LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2165, 3 July 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Ulimaroa sailed from Sydney for Auckland at 1 p.m. yesterday. The District Nursing Guild Committee will meet to-day in the Palmerston North Council Chambers at 2 o'clock. The rainy summer has caused the production of much discoloured chaff, but. fortunately the splendid winter gave little, need for it. Probably from these two causes the price is down to about £3 a ton. The "Waipukurau Borough Council has taken an enterprising step by inaugurating a housing scheme. Already thirteen houses have been erected, and tenders are now being called for seven more. Several two-shilling pieces dated 1921 were found in local tills on Saturday, each bearing a yellowish hue and without the characteristic ring of a genuine coin. So good is the imitation, if such it be, that even bankers are in doubt about it. According to a Press Association message from Wellington, the Labour Department is taking action against the freezing workers on strike at Napier, Timaru, Christchurch, Oamaru and Invercargill. Information? have been laid in a large number of cases. Trappers in Pohangina are getting about thirty rabbits a day each. A small royalty is paid by the landowner, but the absence of regular market or auction sales as in the South is a handicap, and while fair prices are expected, the industry here is not yet organised. Charged with having stolen a nickel watch and a silk handkerchief, to a total value of 30/, the property of A. B. Thomas, a lad named Robert James Mitchell appeared in the Palmcrston North Police Court on Saturday morning before Mr R. S. Abraham, J.P. He was remanded until this afternoon. There were 111 patients in the Palmerston North Public Hospital at the Ist of June last, while 141 patients were admitted during the month, which makes a total of 25 2 patients. But of this number, 126 were discharged and 14 died. There, were at the end of June 112 persons inmates of the institution. A party of entertainers from the Palmerston R.S A. are going to Levin by car this afternoon to assist the returned soldiers there in a bazaar inaugurated to raise funds, and extending over the week. The party will appear to-night, and return immediately, but will make another appearance In Levin at the end of the week. All Rugby, hockey, and senior Association football games in the Manawatu were postponed on Saturday owing to the boisterous weather that prevailed. Tho Manawatu Rugby Union had definitely fixed last Saturday as "charity day," and intended to donate the gross proceeds to charity, but it will now be held next Saturday. In response to a telephone message from Tiakitahuna on Friday, a constable from Palmerston North betook himself there in a cab. and gathered u.nto his sheltering care an old man, whose condition was that which springs from too copious draughts of the amber liquid, Tho following morning the reveller was ordered by Mr R. S. Abraham, J.P., to pay the £1 expended in the hire of the cab. The Palmerston North Municipal Band dance on Saturday evening was, as is inevitably the case with this popular function, entirely successful. Encouraged with the results attending the week-end efforts, the band has decided on holding a fancy dress ball. This takes place on Wednesday evening. As good prizes are being offered, some originalits' and gaiety may be expected in the attire of the dancers. The judging will be performed by Madame de Luen. The danger of smokers placing pipes in their pockets was exemplified in Tauranga this week. After enjoying a smoke, a local resident placed a coat containing his pipe in the room of a building where he was living, in the business area. Half-an-hour later smoke was observed issuing from the room. Investigation showed that a quantity of clothing was on fire. A couple of buckets of water extinguished the flames, and beyond the burning of several coats no further damage was done. The parrot of the Rona, which remarked, "What do you know about that?" when, the vessel struck Flat Rock, is a much-travelled bird of wide experience and lingu.stic attainments of a superior order (ways the Auckland "Herald"). It was given to Captain Wallis at San Francisco, eighteen months ago, having been brought from Mexico where, possibly, it had gained an experience which makes the stranding of a steamer a tame affair. Whatever be the cause, it sometimes sobs in a most piteous manner and often calls for "Lorita," doubtless a charming seuorita, who, one hopes, was not as unhappy as the bird would have one bel'eve. Since sailing under the British flag the parrot's Spanish has become a little rusty, but often it turns out a sentence in that tongue, and, maybe, thinks of revolutions—and Lorita. The senior Stipendiary Magistrate of Auckland, Mr E. C. Cutten, who is president of the Young Citizens' League, accompanied by Mr Horace Stebbing, organising secretary, paid a visit to Palmerston on Saturday. They waited upon the Palmerston Eduobtaining its assistance in an endeavour to form a branch of the League locally. Mr Cutten, it is well known, has for' many years past given up a considerable amount of his spare time to assist the young people of the Dominion. In conversation with a "Times" reporter on Saturday, he said the League was making wonderful progress throughout the Dominion and was receiving enthusiastic recognition in educational circles, as well as many other public institutions. Messrs Cutten and Stebbing intend to visit Palmerston North again in about three weeks' time, when they will address a public meeting. New shipment of natural fugi silk, the first, to arrive under the lower duty rate, tested and found free from filling, will wash and iron well. Special price 5/11 per yard.—The C. M. Ross Co., Ltd.* It will come as good news to many to hear that the price of Cadbury'B best English chocolates (wrapped silver paper) are selling at less than half price. Formerly they were 8/- per lb. To-day Whitehead and Ellis are offering them at 3/6 lb; also a good chocolate mixture, at 2/- per lb. Addresß Main Street West and Square.* Years of wear and warmth In a "Unique" Hot Water Bottle. Quaranteed not to crack, buret or leak. Made by North British Rubber Oq. Sold by idl chemists.

The following: story is neither parable nor fable —it is fact. A certain officer of the Crown who bad made himself peculiarly unpopular with the public was, in the interests of the public and himself, transferred to another district. To him came, while in the execution of his duties, an elderly and somewhat untidy gentleman to have certain official work done. The uncivil and unpopular official in good, round, set terms rated him in the most truculent and abusive manner. When he paused for breath the elderly gentleman asked him if he had finished, and said: "Now I will introduce myself," and produced his card, the Hon. , Minister for the Department of the unpopular official. Taupo earthquakes have not disfigured the land as much as the hand of man. Huka Falls are one of the sights of the district. Not so wonderful as Aratiatia, they have a beauty of their own, and not one than has caught the first view of them that one gets from the corner where the road from Wairakei to Taupo takes a sudden bend, and you look down on the wonderful sight, can ever forget it. From a rocky channel, so evenly cut as to suggest human workmanship, the noble Waikato Kiver spreads into a fan of foam, shot with sea-green, which tumbles down into an immense basin, the river gradually subsiding and flowing away majestically, almost the colour of the ocean. The fernyledge on the right-hand side of the falls, just above river-level, has been disfigured by a wooden power-house, where hydro-electricity in generated, with the iron water-pipe running down the rocky face, the construction reminds one of nothing so much as a washhouse with an unusually long chimney. It is astonishing that anyone can ever get permission for such a disfigurement of one of the finest sights in the district, but now the deed has been done the least that anyone should stipulate is that the eyesore should be given a coat of green paint, or that creepers should be planted to hide this painful reminder of the laundry plastered on the face of one of New Zealand's most perfect falls. The action of the Government in annulling orders given by ex-soldier farmers for payments on their accounts to patriotic societies was commented on by a retired business man in Gisborne (states the "Herald"). He referred to a well-substantiated case which the local Defence Committee had had brought under his notice. This man, a soldier settler, had taken up dairying near Wanganui, and had given to his milk company authority to pay to the Gisborne patriotic funds a certain portion of a loan he had received from the Defence Committee. The repayments had continued for about two years, when lately the milk company was served with a notice to the effect that such authorities were not to be acted upon unless they carried the endorsement of the Crown Lands Commissioner. The soldier, who was also, of course, under an obligation to the Government, was allowed sufficient out of his milk cheque to pay his personal expenses, but could not make any further repayments to the Defence Committee, as the Government took the balance of his income. In effect, the Government was transferring to the patriotic societies a much larger shares of financial responsibility than was fair, tying up the patriotic funds to ensure its own returns.