LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4231, 15 January 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The monthly meeting of the local Borough Council is to be held this evening.

The quantities of butter, whey butter and cheese made in New Zealand during 1938-1939 declined by 11 per centum, 5 per centum and 4 per centum respectively as compared with 1937-1938. The value of butter produced fell by 3 per centum, but the values of whey butter and cheese produced rose by 5 per centum and 4 per centum respectively.

When war was declared, the council of the New Zealand Rugby Union decided that, if the war was not over bv the 'beginning of 1940, the tjour of South Africa this year would be abandoned. A cablegram has now been received from South Africa agreeing to the suggestion that the tour be abandoned.

The present* racing season has usually been marked with a substantial dividend in at least one race at a meeting, and the Cambridge Trotting Club’s fixture on Saturday was no exception, for it is chronicled that a dividend of nearly £lOO was paid on the win machine when a mare called Bingen’s Best won the Aotearoa Handicap. Bingen’s Best defeated the favourite, Neon Oro, by half a head.

Proposals for the re-issue of the heavy motor vehicle regulations were contained in a circular received from rhe Transport Department by the Raglan County Council at a special meeting in Raglan last Friday. Regarding farmers’ lorries, wbicn it was suggested in the circular should be granted a 50 per cent reduction in heavy traffic fees provided they were under four tons leaden weight, councillors considered that the limit should be five tons.

The six rinks of Te Awamutu Bowling Club members who motored to Putaruru on Saturday afternoon for an inter-club match were not able to complete the match. Light rain was falling when the players arrived, but when about a dozen or fifteen heads had been played the rain caused abandonment. However, the trippers report a very happy reunion, and also have kind things to say of the hospitality extended by the Putaruru bowlers* wives.

The rain on Saturday and Sunday would be very welcome on most farms in this district —indeed, all over the province. In some places the pastures had become very bare, and butter fat production had fallen considerably. Very few farmers were caught on Saturday with hay cut but unstacked ,and those who were probably regarded the rain and interruption to hay-making as preferable to the continuation of what was considered in some quarters as a drought.

Almost every year the fern on the block of unimproved country near the 14 mile peg on the Kihikihi-Arapuni main highway is burned off, destroying harbourage for noxious weeds and rabbits, and this season’s burn appears to have been quite as successful as its predecessors. It is perhaps not generally known, but about twenty years ago much of the area that is now regularly burned was ploughed and put down in grass, but it was soon allowed to revert to fern and rubbish.

Another distribution of £lOOO for the benefit of members of the first echelon of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force when proceeding overseas was recently made by the Canteen Board. The money was from profits of canteens in the camps where members of the force have been trained. This was the second distribution made to members of the first echelon. Early in December a similar amount was paid out by the board. On that occasion the money was divided among the four amps, Papakura, Ngaruawahia, Trentham and Burnham. The £2OOO now distributed does not exhaust the profits received by the board from the canteens. As a result it is expected that a further distribution will be made in the next few weeks.

When he came into contact with a fallen power line on Sunday morning a Rptorua resident was electrocuted. The victim was Mr Edwin Wrigley, married, a motor-driver. Mr Wrigley’s children were playing outside the house about seven o’clock! when one of them told him that his son Desmond had fallen into a pool of water and appeared to be dead. The father and mother hurried outside and saw the boy flying in a pool. In endeavouring to put the child out of the water Mr Wrigley came into conitact with a live power line which had been brought down by the storm on Saturday night. Frantic attempts were made by Mrs Wrigley an'd her eldest son to prise the power line out of her husband’s hand, but their efforts were unsuccessful. When a doctor arrived Mr Wrigley was dead. Tte bov whom the father had been trymg to rescue waa not seriously injured.

It is stated locally that at least one Te Awamutu patron of the Cambridge Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday was a participant in the large dividend paid on Bingen’s Best, he having invested 10s each way, for which he received in return something like £5O.

The proportion of pay actually drawn while on active service overseas by members of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force is to be based on sterling, according to a statement by the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones' from Wellington on Saturday. Mr Jones said that pay actually received by the soldiers would be in the currency of the country in which they were serving. It would be converted to these currencies on the sterling, and not the New Zealand, rate of exchange.

The apex stone has now been placed on Marsden Cross at the Bay of Islands. .Some years ago the top half of the cross fell down, and although thgs was re-erected the apex stone was not placed in position at the time. A post and chain fence has also been erected around the base. Although the structure is over 25ft. high, it is possible to see it from only about half a mile away on account of the grey colour of the granite. If the cross were whitened, as has been suggested, it could be seen from well out in the Bay of Islands.

For the fourth time within 12 months damage running into thousands of pounds was caused in Wellington by fire on Saturday night, when the back block of the Hope Gibbons building in Dixon Street was seriously damaged. Flames leaping many .feet into the air from the top of the five-storey building made a spectacular sight against dark storm clouds, and a crowd of several thousand soon gathered to watch the blaze destroy the fourth and fifth floors. Intense heat caused by burning rubber packing and other material made the work of the fire brigade extremely difficult, but shortly after 9 p.m., little more than an hour after the fire began, the flames were under control.

A Manawatu dairyfarmer tells me he has this season reared his “best calves yet.” For this result he gives credit to linseed, writes Mr H. A. Seifert, in the “Dominion.” Boiling water was poured over a small quantity, 12 hours before feeding, and the seed allowed to soak well. For 29 calves reared, the cost was 32/-, just over 1/- a calf. Two bushels were used in all. A little meat-meal was also supplied the calves, as has been usual. Each calf received only about a dessertspoonful of linseed daily. An expenditure of up to 7/6 a calf on feedstuffs should not be objected to, if better calves be grown. A good weaned calf, at the end of January, is worth in true value £3 10/-. The trouble with many calves, however, is that they are not good, but “only fair.”