IN TOWN AND OUT

Southland Times, Issue 20786, 29 May 1929, Page 4

IN TOWN AND OUT

NEWS OF THE DAY. Important Conference. To-morrow afternoon representatives from local bodies throughout the province will have an opportunity of meeting Southland Members of Parliament at a conference convened by the Southland League. It is anticipated that there will be a large number of delegates present and that many remits affecting the different local districts will be submitted to the members of Parliament. » * » * Brown Coal Deposits. Tire following reference to deposits of brown coal in Southland is made in the annual report of the Southland League: During recent months the league has been actively engaged in an endeavour to ascertain whether or not it would be economically possible to make a commercially payable use of the vast brown coal deposits of which Southland is possessed. Following on an address on the subject by Mr A. W. Rodger, the league communicated with the Empire Marketing Board and were referred to the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. As a result Dr E. Marsden, Secretary of the Department, visited Southland to make further inquiries concerning the question. Arrangements were made for Dr Marsden to visit the Ohai coalfields. Samples of the coal deposits have now been forwarded to Wellington for treatment and analysis. When this has been accomplished it is expected another officer of the Department will visit Southland to carry out further investigations, after which a complete report on the subject as it concerns the district should be available to the league. * * • * A Relic of the Past.

An old resident of Riverton has forwarded to the Tinies Office a copy of the Dundee Weekly Advertiser dated Friday, January 16, 1801. The paper, which is marked No. 1, Vol. 1, is of eight, pages and bears the stamp of the three-halfpenny tax surmounted by 16 per cent, discount. The paper was printed by J. Chalmers and priced sixpence per copy, 6/6 per quarter or £1 6/per annum, delivered in town; £1 7/- when sent by post. The paper is printed in small, but clear type, the letter f being used in place of s. Under the heading “Foreign Intelligence” the following appears: “Paris papers to the 4th inft. have been received. Their contents are extremely important. The French appear to have been completely victorious in Germany; and they have followed up their fuccefs with a rapidity which has borne down all oppofition. The Emperor, yielding to neceffity, has folicited and obtained another armiftice, which will undoubtedly lead to a peace.” Details of the armistice follow. “Domestic Intelligence” takes the place of social notes, and local news is grouped without headings with one exception, which is headed “Distressing Accident” and refers to a family being suffocated by a charcoal fire. The paper has a postscript, which refers to late news and is completed with about six columns of advertisements, of which the following is a sample: “Sale of subjects in Hawkhill, Dundee —There will be fold by public roup, if not previoufly by private bargain, on Thurfday the 29th inft. at 12 o’clock noon, That Tenement of Land and Bakehouse” (followed by a description of the land).