THIRTY YEARS AGO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 9, 8 December 1937, Page 2

THIRTY YEARS AGO.

EXTRACTS FROM “STANDARD.” DECEMBER 8, 1907.

The Patea Borough Council had advertised for an assistant electrical engineer at £7O a year. Seven applicants had included a man with an English public school and University education and had spent two years in Pans studying electricity. A Maori, Tiki Topomua, of Taranaki, had claimed that he had seen Captain Cook on his last visit to New Zealand in 1774. That would have made the Maori 133 years of age, which other old natives had said was quite possible. • There had been 325,000 unemployed in New York. . . Shearing rates in the Dominion had bene fixed at £1 per 100 sheep for either hand or machine shears. This had been considered by the farmers to be excessive. At the London wool sales medium crossbred ’ (44-46 quality) had sold at B|d to 9}d per lb. Some excitement was caused in Auckland when an electric tramcar suddenly became “alive.” Through some defect every iron portion had become charged with electricity, and the motorman received such a shock that he was thrown off. An ex-motor-man removed the trolley pole and a panic was averted. . The Horseshoe and Sluggish River Drainage Boards could not come to terms on the question of amalgamation, and the matter had been deferred. Over 170 further immigrants had arrived in the Dominion.'- Work had been found for them. . There had been a financial panic in America. The Steel Trust alone had dismissed 50,000 hands. • Tlie blockage on the Gorge Road had become worse. It had been impossible for vehicular .or horse traffic to use the road, and inconvenience had been caused.