LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1926, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Farmers in the Wanganui district are having a good deal of trouble at present with milk fever.

Again favoured, by pleasant weathel, the Waitara Methodist spring flower show was brought to a successful conclusion yesterday, when a further large number of people attended. . ..A transfer of the licence of the Bridge Hotel, Waitara, from Margaret Jane Fairweather to Francis Charles Oldershaw was granted at the quarterly meeting of the Waitorao Licensing Committee held in Waitara yesterday. This was the only business transacted. Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., presided and Messrs. R. H. Pigott and W. 11. Jenkins were the members of the committee present.

’ln these enlightened days few people manage to preserve their anatomfos immune from the surgeon’s knife. A practical example was furnished in a service car travelling to Wanganui the other day, when the seven passengers, in the course of conversation, made the interesting discovery that only one of them was still in possession of his appendix.

A young man was charged at the Wanganui court recently with riding a cycle without having one hand on the handle bars. Senior Sergeant Lopdell said that this by-law was one that was not strictly observed by youths riding bicycles, and it was time that they realised the danger of the practice. A constable eaid that when he called out to defendant the latter made a grimace, Mr. J. S. (Barton, (S.M., said that no doubt that grimace was worth paying for. A fine of os, with cost's (Is) was then imposed. The tender for the erection of premises for the newly formed ladies’ club In Devon Street above Mr. D. Barry’s buildings was let to Messrs. Boon Bros., not Messrs. Jones and Sandford as stated in. yesterday's issue.

“We are at present in the grip of an age of machinery in industries, and the tendency of the age is for everything to be done according to pattern for the sake of cheapness, which means loss of individuality.”—Dr. Mcllwraith, senior inspector of Hawke’s Bay schools, opening the exhibition of the Napier Society of Arts and Crafts in Napier last week. Continuing,, says the Daily Telegraph, the speaker urged that ail children should be encouraged to appreciate the artistically beautiful. “When I gave a piano to my wife six or seven years ago, I was worth from 110,000 to £12,000. Now I have nothing, and am keeping five children under the age of fourteen years, only one of my nine children being a wage earner,” said a bankrupt, James Adams, a farmer, formerly of Woodside, in the course of his public examination at the Palmerston North courthouse. He stated that he now had nothing beyond what he earned in a garage at Hastings, and apart from furniture his wife had nothing. The sudden news that the long-estab-lished Hurworth School is next year to be transferred to Hawke's Bay has burst like a bombshell over interested circles in Wanganui, states the Chronicle. Purely a private institution, Hurworth has nevertheless become an integral part of Wanganui’s educational system. Under Mr. W. Atkinson, the school attained a high measure of popularity, principally as a preparatory school for the collegiate sehool, and this was sustained under the present principal, Mr. H. E. Sturge. Mr. Sturge has now, however, informed parents that he is amalgamating the sehool with Heretaunga School, Havelock North, which will take over the name and traditions of the Wanganui school. “I’ve been loafing around the town for the past nine months,” was the frank admission of a Maori youth when asked in the Waitara court yesterday why he had neglected to pay an account for boots. He had done no work, but expected to start soon. His name was I. Watson and lie owed J. R. Bennett £4 17s* The magistrate asked him his age. “Er-er-well,” he heetitated. Then ho had a bright thought. “Mr. La Pouple will know,” he announced confidently. Amidst the laughter that followed the constable explained the boy had not long left school and would be about 18 years of age. “Then he is legally an infant,” commented Mr. Tate. Cm the ground that footwear was a necessity, however, he ordered the payment of the money at the rate of £1 a month.

The report of the State Forest Service, says the Director (Mr. L. Macintosh Ellis), is annually prepared and published for the information of the general public, for it is right that the people should have the opportunity to be fully informed as to the activities of the Forest Service; to be given an accountancy of stewardship of the 7,553,-690-acre forest estate, of the departmental receipts and expenditures, an'd a general review of the progress of forest conservation and of forest culture within the Dominion. National forestry has a four-fold objective. The components are—(l) The production of timber crops. . (2) The conservation of stream flow by the maintenance of protection forests. (3) The protection and control of New Zealand’s forest wild life. (4) The development of forest recreational uses.

“Business in Dunedin is quiet, but sound,” said an observant and wellinformed manager recently (says the Evening Star). “There is no doubt about Otago and the south generally being solid as to money, but it seems to me that it is possible to be too solid —to encase oneself in concrete, as it were —and that is what we are doing by getting frightened about unemployment. Our people are holding on to their money as though fearing some terrible collapse, and the general tendency to put savings into banks, or hand it to a solicitor for investment, is doing the harm to the community, for the money is not going round, and hence the slackness in trade. The unemployment that we read of is to be regretted, of course, and we all feel sorry for the men and wish to help them, but it _ will not do them , nor anybody any good to let the position scare us into miserliness. Suppose there are a thousand, or even a couple of thousand men out of work for the time being—what is that in comparison with the total? A mere fleabite. More men than that have come into the country this last year. I think that a little more hopefulness and faith in the country and in ourselves would be an excellent tonic.”

Writes Mr. P. J. O'Kcgan to the Wellington Post, anent the children’s subsidy: “There are hotels in Europe where waiters work, not merely without wages, but they actually pay a premium to be employed. The explanation is to be found in the practice of “tipping" by the hotel patrons. The “tips” are given in the first instance to give additional reward to the waiter or porter, and such doubtless is the initial effect. ’Ultimately, however, what Karl Marx called “the iron law of wages” does its work. The wages of waiters and portfers fall in direct proportion to the extent of the “tips,” and when they become liberal enough, we find men willing, and even anxious, to pay the hotel proprietor for the post of waiter or porter! Exactly the same effect would be produced if pensions were made universal and were paid on a scale sufficiently liberal. The effect, however, must be the same pro tanto if the State pays any pension or family allowance, and accordingly it is no abuse of language to characterise the Hon. Mr. Anderson's Bill a« a system of State “tipping.”

A farm of 159 acres at Huiroa is offered by the Lands Department for sale by tender on September 27. See advertisement in this issue.

The postponement of the Association football match, New Plymouth v. Hawera, which was to have taken place at Stratford to-day, is notified in our advertising columns. At the meeting of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce on Thursday night It was decided to co-operate with the Stratford Progress League (not the chamber of commerce) in a deputation to the Minister of Public Works on his first visit to Taranaki to protest against a greater amount th'an £lBO,OOO not being placed on the Estimates for the completion of the Stratford Main Trunk Railway, Men, if you are looking for an odd coat to wear out those odd trousers, a good dark tweed knock-about coat, or just the right thing in a sports coat, come to the Melbourne, Ltd., and select from a large stock. Prices 25/ for odd tweed coats, and 29/6 for sports coats. The Melbourne’s famous low prices. The attention of farmers and graaiers is directed-4to an advertisement by the Lands Department, giving particulars of farms for ssQj in W.harigamomona County. A