LOCAL AND GENERAL

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 12 September 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Try D. Jones, Egmont Street for plumbing and tinsmithing repairs. Telephone 111*

Messrs Boyle and Jones have an interesting replace advertisement on page I of this issue with regard to their new stock of farm and vegetable seeds.

Owing to it being an extra the name of Mrs. Hunger was inadvertently omitted as winner of the first prize for Sparaxias at the recent, Bulb Show.

A gentleman who has been connected with the cattle business for 17 years stated that he has never seen cattle and particularly store cattle going so low as at the Levin Sale on Tuesday {says the Chronicle.)

Some extraordinary hauls of trevalli were made by some 20 men and boys fishing off the lower breastwork at Lyttelton this week,' the catches being counted not by the dozen, but by the sugar-sackful.

The Farmers’ Co-Operative Organisation Society of New Zealand, Ltd, report having sold, on behalf of the Trustee of the late Edward Jollie, the Homestead block of the “Waircka Estate” (situated at Patea, and containing 10S acres) at a satisfactory figure, to Mr. J. M. Hurley of Whenuakura.

Owing to the finances of the Ivaikoura County Council being at a low ebb, it was decided that at last week’s meeting that all employees be called in and notified of the position, and that only two surfacemen be kept for outside work. Mr. W. E. Lender, (engineer) was also asked to tender his resignation to take effect three months hence. As there is no money to spend, the council could not sec its way to retain his services. Members generally showed their appreciation of his past services and regretted the action now forced on them.

Some idea of the effect of the drought in England is furnished by a letter to Dunedin resident. The correspondent states that at Brentford, in Essex, they arc selling water at per pail, and in London it is turned off for several hours a day. '

"Bowling, it seems is becoming a pastime for women," writes a London, correspondent. "It is, too, becoming a game for Royalty, for King George has had a green laid out at Windsor, and does .not disdain the "wood" himself. So one can imagine that when the New Zealand team arrives homo with it’s laurels it will find it's women-kind eager to share the Dominion's lovely greens. A graceful woman, we are told is a pleasant sight when playing bowls. As she stands delicately poised with one foot on the mat, known as the footer, to bowl her wood, she looks her best. Moreover the gentle exercise is good for the figure. That, one supposes is a reason why our city fathers take to the game when they acquire more' avoirdupois than is pleasant for them to carry.

Sir Basil Thompson tells an amusing story in "World's Work" of a man who made a living out of stealing mattresses. "He would call with a van labelled with the name of some furniture shop telling the maid tjic master had sent him for the mattresses to be cleaned and re-made. :If the master happened to be at home he apologised for having gone to the wrong house. If not, he took the mattresses. On one occasion, when he was coming loaded down the front stairs, a latch key clicked in the door. He was equal to the occasion. Before the master had deposited his hat he had swung round and w r as carrying the mattress upstairs. To’ the master's astonished enquiry he had the. ready answer that he was delivering a new mattress to Mr. Smith. On learning that the householder’s name was Jones he apologised profusely and carried the mat tresses out to hi a vau and drove off with it.

A shipment of 336 sacks of peanuts which arrived from Japan, via Sydney, recently were condemned by the Fruit Inspector, Mr. G-. Harnett, owing to the nuts being infected with meal moth. Thirty eases of shelled walnuts, also from Japan, were comdemncd and destroyed. The post in the condemned nuts had not developed into the moth stage. When fully developed the moth attacks' flour, meal, and all kinds of cereals. As far as it is known the moth has not established itself in Hew Zealand, but greater vigilance has to be exercised in the examination of all nuts from Japan, China and other places, as numbers of shipments reaching New Zealand at various times have been found to be affected. j

Eighty-one years ago the Cunard Company with a fleet of four vessels, totalling 4,G00 tons, started the first ocean steamship communication between England and America. Now the Company with it's associated lines, controls 109 vessels, built or building to total over a million tons and serving the chief ports of the world. The Cnnnard possescs the largest ship in the world, the Bercngaria, of 51,000 tons; the ship'that holds all Atlantic speed records, the Mauretania of 31,000 tons; and the ship which since her eonvertion into an/ 1 oil burning vessel, has carried a greater number of passengers than any other ship the Acquitania, of 46,000 tons.

In the course of a speech in Wellington recently, Mr. G. Mitchell M.P. said that at Bapaume he had 80 Maoris in his command, and there was a battalion or more of Americans in the line close to them. The Americans could not understand the New Zealand manner of treating the Maoris, whom they spoke of as coons. The Maoris or some of them were in an estaminet having a %rink, and some of the American soldiers were there. They told the Maoris not to come drinking there the next day, as that was ' ‘ Independence Day. ’ ’ “What day's that?” asked one of the Maoris. “ That is the day we drove the British into the sea, ” responded the American. “{That so?” remarked the Maori. “That's the day the Maori throw the Amhericon out the window. ”

Th Rev. V. Gt. Bryan King writes as follows to a Dunedin paper:— “In view of the deplorable murder of the Timaru, it seems to me that the time has come when the public should demand that the members of the police force should b® armed with something more effective than a baton. The fact that officialdom, refuses to allow police to carry arms, except while on special duty, helps to embolden members of the criminal class, who themselves arc usually provided with deathdealing weapons. Had the constable been properly equipped for self defence he would probably bo alive now, and would not have had to stand as a helpless target before Ms murderer. When the Government s:ent our soldiers forth to wage war aga.inst our foreign fooa,, they saw that tltiey were properly armed ;but the police are expected to protect themselves, und us, from the murderers and- criminals of the lowest type, with bits of wood and bare fiats. I hope that something will immediately bo done to give a greater measure of protection to the splendid body of men to whom we look to safeguard our peace and safety.” A valuable discovery was made on Monday last, when Taki Waitara, an old resident, who was engaged in loughing‘-his section on the Kaik, unearthed no fewer than fifteen Maori axes or chisels (states tic 'Western Star’). Some of the specimens were two feet in length and beautifully polished. As an indication of their value, £5 was refused for one of them. 37&MS Waitara, who is 77 years of age, lived with his grandfather on the spot where the curios were found, and is overjoyed at finding the; xlics fashiond by his anchors. t