LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The first locally-grown green peas of the season met with a ready sale at tho Auckland City Markets yesterday. Only a small quantity of fair quality was available, but a good season is expected if the present fine weather continues. Dominion Day, which £alls on Monday, will be observed as a holiday by a large number of business and professional people. Law offices, banks, insuranco offices and some of the Government offices will be closed. There will bo no sitting of the Supremo Court, and a short sitting of the Police Court, to deal with urgent cases only, will ho held. When tho children of the Bombay primary school heard that SquadronLeader Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieu-tenant, Uhn were to land at Mangere on their visit to Auckland, they saved their pennies, and on the day of the expected arrival hired a bus and set forth, only to return disappointed. Hearing of the incident, Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith decided to visit tho school en route to Rotorua, much to tho delight of the children. While there he planted an Australian gum to commemorate the flight and a totara in memory of Lieutenant Moncrieff and Captain flood. The Waitcmala County Council yesterday decided to givo support to an application to the Government by settlers of the Taupaki and Muriwai districts to have a road to give a short route between Taupaki and the Muriwai Valley. The estimated cost of the work is £2OOO. 1 his support is subject to any grant from the Government not coming out of the annual county allocations. Tho party of English student farmers, who have been touring New Zealand for the past two weeks and inquiring into the possibilities of Empire migration under the overseas settlement scheme fosteied by Mr. L. S. Amery, Secretary of State for the Dominions, will arrivo in Auckland from Wellington by tho limited express on Monday morning. They will be met by officials of the Department of Agriculture and members of tho Auckland Agricultural aud Pastoral Association, and will be taken for a short tour of the Pukekobe district, inspecting the farms lands. The members of tho party will leave for Vancouver by the Aorangi on Tuesday, on their way back to England. Tho allocation of the petrol tax by the Main Highways Board, so far as it affects the Waitemata County, was criticised by members of the W aitemala County Council yesterday. It was stated the allocation on the Auckland-Hamilton road was 75 per cont.. and on the road northward through the county only 25 per cent. The council had been advised it was more important that connection should be made between Hamilton and Auckland than that further radial roads should be improved. Members stated fhey had apparently been compelled to fake " a back scat" in tho matter, and would have to leave it at that. There was considerable discussion at a meeting of tho Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on tho proposed re-naming of the Frankton Junction railway station. A resolution was received from the Hamilton Retailers' Association approving of a change to Hamilton Junction. The meeting unanimously expressed itself in favour of tho change. Small birds have made their presence felt in South Canterbury more keenly this year than for many years past. Lastmonth the Timaru-St. Andrews branch of tho Farmers' Union launched an intensive campaign. A large quantity of poisoned grain was procured, and war was declared on the small pests. Up to the present over 200 tins of poisoned grain have been disposed of, and it is estimated that in tho vicinity of 100,000 birds have been killed. Tho birds are still numerous, however, aud applications for poison are still being made. Recently the Palmerston North Borough Council decided that no footpaths fronting shops were to be swept after 8.30 in the morning—this, following upon numerous complaints regarding nuisance caused by the dust raised. The inspectors have recently been seeking out offenders with the result that three of them appeared before the Court this week. The borough solicitor did not press for heavy penalties, stating that the cases were brought as a warning to others. A fine of 5s with 10s costs in each case was imposed. Tho abundanco of seals round tho West Coast Sounds and on the islands south of New Zealand has led many southern fishermen to express the opinion that the sealing season should bo opened again, says an Otago paper. After every trip round the coast fishermen are able to report that seals are plentiful, while shepherds who recently returned from Campbell Island stated that tho bays and headlands there were thick with them A petition was sent to the Minister of Marine a year or two ago, but no move was made by the Government to declare an open season. A lecture on the Pakihi land problem was given last week in Nelson by Professor Easterfield, Director of the Cawthrcn Institute. For some time past lie has beon studying tho subject, and has spent considerable time in West Coast districts, whore there are large tracts of Pakihi land. Probably the most important. side of tho lecture was tho bringing forcibly before the gathering the urgont necessity of attending to soil problems in New Zealand. Tho professor said it was easy enough to do good farming of first-class land, but when it came to fourth-class land—under which grading Pakihi lands come—a man not only neoded to bo a good farmer, but also needed the assistance of everything that could be done in tho way of scientific research to make a success of it. Valuable experimental work was being done on land given to the Cawtluon Institute at a peppercorn rental by the Railway Department, and last year tho Buller County Council and the Westport Borough Council agreed to give financial assistance to the experiments. Tho Government also agreed to subsidise the grants at tho rate of £2 for £l.