LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18016, 15 February 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Five steamers are en route to New Zealand with passengers from the United Kingdom. Two are due this month and threo about the middle of March. The Shaw, Savill and Albion liner Atheriic is due at Wellington n«xt Tuesday, and will be followed by Ihe same company's steamer Pakeha, wi'h about 1000 passengers, due a'* Wellington on February 28. The New Zealand Shipping Company's liner Remuera is due at Auckland, from Southampton, on March 15 and the Federal liner Dorsot, from Liverpool, is expected to reach this port the following day. T)io fifth steamer is the Shaw, Savill and Albion liner Corinthic, which is duo at Wellington on March 19.

Tho necessity for the early provision of further facilities for agricultural education in Auckland was emphasised yesterday by several members of the provincial executive of the Farmers' Union. A motion by Mr. A. E Harding was adopted, that in the opinion of the executive the time had arrived when action should be taken to' provide additional facilities for agricultural education in the district and that the executive should render all possible assistance to the education authorities in their endeavours to obtain such facilities.

A ten-year-old boy has been missing from his home at Edp.ndale since Saturday morning. He is described as wearing a grey suit and a green-linod sun hat, and he wa R barefooted. He was las! seen on Monday, going toward Epsom from EUcrslie.

The benefit of systematically culling and testing a herd is demonstrated by the returns from Messrs, Murray Brothers' farm at Opotiki. Specialising in Jerseycows, the brothers have been working to increase their standard of butter-fat production on tho rich alluvial plains, with the result that over 40 cows in their fine herd are each producing 4001bs. of butterVfat a year, compared with the average yield of 1621b. in the Dominion. The Government inspector has expressed the opinion that this herd is among the finest in New Zealand and that the owners are setting a splendid example to other farmers.

The cost of any improved access to the Olahuhu railway station will have to be borne by the local authority concerned, a s the Railway Department is unable to provide the desired facilities at its own expense. This position was revealed by a letter received by the Manukau County Council yesterday from the actingMinister for Railways, Hon. D, H. Guthrie, through Sir Frederic Lang, M.P. The letter said the department's engineers considered that a subway would bo better than an extension of the overbridge, and if the necessary funds were provided by those concerned, action would be taken to provide the improvements asked for.

The burden which some farmers are carrying is indicated by the mortgages on a 200 acre dairy farm in the Taranaki district. The first mortgage is £3300 at 5J per cent., and the second £8400 at the same rate of interest. Then follows a third mortgage of £1948, a fourth of £3751, and a fifth of £2763, all at the same interest. The total mortgage indebtedness is over £100 per acre.

Trading absolutely for cash seems to be extending frorn the towns to country

stoifskeepers along the. West Coast of

the North Island. One of the latter stated 1 that last October ho decided to adopt the cash basis of trading. At the outset the alteration did not look too promising, and his sales went down to zero. Business then began to revive, and in December he had a record month. Last month his trade was about normal, and he had the added satisfaction of being able to handle the cash for every article that went out of the shop. His clients were nearly all farmers, and it was surprising how soon they adapted themselves to the change, and many of them had intimated that thry were strongly in its favour, as they realised that the better the purchasing power of tho storekeeper, the better it would be for them in tho long run. Recently a Patca firm of grocers also launched out on the cash basis.

A statement that a Crown tenant in the Nelson district had, without any previous notification from the Land Board, received a letter from a solicitor demanding payment of his rent, plus costs, was made in Parliament last week by Mr. R. P. Hudson, M.P. The Minister for Lands replied that he did not think Mr. Hudson could have been informed of tho whole facts of tho case. A tenant in every case received two or threo notifications from the Land Board before tho case was put in the hands of tho solicitor as a final resort. Tho Land Board had full power to give consideration to a man, Crown tenant or returned soldier, who was doing his best. Tho law was not put into action against a man before he had had due consideration.

A flagrant example of pillaging was shown a representative of .the Christchurch Press by an importer last week. A small case originally filled with engineers' twist drills, of an estimated value of £100, contained only cobble stones. These had been neatly and closely packed together, and tho fastenings of the caso gave no indication that it had been tampered 'with. As if to add insult to injury, the person who substituted the stones for the goods left the list of tho different lines of twist drills the caso ought to have contained, neatly spread out on top of the stones.

The new Parliament Buildings in Wellington had cost, up to November 25 last, tho sum of £197,881. The, contract for the building was let on December 12, 1913, and the amount was £151,639. The date for completion wa s December 12, 1915. The contract did not include the foundations, the supply pf bricks, heating, elevators, electric lighting, bronze work, and inj terior marble, which were either let tn I separate contracts or carried out by the | Public Works Department. The ' estimated cost of completing the unfinished portion is £37,000, and the probable time of completion is now fixed as June next. The Public Works Department announces that a considerable additional sum will have to be allowed oh the main contract for extra costs due to the war. A committee has been appointed to ascertain exactly what amount of additional cost should bo allowed. An illustration of the precipitancy with which some persons act, and the immunity from serious consequences they enjoy is recorded by a Wellington paper. A well-known citizen, over 60 years of age, chased a fast-moving tram for 200 yds. last Friday, and boarded it on the wrong side while it was still in motion. Discovering immediately that his purse had been dropped in the chase, he, without a second's hesitation, left the car as hurriedly as he boarded it, and thougn the tram was going fairly fast, alighted safely and proceeded to put up record time back to his starting point.

The theory that the fire at the warehouse of John Bums and Co., Ltd., last Saturday morning was caused by a match igniting escaped gas is not favoured by Superintendent Wilson, of the Auckland Fire Brigade. After making a survey of the locality where the fire originated and the immediate surroundings, Mr. Wilson is of 6pinion that, as quantities of oakum, a highly inflammable material, were stored immediately beneath the gas iet, which was at first thought to be responsible for the outbreak, the match used to light the gas was accidentally dropped among the oakum. The " insurance adjusters are still engaged in assessing the damage, and although this work is not quite completed, the figures so far compiled denote that the total loss will be in excess of £10,000.