LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

How is business? That is the usual

question asked of the business man today. ‘‘Pretty slow” is the usual reply. But a variation was found in South Taranaki the other day, when a firm admitted business was quite good, it having installed on one road alone in a couple of weeks no fewer than five wireless sets.

Purchased about 30 years ago secondhand for £5, an office safe was resold at a sale in New Plymouth on Tuesday for the same price. As the cost of safes has increased considerably in 30 years, the purchaser has even now secured a bargain. The New Plymouth Orchestral Society has asked Mr. F. W. G. McLeod again to accept the position of conductor. Miss E. Dowling has been appointed deputyconductor. It is expected rehearsals will be recommenced towards the end of the month.

The Waitara Borough Council is in full accord with the resolution passed by the Taranaki Hospital Board to the effect that no change in hospital administration should take place until full investigation had been made in regard to the financial provisions.

A tempting crop of mushrooms is not lightly passed by, even if it is someone else’s paddock. So a party of motorists on the Main South Road left their car, trailed through wet grass and commenced to collect the crowns of white carrots ingeniously propped on bamboo splinters with the express object of deceiving just such people. Rapid progress is being made with the finishing touches to St. Andrew’s Church, New Plymouth, which is to be opened at a service on Saturday. The seats are ranged in the nave, the floor covering is being laid and the pulpit, with its stone base, is in position, The baptisinal font is not yet installed but otherwise the work in the chancel is practically completed. The powerful floodlights were lighted for the first time on Tuesday night, and from the outside the white lancet windows looked particularly well. A start has been made with the making of a rockery on the triangular piece of ground on the Avenue Road directly opposite the main entrance to the school. The work is being done by the unemployed under the direction of the beautifying committee of the Borough Council. The side of the road below is also being cleared preparatory to planting with suitable shrubs. .The pohutukawas and cabbage trees planted alongside the racecourse last spring are making vigorous growth. That the Government "cut” is not without some advantage is showm by the experience, of a Taranaki man. In the more prosperous days he employed a man once or twice a week to help him in the garden. Now that he has had to dispense with his services, the retired civil servant has had to do all the work himself, and he confesses that the result has been entirely satisfactory from the point of view of his health, which was never* better, due to the reduction, of his weight from 14.10 to 13.2. He claims, in fact, that he feels 20 yeans younger because of his additional compulsory yet rational exercise.

An ex-Taranaki man living in Sydney

writes as follows:—“Until sucli time as the political atmosphere clears over here things generally will remain unsettled and I would not like to prophesy when normal times • will return to this country. Many people would like to get out, ‘but find it impossible 'to do so. Even with the return, of prosperity if the Labour Unions continue to dominate the country and 'bring about continuous strikes then Australia is doomed to remain perhaps the most 'backward country within the British Empire. It makes sad thinking that 'such a bountiful country should be so •terribly mismanaged.” ‘‘The scandalous mutilation and defacement of periodicals” at the Waitara reading room was the subject of strong comment at the meeting of the borough council last night. Or. W. B. Glasgow said it was disgraceful that periodicals should be defaced and mutilated, and it was farcical that the council should pay for the periodicals to provide free reading under such conditions. The Mayor agreed that the council could not keep a free reading room for 1 vandals and thieves. If it were possible to obtain evidence -the council could institute prosecutions and press for a heavy penalty. If the practice continued the council would have to close the reading room, excepting for the hours when the librarian was in attendance, though it did not like to penalise readers by taking such a drastic step. There is nothing wrong with Taranaki. At any rate, this is the opinion oj; the head of one of the largest firms in the province, who, speaking to a News’ representative yesterday, explained that his firm had set out a month ago to collect a large sum of money. This was accomplished, and in addition £5OOO to £6OOO. The fact was, he said, Taranaki was really sound at heart, and was in a better condition at present than perhaps any other part of the Dominion. Though prices were down considerably, this season over £3,500,000 would be received by producers of Taranaki, which would equal £5O per head of population, a pretty good income even with butter-fat at from lUd to Is for butter and 121 d to 13d for cheese.

“Some people complain of the farmer’s extravagance in possessing motorcars,” said a Taranaki stock and station agent to a News’ reporter the other day, “but I don’t regard the matter that way at all. I think it a necessity these days, and justified economically. Suppose a farmer were to revert to the old order of things. He would require a couple of horses for his buggy, and they consume as much food.as five cows. At £lO per head butter-fat the total would be £5O, quite sufficient to maintain the working farmer’s motorcar. Besides, the farmer is able to get about more quickly with his car, and time saved is money saved. Then there is the added advantage of giving his wife and family a little change and variation in what to many is a fairly uneventful and drab existence.”

With everybody talking economy, it is necessary to start saving right now. The cold weather is approaching and soon top coats will be the order of the day. Why not spend a few shilling on last season’s coat, and by having it redyed save pounds. We have been dyeing suits, costumes, coats, etc., for over 20 years and are still going strong. If you want your garments renovated by experts send them to J. K. HAWKINS & CO., Steam Dyers and Dry Cleaners, corner Devon and Liardet Streets, New Plymouth. Telephone 685. Stratford depot, Mrs. Rudkin, “Everybody’s”, Broadway.*

"They had started to make the footpath by digging it out, and it was now a water channel; in fact, it might be an intake for the Arapuni works,” was the description of a Waitara footpath by a borough councillor last night.

A profit of over £2OO was made by the Oamaru Jockey Club at its race meeting on Saturday, despite the fact that the gate takings were substantially less than at the New Year meeting.

The Waitara Borough Council has appointed the Mayor (Mr. J. Hine) as its delegate to the conference of local bodies and educational authorities to be held at Stratford on Saturday to take steps to safeguard the Opaku reserve for Taranaki educational purposes.

“Land is worth nothing to-day,” declared Mr. T. W. Howie at a meeting of the Wanganui Development League on Tuesday evening. “If you were given 100 acres to-morrow,” he continued, addressing several members, "you would not be able to make a living by running either sheep or cattle.” An Englishwoman who visited New Zealand last year in company with her husband and family, writing from London to a relative in New Plymouth, states: “I now refuse to buy anything but New Zealand butter. The strange part is that the Danish butter is sold at a higher price on the London market than the New Zealand article. To my taste New Zealand is the better butter. Something wrong somewhere!”

The rates in the Waitara borough have been reduced IJd in the £l. That was equivalent to 10 per cent., remarked the Mayor (Mr. J. Hine) at the meeting of the council last night. He considered the ratepayers were to be congratulated on the fact that the council had been able to see its way to reduce the rates. The rate this year, including the water rate, will be BAd as compared with 9fd last year.

While out on a deer hunt at the back of Matata, near Whakatane, Mr. C. Eivers, of Te Teko, secured a 19-point deer, states a Whakatane correspondent. Every point is plainly indicated, and nodules which are sometimes mistaken for points have not been included. It is undoubtedly the best head that has been secured in the district. Mr. Eivers also secured a 15-point specimen.

“On the day this offence was committed' accused obtained a divorce from his wife, and in the natural exuberance of his release had too much to drink.’ This was the rather novel excuse given by counsel in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch for a young man who appeared for sentence on a charge of theft.

London newspapers expressed amazement recently at the huge quantity of threepences which formed a portion of a shipment of coins to New Zealand, and an English visitor to Christchurch is equally amazed at the prevalence of the small coin, says the Sun. “Until I reached Auckland,” he said to a reporter, “I had not seen a threepenny bit for more than three years. In fact, I felt certain that the coin had gone, completely out of use.” During the restoration work on McLean Park, Napier, carried out following the earthquake in order to make the ground playable for Rugby football, an acre and a half of turf was removed from the Morris Street end of the park and transferred to the playing area. This area is to be relaid and resown at an early date, and it is intended to take great care with the work in order to provide turf for reconditioning operations in the future, says the Telegraph.

The changed meaning in business of ’the word “agency” was referred to by Mr. Justice Smith during the hearing of a civil claim in the Supreme Court at Auckland on Tuesday. His Honour said under the old style a definite contract existed between the agent and his principal, but the American idea was one simply of a representative whose engagement could be terminated at any moment. This idea seemed to be gaining ground, and ev-.n English firms were adopting the same view. “Jobs are too scarce these days,” said Mrs. J. H. Poulter, president, at a meeting of the Wellington Ladies’ Hockey Association, when appealing to members not to ring up certain officials on Saturdays when it was possible that the matches would be postponed. The officials last season used to receive as many as thirty rings some Saturday mornings, and Mrs. Poulter thought that it was prejudicial to the officials keeping their business positions if they had to answer so many telephone rings.

Why was the Maori population ot the South Island so small by comparison with that of the North Island? It has often been assumed that it was due to the colder climate of the south, but Dr. J. A. Gilruth 'puts forward a different theory in the current number of the Australian Veterinary Journal. He says that the lack of iodine may have been the reason. To-day, he states, iodine salts are regularly given to school children in parts of the South Island. It is certainly a fact that the South Island was very thinly peopled before the coming of the white men. Tuesday marked the sixtieth anniversary of the completion of telegraphic communication between Auckland and Wellington. Congratulatory messages were exchanged at the time between the centres, but the event does not appear to have attracted the interest which its importance now seems to warrant. The Mayor of Auckland sent messages to the superintendent and Mayor of Wellington, and the editor of the Herald transmitted a message to the editor of the Otago Daily Times congratulating him on the establishment of telegraphic communication between Auckland and Otago. The work was finished within contract time.

A swagger arriving in Dunedin from the north, with practically exhausted, resources, has good, reason to congratulate himself on having chosen the Leith Valley Road from Waitati as his route for the final stage of his trek. While trudging along he met a city family picnicking on the roadside and picking blackberries. One of the party, a local business man, suggested to the tramp - er that he should try picking blackberries and selling them in town. The swagger took his advice, and, greatly assisted by the offer of free use of a whare on the roadside, he set about securing a quantity of the berries. For the first day he earned 13s fid, selling two tins of berries at 4d per pound, following this up with another sale on the following day which netted him 15s 9d. After three days’ picking he found himself £2 0s 9d in pocket.

It is no wonder every day is a busy day at the Melbourne’s Closing Down Sale. Lingerie silk, usually 5/6, now 2/11 yard; lovely casement cuurtains, usually 3/11, now 1/- yard; floral rayons, 33in., usually 4/11, now 2/6 yard; velveteens, usually 5/11, now 2/11 yard; model frocks, coats, wool cardigans, lumber jackets, etc. The whole stock must be liquidated. Share in these great savings. Don’t delay.*

The bargain wise shopper will readily recognise the splendid values that The Hustlers are offering in every department. Come early and secure your share of bargains. Our lay-by system will help you these hard times if immediate payment is not convenient. A small deposit and monthly instalments will secure the goods unt.il paid for. The Hustlers, Devon Street.*