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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 7 April 1934, Page 6

The Maunganui arrived at Sydney from Wellington at 5.45 o’clock this morning. Motor vehicle registration figures for the Dominion for the months of January a.nd February showed an increase of 39 per cent, compared with the corresponding period of last year. The annual custom of “blessing the waters” of the River Tweed was observed at a midnight service at Northam in February. After the net-fishing season for salmon in the Tweed had opened, the first net at the Pedwell fishery, Northam, was shot as soon as the parish church clock struck midnight. Placards have been put up in every village in the district of TJffenheim, in Middle Franconia, bearing the followinscription.—“The Jews are our ruin. Those persons who believe that they cannot do without the Jews and who even stand up for them in public are hereby warned: ‘We shall not forget you.’ ” An alternative route between Palmerston North and Shannon (or Wellington) is via Rangitane. The Manawatu River is crossed at Rangitane by means of a suspension bridge, known as the “Tane Bridge,” which was erected some few years ago by the late Mr H. Akers and is, therefore, privately owned. Originally it was intended to serve the property owned by the late Mr Akers and others adjacent to the bridge. However, it was soon recognised as a facility for crossing to either side of the river without wide detours to Palmerston North on the north or Moutoa on the south. The bridge, in fact, created a new main route between Shannon and district on the eastern aide of the river and Palmerston North and Ivnir'anga on the western side. Apart from reducing the distances between the two main points, it provided a level road between Palmerston North and Shannon. Consequently, there has been a desire to uso the suspension bridge. As no public money was spent on the erection of the bridge—it haying been constructed by private enterprise—there has of necessity been a toll gate to provide funds for the maintenance of the bridge and recompense to some extent the owners of the bridge for their outlay. To meet the requirements of those seeking to use the bridge the trustees have now decided to reduce the fees for certain classes of traffic as indicated in an advertisement on page one.

An envelope bearing a stamp of the first air mail, Great Britain to Australia, 1920 (Ross Smith), has been sold at (London) for £2O.

Rates levied by the Palmerston North City Council for the year ended on March 31 totalled £72,485 ss, and by the end of that financial period £62,001 11s 9d had been paid. An enthusiastic public meeting decided to apply to the New Zealand Brass Bands’ Association for the 1935 contest to be held in Nelson, states a Press Association message. The association’s conditions were unanimously accepted. It has been reported to the Palmerston North River Board that people in search of firewood have been damaging groynes on the Manawatu River bank by chipping the piles and cutting the booms for firewood. Action is to be taken against any offenders caught.

The executive of the Associated Chambers of Commerce has communicated with constituent chambers asking them to urge upon their respective local bodies the necessity for bringing into force reasonable regulations with regard to the erection of earthquake-resisting buildings.

Seventeen more children were admitted to the Ruakawa Health Camp, Otaki, yesterday, making the total at present in camp approximately 30. Mr C. Meachen, centre secretary to the St. John Ambulance Association, said yesterday that at the present time funds would not permit the camp to be kept open throughout the winter as was tlie case last year.

Advice was received in Dunedin last night that “R.H.8.C.,” caro of the Tablet Office, Dunedin, had won £2OOO in Tattersall’s. The winner’s name is Ron Cusack, a linotype operator in the Tablet Office, about 27 years of age, and when informed of his good fortune he was naturally highly delighted. Cusack informed a reporter that this was the first ticket he had ever taken alone.

Annual meetings of sports organisations usually furnish the opportunity for the discussion of series of problems which have arisen during the previous season and in this respect the Manawatu Hockey Association is no exception. Although the annual general meeting commenced at 7.30 o’clock last evening, the volume of business was such that it did not conclude until just on midnight.

Efforts are being made by the Associated Chambers of Commerce to secure a reduction in the rates for international telegrams operative in New Zealand and other countries, which were increased at the last International Telegraph Conference, in Madrid. A remit on the subject, submitted by the Associated Chambers to the last congress in London of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, was taken up by the congress and since then New Zealand chambers have been collecting statistics from local firms with regard to the effect of the new rates, and have forwarded them to London for use. Then further representations will be made. That there had been considerable mortality among pigs of late in the Shannon district was a statement made to to-day’s meeting of the Manawatu executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union by Mr L, J. Best. He said that one man had lost as many as 14 pigs, and he knew of another who had lost four. A number of farms had been affected. The animals began to pant, became weak and died. Some of the stock had been inspected by an officer of the Department of Agriculture, who had said that the trouble was rickets. Treatment had been tried, but, said the speaker, he knew that in one case at least it had not arrested the spread of mortality. A request that the national executive of the Labour Party and the Alliance of Labour should organise a demonstration to commemorate the centenary of the Tolpuddle martyrs was made at the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party in Christchurch. A hundred years ago six labourers in the village of Tolpuddle, in Dorsetshire, were arrested and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. The reason given for their arrest was that they had offended a‘gainst an Act of Parliament dealing with the Mutiny at the Nore, but members of trade unions claimed that the real reason was to try to break up a trade union they had formed. After much agitation the men were pardoned, but that fact was kept from them and they served several years of their sentence in Australia. The commemoration will be held from August 30 to September 2 at Weymouth.