LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1923, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There will be no issue of the Taranaki Daily News on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, or New Year’s Day. The Auckland Trotting Club accepted the tender of s. Wellington firm for the erection of the new grandstand at the Epsom trotting course. The price was £56,500. No fewer than 8508 tons of frozen n tat and 7&87 tons of dairy produce have been shipped direct to the United Kingdom through the port of New Plymouth since January of this year. The body of Reginald O’Donnell, aged 14 years, who was drowned in the Tongaporutu River at Kotare on Wednesday afternoon, was found yesterday, twelve chains below the ford which he set out to cross.

Eleven samples of the illustrated agricultural work of Miss B. Better, a ciever pupil of the Okaiawa school, have been selected by the inspectors of the Taranaki Education Board for exhibition at the Empire Exhibition as specimens of the agricultural work in New Zealand schools.

Advice from growers in Auckland indicate that strawberries for New Plymouth will he scarce for Christmas. The Rarawn will bring what berries are available on Monday morning. Owing to the Saturday half-holiday in Auckland special arrangements will have to be made to have the strawberries conveyed to the ship. In regard to school attendance records, that of Violet Jacobsen, of Ratapiko, aged 12 years, is very creditable. She lias attended for eight years without being late or absent, this, too, in districts not famed for good roads. It is little wonder that she has earned her proficiency, and received, at the hands of teachers and fellow-scholars last week, a gold medal in recognition of her meritorious achievement.

The Stuart Wilson cup presented for competition by the girls’ and boys’ agricultural clubs was presented to the Okaiawa school on Thursday by Mr. Glasgow, agricultural instructor, on behalf of the Agricultural Department. The cup was won by Miss Dorothy Ward for the 1922 season, and it is accompanied by a gold medal and a photograph of the cup as a memento, as the cup is a challenge trophy. For the 1923 season Master H. Betts, of Okaiawa, was runner-up for the cup. Early in the New Year the Post and Telegraph Department is expected to arrive at a decision to instal an automatic telephone exchange at either Hawera. Stratford or Daunevirke. The department has neither the men nor the material to immediately effect the desired improvement in all three towns, and the indications are that Stratford will be the favoured one, according to the opinion of an officer in a position to know. The Male Choir recently rorwarded a choir badge to Miss Ethel Osborn as a memento of her visit to New Plymouth. The honorary secretary has received the following acknowledgement from Miss Osborn: “Many thanks for the very kind thought in presenting me with the badge of the New Plymouth Male Choir. I appreciate very highly the honour the choir lias done me, and it is with much pleasure that I will wear the badge. With best wishes and kind regards to all the choir members, and wishing the choir continued success. Yours sincerely, Ethel Osborn.”

Writes “Parent,” from Okato:—-“I notice in the News a certain article on overcrowding of schools and the statement, ‘Two assistants will have to teach in one room, a most undesirable method of organisation.’ My children attend the Okato school, where two. senior teachers endeavour to teach 74 children, Standards 1 to 6, in a room 20ft by 25ft. This lies been the condition for three years, yet we are told we have no case for increased accommodation. Truly we live in an enlightened country—God’s own country.”

Particulars of train arrangements on December 25 and in connection with the New Plymouth races on December 26 and 27 are advertised in this issue.

A very interesting item on the programme of the East End gala day will b<_- the canoe race. Judging by past experience this event should prove exciting and highly diverting, on account of the lack of dexterity generally shown by the canoeists. The race takes place on the Te Henui, and the course will be from the Devon Street bridge to the Railway bridge.