NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 83, 19 November 1928, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS

NOTES FROM ALL PART* THE DOMINION DAY BY DAY. HERB, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE A LARGE "MEMBERSHIP. The membership of the Hawke's Bay A. and P. Society now totals ever 2100, 95 new members being elected at the last meeting of the executive committee, largely as a result 1 of a vigorous and productive drive by the secretary, Mr A. M. Ratemeyer. A LONG REST. It is stated that), after being closed over 25 years, the bar at the Ashburton Club is to be reopened (says an, exchange). Tn thej days of license, the club held a charter, and in view of the possibility of a. return to license the. club; has kept this paid up since 1903. Recent changes in the electorates of Ashburton and Ellesmere have made Ashburton a license area, and it is understood that the club has decided to re-open th e bar at the club shortly after the general election. PRIDE JUSTIFIED. For many years the Wellington Corporation employees have taken a tremendous pride in their borse teams, and a trip to the Palmerston North Show with half a dozen or so o£ the finest animals has become an annual affair, likewise the bringing back and tacking up in. the Clyde quay depot offices of certificates won. This year, on account of the big reduction of the fleet of horses, consequent, upon a change-over to motor transport in m'ost of tbe council :work, only one animal, "Bobby," could be spared for the Royal Show. ~ He brought back high honours, a first in his particular class and Royal champiin as well. "Bobby" is to be the central figure in the council's, display in connection with th e Transportation Pageant.

NATIVE PLANTS. m , ... "There are few districts in which a greater range of native plants and shrubs could be grown them in Poverty Bay, the varieties ranging from sub-tropical to high sub-i alpine plant life," stated, Mr Geo v A. Green, organising %eW'etary of: the New Zealand Infetituto) Of Horticulture, in the course of an address to the Poverty Bay Council of ihe Institute. He urged that there should he formed in connection] with, and under .the auspices of the local council, a native plant section, and that one of the functions of this section be to stimulate in local bodies and in the public a centiment in favour' of planting native trees and shrubs, and the protection ami regeneration of such areas as still remained and could be secured as public or private reserves. . PROSPEROUS PRODUCERS. An analysis of the position oi the dairying industry throughout the Auckland province, which produces more than half the Dominion's butter, shows that dairymen tor tne first flour months of the current season are tens of thousands of pounds better off than they were, for the corresponding period of the 1927-28 dairying year. In all corners of the district production is at a record level, and the world markets, which recently wavered % little, snowed an improving tendency over the week-end. It requires no exuberance of optimism to envision, an Auckland Christmas of freer, spending on the part of the city's "country cousins." So far as the city itself is concerned a reflex of; the past excellent 1 farming season, will be hastened by the healthy promise of that now well launched,-

SOT "CONVERSION." An amusing "theft" took place at Kaitaia, North Auckland, recently, says an oxchange, when a motor car belonging to a clergyman was stolen. The owner laid information, to the police that his car had been removed from his front gate. Immediately all the other police stations in the north were apprised and constables stationed on the lookout at all cross-roads. Having " thus spread a net for the thief, the Kaitaia constable was walking down the main street when he was astonished to see the missing car pass by and pull up at- the Post Office. A man emerged and entered the office, the constable giving chase. An "arrest" provoked mutual astonishment, the culprit proving to be a well-kn Own and highly respected resident, who, as lay-reader t'o the church, was entitled to the use of the car. The vicar had temporarily forgotten he had a partner.