LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Though there has been little overseas shipping visiting the port of New Plymouth recently the coastal trade has been so well maintained that the goods shed staff baa been kept fairly busy during the whole of a period. Usually this period is we of the quietest during the year. Wages and incomes have been subjected to 10 per cent, reductions, it seems now that reductions are becoming effective in connection with outgoings. Tho Western Park Cricket Club last night decided to reduce subscriptions by 10 per cent., anticipating reductions in the cost of material. The formation of municipal golf links at the abattoir reserve has been suggested to the New Plymouth Borough Council by Mr. J. Austin. The works committee reported last night that it had deferred consideration to enable it to view the site and confer with the Fitzroy seaside committee. About 45,000 trees have been planted on New Plymouth hydro lands. The majority of them are looking very well, it was reported to the Borough Council last night. The work has been carried out by relief workers. Members of the council decided to visit the works today. The enthusiasm of several New Plymouth cricketers and their anticipation of an early start of the season led them to mow and roll the Western Park wicket on Saturday afternoon. The labour their enthusiasm produced was not wasted, for they enjoyed the first strike of the season in a game which lasted several hours. The lawns at the New Plymouth cemetery have lately been enlarged and ’ resown on a slightly higher level to suit the kerb. Improvements have been made to the entrance drive and the tarsealed edges of the roadway have been asphalted to the edge of the kerb. At the meeting of the Borough Council last night thanks were extended to Mr. R. Davies for the gift of two d< zen pungas. Althoijgh the influenza epidemic has claimed victims at the New Plymouth Boys’ High School, the attack has not taken a virulent form and it is not intended to close the school. There was a rumour to this effect, but inquiry last night revealed that the attendance had not been affected to any great extent and ilhat boarders who were suffer- , ing from the malady had been absent from school for but a day or two. The insuring of the life of a Rotary Club member as a means of finding money towards an international Rotaiy fund was suggested by President C. H. Weston at the club luncheon at New Plymouth yesterday. The. club would insure the life of one of its members, pay a premium of five pounds odd and at the end of 16 years draw £lOO. “I should be extremely sorry if the member died befbre the 15 years was up,” said Mr. Weston, “extremely. sorry, but he would have the satisfaction of knowing he was helping the club.” Issues from the lending department of the New Plymouth Public Library totalled 1'2,154 during the 26 days on which the library was open prior to September 16. This represented a daily average of 467. Included in the total were ° 1004 books issued to children. There were 42 new subscribers and. 47 subscriptions have been cancelled duung the period. Additions to the . shelves numbered 165 and were classified .as follows: Novels 86, children 29, philosophy 1, religion 5, sociology 4, science 2, useful arts 5, fine arts 3, literatuie 6, history 7, travel 8, biography 9. Reporting progress on the sewerage works to the New Plymouth Borough Council last night the engineer (Mr. C. Clarke) said that on contract No. 4 the contractor had completed the lining of the arch of the liquefaction, tunnel and was preparing for concreting the floor. No work was attempted on the outfall owing to adverse weather. On contract 8 the contractor had made good progress and had completed , over half of the total length of sewer in his contract. On contract 7 the contractor commenced work in the last week in j August and had since made good progress. The winner of the £2OOO prize in the Lucky Bird art union, Mr. H. A. Humphries, of Flemington, Ashburton, is well-known to a New Plymouth resident, Mr. G. H. Dyer, Leech Street. Mr. Humphries is a married man of over 50 years of age, stated Mr. Dyer to a News reporter yesterday. Until about two years ago he was employed as manager in the drapery department of the Farmers’ Co-op. at Ashburton, but he then started on his own account with a small hosiery and fancy goods business in East Street, Ashburton. For some time he has been battling along under adverse conditions caused by the depression. Mr. Humphries has two daughters, on/s of whom teaches .at Flemington and the other at Springburn.

Unfortunately there was still a tendency among a small section of the community to mutilate papers, said the report of the Carnegie Institute placed before tho New Plymouth Borough Council last night. This trouble was one with which every public library was faced and detection was most difficult. Iu New Plymouth two particular pages had disappeared regularly from the files. As a result for several weeks the sheets in question had been detached from the files by the library staff, but could be seen on application. The papers would, however, again be placed on the files complete in the hope that further mutilation would not take place. It had been reported to the committee of the institute that petty pilfering of pictures and news items was continually, going on in the reading rooms of the libiary. Much of the “goodness” of an apple is destroyed by peeling, it is stated in the report for 1930 of the Food Investigation Board of the British Department of Industrial and Scientific Research. It is stated that Vitamin C is not equally distributed in the tissue of the apple, but it is at least six times as concentrated in the peel as in the region of the core. Of all the types of apple examined by tho Board, the English Bramley’s Seedling has the highest Vitamin C content, while, at the same time, it loses only a small proportion during storage. Since, however, the Bramley’s Seedling is a cooking apple, and cooking apples are, as a rule, peeled as the first stage in their preparation for the table, it would seem that much of their vitamin value is destroyed at the outset.

The Melbourne Ltd. invite inspection in their show room for many new fashion garments including smart new . sports outfits, blazers, spring coats, art silk underwear, art silk nights, and some very handsome and smart afternoon dresses in Charmeuse, printed art eilk and crepe de chine. There are also many alluring and inexpensive tennis frocks to choose from *

A sharp earthquake was experienced at Wellington, Palmerston North, Wanganui and Ne w Plymouth .at 1.6 a.m. this morning. The shake was not a heavy one at New Plymouth, but was sufficient to stop a clock in Wanganui. A reply to a request that school buildings should not be used as polling booths where other buildings were available was received by the Auckland Education Board from the chief electoral officer. The officer stated that, owing to the economic position, the board’s request could not be granted. He assured the board that school buildings could not make other ratisfactory arrangements. “It is an amazing thing,” said a doctor to a Christchurch Sun reporter the other morning, “ivhat a child will eat when allowed free rein. This morning when I was passing the Fendalton School I eaw several children eating ice-cream. They had probably had their' breakfast but half an hour before, and the ice-cream going down on top of it would hinder the ingestion to a great extent. If I ate an ice-cream on a cold morning, I would be in bed for a week.” The Wellington Racing Club’s annual race ball, one of the social events of the season until a few years ago, is unlikely to be revived in the near future. Speaking to the annual general meeting of members of. the club, the president, Mr. I. G. Duncan, remarked that the question of the race ball had been brought forward at the last annual meeting, but members would no doubt agree with the stewards that the ball would in these times prove a losing venture, and a luxury that the club could not at present afford. A ferocious man-eating tiger took charge of the deck of a German liner .one ddrk night recently. It was one of five taken on board at Singapore for transport to London. Apparently it tore away battens at the top of its cage and so escaped. A sailor, who saw the beast, thought it was the ship’s dog and called to it. When it came near he patted it and, discovering his mistake, dashed, for shelter. The tiger bounded after him and caught him by the arm, tearing the flesh badly. At daylight the animal was located between two hatchways and promptly shot. “During the last few months the Ohura Road has been overrun with straying stock,” said the chairman of the Whangamomona County Council (Mr. N. R. Cleland) at a meeting of the yesterday. “It is up to this council to give some protection to the travelling public, and apart from impounding the time has apparently arrived when we should take legal steps and prosecute, the offenders.” He suggested that one of the surfacemen should be given a “day off” periodically to gather in all strays and advise the council as to the identity of the owners. The matter was left in the hands of the chairman to carry his suggestion into effect. For the modest price of Is a visitor to the weekly Westfield fat stock sale, which is held every Wednesday, says the New Zealand Herald, can buy a real live calf should such a purchase hold any attraction. In recent weeks scores of “bobby’’ calves have been sent in from the farms and such is the state of the market that many a farmer has found himself out of pocket on a consignment of under-nourished and “scrubby” little animals. The usual charge for conveying a calf to market is la 5 a head, and after the auctioneers’ commission has been deducted, the owner of the calf has found himself owing money. “We’ve all had cuts, but we’ve all got to pay ’our way just the same,” commented the Magistrate (Mr. E. C. Levvey) in the Maintenance Court at Invercargill when dealing with a request from a civil servant for a reduction in the maintenance paid to his invalid wife. Complainant advanced as one of his main reasons that his wages had been subjected to the cuts. “What cuts?” queried his Worship. “The ten per cent, cut and the eight per cent, cut,” was the reply. The Magistrate was puzzled. “The ten per cent, cut I have the unhappy knowledge of, but what’s this eight per cent, cut?” When informed that the eight per cent, cut was the Civil Service cut of 1922, his Worship replied, “That’s all dead and done with,” and dismissed the request for a variation of the order.

“New Zealand may be bad, but this country is very much worse from the point of view of finding employment,” writes Air. Ivan A. Watkins, of Christchurch, from England to a friend in Christchurch. “During our stay here,” he continues, “we have come across several New Zealand people who have come here to try to better themselves, mostly without success. From what I have seen I would earnestly warn any New Zealand individual or family not to think of coming to this country in the hope of bettering themselves. In one case a young couple, without family, came Home in the same boat with us. The husband was earning £6 a ■week in Dunedin, and the firm wished to reduce him to £5 a week. The wife considered they could do better in England, and so they broke up their comfortable home and came over here. So far the man has not been able to get work of any sort, and the wife managed to get work at £1 12s a week. They are paying 28s a week for board, and have 2s a week for clothes.” A retired New Plymouth suburbanite was waited upon last week by one of the unemployed and asked for work in the garden. The resident said he was sorry that he could not employ him, and expressed sympathy with the applicant in his predicament. The man said he was seeking work, not sympathy. “Well,” said the resident, “it is like this: I can’t take the risk of employing you. First of all, I would have to take out an accident insurance policy to cover you. Then I would be liable to the Labour Department for the unemployment tax if you have not paid it. Again, as the only casual work I can offer you is to mend some sheds, I would have to pay you the award rate of pay or place myself in the position of being ‘shot at’ by the inspector. In these circumstances I cannot employ you. If you want to remedy these things so that men like yourself may be given work, then see that meu are returned to power who will alter the laws that are now crippling the country and preventing employment. To show you I’m sympathetic towards you, please take this,” and he handed him five shillings. By advertisement in this issue members and friends of the Manchester Unity 1.0.0. F. are cordially invited to bs present at the onening of the Loyal Rahotu Lodge in the ifahotu Public Hall on Thursday of this week.® Lissaman’s Mammitis Paint. Qur repeat orders show that our mammitis paint is very Try a bottle, 5s 6d. Send to S. Lissaman, Box 63A, Kaponga, or at all stores.*