LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4054, 30 May 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Foliage on poplar trees in and about Te Awamutu is turning to russet hues at present, and where they are growing in any numbers they make a particularly pleasing sight.

Subsidies lor the owners of stallions up to but not exceeding a maximum of £l5O a year are provided for in the remount subsidy regulations, issued under the Remounts Encour agement Act. 1914, published in the Gazette.

For rapid rise in values the following takes some beating. A Waiuku farmer bought a heifer for £l. He kept it for a month and sold it for £5 15s. Six weeks later the buyer put it on offer at. a special sale on Friday last, when it again changed hands, realising £l2.

Revenue earned from the sale of current by the Te Awamutu Power Board during March, according to a statement tabled at Friday’s meeting, totalled £3256 Os Id, made up of: Lighting, heating and cooking £1685 3s, power £1517 6s lid, penalties and sundries £2O 17s 4d, and street lighting £32 12s lOd. The total revenue for March, 1937, was £2681 12s 2d.

The first report of a monarch butterfly having been seen in the neighbourhood of Hamilton since 12 pairs were liberated in Memorial Park some weeks ago was recently received from Mr C. V. Carryer. of Rukuhia. Mr Carryer saw a large butterfly about four inches across the wings in his garden. It was reddish-brown in colour, with black-veined wings and a black body.

The financial statement presented to Friday’s meeting of the Te Awamutu Electric Power Board showed the power fund account in credit £1450 3s 4d, the loan account in debit £4557 5s lOd, and the consumers’ finance account in credit £719 7s 3d. The total debit in all accounts was thus £2387 15s 3d. The amount due by the loan account to the power fund account, for amounts advanced up to March 31, 1938, was £BO2l 12s Id.

“One message I would like to give to the people of New Zealand,” said Sir Thomas Wilford, in the course of an interview at Wellington on his re turn from England, “is, please take with a huge grain of salt any cable messages that come to New Zealand on a Monday, because Sunday is the day of stunts in the English Sunday press, and the biggest stunts are generally chosen for cablegrams to the Dominions. If there is one day on which the New Zealand public should read the overseas news with care, it is a Monday’.”

“The choice before us is world trade or world war,” said the president of the Auckland provincial branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union (Mr H. O. Mellsop), in an address to delegates attending the provincial conference of the union at Auckland. “The day of economic nationalism must go,” he continued. “The British Empire should take the initiative in a strong and definite move towards world trade. In my opinion, it is the only movement large enough to save present civilisation.”

“We. are the second highest motorised country in the world,” declared the Hon. R. Semple in the course of a speech last week. “We have a car for every five persons—man, woman and child —in the Dominion. America leads us at present but we have to pay just double the price of cars here, so if we only paid the same price, America would not see the way we went.” Mi- Semple referred to the growth of motor transport. The Minister said that in 1912 the first through trip was made from Auckland to Wellington, and it took eight days to do it, but, he added, with a twinkle in his eyes, “there are some gentlemen who would do it in eight hours if I’d let them.”

The secretary of the Te Awamutu Power Board, at the annual meeting on Friday, presented some statistics showing the growth of the Board’s business. Total connections at March 31st, 1936, were 4301, for 1937 4839. and for .1938 5564. These figures are exclusive of small heating appliances and electric irons. The diversity factor for the three periods named was 6.12, 6.06 and 6.54, and the maximum demand 1219.2 kilowatts, 1382.4 and 1536. Revenue for the year ended March 31, 1936, was £29,346 5s 4d, representing a decrease of 2.7 per cent over the previous year. For 1937 it was £32,188 5s 4d, an increase of 9.7 per cent, and for 1938 it was £35,394 4s 3d, an increase of 9.96 per cent. The connected load for the three periods was 7458.337, 8379.112 and 10,048.099. Itemised these latter figures showed: For 1936, lighting" 789.235, heating 4773.830, power 1413.822, street lighting 12.450, and bulk supply 469. For 1937 the figures were: 842.469. 5524.838, 1550.055, 12.750 and 469; while for 1938 they were, respectively, 928.958, 6960.218, 1676.923, 13 and 469.

The Waitomo County Council has passed a resolution closing clay roads within the county to heavy traffic during the winter months.

According to advice received in Cambridge from Mr R. Coulter, M.P., tenders are being called for the erec tion of an additional nine State house's in Cambridge. Ten houses are now nearing completion.

The Railway Department draws attention to a special advertisement appearing in this issue regarding cheap fares and train arrangements in connection with the Waikato Winter Show at Hamilton.

The appeal of the Te Awamutu horseman, C. G. Goulsbro, against his disqualification for six months in connection with the handling of Catalogue in the Connolly Handicap at the Wanganui meeting will be heard by the District Committee in Wanganui on Thursday.

It was stated at a meeting of a local body in this district that a light motor truck owned by another local body had run for over 22,000 miles without requiring any garage readjustment or renewals, the only attention given being the regular greasing and oiling.

The number of plants now supplied by the Te Awamutu Electric Power Board is 5,617, made up as follows: Lighting plants 2267, cowplant motors 768, separator motors 347, other power plants 95, waterpump motors 584, washing machines 84, shearing plants 76, electric stoves 481 and electric waterheaters 915.

A big explosion will be fired in the quarry at the 14-mile peg on the Kihikihi-Aranuni Road within the next couple of days. A “T” shaped tunnel has been driven into the hillside*, which is comprised of solid blue metal, of which it is to dislodge up to 100,000 tons by the explosion for which five tons of gelignite will be used.

The Thames Valley Electric Power Board decided at its annual meeting, on the motion of the chairman, Mr J. Price, to raise a special loan of £90,000 to be called the extension loan, 1938, for the purpose of extending the supply of electricity within the whole of the board’s district. A rate of oneninth of a penny in the £ is required to cover the loan. The loan is to be for a term of 25 years. The interest rate will be 3 A per cent.

Congratulations to members on the manner in which they had supported the shows in the district were extended by Mr G. Jamieson, president of the South Auckland Pig Breeders’ Association, at the annual meeting at Hamilton. The report showed the association to be in a sound financial position. The election of officers resulted: .President, Mr G. Jamieson; vice-presidents, Messrs A. T. Rogers and E. J. Jones; secretary, Mr A. W. Green; examining committee, Messrs H. Webber, G. Jamieson, A. T. Rogers, C. S. Mexted and R. Chilcott jun.

According to cabled advice received in Te Awamutu, butter has shown a further marked decline on the London market during the past week. Choicest salted New Zealand is quoted at 125 s per cwt, a drop of 4s on the previous week’s prices. Australian butter has declined by 4s 6d, and Danish is around 3s 6d per cwt lower. The easier tendency in the market commenced following the announcement in London of an increase of 160,000 boxes in stocks. Holders lowered their limits to attract buyers, and the price fell sharply from the high levels ruling a fortnight age, when New Zealand was quoted at up to 1345.

“Unless something unforeseen happens the last session of the present Parliament will commence on Wed nesday, June 29,” said the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage in the course of interview at Wellington on Saturday. “Caucus considered the legislation to come forward and approved it after a few altera; tions were made.” He was not prepared to say what the legislative programme would be, but he expected the session to last about three months. It was usual for members to survey the work of a Parliament during the last session, and he had no desire to curtail discussion on the Address-in-Reply or finance.

“The matter of cartage costs of stock and manures was vigorously fought on behalf of the ratepayers by the county, which was a prime mover in getting the transport authorities to fix cartage rates,” remarked Mr H. W. Wilson, chairman, at the annual meeting of the Raglan County Council. “The new rates,” continued the chairman, “may not perhaps be entirely fair from the farmer’s point of view, but nevertheless it shows the farmer exactly where he stands today, when previously he had to accept the carrier’s price.” On the motion of Mr F. C. Johnstone, it was decided to support the Farmers’ Union in their protest against the carting rate schedule fixed for the Raglan County.

A report on the finances of the Waitomo County Council was pre sented by the clerk, Mr j. W. O’Brien, at the annual meeting. It stated that receipts for the past year amounted to £43,134, compared with £39,396 for the previous year, while expenditure totalled £45,471, as against £41,994. The excess of expenditure amounted to £2337, which had been met out of the amount carried forward last year. The report added that the average rate collection over the whole county was 81.3 per cent, the same percent age as th? previous year. The percentage of arrears collected showed a marked improvement, being 35.7 per cent as compared with 27.1 per cent. The amount of current native rates struck for the year was £4128, and of this amount £47 had been paid.

Members of the Main Highways Board met the Matamata County Council members to discuss with them the county’s proposed contribution of £4130 towards the cost of the Waitoa-Taupo highway, the tar sealing and general improvement of which is estimated to cost £104,000. It was agreed that the county should contribute the amount provided the Main Highways Board undertook to subsidise the council in the reforming and tar sealing of unsealed portions of the Putaruru-Tirau highway. The acting chairman of the board, Mr W. H. Wynyard, said that the WaitoaTaupo highway was being tar sealed from Putaruru to Atiamuri to enable it to stand up to the volume of timber traffic which it was now carrying.