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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 158, 5 June 1937, Page 8

Otaki ratepayers yesterday approved by 210 votes-to 40 (out ot a roll number of 438) the borough council’s proposal to build a civic theatre to replace the privately-owned picture theatre destroyed by lire about 18 months ago.

Travelling down Te Wi Hill, a mile and a-halt from Wairoa, one recent evening, a Napier motorist was astonished to observe a large stag standing squarely in the centre of the road, ap parently dazzled by the headlights. The beast did not move as the motorist apporached, and he was finally forced to swerve around it, knocking it a glancing blow at which the stag leapt away into the darkness with a roar.

Removed from the Square last evening, between 8 and 9.3 U p.m., a motorcar owned by Rev. A. Blakemore, of Waldegrave Street, was found abandoned in the city a little before midnight. The speedometer reading showed that the vehicle had been driven about 3o to 40 miles. The lock on one door was damaged and the windscreen wipeer ineffective, the car being, otherwise apparently in its usual order.

A cat that was taken in a bag over streams and through bush to a place in the Mount Grey district, 19 miles away, returned to its former home at Coldstream, Rangiora, after seven months’ absence, on Monday evening. The cat, which had been the property of Mr H. I. Mehrtens, Coldstream, for 10 years, bad been taken away because of its interference with young poultry. Tbe animal was in’good condition when it arrived home. That building constructors and merchants supplying tbe trades should have an association to protect their interests was the opinion expressed at a meeting of creditors yesterday by Mr R. IV. Ramsay. “We have only ourselves to blame,” lie declared. “We don’t work in together.” He went on to suggest an association which could make representations to the Government to have the law altered so as to provide that before a final payment is made to a contractor' it must be. understood that sub-contractors and merchants had been satisfied.

Only ten persons, including a young woman, were present at a public meeting called by the Auckland Democratic League to discuss the desirability of amending the Gaming Act to permit licensed bookmaking in New Zealand and to establish a State lottery.

Caused presumably by a fault in the electrical equipment in the vacant premises next the “Standard” office in the Square, a fire, last evening, did only slight damage. The brigade were summoned at 7.57 o’clock and after breaking open the door quelled the outbreak with a chemical extinguisher. More babies were* born in Napier during May than has been the case for the same month for the past lour years. Last month 37 births were registered, as against 27 for the same period last year ; while in 1935 there were 34 registrations. Similarly, marriages last month reached the highest total for the past four years, 18 licenses having been issued.

A meeting of the New Zealand Wool Publicity Committee was held in Wellington yesterday, the chairman (Mr H. M. Christie, ALP.) presiding. This was the last meeting of the present committee. Mr Christie stated alter the meeting that as the election of representatives of the wool-growers on the committee would take place shortly, no more meetings would be held as the committee did not desire to commit the incoming committee. At the annual meeting of the Mackenzie County Council, Mr C. J. Talbot, chairman of the New Zealand Counties’ Association and member of the Highways Board, lost the chairmanship of the council, reports a Timaru Press Association telegram. Mr W. R. Davison was also nominated, and, the voting being even, the names were drawn from a hat, Mr Davison being successful. Mr Talbot attributed his defeat to the support he gave the county amalgamation proposals. The need for irrigating the Heretaunga Plain lias been apparent for some time past and the Mayor of Hastings had decided to call a conference of local bodies to discuss a comprehensive scheme. However, such a step is not now necessary as the Government has the question in hand and a I comprehensive report on the possibili- ' ties of irrigation is to be furnished by I the Soil Survey Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial ' Research in the course of the next few days.

Two appointments in the Legislative Department were announced last night by the Minister in Charge ol the Department (Hon. H. G. R. Mason). Mr J. R. Taylor, who has been assistant chief messenger at Parliament House since 1920, has been appointed chief messenger, in succession to the late Mr IV. Oakley, and Mr W. T. Brown, who is at present attached ,to the office of the Acting Prime Minister takes the place of Mr Taylor as deputy chief messenger.—Press Association.

Starting in a cavern on a hillside near Ormondville. Mr and Mrs Neils Nikolaison made and sold butter over fifty years ago. and by gradual stages as they could pay for improvements and develop the dairy industry among their neighbours this modest beginning led on to a large brick building equipped with the most modern machinery, employing a large number of workers, and exporting large quantities of both butter and cheese. Now, with the passing of the years, the Ormondville factory has been demolished and its material 6old for removal. A stag hunt within a mile or so of Te Awamutu borough was indulged in on Wednesday morning by a local resident, who, while riding over his employer’s farm, was astonished to see a full-grown fallow deer stag rise from the ground within a chain of him, and make off into a neighbouring farm. Arming himself with a rifle, the employee and a companion chased the | deer a distance of about four miles, the animal crossing a road and several farms, to eventually be shot when he had reached within a few hundred ,yards of where he was first seen. The stag was about 3cwt, and carried a nine-pointer head. Where the animal came from is unknown, for it was on i a farm many miles away from the haunts of deer.