LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Northern Advocate, 20 December 1919, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thursday last was the 52nd anniversary of the abolition of negro slavery in the Unite* States.

The meeting of the Whangarei County Council was an unusually short one yesterday., The order paper was not lengthy and it contained no very contentious subjects.

The cricket match played at Christchurch between Canterbury College and Otago University, resulted in a victory for the first-named team by an innings and 80 runs.

At the conclusion of the year's school work at Kamo, Mr and Mrs Teesdale and the lady assistants of the school, gave a tennis afternoon and tea, at the courts, to the St. 6 proficiency pupils. The occasion was utilised to make the transition from the primary to the secondary a pleas, ing and memorable event.

Out of three proposals for various municipal improvements, aggregating £78,000, only one, providing for extension of the gasworks, was carried at a poll of Masterton ratepayers on Thursday last,

The clerk of the Whangarei County Council has to-day received information from the Advances Office that the Whareora'-Hora Hora loan of £4500 is now available, and may be lifted as soon as the debentures are completed-

The managing director of the Northern Coal Co. has made a statement that as a result of the go-slow policy being adopted again at Kiripaka mines the works will be closed at Christmas. He declared that the company did not intend to resume operations until the men were prepared to give n "fair, honest, square deal,"

A torrential thunderstorm passed over Whangarei yesterday afternoon. The weather had'been threatening and oppressive all the morning, and the downpour was not unexpected. The thunder was not exceptional but tho rain was the heaviest witnessed for a long time. Within n few. minutes of the fall of the first few drops tho storm was in full blast and the gutter water was running up to the kerb. At Marshall's corner a block occurred in a culvert and the water banked up across the street and right up to tho doorstep of the shop. Had the rajn conliuued for any length of time serious Hooding would have been inevitable. Tlie rainfall recorded for the past 24 hours totals 2.10 inches and the brief storm in the afternoon was accountable for two inches of the total. So far as can be ascertained no damage was done to fruit crops, but it is expected that oat crops and cut hay will suffer. The is-.iii, however, will generally prove of immense beneiit to the whole district