LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1928, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki farmers have had the good luck to strike fine weather for the saving of their hay crops this season. On the whole the crops are heavier than usual.

In the motor paddock at the Stratford races yesterday were 980 motorcars, 13 busses and over 80 motor-cycles. Outside, lined along the roads, were hundreds of other motors.

Off the Sugar Loaves yesterday local fishermen, amateur and professional, secured some fine hauls of schnapper. The rare sight of a motor-lorry laden with’the fish was seen going to town in the afternoon.

Theft of a pair of boots is alleged against a man who was arrested at Rahotu on Saturday. He -was brought to New Plymouth but was bailed out. He wili appear before the court tomorrow.

“It is a unique occurrence to have had three overseas vessels jn port for so iong,” said the harbourmaster, Captain W. Waller to a News representative. "I don’t think we've had three overseas vessels in port over a week before.”, The Vessels were visited by hundreds of visitors to Ngamotu and the port yesterday.

The harbour board’s launch made another cruise behind Paritutu during the week-end in a vain search for the missing body of the late Miss Florence Henchman, while campers, and friends and relatives of deceased continued patrolling the beach extending over several miles without success, up till midnight last night.

Never in the history of Taranaki have there been so many visiting motorists as during the past week. Most have been equipped with camping outfits, and the fine spell of weather, save for Thursday last, contributed largely to the pleasure and success of Christmas motoring not only in Taranaki but other parts of the North Island. Following his experiments in the utilisation of the solids in whey conducted in England under the British Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Harding is coming to Taranaki to make further investigations. He will probably arrive this week, a Newe reporter was informed, and it is expected he will stay seven or eight days, making Hawera hie headquarters.

The end of the school year was approaching and the children of the Maori school were drawing on the blackboard. One lad drew a yellow chicken. He stepped back from th 6 board, admired his work, and then picked up a piece of blue chalk. In the chicken’s head he placed a brilliant bine eye. Again he stepped back to admire his work. “Te pakeha chicken now,” ho chuckled.

A marked decrease in the number of bankruptcies is showix in the figures for the year in the North Taranaki district. Whereas there -were 51 in 1926 there were only 39 in 1927. The improvement was mainly in the early part of the year, for in the last three months there were 16, three more than in the corresponding period last year, while five petitions were filed in December, the same number being recorded in the corresponding period of 1926. Clarence Burkett, of Lepperton, aged 11, was knocked down tn Devoij Street by a five-seater sedaq on Saturday night and his back and leg were injured. He was picked up by" Mr. J. Doduneki and later taken to the hospital, where he was progressing favourably last night The accident occurred near Everybody’s Theatre and it is alleged that the ear passed a stationary tram while passengers were alighting. It proceeded on towards the Post Office. Visitors to the Taranaki Forestry Company’s plantations. during the holidays were much impressed with the extent of the operations, the size of the nursery, and the growth of the trees. Some of the pines, though they have only been planted two and a half years, are already five feet high, whilst the gums and the wattles have thriven amazingly. The forests are an object lesson in what can be done in tree growing in Taranaki when proper methods are followed.

Surprise was expressed by a visitor to New Plymouth yesterday that the fine marble stone bearing the names of benefactors to Pukekura Park should be in such an uncared-for state. This slab occupies a prominent position on the hill face just opposite the band rotunda, and bearing as it ilp.es a record of the names of some of those who have been generous enough to enable New Plymouth to maintain such a beautiful park, it attracts attention.' “I would clean it myself, if they gave me a brush and some soap,” said a lady visitor. How ordinary macadam roads fare nowadays on a main motor highway is strikingly exemplified by the condition of the surface of the small section of unbitumenised road between Tariki and Waipuku. It was remetalled and generally “reconditioned” just before the holidays preparatory to surfacing with bitumen. Now it is quite "pot-holey” and will require a good deal of attention before its surface can be permanently sealed. The experience once again proves that no main road will stand up to the motor traffic nowadays for any length of time unless it is bitumenised.

Travellers along St. Aubyn Street on Sunday witnessed the somewhat unusual sight—in these days of motor traffic—of a camping party on horseback. The party consisted of two young men, each riding a well-groomed horse, one carrying, in addition to his rider, the rugs, etc., whilst the other carried the cooking utensils and other impedimenta of a light camping outfit. The horses were evidently not familiar with town customs as they approached the tramears somewhat gingerly. Indeed, in one particularly crowded part of ths road it was necessary for the tramear to be stopped before one of the horses could be coaxed past.

Scores of people In leisurely holiday mood, their minds on relaxation and pleasure, were suddenly stimulated to deeply curious action yesterday afternoon, when a prisoner, clad in the broad arrow, fled before an armed warden along the railway line at the rear of the East End reserve. The prisoner was forced to, leave the rails and plunge amongst the people on the sands and grass. He bounded down the terraces amidst great confusion and terror. The warden raised his gun and took careful aim, but there came only a click. His ammunition had been all used. The manly ones among the crowd took part and soon the prisoner’s flight was cheeked, and he was laid out on the grass. The warden, however, was not then in such a hurry. A constable was on the spot, and it was found that the grim actions which had held every eye was not a drama, but, for the pursuer and pursued, a mere comedy well enacted. Children recovered pail and spade and adults their , book or shade, while many pulses became normal again. What risks the comedians took were not realised by them. Is Sydney’s appetite for wholesome pleasure so jaded that nothing more edifying can be conceived of to satisfy it than the idea of strapping monkeys to the backs of greyhounds in pursuit of tin hares? asks the Melbourne Age. Our contemporary proceeds: If this be an index to the state of public taste in Sydney the condition of the community must be something like that of the wretched neurotic who can only gratify his craving by resorting more and more to alcohol or drugs. Apart from the cruelty of this so-called "sport,” which ought to be revolting to any normal person, what is to be said of the mentality of those who find pleasure and excitement in so stupid and aimless a spectacle? Men and women who have been reduced to this sorry shift for entertainment seem to be fit subjects for the neurologist. They are the victims of an immoderate love of amusement, of a pitiable incapacity to be amused by anything which amuses those who take their pleasures reasonably, and of a horror of that insufferable boredom which seems to overtake them when they are called upon to draw upon the resources which ought to be within themselves, but which their whole course of life has done nothing to create. The travelling public will no doubt appreciate the arrangements made by Gibson’s Motors Ltd (White Star service) for booking passages and giving general information. They have opened a tourist booking office in new premises in Devon Street, opposite Everybody’s Theatre, where information and booklets may be obtained free.

Really wonderfully attractive light weight coats in ladies’ sizes and extralarge sizes beautifully cut on slim lines as decreed by Dame Fashion are being offered at the Melbourne Ltd. The materials comprise! black satin with bright and dull finish, black Ottoman, black Canton cloth, crepe-de-chine and georgette. All are crepe-de-chine lined. Prices range from four guineas to 10 guineas. Inspection is invited in showroom upstairs.

What io give? That is the qu.stion heard on every hand as Christmas drawe near. What shall it be. Somethirg to wear, something to use. Give handkerchiefs, always acceptable. Give gloves, sure to be appreciated. Give hoseiry, they are sure to please. Christmas gifts at pri.es to suit your purses. At The Hustlers, Pevon Street.

Five labourers applied for work at the Department of Labour, New Plymouth, last week.

In England benzine is Is a ga’’on and the best mote, spirit Is 2d, said Mr. A. H. Christie of Manaia, who has just returned from the Homeland, He fails to see why it should Le nearly double that price here—the distance from the oilfields to New Zealand is no greater than to England.

Nine hundred out of 1200 students at the Hampton Normal Institute, Richmond, Virginia, the negro college of Virginia, went home as a result of a school strike, for which all classes were suspended. The strike was the result of an endeavour by the college authorities to stop courting and flirting at the cinema. Dr. James E. Clegg, president of the college, stated that 400 students who absented themselves from their classes were ordered home, and this caused other students to join in the t ration.

1927: “Allo, Tommy!” In English, strongly marked by a German accent, a workman in a Plymouth street hailed a passer-by. The passer by was Thomas Knight, of Newton Abbot. 1916: Durj ing the battle of Manetz, Knight trafl badly wounded. Three Germans

him and carried him on a the British lines, where they taken prisoners. The man the road was one of the three GerniaH who carried Knight to safety, and wlro| eleven years afterwards, promptly recognised him.

Upon entering one of Berlin’s large picture theatres one’s attention immediately is attracted by a low buzzing sound; at the same time one discovers a strange fish-shaped metal body suspended by a long rope from the ceiling whirling around in a circle over the heads of the audience. Eeach time this body passes the seats on the baleony —and it passes by so near that one could almost catch it with the hand—it leaves a fine aroma in its wake. It is a new air purifier which is the delight of all who visit this motion picture theatre. Shortly before the performance begins its humming ceases, its circles become smaller, and slowly it is drhwn up to the ceiling.

During a recent lunch hour a gust of wind on the town bridge sent two hats into the river (says the Wanganui Herald). One belonged to a man and the other to a woman. Mere man, in a philosophical sort of way, remarked: "Well, that one has gone.” The lady did not take the Joss of her headgear so calmly. Her eyes flashed fire, her butter brown crop stood on end, and she remarked most emphatically the wind.” As an illustration of the fact that red tape extends even to trades unionism, it is stated that two union slaughtermen, who had booked hooks for the season at Imlay, were not allowed to start by their own mates because they had not brought their clearance papers with them (says the Chronicle). It is known by the union that these two men are financial, yet they have to walk the streets and lose good money until their papers arrive.

At the annual meeting of the Gramophone Company, held in London at the beginning of last month, the chairman stated that "we shall shortly be putting on the market an automatic magazine instrument which, on account of its uncanny ingenuity alone, is likely to cause a sensation. This instrument can be loaded with 20 records of either lOin or 12in size and in any sequence, and will play these records one after the other with about 10 seconds interval, giving entertainment for an hour and a half or two hours without any further attention whatever. (Cheers.) It can also be actuated by push buttons for an armchair, discarding any record that does not please or repeating a particularly pleasing record any num’ ber of times and stopping or restarting the entertainment at will. It is, of course, electrically driven, and will he fairly high in price, so that it will not displace or replace any of our instruments now on the market.”

The new Britway and the "Rohadeo,” the latest popular Summer washing dress materials, 36in. wide, can be had at the Melbourne, Ltd., in a wide variety of latest shades, all guaranteed, price 1/9 yard. Also another shipment of the Melbourne’s famous check ginghams 1/3 yard, and French voiles, 38in. wide, 1/11 yard. New goods arriving daily’. Dainty French embroidered Voiles, and figured Moracains in pretty colours, also a smart range of useful tub frocks in Gingham, Tricolene, Fugi and many other ; durable washing fabrics are among the ■' ;r ge assortment of holiday frocks Besley’s, j Ltd. are offering at g.reatly reduced prices. Do not forget your friends at the New Year. For a delightful range of useful and acceptable New Year Gifts, visit Messrs. C. C. Ward, Ltd., busy drapery stores, New Plymouth, Eltham or Hawera. Our huge stocks make selection easy. A record Christmas for Taranaki. That is what is happening, and McGruer’s have prepared for this with a great selection for Christmas Gifts and ’’-“-'nv wants. See their window and inside display, ..nd secure a Gift Fan to-day.