LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1932, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A fine specimen of native lizard was displayed yesterday in a glass case in a Stratford shop window. The lizard was found at the top of Norfolk Road by Mr. H. Fazackerly. The final contest for the flying scholarship will take place at New Flymouth this evening. The six finalists selected yesterday were R. Brewster (first and free flight), Mrs. Janies, G. Stanton, W. Short, R. Stanton and F. Gray.

On the schedule at the Norfolk show yesterday was a class for decorated jam jars. Some of the entrants showed considerable originality. A jar arrayed with ragwort and golden rod was awarded third prize, and the decoration of another comprised spiderwart. The annual picnic of the New Plymouth, Waitara and Inglewood Convent schools was held at Opunake yesterday. Over 400 children were present, over 200 leaving New Plymouth at 7.5 a.m. in a special train of eight carriages. Others joined the train at Fitzroy, Lepperton and Inglewood. “Of course the exchange cuts both ways,” said Mr. W. T. Wells during a discussion on the payment of interest at the New Plymouth Harbour Board yesterday. “It cuts one way for us, anyway,'’ said the chairman (Mr. 0. E. Bellringer)'amidst laughter. Mr. J. R. Cruicksliank observed that the exchange rate did not cut any ice for the board.

Two members of the audience at the circus at New Plymouth last night accepted the invitation of the lady rifle shot to assist in the performance. As one young' man, well known in boxing circles, stood up. in the William Tell act to have a mark shot at just above his head, a wag in the audience cried out, “Any message for your mother?” When a youth was about to undergo the ordeal of having the ash shot off his cigarette the same voice cried, “Pardon me, are you insured?”

Residents of Norfolk Road, the school teachers and the pupils take a pride in the school and its surroundings. The garden is neat and the grounds are‘’excellently kept. A special feature is the swimming pond, a concrete dam having been constructed across a stream at the back of the school. There is also concrete kerbing at the sides for protection. The pool is approached by a rustic path through a plantation of English trees. There, too, is in progress a ■scheme of further improvements which includes the planting of flowers and native shrubs.

Renamed the Holmglen, the Holm Shipping Co.’s new motor-ship, which came to New Zealand under the name of the Argus, is to trade between New Plymouth and Dunedin. The Holmglen is to leave Wellington to-day for Dunedin, whence she will leave on her first coast? wise run on Tuesday, arriving at New Plymouth about ..March 21. It is some time since the Holmglen reached New Zealand, but as she had trouble with her engines on the way out she" was under survey for a longer time than was expected on account of the engines ; being taken to pieces and thoroughly in-' spected. \ ■

A second seismograph, the HolmeJaggar shock-absorber, has been installed by the Dominion ‘ observatory at New Plymouth to act as a check upon the instrument at the New Plymouth gaol. It is belie/ed that traffic on Carrington Road affects the hill on which the gaol is situated and for that reason the seismograph stationed there does not give an accurate record. The new instrument is in the charge of Mr. C. J. Morshead and is at present working in the window of a Devon Street shop, where, it is stated, the traffic in Devon Street does not affect it. The observations made on the instrument will be sent to the Dominion observatory in Wellington.

Replying to a toast at a post and telegraph social evening in Blenheim; Mr.. N. R. McLsaac (acting-chief postmaster) said they had every reason to feel proud of their service, reports the Express. He knew there were some members of the public who thought them the Cinderella of the Civil Service, but that was not the case. Many of the other departments mio-ht be done away with, but not the Post and Telegraph Department. (Applause.) An interesting fact m connection with the progress of the Department was that 40 years ago the Blenheim staff was greater numerically than it was to-day, despite an increase of 400 to 500 per cent, in the amount of work' undertaken. The principal reason for this was the tremendous advance in telegraphic engineering, enabling the telegraphic staff to be reduced from 34 in 1892 to ten to-day.

While the greater part of the community is endeavouring to stimulate local industry and play some part in restoring prosperity, every now and then there conies an incident that would. serve to illustrate a complete lack of faith in our own resources, says the Dunedin Star. A striking example came before ',a, well-known tobacconist the other evening. He was asked by the customer for a box of foreign matches, and, with the commendable object of showing preference to the local product, pointed out the latter’s superior features. The price was the same, but, as the tobacconist said, the local box contained more matches, and, further, these matches were of better quality than the. foreign article. Disregarding these quite unanswerable arguments, the customer remained adamant, and refused, to buy the box manufactured in Dunedin. Finally, the justifiably exasperated tobacconist presented him with one.

The statement that his dairy cows only brought him £4 each last season was made by a farmer witness at the Whangarei Court on Monday.

“Who said Hamilton was quiet!” said a Hamilton business man on Monday. “In response to an advertisement we have had a wonderful day. Why, we had to get in a policeman to regulate the crowd.” —-Waikato Times. “As one. writer, has observed, a burglar may have the physical contour of a bishop,” said Mr, D. L. Dallard, Controller of Prisons, in an address on the penal system to New Zealand justices in Wanganui. The orchard instructor of the Department of Agriculture at Gisborne reports that a ten-year-old orange tree at Patutahi died recently as a result of skim milk having been thrown around its trunk.

Black bottles, nock downward, elevated on long poles, are said to have a deterrent effect upon the activities of the cabbage moth, it being on record iri literature on gardening that the efficacy of the black inverted empty bottles had been established beyond dispute, but the scientific reason of the moths avoiding the bottles has not yet been established. “W® used a New Zealand football almost right through the season, and found it very satisfactory,” stated Mr. A. J. Marshall, secretary to the Sunnyside Rugby Football Club, at its annual meeting. "As a matter of fact," he added, “we won every game we played with this ball.”

In view of the approaching shooting season a supplementary Gazette announces the conditions applying in various districts to the shooting of native and imported gaino under the Animals Protection and Game Act. A special appeal is made to sportsmen for the preservation for posterity of the native birds of New Zealand by strict observation of the law.

In order to give employment in Ney Zealand, some goods now imported in containers might be imported in bulk or in largo containers, and packed in the Dominion, stated a letter from, the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association to the Auckland association. A list of commodities which the Wellington, organisation considered suitable was included, and it was asked that a meeting of the manufacturers of containers in Auckland should be called. The Auckland Association will do this.

“I am supposed to be a man retired from business, but l am busier now than I have eVer been,” said Mr. D. McFarlane, when elected on Wednesday at Wiiiganui to the position of president of the Federation of the Justices’ Associations of New Zealand. He had, up to the previous night, placed 99 boys on farms, he said. Mr. W. Bruce said that Mr. McFarlane was held in high appreciation by his follow citizens; particularly the younger people, whom he had helped so much.

“Any chance of getting the money?” asked the chairman (Mr. T. M. Charters) of the Christchurch Fire Board, when the secretary reported that £7 lOis. still was owing by a man at whose house outside the board’s district a fire had been attended by the brigade. “Not a hope,” was the reply. Another case was that of a boy who had been fined £5 and had paid £3 10s., and who was now in the Borstal Institution. “There is no use applying there for it,” remarked the chairman. The necessary motion was agreed to, authorising the writing-off of the amounts mentioned. A Shannon dairy farmer is . reported to have recently completed an invention which should prove beneficial to, the dairyman, in that it is possible to classify milk as it is drawn from the milking machine in such a way as to separate the hgh-testing milk from the low. At a demonstration held in the presence of several persons interested in the dairying industry, samples taken from one channel, which was tested, resulted in milk being obtained with a 4.4 test, while that coming from another channel had a 6fl test.

Contending that Australian people had seen more properly organised All Black Rugby football teams than the New Zealand people themselves, Mr. W. Williams, at a meeting of the North Otago Rugby Union, suggested that an All Black team should tour New Zealand. He. thought this would do more good for football than an overseas tour. The people abroad who did all of the complaining saw the Dominion’s best teams in action, he said, and yet the people in New Zealand, who provided the players, did not see them as a team, properly organised and. developed by a tour. A suggestion was made recently by the Rotorua Rod , and Gun Club to the Department of Internal Affairs advocating the setting apart of an area of bush in, the vicinity of Te Toko for which deer-stalking licenses could be issued at £1 a head. The club made the suggestion with a view to restricting the present destruction of the deer herds which is proceeding under the open season/’: The department, however, has indicated that it does not propose to alter the existing arrangements. Diving head first into space from the lower wing of an aeroplane at an altitude of 1500 ft., Pilot-Officer J. S. Fraser thrilled a crowd of over 2000 persons at the Wigram Aerodrome on Sunday by 'making two perfect parachute descents. Pilot-Officer Fraser undertook the descents in order that a collection might be taken up toward defraying the cost of a memorial headstone on the grave of the late Lieutenant Qviller, who was accidentally killed after jumping with a parachute from an aeroplane at Oamaru about a year ago.

A curious position has arisen with regard to the native registration of births at Taupo. In order to qualify for the “family allowance” the applicant has to set out the names and ages of . his children, and these have to be verified by the official register. The registration of births is not compulsory. with natives, and therefore many children have never been registered. Now that they have an influence on the pension, the father is registering children, some of whom are several years old. It happened that a neglectful father recently took along several children and registered the lot, and duly applied for .the “family allowance.” That bullock driving is good training for sheep dogs was evidenced when two youthful competitors entered the dogs they used for rounding up cattle in the Ratanui Collie Club’s trials, reports the Clutha Leader. A visitor to the trials, who saw the dogs working, said that they put up a great performance, even if their methods of yarding were not altogether quite orthodox. Their experience with cattle certainly stood them in good stead, and they were fast workers.

In considerable danger of being swept off his feet by huge waves which threatened to engulf him, an Ashburton angler played a large quinnat salmon for over half an hour at the mouth of the Rakaia River recently. The salmon, which turned the scales at 331 b.» showed a good deal of fight, and. the angler’s position, right at the junction of the river and the sea, was a dangerous one, as a heavy sea was running, waves swirling about him. Having hooked such a fine specimen, however, the angler was not inclined to let it go, and his efforts were successful.

Did you ever think what the last few days of a sale mean to you. Sensational bargains mean big savings. See our 1/-, 2/6, 5/-, 9/11 windows at McGruer’s, New Plymouth.*