LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3894, 26 April 1937, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

“ The glow-worm cave at Waitomo is the most -wonderful and fascinating sight I have ever seen, and I have been round the world four times,’ said Sir Harry Lauder in the course of an interview.

The price of oatmeal and rolled oats has been increased by £3 a ton, making a total increase in the last six months of £6 a ton. Oatmeal is now £25 a ton. The advance is expected to represent a halfpenny a pound on th. retail price; in other words, the usual 41b packed of breakfast food will cost the housewife 2d more.

Summer-time ended on Sunday morning, and already there have been quite a number of reports of people forgetting to put their clocks back the customary half-hour to come into line with standard time. As a consequence, schedules were disarranged, but there were seemingly no serious consequences, though there were one or two most amusing contretempts.

A petty thief is again active in Hamilton, thefts of small amounts of money being reported from a shop and from several milk containers left out at night with small accounts. A more daring theft was committed in a shop on Saturday, when a woman who left her purse on one counter while inspecting goods on another turned round to find her purse had disappeared. The thief was not caught.

As illustrating the intensity of the electrical storm an Friday last, it may be mentioned that the telephone line to the Owairaka Valley was completely put out of action, and two telephones, at least, were “burnt out.”

An alarm of fire was sounded a few minutes after six o’clock last Friday evening, and the Fire Brigade made a smart turn-out. The cause of the alarm was a chimney ablaze in a residence in Young Street.

The well known sportsman, Mr A. J. McGovern, of Frontier Road, sent his two fillies Stretto and Privy Seal to Auckland yesterday, to enter the stables of Mr R. S. Bagby, who will in future prepare them at Ellerslie for engagements ahead.

The tender of Messrs Hargreaves, Stapleton and Rolfe, of Hamilton, has been accepted by Mr John Middlebrook for the erection .of his new premises in Sloane Street, The building, the erection of which will be commenced almost immediately, will cost in the vicinity of £5OOO.

It is intended to revive the First Aid classes in Te Awamutu this winter, and for that purpose Mr H, P. Ensor, honorary secretary of the local branch of the St. John Ambulance Society, is now enrolling students, who are requested to hand in their names as early as possible. Dr J. B. Wi. Roberton has kindly consented to deliver a series of lectures on this occasion.

On account of the prevailing cold weather and other seasonal conditions, milk production in Te Awamutu and district is falling, and in many cases farmers are milking their cows once daily only. “We have experlen ced a wonderful season,” remarked one farmer, “and the decrease now taking place is only to be expected. Really, we have nothing to growl about —except we would like more -money.”

Taranaki has a lengthening list of animal oddities, and the latest addition is a wcaner pig which has a warmly domestic disposition. The weaner, which is an orphan and was raised on the bottle, is now nine weeks old. It is a Berkshire-Tam worth cross owned by Mr James, Mountain Road, Inglewood, and will answer a call, will greet strangers by rubbing itself affectionately against their legs, and shows a partiality to stroking by rolling over on its back.

In the course of an address on the value of birds in relation to horticulture, given recently under the auspices of the Taranaki Council of the Institute of Horticulture by Dr G. Home, the speaker said there were really no wild birds, except those which had been made so by man. The doctor instanced the tameness of the birds on the Barrier, which was a bird sanctuary, where the birds knew they would not be harmed or driven away, and they would perch on one’s shoulder and almost feed out of the hand even of a stranger to the Island.

A net profit of £98,870 is shown in the accounts of the Martha Gold Mining Company (Wailii) Limited, for the year ended December 31. This compares with £83,990 earned during approximately nine months, the period covered by the first accounts issued by the Martha Company. A final dividend of Is a share is proposed, making 2s a 5s share for the year, or 40 per cent. This is equal to the rate paid by the original Waihi goldmining company, prior to liquidation in 1935. The gross earnings totalled £173,193 Of this, income tax in London and New Zealand absorbed £69,115.

The necessity for the New Zealand dairying industry having the first call on the Dominion’s white pine resources was emphasised by the Commis sioner of the State Forests, the Hon. F. Langstone, when commenting on the cable from Sydney referring to the restrictions on the export of rim her from this country to Australia, “The dairy industry is of such great importance to New Zealand that its requirements must first be met,” he said. “We have told the Australian people that we must conserve oui white pine supplies and see io it that our own demands are met before anj is exported.”

Two Te Awamutu-owned horses, Te Kahu and Native Princess, owned respectively by Messrs J. T. Young and J. S. Smith, gained minor place money at the Auckland Trotting Club’s meeting at Alexandra Park on Saturday. The event was the first on the programme. Native Princess, driven by her owner, was quickly in front, but in the final furlong she was overtaken, to finish a fair third. Mr Young’s representative, trained and driven by the Mangere reinsman, J. T. Paul, finished well, and promises to soon be back to best form. Later in the afternoon Te Kahu ran second in the Whitford Handicap.

A storm of exceptional severity, accompanied by vivid lightning and heavy thunder, broke over Te Awamutu and district early on Saturday morning. Rain fell in torrents, so much so that the borough watertables were unable for the time being to cope with the abnormal volume of water. Reports from other parts indicate that the first snow of the year fell on the high country of the North Island, mainly on the Kaimanawa ranges to the south of Lake Taupo and in the area between Taihape and Wanganui. In Auckland cold conditions prevailed, with frequent squalls from the south-west and occasional heavy showers in the early hours of Saturday morning. The wind eased and the weather cleared later in the morning.

“ Coffee ” made from baked liver was one instance of dishonesty in the making of foods in the last century in England, given by Mr R. L. Andrew, acting Goovernment analyst, in an address to the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. A report of the Analytical Sanitary Commission (1851) recorded that there were in London “ liver bakers,” who took the livers of oxen and horses, and baked and ground them into a powder, which they sold to low-priced coffee-shop keepers. This powder was generally mixed with coffee and with vegetable imitations of coffee. Artificial peppercorns were made of linseed cake, clay, and cayenne pepper; and the cayenne itself was artificially coloured with red lead, Venetian red, and occasionally vermilion. It was abuses such as these which led to legislation governing the sale of foods and drugs.