TOWN EDITON.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 16010, 21 December 1922, Page 6

TOWN EDITON.

The Wairarapa Pastoral and Agr'cultural .Society lias decided* lo hold a "stock drive" in February in aid of it.s funds,

The tender of a Waiigaiuii firm for the supply of all heart ironbark poles was accepted at a meeting of the Mana-watu-Orbua Power Board. The. contract. price was £IS,CCO below- that allowed for in the estimates.

No applications have been received by the Canterbury Land Board for n thirty-five years' lease of the Clent Hil-s run of 30.100 acres, in the Ashburton County. The half-yearly rental is set down at £2OO. or 3 l-5d per acre per annum,

Mr J. T. Ashton, a well-known dairy farmer at Warkworth, Auckland, met with a painful accident a few day's ago, being t6ssed several times' by a young bull,'which came behind him unseen. Mr. Ashton is badly bruised, and will be confined to h's bed for some time.

The death occurred en Friday of Mrs Ann Robertson, aged 98 years, Rotorua's oldest resident. She was born at Scone, in Perthshire, and arrived in Australia in 1331 and in New Zealand in 1864. settling at Rotorua in 1879. She leave-; a son and three daughters.

Experts state that the average age of the. white and rod pine trees now being cut by the West Coast, sawmills is about 400 years. The size of a tree is not a tfue indication of its age, for a tree with a. bole 18in in diameter may bt as old as one with a 4ft. bole.

Captain A. W. Pearse, representative of the Port of London Authority for New Zealand and Australia, who has arrived in Napier from Wellington, was many yeai's ago second 1 and chief officer with LorU Jellicoe's father, who at trial time was commodore of the Royal Mail Packet steamer Moselle. In seven mouths' time the munichia! electric power station will bo ready to generate current, .stated Mr J. A. Nash, M.P., chairman of the Manawatu-Orora Power Board. He added 1 that in 13 months the reticulation scheme! would he rpmnlete, though a. part of the lewn could bo supplied before then. As a result of the revival of yachting in Wanganui some new 14-footers will be ready for sailing at an early date. Some'years ago this sport attracted great interest in Wanganui, and in all probability the "white wings" will once again come into their own and be more numerous than ever on the river.

E. W. Carr, of the East Sydney Amateur Athletic Club, and' now considered the. greatest sprinter in Australasia, was a member of the touring New South Wales Rugby team which played at Oisborne in August, 1921. lie was then regarded as a brilliant- sprinter, and showed his capacities in numerous attacks by the New South Wales backs. He played at centre-three-quarter.

It is curious (observes the Taranaki Herald) that the electoral rolls do not recognise the fact that many women now earn their own living. Though our shops, offices, schools, .and hospitals contain large numbers of women workers they all appear on the roll under the heads of spinster, married or widow. It is evident that women still regard marriage as their real occupation, or they would have seen to it that their occu pations were correctlv entered on the roll.

j A concession of 20 per cent, on the I freight on motor cars has been agreed | to by the Union Steamship Company a.s | it result of representations recently made |by the Wellington Automobile Club. J This will apply to cars shipped fo and from South Island ports and will operate from January 1. When cars I are accompanied by passengers a* fur- } ther reduction of 25 per cent, on the I return freight will be given. The return freight reductions will apply in the case of a car shipped to Lyttelton and i returned from Picton, or vice versa.

An ex-pupil of the Gisborne Hi-jh ' School, Mr R. S. Aitken, has secured the i only pass with distinction awarded in the j New Zealand University examinations in the final section of the medical division. Mr Aitken is a son of the Rev. Jas. and i Mrs Aitken, of Gisborne, and has creati ed something of a record in his studies. j He was educated at the Mosgiel and Gisborne' High Schools, passing from the latter to the Medical School of the Otago University. Ho topped the New Zealand lists in the junior and senior scholarship examinations, and in each of the ♦ hree sections of the medical examinations has secured special distinction. The two youths charged yesterday with breaking and' entering and theft will Have to answer a charge of a good deal more .serious nature when they opnear on remand at Wairoa to-morrow. Jt appears that a portion of the property found in their possession when they were arrested comprised' two parcels which had been among the contents of a mailbag stolen from Tarewa homestead, on the road they had traversed. The bar had been swung on a post outside the homestead gate, for the convenience of the mail car, and wag later found to he missing. Reid and Lester will be charged with the theft of the bag and interference with His Majesty's mails. An attempt to introduce grouso in the Tongariro National Park will be made in a few weeks' tirne. Mr. T. If. Lowry, of Hnwke's Bay, 'who returned by the Niagara, has donated seven brace of birds from Cumberland, which are due to arrive in Wellington about the end •of this month. The utmost care has ■ been taken iby the donor to sep that I everything possible is done which could I add to the chances of the birds surviving the long sea journey. They are coming out under the-' care of a- special attendant, who,/ will receive a piciniifm for every bird which ■reaches New Zea land alive. They are being! fed on frozen heather and other specially prepared bird food. It is fiftv years since the first attempt was made to introduce grouse into New Zealand, but this, and all subsequent attempts failed, no bird' having reached her" alive. If the grouse survive, they will be forwarded on ar ; rival to the honorary warden of the .park,.Mr. John Cullen, to whom Ml* Lowry, while in England, also sent a quantity of French heather seed fot sowing at Tongariro.