LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Northern Advocate, 7 August 1919, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The transports Matatua (with 682 returning soldiers) and the Ulimaroa (1012 men from Egypt) are due to arrive at Auckland tomorrow.

The committee of the Onerahi Regatta Club met on Tuesday evening for the transaction of routine business. Rules were revised and brought up to date and preparations made for the annual meeting. It was decided to vote £5 to the Municipal Band.

"Opposition is the life of trade and in this instance Northland has a lot to be thankful for. The opposing elements have been the means of illuminaibingt the N scheme as nothing els e could have done".— Mr Tremaine, Ruatangata Branch P. U. at the Harbour conference.

"Great credit is due to the local press for the stand taken in upholding the scheme. The figures and estimates .published have educated th e farmer and the silent man so that they may now be found in the following of the progressive movement".—A speaker at the Harbour

conference

With the growing interest in politics caused by the return of Sir Joseph Ward and Mr Massey there should be a good attendance at the meeting in the Town Hall supper room this evening to discuss the formation of a branch of the Labour Party in Whangarei. Th e " conveners extend a cordial invitation to all interested to attend.

Heard in an Auckland tram-car: "What is all this noise about Continuance of the Liquor Licenses? Who wants it bad enough to fight for it anyway? I take a drink when it is near, but care little whether I get it or not." His companion replied: "Oh, there is money in it for the man who makes and sells it. These are the men who provide the money to keep up the Continuance agitation. It is only the man who sells it who keeps up the fight and makes the racket." 88

Peace demonstrations at Nuhaka, near Wairoa, were broken up by drunken Maoris, a dance, picture show and supper having to be abandoned. The settlers express great and have requested the Justice Department to station a constable at Nuhaka. Vviiangarei is abiv e with political activity to-day. Messrs Mander, Curtis, Murdoch, and McLean, the aspirants for Marsden, are in town ? also Mr S. C. Jounneaux, candidate ior Bay of Islands. To-night there will be a meeting to discuss the formation of a branch of the Labour rarty in Whangarei. The Acting-Director of the Government Meteorological Observatory announces that the totafrainfall during the month of May, exceeded the average in the North Auckland district, but all other parts of the Dominion experienced considerably less than the mean, the percentage below ranging from 12 per cent, in the excrem c south, to as much as 80 per cent, at some stations in the uury district. A big raft of 93 logs has just been towed to Whangarei by Captain W. it. Patterson, for the Whangarei Timber Company, from Whananaki. The trip took 23 hours, and the time would have been considerably shortened but for heavy adverse winds off Bream Head. At this point three hours were occupied in covering a distance of one mile. Once inside th e harbour, however, all was plain sailing, and the raft was brought into port in good order. The timber*yield is estimated at about 70,000 feet. Two good men and true, and representing different local bodies, might have been seen in the street yesterday, discussing the issues of the Harbou r Board's policy as set forth in the scheme of Mr Blair Mason. The emphatic member of the Harbour Board and the equally insistent member of the Borough ; Council discussed the various issues with commendable spirit and the resultant is, it is hoped and believed, a clearer seeing and a still more united front to the upholders of a stagnating public policy. The pictorial section of this week's issue of the "N.Z. Sporting and Dramatic Review" carries a very interesting series of happenings of New Zealand and Home interest. Amongst, the subjects the Derby Meeting at Epsom, Guards' Bands parade in London, Lady Diana Manners' wedding, trooping of the colours at Hyde Park, and various phases of spotting, while special prominence is given to the recent memorable peace pageants in Wanganui and Dunedin. A striking photo graph of Miss Frediswyke HunterT Watts adorns the frontispiece.

A committee of the Scenery Preservation and Beautifying Society, consisting of Messrs D. W. Jack, S. J. McCormick, L. Pickmere, J. D. Whitmore, S. Clayton Thome, Sandford, R. S. Finch, and D. W. Miller undertook an inspection of a few special places in th e borough that might be beautified this season. Yesterday afternoon's visitation and discussion which was of an enthusiastic nature, will have its aftermath on Tuesday next, when a deputation from the Beautifying Society will wait upon the Borough Council requesting permission to start operations immediately, and to solicit financial help.

Reference was made at the Harbour Board meeting this morning, by Mr Jas. D. McKenzie, to the destruction of trees on the property leased by the Freezing Company, at the Whangarei Heads. He questioned if the company had authority under its lease to cut timber for building purposes, yet he had it on good authority that the company was cutting and pit-sawing timber for boatbuilding and other purposes. If the right to use the timber did not exist the company should be notified. Members generally agreed that no right existed to cut. trees for timber purposes, and the matter is to be looked into. It is felt that irreparable damage may be done to one of the harbour's great beauty spots if the destruction is allowed to continue.

Scotchmen are said to be slow to see a point, and one has remembrances of the old joke concerning the son of North Britain who, when told a funny story, took a week to discover the occasion for , laughter. But the other side of the picture is that when the idea is well-in, and theccav e felt to be just, no power on earth can shift the man of the North. When that point is reached, for directness of speech the Scotchman would be hard to beat. The emphatic declarations of such yesterday at the conference on harbour matters registered an irresistible determination to launch out. The decision was summed up well in the words of Mr J. R. Mclnnes, the chairman of the Whangarei County Council, who remarked: "We are here as one family to advance the interests of the district." !

Is it essential? The Hon. W. H. Herries says: "In my opinion liquor cannot be treated as ordinary goods essential or non-essential." But, we notice, it must be carried even if essential goods are left behind! He excuses his action by saying that the people of New Zealand carried Continuance in April! But we know that the people in New Zealand voted against Continuance by a majority of 14,000. It was the absentmen who did hot know how things were done here, who swamped this majority by the liquor vote. And it seems now ? that because of their action, the liquor must now have right-of-way on our_ railways to the exclusion of essential goods- Some of the men who voted liquor are no\y. in New Zealand and want houses, or j fertilisers, or seeds, but they find that liquor must be carried first! Do they like that? 39