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Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 161, 8 June 1929, Page 8

“An Englishman’s home may be his castle, but in New Zealand a hotel is governed by the Licensing Act, and is certainly not the publican’s castle,” remarked Mr A. M. Mowlem, S.M., at the annual meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Licensing Committee. Mr Mowlem, as chairman of the committee, was commenting on the police report that in some hotels betting was going on in the bars.

Speaking of the hardships of some of the Maori clergy in an address at Timaru a few evenings ago, Bishop Benneit said he knew of cases where ministers were living with their families on £l5O a year. One instance was brought to his notice of a Maori clergyman who had been given additional employment—breaking stones — by the county council in the district in which he lived, so as to enable him ito find bread and butter for his family. The Maori Mission Board had granted £IOOO toward the new episcopal scheme, but that would not go far.

The Ulimaroa left Sydney at -one o’clock yesterday afternoon for Auckland. The Niagara left Suva last evening for Vancouver. The Aorangi has left Honolulu for Vancouver.

“The Old Country is a fine place to go to, and other parts of the world are well worth going to, but New Zealand is a very fine place to come back to,” remarked Hon. W. A. Vciteh at the official farewell yesterday in Wellington to the party of Boy Scouts. Under the will of Miss Emily Amelia Chase, of Oamaru, a bequest of £SOO is made to the Wesleyan Methodist Church, half for the general purposes of the church in Oamaru and half for the Methodist orphanages of the South Island. Further bequests are £SOO to the Salvation Army of Oamaru and £IOO for a children’s playground in the public gardens, Oamaru. The Minister of Education (Hon. A. T. Atmore) is at present making an inspection of the Auckland district, and next week he will tour North Auckland as far as Whangarei. Next Thursday, the Minister will return to Auckland, subsequently proceeding to Hamilton. Under the circumstances it is evident that his visit to Palmerston North cannot take place for at least a week.

Stating that a loss of £BOOO on the present year’s operations was anticipated by the Otago Power Board, the eng-ineer-manager, at a meeting this week, recommended that a special rate should be imposed in order to maintain the board’s finances in a sound position. The rate, which will be a diminishing one, varies from one-twentieth of a penny, in the pound in certain areas to eightpence in the pound in other areas.

Mr Justice Ostler, who is a keen deerstalker, angler and game-shooter, enjoyed good shooting in the Wanganui district over last week-end. On Saturday afternoon he and friends obtained a bag of 17 quail, four hares, three rabbits and one cock pheasant. On Monday, shooting at Mr J. McKelvie’s lakes, at Carnarvon, he and his party obtained 25 ducks. The Judge is recognised as one of the finest game shots in the Dominion, and he is always fit. At the.recent annual meeting of the Patea Rifle Association two Pohangina riflemen competed with success. Rifleman P. Balmer scored 34 in the Wanganui match (300 yards) out of a possible 35, winning £l, while in the Wellington Match (600 yards) lie made a similar score, winning £3. Rifleman C. Spellman made the possible in the Taranaki Match (500 yards) securing £2 4s in prize money; he also won £1 in the Tyro Aggregate with 95, the winner’s total being 97.

“As a probable future factor in the world’s timber market, it is interesting to find, and it is not generally realised even by timber men, that Japan, an admittedly progressive, though at present a poor nation, from 1911 to 1925 afforested by planting 1,500,000 acres, which is an average rate of over 100,000 acres per annum, or twice the maximum area established in any one year by New Zealand, which in turn registers an annual record for the Empire.” So said the Hon. W. B. Taverner, Commissioner of State Forests, addressing a gathering of forestry experts in Auckland. A story of how an enthusiastic farmer and Rugby football player qualified to play with tlxe club of his choice was told at a meeting of the Thames Valley Rugby Union at Paeroa. The boundary line between two sub-unkms is marked by a stream rum ning through this farmer’s property, but he was dismayed to learn that his residence, being on the north side of the stream, debarred him from playing under the jurisdiction of the subunion controlling the southern side. He solved the difficulty by pitching a tent, which he now occupies each night, on the south side of the water.

At the annual meeting in Wellington of the New Zealand Chess Association the election of officers resulted as follows: —Patron: His Excellency Sir Charles Fergusson; president, the office to-be filled by a nomination from the centre in which the next championship congress is held; vice-presidents, North Island, upper division, Messrs It. Barker (Auckland), S. Burton (Hamilton), and A. H. Sehlichting (Gisborne) ; lower division, Messrs W. Mackay (Wellington), A. li. M. Wright (Palmerston North), and Paul Kummer( Masterton) ; South Island, upper division, Messrs B. Trathen (Nelson), Itoy Lovell-Smith (Christchurch), and 11. Kennedy (Christchurch) ; lower division, Mr F. W. Humphries (Oamaru), Rev. Dr. .Merrington (Dunedin), and Dr. G. Barnett (Dunedin); lion, secretary, Mr C. W. Tanner; lion, treasurer, Mr A. W. Gyles: hon. reporter, Mr F. K. Kelling; lion, auditor, Mr F. J. Brooker. "The folly of throwing open for farms forest land that is not suitable for agricultural purposes was referred to in Auckland by the Hon. W. B. Taverner, Commissioner of State Forests. No observant person, he said, could travel through New Zealand, as he had recently done, without seeing in every province numerous instances of poor farms scarred by frequent landslips and becoming overgrown with fern and scrub, because such lands were quite unfit for settlement. Many of these unfortunate farmers had last the capital they had invested, in addition to which the security of the Advances Department and private mortgagees had been jeopardised, the whole unhappy business resulting in a national loss—for each such individual failure had contributed to the national misfortune, involving the writing off of large sums. The actual loss did not necessarily end there, because, even if the error were rectified by the return of such land to forestry control, re-establishment of commercial forests thereon was often rendered doubly expensive by reason of the masses of useless second growth, of slipping clay faces, and often by eroding streams now calling for river protective works.