working people here were so good.

The view that the Spanish civil war was quite unexpected, especially in Madrid, where the Government kept the people in ignorance of what was happening in the provinces, was expressed in Christchurch by Mr. Julius Roedelsheimer, a Dutch business man, who was in Spain shortly before hostilities occurred. His wife, an American painter, remained in Madrid until last August, when after three weeks at the American Embassy, where it was necessary to seek safety, she was taken with others to the South of France. Mr. Roedelsheimer said that it now looked that the war would go on till one side was exhausted, though it would have been over long ago but for foreign intervention.

Reminiscences of one of the major disasters of the Dominion, the Tarawera eruption of June 10, 1886, were recalled this week with the meeting at Ramarama, near Pukekohe, of Mr. William Bird, of Murupara, and Mr. J. Mcßae, who for some years has been settled at Ramarama. Mr. Bird is now 76 years of age and Mr. Mcßae about 89, and it is about 40 years since the two have met. Prior to the eruption the pair were business associates, Mr. Mcßae being the proprietor of the hotel at Wairoa, which was demolished by the disaster, and Mr. Bird in charge of the store, which was also owned by Mr. Mcßae. After the eruption Mr. Mcßae remained in the Rotorua district for some years and will be remembered as the proprietor of both the Palace and Lake House hotels. Afterwards until his retirement, he controlled a number of hotels in various parts of the Auckland Province, and for a time was sheepfarming. 1

With the return to Whangarei of Detective P. J. Nalder from Waihou Valley, where investigations have been proceeding ever since the murder on June 9 of Mr. Ernest Severin Nelson, the farmer who was found shot in the back on a lonely drive to his house, all the outside police and detectives have now returned to their stations. This, however, does not indicate that the search for the murdered has been abandoned, as the police officials stationed in that locality will continue the investigation.

Two matters in which the Dominion might learn from England were mentioned in Christchurch by Mr. C. A. Newman, a former Post Office Savings Bank inspector, who has returned from a visit to England. “I am convinced,” he said, “of the need for planting trees anywhere and at any time. There are trees all over England, and in many places they foi'm long archways along country roads.” Mr. Newman's other suggestion was that the English practice of having bands playing in the parks and public gardens during the day, with chairs for the public for which a small fee of Id or 2d was charged, should be adopted here. They would make the city more attractive, he said, and considerable revenue could be obtained, as one of the chairs would often earn as much as Is a day.

That the proposals for local body amalgamation had emanated from city interests, chiefly from motor organisations and chambers of commerce, was contended by Cr. J.'Clarke at the monthly meeting of the Bruce County Council, following the reading of a communication concerning this matter. So far as he had noticed, he said, there had been no agitation in this direction coming from the country districts. Amalgamation would, in his opinion, result in a considerable loss of local interest. He did not see that there would be any great economy since under the present system the members of the local bodies did an enormous amount of work for a mere pittance, and residents gave assistance which might not be forthcoming if the district were merged in a larger unit.

“The national spirit among New Zealanders is increasing in strength, and it is good to recognise it,” was an opinion expressed by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. W. E. Parry) speaking in connection with the diamond jubilee celebrations of Patea County. “We do not now hear speakers at public meetings, either in eulogising our development or criticising our shortcomings, refer to New Zealand as being a young country. The country has grown up and left its swaddling days far behind,” Mr. Parry said, “and in celebrating its one hundredth birthday in three years’ time the people are entitled to call themselves a nation. Every part of New Zealand will be in the celebration. No district or section is less in importance than the other, and in that way are the plans of the Government for the celebration being prepared.”

An amusing interlude happened recently in Horeke. A housewife ordered from her butcher several pounds of pork for Sunday’s dinner. However, beef arrived, with the following note: “Awfully sorry, the pig got away—no pork.”

“I wanted a boy to do farm work and they gave "me a butler,” stated one of those present at the meeting of the Wanganui Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union recently, when it was being urged that farmers should keep in constant touch with the Labour Department.

There are 40 children at the Public Works camp at Fordell, near Wanganui, where married men employed on the new Turakino-Okoia railway deviation reside. Four families alone have 35 children between them. Children of school age from the camp will attend the Fordell school, the gradings of which will rise when the school opens for the year.

That the new Wellington Railway Station is the biggest of its kind ever done in the Dominion may be gathered from the following details: —In the schedule of quantities there are 747 closely-typed foolscap sheets, giving no fewer than 15,420 items; 10,000 cubic yards of excavation were made in connection with the foundations; nearly a million feet of boxing was used for the concrete work; there are 10 miles of reinforced concrete piles under the building; 14,650 cubic yards of Hutt River shingle were used, 11,650 cubic yards of sand and 5040 tons of cement; 1,750,000 bricks and 1500 tons of Coromandel granite and Whangarei marble were used; 1000 yards of from 24in to 19in drains were put in; there are five miles of water pipes; 2200 tons of steel, and 100,000 rivets were used; counting both walls and floors there are 18% acres of plaster: 21 acres were painted, most of it three and four times; there are two acres of glass; £120,000 was paid direct to the workmen on the job in wages, but when the cement, quarry, and timber men off the job are taken into consideration, the wages paid were nearly £250,000, and a large proportion of this work was spread from Whangarei to Southland. Merely to walk into each room in the building and out again takes two hours; there are over 940 yards of corridors.