NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10956, 19 July 1921, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

The Wairarapa egg circle is at present dispatching 1000 dozen eggs to Wellington weekly. Another thirty men will be sent to Relief works from Napier and Hastings to-day. The total amount of the Crawford bequest received by the Feathereton Borough Council is £9278 6s Sd. Dannevirke has been substituted for Napier as the headquarters of No. 7 Regimental District. Some settlers, it is stated. have found excellent outcrop® of coal on their properties in the Orepuki district. The industrial dispute in which the Canterbury Operative Bricklayers’ Union has cited nearly 300 employers will be heard at a sitting of the Conciliation Council on July 25th. A young woman, of a reputedly good family, has been sentenced to a month’s iniprisonment at Wanganui on a charge of being an idle and disorderly person. Very heavy rain was experienced in the Manawatu district on Saturday night and S'unday. Reports from the other side of the range indicate that there has also been a heavy rainfall in the lower Hawke’s Bay and Forty-mile Bueh districts. The number - of motor-eare register ed in Hamilton (over 200) means a motor-car for every six , persons. = Practically every means of transport in the Waikato is by motor-car, truck, motor-cycle, or push bike. The horse has been put to one side. During the past seven years, 39, od bridges and 18 big culverts have been replaced in the Dannevirke county by permanent structures in concrete, ajid three new bridges have also been built, the total expenditure being £9571.

“Science, after all, is only organised common-sense,” remarked Mr Justice Frazer recently. “But common-sense is not evenly distributed, fit is rather an uncommon thing,' in spite of its name. We are always doubtful of a man who prides himself on hie com-mon-sense, and is always talking about it^” The present winter is stated to be one of tfig best experienced in South, land during the last forty years. Evidence of the mildness of the season is afforded by the fact that a resident of Invercargill the other day picked the last of his roses growing outside, a perfect bloom. * During . a bankruptcy, meeting at Wanganui, one of the counsel present was endeavouring to ascertain how the stock in the estate had been valued. “Oh,” replied one of the creditors, “each side had a representative, and 1 also assisted.” “I see,” said the counsel, “the valuing, then, was done by arbitration.” “Oh," no,” casually remarked the creditor, “ just produced a bottle : of whisky and matters proceeded most amicably.”

. A visit to tlie returned soldiers’ settlement at Reporoa was recently made by Mr F. F. Hoek-ly, M.P., who states ho was greatly pleased with all he saw. He met nearly all of the settlers, and was most favourably impressed with them. He found them all hard at work, and all satisfied. He' was also muoh'-pleabe-d with the stock, which were in splendid condition, comparing most favqurably with the stock in any other district. The crops, likewise. impressed him. There is understood to be some possibility that the Railway Department will shortly discontinue running the through express train from Invercargill to Christchurch on three days of the week, states the Dunedin correspondent of the “Lyttelton Times.” This is-believed to be due to the fact that this train is not very largely patronised, and ao most of the passengers are said td travel to suit the run- j ning of the steamer Maori, it apparently is considered that a tri-weekly service will oope with requirements. A crowded audience faced an auctioneer in the inward goods-shed of the Auckland railway yards one day this week to bid for some of the queer collection of “lost luggage” put up for auction. The forgotten articles ranged from a full-sized cart and a whole “bush chimney” down to dozens of bundles of umbrellas and piles of clothing that looked very much in lack of soap and water. Seme-'remarkably big bids were made for,odd lots, and boxes and bags were specially popular —-under the impression, no doubt, that they might contain something fabulously valuable, as everything is sold just as it is found. In these days of straitened financial cireu instances with local bodies, the Waikato County Council has hit upon an approved idea by which reading attention can be given when the persistent demands of settlers along a route lead the local body to the conclusion tlia-t the call is urgent (says the “Waikato Times”). The ratepayers themselves are called upon to form working bee, and put the work through at the usual contracting rates, hut on the understanding that no outpayment will be made until the ratepayer with the bill against the council for this labour has met his obligation for rates.

Milk farmers and vendors are now conferring over the price of milk for the -Auckland city supply fpr the coming summer season. Winter prices, which are always higher owing to the higher cost of production, are in force to the end of August. It has not yet been decided what the summer price will be, but it will be something in the vicinity of last summer’s price, which enabled milk to be retailed at Sd per quart. It in pr.obaßle that it will be even less, as this last summer’s price was fixed on a butter-fat basis when butter had reached a fictitious figure, and since then there ‘has been a big drop. Further conferences will be held next week before the price for the coming season in Auckland is de cided.

The second, or eastward-bound, letter round the world south of the equator, reached New Zealand last week. The letter was sent from New York to Halifax, England, from Halifax to Wellington, and goes thence to New York. The letter reached Halifax at 9 a.m. on May'23rd, and was posted on at 6 p.m. the following day. It was received by, Sir Heaton Rhodes at 4 p.m. on July 14th, and was posted on at 5 p.m. the same day, with a note to the effect that the last mail to San Francisco had left Wellington two days before and that the next mail wonld not leave till approximately August 4th. Two letters, eastward and westward-bound respectively, a.ro also being sent round tho world north of the equator, the object being to compare the time taken hv seaborne letters to go round the world with that taken by letters sent Jjy aeroplane.

Many of the bridges in the Hohiatua county are in -a very bad 6tate, and settlers are apprehensive of the possibility of accident.

A man 60 years of age, with a history of 21 years of drunkenness and vagabondage, was sent to gaol at Auckland last week for three months. He was found picking up refuse in the streets for food.

The flag which was purchased by the school children of Otaki and presented to the Maori reinforcement, has been returned from France to Sister Lewis, of Otaki. It is the only one of 'the Maori Contingent flags which has been returned, and will probably be handed over to the Otaki peace memorial committee.

The military sanatorium at Waipukurau is to be handed over to the control pf the Health Department on August Ist by/the Defence Department. This will be the first institution that was established for the treatment of soldier ailments to be transferred to the control of the civil authorities, and it is anticipated that others will fpllow-

A meeting of shareholders of the Featherston Co-operative Dairy Co, Ltd., was held on Friday, when 48 were present. Mr H. jf. Hutchings presided. Special interest was attached owing to the meeting being convened by shareholders to call on the directors to show cause why Mr McKeown had been dismissed as manager. Mr J. T. Bicknell, who lodged the petition, moved a vote of no-con-fidence in the directors. This was debated at length, but decisively defeated, only the mover and seconder and two new shareholders voting for it.—Wairarapa' “Age.*’