LOCAL AND GENERAL

Northern Advocate, 15 August 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr. J. C. Thomas, Tikao, has consented to contest the Southern Maori seat in the Reform interests at the general election. He is a farmer at Wainui, Banks Peninsula.

The chairman and clerk of the Whangarei County Council were yesterday appointed to set out the evidence to be submitted by the council to the select committee appointed to inquire into highway linanee. Willows in the Mangakahia Valley are causing siltage and blockage in the river, with the result that some of the finest flats in New Zealand are suffering from too long inundation. The trouble is not a new one to the valley.

At the July meeting of the Whangarei County Council a letter was written to the Prime Minister urging the widening of the scope of the No. 5 scheme to allow more advantage to be taken of it. Yesterday a reply was received stating that the matter was being taken up with the chairman of the Unemployment Board.

“The bets made on the course are getting fewer, and those made off the course are growing larger, ’V- said Mr. H. T. Armstrong, M.P., at the annual reunion of the Canterbury Owners and Breeders ’ Association. 1 i Consequently, ” he' continued, “the revenue from the totalisator is getting less. You trotting men should devise some method of getting revenue from the bets made off the course.’ ’

The Whangarei County Council some time ago asked for a grant outside the ordinary county allocation for the metalling and formation of Keay’s deviation. The Minister of Public Works replied that he hail received the council’s letter of the 25th ultimo, enclosing a petition signed by 35 settlers in reference to the formation and metalling of the road. The Minister stated that the would look into the matter, with a view to seeing what action could be taken.

Convincing figures of the improvement which herd testing brings to dairying were quoted by Mr. A. P. Brown, manager of the Whangarei Group Herd Testing Association, in addressing shareholders at the annual meeting of the Waipu Dairy Company. Testing began in Denmark, he said, in 1905, when the average production for 8000 herds was 801bs. per cow. There had been a gradual increase in the number tested, and- the -individual production, until in ,1928 the figures were 40.000 and 270 respectively. When the movement started in New Zealand in 1908 the average butter-fat per cow was 148, whereas today it was 220, The Waikato Association, the largest in New Zealand, had grown from 31.000 cows and an average of 207 in 1913, to 94,000 cows and an average of 262 today, despite the fact that in 1926 the conditions were altered, so that every cow in the herd must bo tested. The proportion of cows giving below 2001bs. fat was 48 per cent, in 1924 and 22 per cent, in 1929, and the herds averaging below 200 were 44 per cent, in the first year and. only 9 per cent, in 1929. Every 10. pounds increase per cow in the Waikato meant £1,000,000 worth more butter exported from New Zealand.

On Hie 71 h inst. the f’lildh' Trustee was, by the Supreme Court, constituted administrator of the ('state of Louis Oliver Baigent, late of Ouerahi, school teacher.

In respect of the Maungata pet cKaigoose road, the Whangarei ( ounty Council yesterday decided to take certain lands under the Public Works Act, as the owner was not willing to allow the road to pass through. Or. Hayward said the other owners concerned had given the land.

At the meeting of the Whangarei County Council yesterday, the Minister of Public Works wrote in reference to the Waipu Post Office to Maungaturoto road, stating that he would give the matter further consideration when the Public Works Estimates were being prepared for next year.

An "Advocate” representative was shown this morning one of the three volumes which formed the first edition of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas. TTiis edition, printed in 1882, consisted of a limited number of copies, and is today highly sought after. Mr C. S. Solomon, of Whangarei, is the possessor of a complete set.

The tannery and hair works of Messrs. Lee and Arlington, Ltd., at Otahuhu, were saved from destruction by fire last evening by the promptness of the Onohunga brigade. Mr. Arlington, who returned to the works shortly before 7 o’clock, found the top floor of the building on fire just above the boiler room.

A meeting of the Whangarei Rugby Union was held yesterday with reference to the commercial travellers’ effort to raise funds for the unemployed in Whangarei. The Rugby Union decided that August 29 j|ould be a suitable date for the occasion, and that a fancy dress football match would take place then, providing Harding Shield matches did not eventuate.

Five informations were brought against Colin Tuck, sawmiller, Frankton, in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court yesterday, for alleged breaches of the heavy traffic regulations and county by-laws relating to heavy traffic. Defendant pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying a load exceeding five tons over a road classified to carry rot more than 4i tons. He was fined £5.

The De Soutter monoplane which was damaged when the pilot, Mr. J. Si Blackmore, made a forced landing at Forest Lake, near Hamilton, on Wednesday morning, has been dismantled and removed to the Te Rapa aerodrome, where repairs will be carried out. It transpires that the cause of the engine failure was a shortage of petrol, as when the tank was examined by Mr. M. A. Scott, the owner of the machine, it was found to be completely dry.

It is expected that four Whangarei residents will be among the 70 members of the Ruapehu Ski Club who will be present at the club’s sports meeting to be held in the National Park from August 21 to September 1. About 25 members will make the visit from Auckland and more than 30 from Wanganui and Taranaki. Members of South Island clubs are also expected to be present, and the accommodation at the Chateau is fully booked. A comprehensive programme has been drawn up by the committee, the object being to give scope to both experienced ski-ers and novices. A number of ladies’ races will also be decided.

During the course of his remarks at the graduation ceremony in the Auckland Town Hall yesterday, the president of the Auckland University College, Sir George Fowlds, said: “In connection with the economic position of New Zealand as part of a world-wide problem, I should like to say that the cxisiting conditions are a challenge and a menace to our civilisation. It is a reflection on human intelligence and education that in a world that has so vastly developed its capacity for production of the good things of life as to glut the store-houses of the world, the system of distributing should be so defective that millions of men and women are deprived of the opportunity of getting a reasonable supply of food and clothing.’’

Whangarei sporting interests are well distributed today. The Brake Shield team is visiting Kaitaia, with the hope of wresting the trophy from Mangonui. A senior B team is playing the Northern Wairoa representatives at Dargaville, and the final of the senior championship between Maungakaramea and Old Boys is the attraction at Eugby Park. Two League teams travelled to Dargaville to play an exhibition game. An Auckland basketball team arrived yesterday afternoon. This morning it met High School and this afternoon the .Whangarei representatives. It is also a big day for hockey. The combined Auckland senior clubs are meeting the Whangarei team which won the Country Week tourney, and the Auckland junior representatives oppose a Whangarei B team.

Here are some wonderful snips for week-end shoppers at Henry Wilson's Sale:—46in. Cream Bordered Casement Cloth, 11-ld yard; 36in. Heavy Winceyette, reduced from 1/9 to 11M yard; Heavy Coloured Eoller Towelling, 84d; Stout Pillow Cases, 1/4 pair; 36in. Figured Wineeyette, worth 1/6, for 104 d; Wool and Silk Hose, 2/6; 54in, White Sheeting, 1/3; 80in. Ditto, 1/11; Men’s Twist Working Shirts, 3/6; Boys’ All Wool Tweed Trousers, all sizes, 3/6, and Men’s Fine Natural All Wool Singlets, 5/11.

Keep your Piano Tuned Tip True. — Bing up Dobson, Phone 192.

A Kalpaki farmer,. Lev Cowley, was lined £2 in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court yesterday for operating a motor lorry with a load exeeeding two tons without having first seeured a heavy traffic lieen.se.

Sentence of reformative detention for a period not exceeding IS months was passed by Mr Justice Smith, in the Supreme Court at Auckland, yesterday, on Daniel Sicely, farmer, of Te Teko, who had been found guilty of the theft of a bullock. In passing sentence, His Honour said the probation officer's report was one of the most scathing he had seen.