LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2075, 16 March 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The annual .conference of the New Zealand Labour Party opens at Auckland on July sth. The Remuera, which arrives at Auckland to-day. is bringing 240 as- , sisted immigrants. The date of the annual school committee elections has been fixed for , 24th April, at S p.xn. Owing to adverse market conditions the Opunake Dairy Company has ceased manufacturing casein. Church of England voluntary offei - ings In Britain for the past year totalled £10,403,710, including missions, states a London telegram. A man named William Patrick McNamara was lined £lO at ilawcia on Monday for holding himself out as a land agent, without having obtained a license. Advice lias been received that next year’s New Zealand national swimming championships have been allotted to South Canterbury, and will, therefore, be held at Timarn. Future bowling fixtures' as decided bv the Manawatu Centre are as follow;—March 22nd, singles. Terrace End green; March 20th. pairs, Palmerston North green; April 3rd, rinks, Man'awatu green. The matches will start at 9 a.m. sharp. Tiie recent decline in the price of flour, coupled with the lower price for sugar, should taring about an immediate reduction in the price of all lines of biscuits, states tiie “Lyttelton Times.” Some retailors are buying cautiously in anticipation of lower prices at an early date. Patca district is to lose the services of the District Nurse. The Department recently wrote asking the Hospital Board to take over the nurse and pay her salary. The Board at a recent meeting decided not to fall in with the idea, so advice has now been received that the nurse is to bo withdrawn. Speaking of the probable yield of potatoes in Canterbury this season, a merchant said that from investigations made by a representative of his firm he gathered that the yield would not be too good. Ho mcntioiod the case of one crop which from the tops looked like yielding 15 tons to the acre. However, an examination of the crop showed that eight tons would bo nearer the mark. The Wanganui “Herald” says:—The Patca Hospital Board is getting very careful in regard to expenditure. At the meeting yesterday prices were scut in by the matron from a Palmerston and a Hawera firm lor recovering and leasing- mattresses, and these wore in the region of £3 each. Some members of the Board thought this too expensive, and it was decided to obtain other prices by next meting. The “Waikato Times” says:—The number of men to be met with daily on the look-out for work is increasing in the country districts An illustration of the keeness of some to secure a job at any price has come to notice where one man accepted a position with an Ohaupo farmer at 10/ a week and keep. Even lower rales have been reported, but wo can vouch for the authenticity of the ease recorded. There might, from these (inures, bo u. readiness to class the rural dweller as a supporter of sweated labour. This is not so. As he put it himself, he has plenty of work to lie done, tint the low butter-fat figures have reduced the coffers to almost depletion point. The farm hand was insistent: on getting in, and that was the best the fanner could do. "Out-o’-work readily accepted, and is now engaged clearing go'-sc and blackberries from the farm. Several organisations in Christchurch have received a communication from the Dominion Sportsmen’s Association, with headquarters at Wellington, on the subject of a petition to Parliament asking for legislation to legalise and, license bookmakers. The petition, it is stated, is to be supported by an extensive publicity campaign, which has been placed in the hands of a large and dependable advertising agency. An; appeal is made for assistance “against the wowser and killjoy element, who arc up against every traditional and| personal liberty. We feci the time is, opportune that everyone should combine to prevent the sport-loving peo-1 pie of iie Dominion being dragged ati the chariot wheels of a shrieking rain-, ority, whose sole object seems to bej to interfere as much as possible with| those pleasures of their fellowmon| and wo non with whom they do not agree.” The petition asserts that it would be much more satisfactory in the interests of public morality for the State to license bookmakers to carryon their business on racecourses onlyunder proper control by the New Zealand Racing and Trotting- Conferences. At the Soldiers’ Club last night the Hon. C. J. Parr, Minister of Education, and Mrs Parr, were the guests of the Palmerston ‘North educational institutions at an "At Home.” A: most delightful evening was spent in songs, musical items and dancing, | while speeches of welcome were made by Messrs W. F. Durward (High School Board of Governors), G. H. Stiles (School Committees' Association), L. F. de Berry (Teachers' institute), and J. A. Nash, M.P. Referring- to a suggestion of Mr Nash's that day that the teachers should meet the Minister, Mr Pan; said thej function had given him exceptional | pleasure, and it was one that he felt' very grateful for. He dealt with the work of the school committees, saying he had the greatest respect for them. So long as he held the portfolio he did he would never do anything to reduce their powers; indeed, ho would do his best to increase them. Referring to the teachers, he said lie • believed they were all his friends, and during his cilice lie had endeavoured to do his best to raise their status and uplift a profession which had never received its just dues. As for salaries, ho hoped that when the finances were in a better position, the reductions would be given bade. He would do his best in this direction. The Minister paid a special tribute to Mr Nash for the way ho had backed him up and spoken on the question of education in the House, and forj his great help on the Parliamentary | Education Committee. A feature of; the evening was the selections rend-j ered by the Bohemian Orchestra, under Mr Chas. Pike. Ladies will be interested in the fashion review of seasonable novelties arranged for to-morrow and following days at Palmerston’s Fashion Centre. Unusually attractive displays of showroom goods. Dress fabrics and footwear merit special mention. You are cordially invited to inspect window and interior displays to-morrow. The C. M. Ross Co„ Ltd. Kindly mention the “TIMES” when corresponding with advertisers..

Foxton is to continue to be the headquarters of the Manawatu electorate. No fewer than seven building fires • have occurred in Hastings during the past fortnight. The Hawke’s Bay Council has docided to purchase another motor lorry at a cost of £1'575. Advice was received in Greymouth _ on Monday that two big slips had oc- J curved on the Otira Gorge road. A considerable number of "swaggers” have passed through Palmerston North during the last few weeks. £ A sum of over £SOO has been re- J ceived by one of the Auckland newspapers in aid of the Russian Famine Fund. f A farmer named Victor McDuff was | fined £lO at Auckland a few days qgo for being drunk while in charge of a motor-car. P Bertram Spolman was lined £5. in 1 default fourteen days' imprisonment, *■ at Foxton, on a charge of assaulting Charles McArtney outside a hotel on \ Saturday last. 1 The young man George Victor 1 Dunn, charged with breaking and entering a store at tho Manawatu Heads, ( and setting lire to the same, has been , further remanded until March 20th. , A first-offending inebriate was convicted *md lined 10/, in default 48 , hours’ imprisonment, by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., at the Palmerston North ’ Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning. Owing to the unfavourable weather conditions which prevailed yesterday L morning, the annual picnic of the | [butchers of Palmerston North, which j ‘ was to have been held yesterday, had j to be postponed indefinitely. Owing to the delays in loading not i being as long as at first anticipated, , ’ the Shaw, Savill and Albion Com- 1 pany now find it possible to despatch j' Ihe steamer Athenic at daybreak on March 29th. thus necessitating pas- j sengers embarking on March 28th. ■ Sharks have been observed in Tan- • i ranga waters on several occasions < lately. One about Bft long cruised in |i the waters in the neighbourhood of I the Tan ranga town wharf for half an 1, I hour on Saturday, but ’eluded all er- u foils to capture it by line and liar- j 1 jpoon. j. I Tiie census returns how that the : proportion of churchgoers, as represented by those present at the most ; largely attended service to the num- ' ]her for whom there is accommodation ■ in the churches, was greater in Pal- ; merslon North than in any other city 1 or town in the Dominion. A man named Timothy O’Regan • appeared before a Justice of the 1 Peace at Shannon to answer a charge of doing wilful damage to and breaking a window in a railway carriage, also with being drunk and disorderly, using bad language and resisting the police. He was remanded to appear in Palmerston North on the 20th inst. A notable land mark on the southern Foxton beach, the last mast of the wrecked Hyderabad, has fallen j during the recent heavy gales. The Hyderabad was wrecked on the beach j in 1579. forty-three years ago. She | was an all-steel boat, and had two I hollow steel masts. Her skipper was | Captain Holmwood, who later follow- | ed farming pursuits in the Masterton I district. The discontinuance of the half- j penny postage rate on newspapers in | New Zealand has left the Postal De- j purtment with a surplus of stamps of this denomination.' These have been over-printed in red and made to serve as twopenny stamps. This step should [be of interest, not only to philatelists, but to all who are interested in examples of the Government’s efforts at economy. While wandering among the sand hills almost opposite the wreck of tho Hyderabad on the Foxton beach on Sunday, a couple of local residents found the lid of a coffin, rough hewn from totara timber. The lid had been fastened with copper nails. Nearby were a few bones, a button and some decayed fabric. The locality is prolb,ably the site of a Maori settlement of many years ago. | In discussing the Meat Pool Board, [the Christchurch “Sun” says:—“Unj less the members of the Board assert themselves in an unmistakable fashion [they are in a fair way to find them- ! selves merely the tools of the Govern[raent and the Agricultural Departiment. and, as they will have to stand , itho blame for any losses a,nd mistakes, iwhile the Government gets the votes [of the credulous farmers who have I been led to believe that the passing |of the Act has improved the prices | obtainable for meat” I At five o’clock yesterday mornling a fire broke out in Winstone’s , tile works at Taumarunui. The drying sheds and the structure work round eight kilns were reduced to ashes. The fire had a strong hold when the alaim was given, but the brigade succeeded in saving the engine sheds and valuable machinery. 1 j including a new 100 horse-power I boiler. Twenty thousand tiles were [destroyed. The same premises were burnt to the ground in October, 1919. The damage is estimated at £SOOO above the insurances. J The Dunedin “Star” says:—The recent business slump was very sore on [the boot trade in New Zealand, emiployers harassed with all kinds of perplexities, workmen scratching on with half-time or a little better, many [out altogether. By slow stages the [position has improved, at any rate so [far as Dunedin is concerned. Very | few boots and shoes are being Imported, orders for winter goods are I being freely sent in to the factories, land there are not many hands now i unemployed. One manufacturer said | to-day that he had plenty of work to I keep his staff going for three or four • months. j Friends of the Central School areinvited to send gifts of confectionery, sugar, cordials, cakes, or any other donations suitable for the sweet stall, to be conducted in connection with! the forthcoming bazaar, to Mr A. J. | Mahon's shop in tho Square, or toi Mrs Harry Palmer, Lombard Street, j The public of Palmerston North [need no encouragement towards supporting a worthy object, and it is safe jto predict that the garden party to I be held on Wednesday next in aid of the Plunket Society will be a great [success. It is well known that the | work of the Society has' greatly in--1 creased, the number of cases attended (by the Plunket nurse being now very | large, so that an appeal for funds to meet the additional expenditure is sure of a ready response. Mr and Mrs L. A. Abraham have kindly lent their garden In Park Road for the purposes of the party, and the committee have arranged a most attractive programme, particulars of which will be announced later Kindly mention the "TIMES” when corresponding with advertisers.