LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3766, 8 June 1936, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Te Awamutu Borough Council is to be held this evening.

It is notified by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Perry, that Arbor Day is to be observed on Wed nesday, August 5, and in view of the national importance of tree planting, local bodies throughout New Zealand are requested to organise suitable ceremonies.

There are 125 registered money lenders in New Zealand, according to a gazetted list of all persons holding money lenders’ licenses as at May 31 last. The highest numerical proportions are naturally in the four main centres of population, with Auckland in the lead with 39. There are 28 in Wellington, including two in Lower Hutt; 10 in Christchurch and 13 in Dunedin. Invercargill supports only one licensed money lender.

Preparations are said to be well in hand for the Te Awamutu Golf Club’s annual ball on Wednesday evening, and a large number of visitors from Hamilton, Cambridge, Te Kuiti, Auckland and other centres 'have intimated their intention of being present.

Acknowledgment of the receipt oi several sums as conscience money from unknown persons is made in the Gazette by the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr G. C. Rodda. The amounts are these: £2 10s to the Labour Department (employment section); two amounts of £2 each to the Customs Department; 10s forwarded to the Post and Telegraph Department; £lO to the Railways Department; 2s 6d to the Treasury; £4 to the Land and Income Tax Department.

Regulations dealing with the employment tax are published fully in lasi week’s Gazette. They came into operation on Thursday. Generally tliye bring existing regulations into conformity with the new Employment Promotion Act. One important change of general interest is that, in future, all correspondence relating to exemptions, employment taxation and so on must be addressed to the Commissioner of Taxes, Wellington, and not, as formerly, to the Department of Labour. The Commissioner of Taxes is now made responsible for the collection of the registration levy and the employment charge, formerly known as the general unemploymentlevy, and the emergency unemployment tax respectively.

Quite a remarkable record of successes was put up by pupils of Miss Docherty, teacher of dancing, in the competitions at the Waikato Winter Show. They gained fourteen first prizes, ten second placings and three thirds, while one pupil won the North Island championship for the Highland Reel. Another pupil, little Elaine North, of Te Awamutu, gained second honours for Highland Fling, restricted to children under nine years of age, and first honours for tap dance for children under ten years.

The A.R.C. Great Northern race meeting concluded on Saturday at Ellerlie, when Te Awamutu-trained horses were again prominent in some of the races. Dr Blundell’s mare, Namakia, won the Visitors' Handicap in good style, with Mr W. Alexander’s mare Sweet Rose in third position, Greek Gold separating them. In the Fitzroy Handicap, Mrs Loomb’s gelding Loombination beat all but Dark Shadow —and incidentally returned his supporters on the totalisator a useful dividend for second. Other Te Awamutu horses raced prominently, but failed to share in the stake money.

Considerable! difficulty was experienced by motorists on Saturday evening and Sunday in crossing a short section of clay on the main HamiltonRotorua road near the Arapuni turnoff, and a number of cars had to be hauled out. The soft patch is a portion of the deviation being constructed at the top of the steep hill on the Rotorua side of the turn-off. Although there is only about 20 yards of clay, it is very soft and has been cut into ruts a foot deep. Yesterday afternoon, a heavy car, with a party of tourists returning to Auckland, sank to the hubs of the back wheels and had to be towed out. Other cars were held up throughout the day, but were extracted with assistance. Delay whs also caused to service cars, passengers having to dismount at this point and walk over the difficult section. Late in the afternoon, the gates of an adjoining farm were opened, and traffic avoided the clay stretch by using a detour through the paddocks.

The monthly meeting of the Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce is to be held to-morrow evening.

Te Awamutu has had a great succession of frosty mornings during the past fortnight or so, but this morning the frost was less severe, and there are indications of rain to follow soon.

The annual meeting and reunion of the Te Awamutu R.S.A. is to be held on Monday evening next in the Parish Hall.

The annual meeting of the Te Awamutu Bowling Club is to be held on Tuesday, 16th inst, and nominations for the principal office.s close on that date at 5 p.m.

A monster meeting of district farmers is being convened for Thursday next, by the Te Awamutu branch of the Farmers’ Union, to see a demonstration by Mr D. Marshall, of the Department of Agriculture’s veterinary department.

New Zealand butter on the London market continues to advance, now selling up to 108 s per cwt, a rise of Is since the previous day. The market is firm with an upward tendency. Recent rises in cheese are continued. White is- quoted up to 60s, a gain of Is, and a similar rise has occurred for coloured, which is selling at about 59s per cwt.

Yesterday a record in the long history of St. John’s Church, Te Awamutu, was created, when at the 11 o’clock service practically 350 worshippers were crowded within the doors. True, practically all were children —and it would probably be physically impossible to seat 350 adults there —but it was a record of organisation, for the children came from all parts of the parish for a special service that is all too rare in New Zealand, but which, the vicar assures us, is featured in many English parishes.

The Mercantile Gazette records the registration of the following company: Te Awamutu Finance Co., Ltd. Registered as a private company May 26. Office, Alexandra Street, Te Awamutu. Capital: £lOOO in shares of £1 each. Subscribers: Korakonui— W. S. Hopping 250, F. H. Terry 250. Te Awamutu —W. O. Sinnott 250, W. Swain 250. Objects: Finance agent,, etc., and incidental.

When it was announced at a meeting last autumn of the Te Awamutu District High School Committee that a cadet corps was being organised at the school, a committeeman (himself a returned soldier, with an ever-pre-sent reminder of the value of physical and military drill and discipline) promptly offered to donate a silver medal for the most efficient cadet in the first year of the corps. We learn that this has been won by Sergt. M. Murphy, and the medal, neatly lettered on the obverse with “Te Awamutu District High School,” and a raised centre engraved with crossed rifles, and on the reverse with the winner’s name and year, will be formally presented at an early date.

An audacious fraud was perpetrated on the Dunedin branch of the Bank of New Zealand during the rush hour on Saturday morning, when an unsuspecting teller handed £834 to a young woman who presented a forged bill of exchange on a firm, the name of which purported to be Furniss and Whity. It is stated that no record can be found of the existence of a firm bearing this name, although there is a London shipping firm trading under the name of Furniss and Withy. It was not until the young woman had left the bank that the official realised the mistake.

"All I can say is that oil can be found in Wlanganui in payable quantities, irrespective of what opinion the doctor may hold,” states Mr T. Todd, of Lepperton, in reply to Dr J. Henderson, Director of Geological Survey, who after making his own survey said there were no indications of oil in payable quantities in the city and suburban areas. Dr Henderson’s opinion was referred to Mr Todd, who went on to say, “ There are no fewer than 12 gushers in Wanganui that I have personally divined, and every one of them will pay, so now let the Wanganui' people go on with the project and they will find they have sufficient there to supply the needs of the whole Dominion and plenty besides for export.”