PLUNKET SOCIETY.

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 1 November 1922, Page 2

PLUNKET SOCIETY.

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the above society was held in the Council Cham, bers on Friday afternoon the 27th inst. Mrs C. M. Strouts presiding. Mcsdames Sheild, Hunger, Mcßae Stephenson, and Ferry (Hon. Sec.) w re also present. Apologies for absence were received from Mesdames F. W. Grainger and Holtham. The minutes of the previous me ting were read and confirmed. The Nurse’s monthly report showing 5 new eases, mothers’ and babies’ visits to rooms 137, and Nurse’s visits to homes 38, was received. As the work of the Society cannot be carried on without funds it was decided to hold a street day on the second Saturday in December, to be called the Plunkct “Rose” day, when Patoa and surrounding residents will have an opportunity of showing their appreciation of a most worthy cause and one that should command the whole hearted support of the people of the town and district. The work of saving the babies is one that should appeal to everyone. Two accounts amounting to £l/9/6 were passed for payment and the meeting then adjourned.

A man .to hand milk a small herd of 20 cows is enquired for in this issue.

The Fruit Depot has some exceptionally line spring cabbages and new potatoes on hand to-day.

Raisins for the Christmas puddings valued at £IOO,OOO were burned in the Smyrna fire.

As a result of the recent recital given by Mrs R. A. Brewer the local Cricket Club will, we understand benelit to the extent of about £4O.

As the Proficiency examinations are being hold in the local school on Thursday there will be a holiday for all pupils below Standard V.

When asked recently if he had ever seen New Zealand butter sold as anything else, a visitor from England said he had seen New Zealand butter sold as Normandy rolls fresh from France,

According to a Government publication the number of persons employed on farms in the the six counties surrounding Wanganui total 7403. There are 1035 in Patea, 723 in Waitotara, 606 in Wanganui, 778 in Waimarino, 856 in Kaitieke, and 2645 in Eangi. tikei.

“Extinction is not the Maori’s fate; absorption by the pakeha is his des_ tiny,’’ declared Dr. P.H. Buck (Te Eangihiroa) in a lecture at Auckland. There were at present slightly over 50,000 Maoris in New Zealand. In the Maori Pioneer Battalion during the late war in Europe the percentage of Natives with white blood in them was about 40.

A Maori who gave evidence in a case heard recently in Wanganui admitted that he had had about a dozen drinks on the occasion under discussion but explained that he was not drunk only “full.” By way of further information he volunteered the explan, ation that “when a fellow got drunk he talk, talk, talk all the .time and when a man got, very drunk he don’t know nothing j and lie down and go to sleep.

“The greatest eye opener to me during my visit / to England was the great volume of motor traffic and the perfect state of the country roads, ’ ’ said Mr W. Charmau on his return from a six months ’ trip abroad . ‘ ‘ Why, ’ ’ ho said smilingly, “I saw more mud in walking from the Ferry Buildings ,to the Auckland City Markets than I encountered during the whole time I was away." The motor traffic, he said, wa.s enormous, continuous streams of lorries, charabancs, motor cars and motor cycles travelling up and down the principal cross country roads. Everywhere he went the roads were being improved, widened, straightened and levelled, to adapt them to the ever increasing needs of the motor, the large army of unemployed being extern sivcly employed on these roads. The main road from London to Dover wms being -widened to 85 feet including a single footpath. All over England country roads w’ere being macadamised and sealed with tar and sand.