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Southland Times, Issue 19395, 8 November 1924, Page 4

Hie Government Meteorologist last evening wired the following forecast: Present indications are for a southerly breeze backing by east to northerlies and then increasing. Expect milder weather but skies clouding over for an unfavourable change to follow everywhere, with rain shortly on the West Coast and in the southernmost districts. The barometer will be falling soon.”

Advertisements dealing with tenders appear on Page 19 of this issue of the Southland Times.

The Mataura collieries mine was closed down yesterday. The closing of the mine puts some seven or eight men out of work.

According to a cabled message from London, Cammell Laird & Co. have secured a contract worth £500,000 to construct a stretch of railway from Kakahi to the Southern end of Lake Taupo, in the Norts Island.

Despite the heavy frosts experienced a week or so ago, a reporter was shown yesterday some fine potatoes newly dug from a North Invercargill garden. They were of a fine shap and size and it speaks well for the mildness and suitability of the Invercargill climate that potatoes should reach full maturity so early in November.

A business property with a substantial brick and concrete building upon it, in Karangahape Road, Auckland, was yesterday sold for £41,000, or £706 per foot of frontage. Another section in the same street, with 33-ft. frontage and an old wooden building realised £14,000. —Press Association.

‘lnvercargill has (me of the best public libraries that I have seen while on the Chautauqua circuit,” stated Professor D. D. Vaughan at the concluding programme of the season in the Municipal Theatre last evening. Professor Vaughan added that he had seen two publications in the local library, which he had not come across in any other library on the circuit.

With regard to the extensive reductions in the railway freight charges on petrol and motor spirits as previously announced, it has now been decided by the Railway Department to convey kerosene by rail at the same rate as benzine. The Department is leaving no stone unturned to meet the competitive freight rate for road transport, and its reductions have also extended to the wool traffic, the freight on which has been reduced by 15 per cent.

Regarding the replanking of the Mararoa bridge, Mr J. C. Thomson, M.P., has been advised by the Hon. W. Nosworthy that the Public Works Department is inquiring in to the matter, and the Minister hopes to be in a position to advise the member further on receipt of the Engineer’s report, in a few days’ time. Regarding Stuck Road, Orepuki, the member has been informed by the Minister of Public Works that the estimated cost of the work is £lOO 3/0, and that authority to expend £5O, £1 for £l, Government subsidy, is being issued to the Wallace County forthwith. The local Customs Department has received advice that the steamer James Clark Ross, the mother ship of the Ross Sea whalers will arrive off Stewart Island on Monday morning. After the usual examination by the Customs Officer, the James Clark Ross will proceed with the provisioning of the remaining vessels of the fleet, which have been anchored at Stewart Island during the Winter months, after which they proceed to the Ross Sea to engage in a whaling expedition which will last for six months. According to a press cable from Hobart, the .mother ship made a short call there for the purpose of shipping twelve men who are joining the expedition.

An impudent theft of four packets of letters from a postman’s bag was perpetrated in Shorts’ Buildings, Queen Street, Aucklad, at 8.30 yesterday morning, reports a Press Association message. The postman placed a bag in the passage while he delivered letters to another part of the building and on returning found the bag, which contained about 20 packets of letters of about 100 each, was gone. It was recovered almost immediately in a lavatory on the same floor of the building with four packets abstracted. The greater number have been recovered. There were about half a dozen registered letters in the bag.

On Wednesday evening some of the officers' of the Southland District 1.0.0JF., M.U., Bro. G. C. Kerse, Prov. G.M., accompanied by Deputy P.G.M. Bro. W. G. Tait, District Treasurer Bro. A. Ball, and CB. Bro. A. B. Edmonds, paid an official visit to Loyal Riverside Lodge, where there was a very good attendance, and an enjoyable evening was spent. In response to the toast of “District Officers,” complimentary remarks were made by the visitors concerning the strength of the attendance that night and the interest taken in the Order by the members. A visit is to be paid to the Balfour Lodge on Tuesday week, November 18, when brethren from Riversdale will be present. After the business of the Lodge had been concluded, an enjoyable social hour was spent.

During the month of November, the Invercargill Fire Brigade received seven calls, the only serious fire being in a factory, where the damage was estimated at about £550. The newly formed Southlanders’ Society of Canterbury is holding a concert, social and dance in Christchurch on Wednesday night, 12th inst. Southlanders visiting Christchurch during Carnival Week will receive a warm welcome. The secretary of the society is Mr D. Caithness. An interesting land transaction is reported this week, Mr John Macdonajd, late of “Strathvale,” Otautau, and now of Timaru, having purchased Messrs J. and E. Deegan’s “Ballyhooley” property in the Drummond district. The price is reported to be in the vicinity of £l5 per acre. Christchurch apparently has much to learn from other places in the matter of crowded tramcars. Writing of overcrowding to the Christchurch Tramway Board, Mr A. S. Taylor said: “It was interesting to see in Milan notices to the effect that ten were allowed to stand on the motorman’s platform, 12 on the rear platform and 20 inside, the cars being smaller than any that run in Christchurch.

At the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, A. Lister McMillan, aged 20, and Jack Percival Lloyd, aged 18, pleaded guilty to breaking into the railway goods shed and stealing four cases of whisky valued at £25. They were committed for sentence, states a Press Association telegram The Police stated that the men engaged a taxi driver at night and took the cases to a house party of young men and women. A strip of tin had been ripped off the goods shed to gain entry.

The upper part of the head of a bull with two links of an iron chain protruding from behind the horns, where the flesh was diseased and decomposed, was an exhibit in a cruelty to animals case heard in the Waitara Court the other day. “After viewing that head I must confess that this is the most revolting case of cruelty that has ever come under my observation,” said Mr A. M. Mowlem, S.M. For permitting the chain to grow into the skull and thereby causing the bull unnecessary suffering he sentenced a young Maori named Turn, who pleaded guilty, to 14 days’ imprisonment.

“There has been a marked increase in sheep farms recently,” said a well-known land agent in Palmerston North the other day, “and everything points to a more active demand for this class of country in the near future. The rise in the value of all sheep products—wool- fat lambs- and breeding ewes, etc.—and the moderate reserves placed on sheep-carrying country when compared with the prices asked for dairy land, and the inclination of many dairy farmers to seek the easier life, all help the upward movement. After the wool sales, when farmers have had time to look round, we expect a bit of a boom in sheep country.”

Yesterday over 90 intending candidates for pupil-teachership and probationership interviewed the School Medical Officer and the Senior Inspector of Schools at the Education Office, Invercargill. The Senior Inspector states that there is an ample supply of well-equipped candidates coming forward. The physique, too, of the candidates is very good. The School Medical Officer will be in attendance at the Education Office on Tuesday, 11th inst., to meet those that have not yet interviewed her, and the Senior Inspector also will give other intending applicants an opportunity to meet him at a date to be announced later. The vacancies will be advertised in due course. There will probably be fewer than usual as the Department contemplates modifying the method of training teachers. This means that to be successful, applicants must measure up to a higher standard.

A noticeable improvement to the Rose Gardens is the provision of a number of new seats dotted round the Park in suitable spots. These gardens have become a very popular resort for mothers with children of recent months, and the provision of the additional seating accommodation was urgently needed. In regard to seats, it may be suggested that a few more placed at points on the tram routes would be greatly appreciated by travellers, and might quite conceivably prove of some assistance to the revenue of the department, as people are more likely to take a tram if there are seats at the stopping places, than they would be if they have to stand up. The provision of seats in the vicinity of the Hospital, perhaps at the commencement of the Avenue, would, a correspondent suggests, be “a step in the right direction.”

Out in a suburban garden a couple of blackbirds have sworn a deadly vendetta against a tomcat, and they give the poor animal no peace (says the Auckland Star. Perhaps he once ate a parent, or a child of the pair, but if he did he started something he could not finish, and life has been a burden to him ever since. The birds are very cunning, and their attacks are very persistent. If the cat goes out to sun himself in the garden, it is not long before he is discovered and taken in flank, one bird approaching him from either side. They “chip” at him from a distance of a foot or so, using very bad language—or so it seems to the owner of the cat. Tentative counter-movements to one side or the other are quickly disposed of, and then, after several minutes’ scolding, the birds will fly into the air and suddenly swoop down almost on to the head of the cat, the rush of air from their wings disturbing his fur. He unsheaths his claws, and tries to drive them into his tormentors; but they are too wily, and, without actually pecking him, they make him so uncomfortable that he is eventually compelled to beat a retreat to the verandah, where the birds, knowing (hemselves to be at a disadvantage will not follow him. First thing in the morning the quarrel begins, and all through the day the birds are on the alert, ready to make things interesting for their enemy.

Several very flattering letters and reviews have been received by the authors concerning the little book entitled “Rakiura—Land of the Glowing Skies,” which is now to be had from booksellers. As the story depicts Stewart Island, one of the Dominion’s most beautiful resorts, it is a suitable present to send to friends abroad. (advt.)

Firemen and ex-Firemen in uniform are cordially invited to the Albion any night during the screening of the great Fire Picture, “The Midnight Alarm,” the greatest screen picture of fire-fighting ever depicted. (advt.)

Thirty-one schools will compete for the Championship Shield at the School Sports at Rugby Park on Wednesday next. Country competitors are asked to note that refreshments will be procurable on the grounds. (advt.) The Linen Department at Thomson and Beattie’s contains a great assortment of Linens of all descriptions. By the yard, made up into plain goods, or the very highest Fancy Worked Linen, you can procure, besides full assortments of Linen of all descriptions for the Table. See the Exhibition Linens, and you will see the best at the lowest prices. (advt.) Sportsmen —If you require Field Glasses or Prisms, we have a select stock by the best makers at very much reduced prices. Come along and give these a trial before procuring elsewhere. Our stock of Presentation Cups in Plate and Silver are all priced on present market values.—T. M. Rankin, Jeweller, Watchmaker and Optician, Tay street. (advt.) THE ACME OF STYLE AND COMFORT are guaranteed in the "Mary Pickford” Ankle Bar Shoe; the Red Kid Sandle Bar Shoe with slashed sides. These are “Matchless” specials, and are procurable at Melees” specials, and are procurable at J. McCurdy’s, Boot Importer, Dee street, Invercargill. See his window display, then step in and examine the shoes and prices.