LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1930, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Two annual examinations are being held in New Plymouth. Five candidate are sitting for promotion in the police force. Five candidates are sitting for surveying examinations at the courthouse. Two candidates are sitting for draughtsmens certificates and three for computers’ certificates. . High praise was given the New Plymouth unemployment scheme by the Hon. S. G. Smith, Minister of Labour, before his departure for Wellington. The scheme in operation in New. Plymouth, said Mr. Smith, was the most . effective and most efficient he had yet heard of. He did not say that because New Plymouth was his district but because he wished to give credit where credit was due.

Improvements of the seating accommodation for spectators at the New Plymouth public baths was advocated by- members of the New Plymouth Amateur Swimming Club last night. It was. stated that on special occasions the crowded conditions became a source of danger to those nearest the edges. The meeting recommended the incoming, committee to negotiate with the Borough Council seeking the improvement desired.

There was an unexpected drbp in the price of petrol at Blenheim last week, the commodity suddenly tumbling threepence a gallon all round, which makes the retail price cheaper than it was before the increase .in taxation. In other words, the companies, for the time being, are carrying the whole of the new tax. It is stated that a decrease in demand for pump supplies is the result of heavy purchases' by motorists of cased spirit. “It is rather amusing to .see that as soon as trouble at Lake Coleridge occurs people in the South are going to be ruined unless daylight saving is introduced,” said the chairman, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth; at a. meeting of the Auckland Power Board., “When we urged that the Government should introduce daylight saving a month earlier to relieve dhe position following the closing of Arapuni it was turned down as it was going to interfere -with the people in the South,” he said.

“As far as we know there is no chance of a touring team coming here this year,” Mr. W. H. Winsor, secretary of the New Zealand Cricket Council told the Canterbury Cricket Association on Saturday evening. “If we could get an Australian team comprising Bradman and ten others, we would be able to pay all the expenses of sending our team. Home,” ‘ said Mr. Reese, amidst laughter. A Wanganui resident who supplements >his earnings each year by trapping opossums,. informed a Wanganui Herald reporter that from a financial point of view the season has not been a good one. In the first place the prices of skins were lower and he received 10s for supers, as against 17s last year. Opossums were not so plentiful and the trapper who paid for his license also had to compete against a number of persons who paid for no license at all, but trapped all th?, same.

'T do not know about that,” said Mr. T. B. McNeil, S.M., at Wellington, before the hearing of a maintenance case, when counsel suggested that the court be cleared because of the nature of 'the evidence that would be called. “Of course you know more about the facts of the case than I do.” he went on. “If people lijc? to sit and hear the sordid details of tfie case that is their affair. I will not make an order at present.” They are warned that the" details are sordid.” Several people at the back of the court walked out.

The fact that no one had been able to offer a satisfactory solution to the modern industrial problem was stressed by the Rev. E. Drake, who spoke to the Council of Christian Congregations at Auckland on “Some Dangers of Present-day Civilisation.’’ “I once asked a prominent Labour leader,” he said/ “what is the remedy for unemployment? He gave me the very wise answer ’'employment.’ I asked ‘But where is the money to employ them to come from ?’ He again answered, “The remedy for unemployment is employment.”’ Sprawling among the rocks in pursuit of terrified crabs an octopus measuring six to eight feet from tip’ to tip of the extended tentacles was found by a reporter yesterday at spring tide low-water mark near the New Plymouth railway station. The attention of a Maori fishing nearby was drawn to it. He unceremoniously seized the octopus by the “neck,” held it wriggling in his hand a moment and then dashed the tentacles over a rock to disable it, and bagged his prize. ‘Tfhat easy fun,” he remarked when surprise was expressed that he was not afraid of the devil fish. Though it had ample opportunity the octopus made no attempt to seize the Maori, the grip on its one vulnerable spot being the reason. An instance of eagerness and enterprise in .seeking work is reported. Last week a Poverty Bay sheepfarmer had to interview men who were replying to his advertisement for a married couple to work on his station. One of the applicants, who seemed otherwise suitable, had no children or sheep dogs, and the farmer stated that as there was a school close by he would give preference to a man who had at least two children of school age and two good dogs. Within three hours the applicant was back again to report that ho now had Loth the children and the dogs. “But I Jidn’t promise you the job,” said the somewhat astonished farmer. “Did you get them on ‘spec’?” “Yes, I was going to be ready for the job," said the man. It transpired that the children belonged to his wife’s sister, who had a family of seven and was in poor circumstances. The job was his. At Newton King, Ltd.’s Inglewood sale to-day an extra large entry of cattle has been received, totalling 550 head,, full particulars of which are advertised in the auction columns. The matron pf the New Plymouth hospital acknowledges the following gifts;— Magazines, Mrs. Johnson (Waitgra), Mrs. F. Styles (Bell Block), M. W. Stewart, Mrs. G. E. Storego, Mrs. A. R. Andrews, Mrs Rattenbury (Waitara), Mrs. Franklyn White; sweets for isolation wards, Victoria League; playing cards, Mrs. Rose, committee Red Cross Society (Wellington) ; flowers, Mrs. C. 11. Burgess, Mrs. French; weekly paper, Miss A. Mills; jelly, ladies’ committee of Wcslown School; cakes for ex-servicemen, Mrs. U. H. Burncss.