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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18254, 24 November 1933, Page 6

Go the motion of Mr. M. T. Traftord, the Poverty Bay Power Board to-day authorised a preliminary survey of the Knrmkanaia Valley demand for electrical service.

At last night’s meeting of the Poverty Bay Electric Power Board, the engineer was asked to survey the possibilities of extending the reticulation lines to the Tahunga area. To-day the engineer, Mr. O. T. Cnthbert, submitted a report which, in the opinion of the board, precluded any action in regard to the extension of lines for some time.

Figures relating to the sales of current for the seven months of the current financial year, submitted to the Poverty Bay Power Board to-day by the manager, Mr. V. E. Sanders, indicated a sustained improvement on last year s corresponding figures. The comparative figures were’:—Lighting, 1933, £14.901 (1932, £15.288); cooking and heating, £9397 (£7758); water-heating, £1660 >e 14*4); power. £3032 (£2851); total, £28,900 (£27,361).

Recently a number of dogs in Napier have died and others have been taken seriously iil through an epidemic of what is known in official circles as “convulsions,” a contagious disease which apparently travels in cycles and which some four or live years ago caused widespread loss of sheep-dogs to farmers of Hawke’s Bay. Some illness among sheep-dogs has also been reported during the past few days and a number have been lost in the Kereru district.

Some aspects of the burden ol war debts on the trading nations of the world were touched upon by Dr. It. Campbell P>egg in an address delivered at the weekly luncheon of the Wellington Rotary Club. War debts, external and internal, were liabilities with no assets. Dr. Begg said. Had the same debts been incurred for private or public companies, and the capital used up as (lie capital was used in the war, the concern would have been bankrupt, and the debts written off the hooks long ago.

The Coast has experienced much the same backward conditions as have prevailed in the Gisborne district. The weather has been, cold and the pastures unsuitable for lamb and sheep fattening. Arrangements have 'been made for the freezing works at Tokonniru Bay to open on December 4. Lambs and cattle have been booked for that date, but with the continuance of unsuitable weather it is uncertain whether the lambs will be ready by the opening date.

While in London, MT. 11. 1L Tonkin, of Dargavillo, who has just returned to Auckland, attended the International Conference of Druids as New Zealand s representative, and also one of the famous monthly Rotary dinners, at which an average of over 300 Rotariaus from all parts of the world attend. He was also present at the opening of the Masonic Pence Memorial, recently completed in Lou I Acre, London, at a cost of £1,030,000. and the onening of the new Masonic Hospital ..L Ravenscourt Park, just out of London.

An old Christ’s College bov, wbo lias just completed four years’ service in Hie East, lias returned to Auckland on furlough. Mr. C. S. Sergei, of Hamilton, was tor over three years a Malayan Government surveyor, and in the course of his duties mapped many hitherto unexplored jungle areas. He recently joined tho geological survey staff of the Shell Oil Company at Brunei, between British North Borneo and Sarawak. Rich oil wells have been discovered in that district, and Mr. Sergei is engaged in surveying new areas. Mr. Sergei said that the prospects were very promising, and the importance of Brunei as a potential source of fuel supply for the Singapore base, could not be overestimated.

To be awakened at about 9 o’clock at night, apparently by intruders in . his bedroom, and to find himself gag- | ged round the nose and mouth with a i black scarf was the experience related to Mr. and Mrs 11. Lcvick, of 17 Hargreaves street, College Hill, Auckland, by their 12-year-old son, Colin, on Saturday evening. Mr. and Mrs Lovick left homo at about 7.40 p.m., leaving their son alone in the house. When they returned at about- 11.30 . p.m. they found that several rooms m j the house had been ransacked, while their son, obviously frightened, told ! them that the house had been visited i by burglars.

"YVe are repeatedly being told, and particularly by the .Minister of Finance, that we are around the corner. Latterly the popular jffira.se haw been that we are on the road to recovery,’ stated Mr. D. YY. Coleman, Labor M.P. for Gisborne, in the course of his contribution to the Budget debate in the House of Representatives. “On page H> of the Budget,” he con-

tinued, “we find these words: ‘The heaviest full is anticipated under the heading of income-tax.’ Last year there was: a drop of £’891,000 in our income-tax receipts; this year there is to he a further drop of £ 857,000. Thus wo are to have a total fall in the two years of £ 1,748,000, and this in spite of the fact that exemptions have been reduced considerably. Surely when the Minister of Finance says that we are on the road to recovery, he says it with his tongue in his cheek, it seems clear that our people are progressively becoming poorer, as indicated in the Budget now before us. I would point out that not only the income-tax receipts, hut also the p.O. Savings Bank figures indicate the way we are going as far as tire poorer claws of tin? community is concerned,”—Special.

Marked success attended the first freewill offering arranged by the Wanganui Parish of Christ Church, which was held on .Sunday. The splendid sum of £650 was given for the work of the church. This new effort takes the place of the annual bazaar.

A runaway motor truck caused considerable damage to Mr. F. Stewart’s shop, Te Puke. Mr. 11. Guy, the owner of the vehicle, cranked the engine whilst in jeverso gear. The truck started before if could lie stopped and ran backwards, crashing through plate glass windows.

After receiving from the police at Hamilton a solitaire diamond ring valued at £SO, which had been stolen lrom his house, Mr. C. Boggs, of Otorohanga, lost it in Hamilton on Monday. Ihe ring was found not lar from the police station by a Hamilton resident, and was returned to the police station, where U was identified by the man who admitted having stolen it from Mr. Boggs. The Auckland Hospital Board at. its meeting last month considered the cost to patients of hairdressing and shaving, a complaint having been made by a relief worker, a patient at the institution. that he was charged Is 3d for haircutting ami 9d for shaving. The board has since called for applications for the position of barbel', and the chairman, Mr. W. Wallace, stated that 36 applications had been received, the prices rang ing from 3d to Is.

Mr. Zane Grey, the novelist and deepsea fisherman, will shortly arrive in Australia to engage this summer in a fishing expedition for inako shark and swordfish off the coast of New South Wales, using as a base Montague Island, which is five miles off the mainland, near Xnrooina. The six or seven members of tiis party will include his son. Loren, and daughter. Betty. For his own purposes he will use his launch Avalon, which will he shipped from New Zealand, in charge of his usual boatman from here, of whom lie holds a high opinion. Members of the Air Mail Society of New Zealand decided to take no risks whatever with the valuable collection of air mail stamps and covers gathered together for ihe exhibition which was held in Christchurch, says the Press. Each night four members acted as nightwatchrnen to keep guard over the collection, which was assembled on tho ground floor of the Christchurch Press Company's building. The exhibits altogether were valued in thousands of pounds and some of them had been sent long distances for this exhibition, which is the first of -its kind in New Zealand and Australia.

The food depots on the islands suuih ol New Zealand are now nothing more than reminders ot the days when sailing vessels used to make their way south of the Dominion en route to England. Mention of these depots was made by Mr. W. R. B. Oliver when lecturing in Napier. He said that since the advent of the steamship the southern islands were scarcely ever frequented by vessels, with the result that wrecks in that part of the world were practically unknown. Hence the depots, which contained food, clothing and a. boat, were now no longer periodically visited in search oi' castaways in need of succour.

The Botorua Borough Council lias just completed a unique drainage scheme in the sewerage reticulation oi the thermal area at Whakarewarewa pa. The scheme necessitated the laying of over 1700 ft. of mains in ground varying in temperature from 130 to 212 degrees. In many eases large fissures were discovered beneath the surface, and the. ground had to he reinforced with special acid-resisting conciele. Serious injury was narrowly averted on one occasion when a bank on which two men were working was blown out by steam, hut neither man was hurt. The accuracy of the preliminary survey is indicated by the fact that the work was completed for less than the estimated cost.

The fame of the Alexander Museum (Wanganui) is not confined to the narrow limits of the city boundary. This .was evident at the monthly meeting of tinboard of trustees. Gorvesponderuje av, as received from Aitntaki, Cqok (hands, offering the hoard some Maori -adzes, which were accepted. A letter, from Honolulu asked for photographs of some of the well-known flags contained in the museum, and for a guide hook, while the Melbourne Museum also asked ior several of the Alexander, Museum's animal reports. From Gisborne came the request for information regarding native birds, while from a country district, advice was asked as to the best manner of curing a calf skin “in the hair,” in order to make a shooting vest.

It may be of interest to Now Zealand horticulturists to learn that old-fashioned flowers have come hack to fashion in the Old Country, the much-improved varie-

ties now produced being as interesting and as beautiful as some of the exotics

that were ones the rage. Mr. Taunock, of Dunedin, questioned on the subject,' says that the features of the shows are larkspur, lupin, delphinium, phloxes, j helenium, chrysanthemum, and dahlia, ■ the rose more popular than ever, and I the gladiolus not displaced. The dahlia is the. chief plant relied on for garden decoration; it is now brought to a standard of culture that surprises gardeners who remember its products of years ago. —Otago Times.

With a view to safeguarding the interests of the port from a financial point of view, the Wanganui Harbor Board is at present focussing attention on two main points- -that dealing with competition for freights, as between rail, load and sea transport, and that relating to the agreement between the overseas shipping companies and the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board, under which the shipment of dairy produce through Wanganui is considerably curtailed. In regard to dairy produce, matters have reached a stage which will permit the Raetihi Co-opera-tive Dairy Company to ship through Wanganui and thus revert to practice of that company of three years ago. It had been estimated by a competent judge that it saved Raetihi. over all, £IOCO a year to use the port of Wanganui.

“There has been considerable agitation, particularly by the smaller power boards, that the Government should make some reduction in its bulk-supply charges,” the Public Works Statement observes. “So far it has not been found possible to comply with the request. Tho Government’s schemes have been designed on comprehensive lines and have cost large sums of money on which capital charges must be paid, and as the loans which have financed these schemes have all been raised abroad the Public Works Department lias not secured any of the advantages of interest-reduction which have been available to most of the supply authorities. Prices have been such that in the earlier years of operation the various schemes, though paying net interest and operating expenses, have accumulated considerable deficiencies in the reserve accounts which are essential to the 'financial success of a business of this nature. Until these deficiencies have been reduced considerably T ant afraid that it will not lie possible to make reductions in the bulk-supply charges. Although a reduction iu the price of electricity supplied to the consumers may he much desired, it might in* well to point out that the average revenue per unit, received from tho actual consumers of electricity is only L2SM, anti from the ordinary domestic and farming consumers connected to the Government schemes the average revenue received per unit is onlv 1.14-? d. These are figures which will compare more than favorably with the revenue per unit received bv authorities operating in much more thickly populated areas in other parts of the world.”