LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1916, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

'The 'general meeting of the Whangarei Golf "Club, cal'ei fo- Monday evening, will be held in the supperroom of the' Town Hill at X p.m., and not in th e Parochial Hall. —Advt.

•• A" conveyance will leave, the offices of the Farmers' Co-op. at 9 a.m. on ;Mbnday, 24th, for Mangapai,' in ; ' con- 1 nection;with!.the. ■ sale in .the..ibankraip t .estate of H; ; F v Ferrall,. wirich is being held* by the company there on trlat / ! '. ,, ;'' , _ '.[ : ' "\ : ."_ ',/ ■ : By thought' and usirig the opportunities close to' its hand the Forestry: Branch, of the Lands ..and. Survey Department has been able to reduce its . expenses. The report now to hand says the experiment made in 1914 of grazing sheep on the fire-breaks in the South Island plantations proved successful,, and more sheep were obtained, with the most satisfactory result, as no\. only was the cost of the fire-breaks reduced, but a very handsome profitwas made from the lambs and wool. It is proposed, when money is available, to carry the scheme further,' extending it to the North Island, and in some cases grazing a limited number of sheep in the plantations themselves.

The interim return of the sheep in the Dominion as at April 30 last was presented to th e House on Tuesday afternoon by the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture. The figures reveal a net decrease for the Dominion of 293,553, the total being 24,607,868, as against 24,901,421 last year. The North Island shows an increase of 70,786, ( and the South Island .a decrease of 664,339.. The statistics of cattle had not been kept for the last few years, but the department was.now going into the position and securing returns, and so far as these went they showed an increase of 20,000 over the figures taken four years ago. Some counties had yet to send their returns" in, and when all were in" it was expected that there would be an increase of over 300,000, which was very satisfactory.

At the Whangarei Harbour Board meeting yesterday a letter was received from Invercargill inscribed from the Borough engineer's office, stating that a reference had been noticed in th e southern press. to a proposed work of reclamation in connection with swamp flats in the Whangarei harbour. The letter very courteously went on to state that extensive works of reclamation had been undertaken at Invercargill, and gave some particulars of the work, as likely to prove of interest to the "Whangarei Harbour Board in their contemplated work of reclamation. 'Among other things'the.letter' said y £nat 'Invercargill had,, .reclaimed about-' ; -27jW acres; ( , and , the work' had- b&eni in.progress five; years. Embankments- were now' almbst' 'complete. .•'•'.;-When they-,,. wereX 'finished; the -impounded water would -be,; drawn off and drains constructed to bring the land into readiness for use,

Owing to the action of the Whangarei County Council at last Friday's meeting, the Freezing Works Company, advertise to-day that they are closing down. The history of this event may be traced through the Council's discussions for many months past. The cattle traffic to the works has rendered the Heads road so bad that the settlers on the road have complained loudly and bitterly of their disabilities. The state of the road, and the state of the Council's finances placed the Council in an awkward position. It did not, as stated at the meeting on Friday, wish to injure any industry, but it could not ignore its duty to the settlers, and as there seemed no other way out of the dilemma the Council resolved to impose a cattle toll on the use of the road. The company, it was thought, would transfer the burden of this toll to the farmers, who used the road (fifty per cent of them outside the Whangarei County) and at the prosperous prices the farmers were getting it was felt to be a fair distribution of the cost which the repair of the road would involve.