LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 9 December 1931, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Of the seven single men from New Plymouth who entered the unemployment camp near Wanganui on October 13 and the seven who went some weeks later, nine are still in the camp. They have received a parcel of clothing and boots given by the boys at the New Plymouth High School. Only two of the fourteen urban areas of the Dominion have had a higher birth-rate than New Plymouth for the first ten months of the current year. The New Plymouth rate is 20.11 births per 1000 of population. Gisborne has the highest proportion, 21.'89, and Hamilton is next with 20.22. The lowest figure is Dunedin’s 14.38, and Auckland has 14.72.

The present strawberry season is one of the most successful Whangarei growers have ever experienced, says the Advocate. The weather conditions have been ideal for bringing the fruit to the fullest development and flavour. One gardener who picked 900 boxes in November, 1930, took 2700 last month. Another says that many berries tip the scale at a'n ounce and a-half. A mild rebuke was administered by Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Nelson when counsel in a case had similar evidence repeated. “Youd be surprised how much I understand when I hear a thing once,” said. His Honour. “By the second time I’m getting a little full up of it. It is not flattering to one’s intelligence to explain a thing twice. It is more flattering to a judge to assume that he can understand simple reasoning. I can do that, you know.

Of a total of 2001 men employed on railway construction work in New Zealand during October the StratfordMain Trunk line found occupation for 480. This was the largest number employed on any single undertaking. The Tawa Flat deviation accounted for 366 men, the north end of the South Island railway 286 and the south end 205, and there were 331 on the Napier-Gisborne section.

Particulars of the taxation on. racing during the first three months of the current season, August, 'September and October, are given in the Abstract of Statistics. Totalisator investments amounted to £748,546 during that period as compared with £1,048/25,6 12 months earlier. In investment, dividend and stakes tax the Government took £73,384 as against £97,146, and the clubs received £'60,420 this year and £83,838 during the corresponding period last year.

For two contestants to dead-heat on the racecourse or the athletic track is sufficiently common to cause no comment, but, says the Christchirrch Times, in a race on Saturday six men came in together. 'lt was the committee men’s race at the annual picnic of the night staff'of the Times. There were six committeemen and the magnificent prize was six packets of cigarettes. Down the hundred- yards course they thundered and amid the plaudits of the onlookers breasted the tape in as straight a line as ever soldiers did. on a parade ground. The prize was divided.

The superiority of New Zealand journalism over the general standard in Australia is asserted by Mr. C. P. Agar, who has returned to Christchurch from a holiday tour on 'Saturday. “While the Australian papers are mostly concerned with spicy bits of news which they presented with arresting headlines, our papery seem to be more in touch with the economic life of ths community,” he said. “Here we feel that there is anobject to whatever is presented; there is more direction, and a greater sense of responsibility.” As a result of some corrosive influence the'propeller on the pilot launch at New Plymouth was found to be badly eaten away when inspected last October after only three months’ use. The copper sheathing on the hull was slightly affected, too, and it was considered the trouble was caused by galvanic action. One of the propeller blades was sent to the Marine Department for expert investigation, 'but so far no report has been received by the Harbour Board authorities. In the meantime an Eng-lish-made propeller was fitted and the launch was again placed in commission. Yesterday another inspection was made, but neither the propeller nor the hull was found to be affected. That Maoris are liable for the payment of dog tax was made clear at a meeting of the Egmont County Council yesterday. The chairman (Mr. W. U. Green) said there was usually trouble over the collection of dog tax from the Maoris, particularly in the case of greyhounds and other sporting dogs for which the fee was 10s. The collectors seemed to be under the impression that they could not collect dog tax from Maoris if they refused to pay. He considered, however, that the Act made it clear that if anyone refused to pay the tax or denied the ownership of t'he dog the animal could be seized and either destroyed or sold.

Among the stock seized by the Egmont county ranger during last month was one of the council’s own horses, the faithful steed used in the Rahotu riding, which was discovered wandering in the Rahotu township. The county chairman stated that the riding foreman had informed him that the horse had got on to the road owing to tne wires of its paddock having been cut. That fence had been cut on several occasions, it was stated, though he could not vouch for it, by persons who had been asked to carry water from a tank on the council’s property to a nearby building. The chairman and Cr. Gibson were authorised to inquire into the matter. Members of the North Committee of the Egmont National Park Board held a special meeting at the nountain yesterday. After making an inspection of the old house and grounds they discussed the maintenance of the buildings and ways and means to maintain the road by re-coating it with a bituminous mixture the upper three miles. The financial position received consideration, following which Messrs G. M. Spence (chairman) and J. S. Connett were appointed to go further into the points discussed and bring down a report to the next meeting of the committee. Two “rectifiers” are in operation in the telegraph room at New Plymouth. One was installed some time ago, and the other was used for the first time yesterday At present they are connected with the Creed automatic machine only, making it possible to work both directions of current and dispensing with batteries in favour of the local electrical supply, which they convert from “alternating” into “direct.” Eventually it is intended to wofk all the telegraph machines through the rectifiers, thus doing away with the need for any batteries and effecting a considerable saving in operating costs. It is claimed each rectifier does its work on 30 watts and that the two of them, using no more power than required for a 60-watt electric lamp, are capable of running the whole local telegraph installation,

The Egmont County Council yesterday endorsed the action of a special committee in deciding to give preference to an English manufacture in the purchase of a new motor-truck.

Fire destroyed a motor-truck belonging to Mr. Wilson Johnson, Okau, on Saturday afternoon. The engine backfired on the Waiau hill and flames spread rapidly to the load of timber. When assistance arrived only the chassis remained.

“At the end of the year the collars could be used as hames straps,” remarked a tenderer to the Egmont County Council yesterday as an inducement for the council to accept his tender for dog collars. “There is no need to tell ratepayers that,” added the clerk amidst a ripple of laughter. A very young but withal venturesome penguin was found at large in New Plymouth last night. No bigger than an ordinary domestic fowl, he was rescued from the road near the Cenotaph by two boys and taken into custody in a nearby garage. The visitor showed his resentment of this treatment by vigorous pecking and so he was deposited on the rocks behind the railway station to work out his own salvation.

“I think we could give our pupils a richer curriculum,” remarked Dr. J. W. Mcllraitli, senior inspector of schools at Wellington, when speaking at a teachers’ social at Wellington. “I have been struck with the high intelligence of the senior girls and boys. Pupils in standards 5 and 6 seem to grasp far more than we could grasp, or we were asked to grasp. I would make this plea; That the education of the senior boys and girls be made as wide and as deep as possible. I would suggest developments along the lines of modern history, modern geography, and social matters generally.” A round sum of £366,275 was payable on Saturday in dividends by the Bank of New Zealand— £98,697 to the Government and £267,578 to private shareholders. The Government holds three classes of preference shares in the bank. On class A a dividend of £50,■000 was paid on Saturday for the whole year, on class B there was an interim dividend of £41,666, and on class C (long-term mortgage department) one of £7031. Private holders of D preference shares in thia department receive £17,578, and holders of ordinary shares £250,000 in interim dividends.

A jocular discussion followed the suggestion at a meeting of the Management Committee of the Canterbury Cncket Association that members of'the representative team touring the North Island in January should each be provided with a uniform red and black tie. Such remarks as “Provided that they are not used as belts/’ and “On condition that they are returned at the conclusion of the tour,” evidenced the disinclination of the meeting to treat the matter seriously, but nevertheless when a resolution to this effect was moved it was carried by six votes to five.

A suggestion that the New Zealand Cricket Council should purchase a number- of slow motion demonstration films of famous cricketers was made by Mr. W. J. V. Hamilton at a meeting of the management committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association, Mr. Hamilton said that he understood the films _in question were of excellent education value, and the various associations would probably be only too pleased to use them in connection with their coaching schemes. It was agreed that Mr. Hamilton should make inquiries into the matter. The earlier statement regarding the damage done by the frost to orchards in the Roxburgh district of Central Otago was by no means exaggerated, states a correspondent of the Christchurch Times. In some places crops were wiped out, and one man who exported 50,000 cases of apples last year lost everything, while the same can be said of another grower who exported 10,060 cases. A serious aspect is the damage to the trees, and it may be three years before they are back to normal fruiting. There will be no -work this season for - extra hands, numbering about 250. The Railway Department, which carried 5742 tons of fruit last season, will possibly lose 75 per cent, of its customary freig'ht revenue. Constant reference to “brown top” grass during the hearing of a farm dispute in the Supreme Court at Auckland on Monday led Mr. Justice Smith to make inquiries about it. It was stated by a farmer- witness and counsel that the seed of “brown-top” was largely used for lawns and for golf links. There used to be a substantial export of it from New Zealand to the United States, but that had been ended by the off er in o- of a bounty for seed produced in the° United States and the imposition of a duty on the imported product. A farmer who had had considerable experience of it said he had come to the conclusion that ‘‘brown-top” was not native to New Zealand, but was the acclimatised form of the English “red top.” It had very poor nutritive qualities, he said, and was very hard to eradicate. It would be impossible to maintain dairy cows on it.

As part of its special efforts to increase the scope of t'he system of physical training in schools, the Education Department will issue at the beginning of next year a new manual for the guidance of teachers. The instruction <riven up to the present has been based largely the system adopted by the British education 'boards. The new system, which follows the Swedish method of instruction, attaches great importance to the posture of the child and to the exercises necessary to remedy physical defects. In all the training colleges the students are being trained in the new system, and the department hopes that in a few years’ time it will be firmly entrenched throughout the primary and secondary schools/ It is anticipated that this method of physical training, if properly and judiciously applied, will have a marked effect upon the physical bearing and tlie health of the pupils, particularly in those cases where slight defects are shown at present.

Describing Norfolk Island as “an admirable place for New Zealanders who wanted a winter holiday cheaply and in an ideal climate,” Mr. C. P. Agar, of Christchurch, who recently spent twelve days there bn his way from Australia, was greatly impressed 'by the easiness of life under comparatively primitive conditions. It was surprising, he said, to go to an island where there were not a lot of •Government costs, and to find that the people lived quite well without and State services. The average store account for a family of four people was £2 10s a month, and it seemed that a retired man with a few pounds; a week could hardly find a better place to go to. On the island people were isolated and dependent on themselves, for there was no telegraph, and no electric lighting or municipal water supply—in fact, practically none of the things people elsewhere had come to regard as indispensable. Yet after a few days there a visitor began to wonder whether the speeding-up process of modern life was worth all the human energy and strain expended on it. The Melbourne Ltd. are opening and now showing a most wonderful range of ladies’ and men’s and children’s handkerchiefs. As handkerchiefs will form practically 50 per cent, of Christmas gifts this season those buying early in order to send away arc cordially invited to inspect the new etock.*