LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18355, 22 March 1923, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Prices for beef at the . Westfield fat stock sales yesterday advanced by fully 10s a head for prime quality compared with last week, other classes being unchanged. Extra choice realised up to £1 4s, choice and prime from £ \} A . to £1 3s, and ordinary quality from 17s to 19s. The rates for cow and heifer beef ranged from 13s to £1. Prices for sheep were slightly firmer. Heavy prime wethers brought from £1 13s to £1 15s, others from £1 to £1 12s 6d. Ewes realised from 15s to £1 9s 6d. Lambs sold readily at late rates, the prices ranging from 15s to £1 9s. Competition for pigs was good, but values were lower than last week, choppers and bacon pigs bringing from £2 10s to £4 3s. The introduction of the Junior High School system is proving a somewhat costly, as well as an interesting, experiment, a fact which was noted by Mr. W. J. Campbell at the meeting of the Education Board yesterday when a grant of £400 for the erection of a metal workroom was notified. " This is the first intermediate school in New, Zealand, and if it is going to cost much more, there won't" be any more," remarked Mr. Campbell. " Before it is finished, it will have cost between £40,000 and £50.000," "The cost will be about £36,000," commented the board's architect. Glass-tight lorries for the conveyance of broken bottles were urged as a necessity at the One Tree Hill Road Board's meeting last evening. It was stated that the motor-vehicles used -for conveying broken glass from the city to the glass works at Penrose spilt glass along the Great South Road after passing Green Lane. The engineer to the board said there was a stream of broken glass on the road, and it was no unusual thing to see butt ends of broken bottles on the track. That was a serious menace, not only to horses, but also to the tyres of motor-cars. It was agreed that a letter be sent to the glass company, asking it to tako steps to stop the nuisance. The Bay of Plenty Jockey Club's meeting held at Avondale yesterday atracted a fair attendance, but the number present was somewhat below anticipations. The leading event, the Tauranga Cup, was won by Mr. John Paterson's Surveyor. The totalisator investments amounted to £24,886 10s, which is £5780 10s in advance of the sum handled at the club's meeting held at Te Aroha last year. A burning heap of coke at the gasworks, Beaumont Street, was responsible for an alarm of fire being received by the City brigade yesterday morning at 11.22. The fire was extinguished before any damage had been done. " The most striking evidence continues to reach the City Council as to the impression made on visitors to Auckland by the wonderful progress made here in municipal and other matters," said the Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gun son, yesterday. " This is a phase which our own citizens are more prone to overlook than the visitors who come to the city from time to time," he added. "It is quite certain that everywhere the standards of public requirements are being raised, and that citizens are constantly expecting, and rightly demanding, increasingly better service in all branches of civic administration." A rumour was circulated in Auckland about midday yesterday that the HuddartParker steamer Ulimaroa, en route from Sydney to Auckland, was ashore on the Three Kings. The report naturally caused considerable anxiety among the friends and relations of passengers, and numbers of inquiries were made at the company's office with respect to the rumour. At the time the report was circulated the vessel was south of Cape Brett,. and she reached Auckland shortly after 9 p.m. "You'll have to tell that to the other Young," remarked Mr. H. A. Young, S.M., at the Hamilton Magistrate's Court when a resident who, on being charged with leaving his car standing in Alma Street at night without lights, pleaded that the by-law was unreasonable under certain conditions. "He helps to make the laws," added the magistrate, "and its our duty to administer them." The section of the new tramway extension along the Great South Road, from Newmarket to Market Road, will be open for traffic not later than June next, said the Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson, yesterday. He added that the ten fine new tramcars which were coming from Britain to the order of the City Council would be placed on the old sections of the service in the city, as the latter had a prior claim on the service. An example of the high wages earned by women during the war was given at the Wanganui Magistrate's Court recently, during the hearing of a maintenance case. The complainant stated that prior to her marriage she had been employed in the office of the munition factory of Vickers, Ltd., at a salary of £7 per week. This salary was supplemented by her earnings as a trained nurse. On arrival at their office at the usual hour one morning last week the employees of a Christchurch firm were dismayed to find the floors of two rooms flooded. The carpets and several other articles were thoroughly drenched. Someone in the flat above had left the taps running all night, and the water had t oozed through the ceilings and down the walls. The need for improvement of the tramway tracks in Newmarket, particularly in Broadway, was discussed by the Newmarket Borough Council last evening. Mr. N. Kelleway said there was a drop of several inches at the sides of the rails, and the undulations between the lines he described as " young mountains." He asked whether it was not possible to bring special pressure to bear on the city authorities in regard to the matter. The Mayor, Mr. S. Donaldson, said it was not a question of asking a favour, because under the deed of delegation the City Council undertook to keep the roadway in good order. On his motion it was decided to endeavour to arrange a meeting with the Tramways Committee of the City Council regarding maintenance of the tracks. Driven entirely by water, a new sawmill at Nelson Creek, which is one of a few of its kind in the Dominion, will be opened very shortly. Great interest is taker, in this mill by the public, and it is one of the sights of Nelson Creek. While its capacity is equal to that of any mill of similar size, it is calculated that the running expenses will work out at £1000 cheaper than any on the West Coast. It will be a great demonstration of the power of water, properly controlled. An Otahuhu carrier, Robert Muir King, has been adjudicated a bankrupt. The first meeting of creditors will be held on April 10. The old Scotia mine, at Merrijigs, Inangahua, which has been closed down for the past four years, is to start work again in about three weeks' time. The new company, which has been formed to work the mine, will, when the shaft has been unwatered, employ eight or ten men on development work. Just prior to the mino closing down a reef was struck in the shaft, and it is understood that the new company is about to test its possibilities. Manawatu orchardists propose to make a combined effort to combat the blackbird pest, which is occasioning severe less. It is stated that blackbirds eat nothing else but fruit when they can get it. The sawmill industry is again in a flourishing state throughout Southland. The demand for sawmill hands is more than equal to the supply, while a number of new mills are going up.