WAIROA NEWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18323, 15 February 1934, Page 12

WAIROA NEWS

(Herald. Correspondent.) Miss Ngaio Williams, who sent iu four entries to the Royal Show, Auckland, gained : two first; prizes in the sewing and knitting sections. The Wairoa County revenue for the past month totalled £12,168, the chief items being :—Rates, £9136; heavy traffic licenses, £35; No. 5 scheme refunds, £2411; returns of motor spirit taxation, £B4; subsidy, Waikaremoana main highway, £484/ Payments by the Public Works Department and Treasury totalled £9456. The three rating bodies of Wairoa — County Council, Borough Council, and Harbor Board —have all been engaged in the process of converting their loans. So far the Harbor Board is well in advance, arrangements having been made for l the conversion of between £90,000 and £IOO,OOO at no cost to the board. The bulk oi the credit is due to the chairman, Mr. H. L. Marker, who has been enabled to effect a saving of about £125 on the conversion. At last meeting Air. Harker was tendered warm congratulations on the result. The conversion of the Mount Eden Borough loans, it may be recalled, cost £3OO. Bast year sheep shipped from Wairoa By sea totalled 15,216, as against 18,143 ■this year, up to Tuesday last. Wool from Wairoa also increased from 5277 bales to 6330 bales, and from Waikokopu from 474 bales to 716 bales.

'Mr. D. Glynan, of Waikopiro station, has donated £1 towards the funds of the Collie Club for the maiden dog scoring most points for “pull” in classes I and 11, first, second, ■ and third prizes—winners at the trials barred. Mr. Donaldson donates a similar sum for the unplaced dog pulling up the best “head” and “pull” m class 11. The foundations of the new Afohaka School building have been laid, and it is expected that the building will be ready by the middle of April. The site has been donated by tlie Maoris. Mr. Kingi Wimata waited on the County Council at its last meeting to ask for an improvement in the drainage of the flat portion of , the Kihitu road, which had two outlets, one to the lagoon and the other to the Wairoa River, and even then the road was flooded at times. Cr. Hill said the council could not do anything, and it was mainly a matter of transport.—The matter was left to Cr. Hill -and the engineer to make the best arrangement for the carrying out of the work.

At the opening of the County Council meeting on Wednesday, the chairman, Cr. A. G. Nolan, struck an optimistic note in his rate collection statement. The amount collected to the penalty date this year was £IB,OOO, against £10,147 at the same period last year. It was anticipated that by March 31 another £2OOO would be received, making up a total of £20,000, against £II,OOO last year. The total paid in this year by the* due date was £4684, against £4019 last year. A total of £5453 was paid by the rebate date, against £1892 last year, the sum including arrears of Power Board rates. The chairman said more ratepayers were taking advantage of the rebate provision, and altogether the position was much brighter. Mr. Chamberlain has returned from Napier, to which he paid a brief visit. — Mr. J. E. Svensen, of the Clyde Hotel, is visiting Hatuma and Dannevirke.— Miss Nettie Bauld and Miss Roa Neill, of Dunedin, are visiting Mr. and Airs. R. Bauld J. M. Osier and Al. Sheehan left on Wednesday for Hastings to attend the master bakers’ conference.—Mr. R. N. Evans, of the Wairoa telephone staff, has been transferred to Nuhaka.—Mrs. M. Shaw, Morere, is staying with Mrs. J. Cathie, Olive.— Air. H. A, Anderson, Marton, and Mr. H. Martin, Hastings, have been transferred to the Wairoa telephone exchange.—Air. R. Montgomery, Auckland, and Air. W. Shannon Greymoutn, were in Wairoa on Tuesday, the latter taking advantage of the visit to go to Tuai to see his nephew, Mr. T. Shannon.—Miss Robson, who has been a most obliging member of the Wairoa telephone exchange, has been transferred to Napier, and left on Wednesday to take up her duties there Four tenders were submitted to the County Council for the renovation of buildings inside and out, and that of Mr. H. Afoles was accepted. Only one tender was sent in for the delivery of 2000 yards of metal at Putere, that of Air. A. W. Stewart being accepted. The Hospital Board revenue for January totalled £BO2. The chief items were : Local body levies, £293; Government subsidies, £282; patients’ payments. £203. The expenditure for the same period was 3J719, the chief item being maintenance, £4Bl. The bigigest sea, and the heaviest gale that has visited Waikokopu for many years was that on December 29 and 30 stated the wharfinger in his monthly report to the Harbor Board. A small amount of damage was done to the breakwater, but the structure stood the heavy seas remarkably well. In January there were no interruptions to the work ing. of the. port, but as a result of the. December storm all the lupins planted to stop drifting: sand had disappeared The imports and exports at Waikokopu for December, and January were Im ports: Southern produce; r 1524 tons J cement, 10 tons; general goods, 152£ tons. Exports: T 520 lambs; 503 bales of wool; 1895 sheep ; 4 tons of machinery, and sundries.

A question of much interest was briefly discussed at the Hospital Board meeting, namely the right of a police officer to enter the institution to serve a summons on a patient. This occurred some time ago in a case in which if service was not effected at that time the plaintiff would lose his right to recover the amount claimed. The majority of the board members took the humanitarian side, considering that such action might seriously affect a patient who was under treatment, say, for a nervous affection. On the other hand, it was pointed out that a police officer could enter a hospital and formally arrest a wounded man, who might later be charged even with murder, by simply remaining in the institution till the patient was fit to be discharged. It was then decided to approach the Minister of Justice to see if some other form of service could not be made legal in civil actions. The weatjier improved slightly on Tuesday, though there was a thunderstorm with much rain in the Waikaremoana area, and on Wednesday the showers were very heavy and persistent. The local unemployed will find it difficult to put in the working time alloted to them.

The funeral of the late Mr. Young took place at the Wairoa cemetery on Tuesday in the presence of a number of local settlers, Archdeacon Butterfield officiating.

Varying opinions are being expressed bv Wairoa farmers as to the possibility of getting any burns in areas where scrubcutting has been undertaken. The general opinion now is that if March and April are dry months some burning may be done even in May.

A correspondent who is in a good position to know what ho is speaking about informed the. Herald’s representative that the complaints of the northern press respecting the ragwort menace are not justified so far as Wairoa is concerned. At' the present' there are two strong unities of unemployed at work in the Mohaka area spraying with sodium Chlorate, one party at Te Reinga, also spraying, and another in the Waikaremoana urea pulling and burning, a method which has been found to work well where the patches are scattered. The informant states it is against the supineoess of, the authorities la the areas

bordering on the Wairoa county that complaints should be directed. At the back of Waikaremoana and on to Rotorua the menace is real, and the worst offender is the Government itself, which, he feels, does not fully realise that if the pest is permitted to further spread it may not find it easy to collect the usual taxes. 'His final shot is that if every affected county was as energetic as the Wairoa County the pest would soon be stamped out. Intimately associated with the progress of the agricultural and pastoral interests of this district is the question of backblock reading. Hitherto the chief expenditure, both by the Public Works Department and the local bodies, has been the main thoroughfares and in the vicinity of high-priced lands. Insufficient attention has been given in the past to the reading of the back-block farms, and unless this is undertaken little progress in the high lands of Wairoa can be expected, and it is possible that some of this territory may go back in the near future. There are thousands of acres of the cheaper lands in the upland areas of Wairoa, extending from Mahia to Maungataniwha, which are handicapped by indifferent means of 'transport, and in cases no real access, except, perhaps, in summer. It is, therefore, gratifying to learn that the Government is considering the question of reorganising the Public Works Department with the better reading of the backblocks in the forefront of the programme. If this can be brought to a satisfactory conclusion there should be a great increase in the sum total of the exported produce, The land is light, in some cases, but its relative cheapness is a point not to be overlooked, and for one thing there is a gratifying feature, Wairoa’s backblocks are blessed witli an abundant rainfall, and the stock generally is of high quality. At least, this is the studied opinion of those who have seen the mobs of sheep coming off the Wairoa high country. The Wairoa farmers will rejoice if this policy is to lie carried out, and there are great opportunities for a widespread road improvement scheme. Just, to mention only a few: The Mahia Peninsula, inland of Nuhaka, in the direction of Mr. JoxBlake’s property, linking up the Mangaone road with Makeretu-Mangapoike, from the head of Rnakituri Valley across country to the Waikaremoana road, Waimana access, Maungataniwha and Waihua Valley, together with improved access to the Tntaekuri block, besides many others, nil urgently needed and long overdue if Wairoa is to make full progress in settlement. At the last County Council meeting Mr. A. C. dcLnntonr applied for county assistance to improve his access in the Tntaekuri area. The chairman, Mr. A. C. Nolan, though recognising the settler’s needs, quoted the utterances of the Prime Minister, the Tit. Hon. G. W. Forbes, and said.'That he understood Mr. deLnotour’s wns Crown land. The council decided to inform the Government that the settler in this case should not be asked to pay for his access.