LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Okato-Runiho Dairy Company yesterday unanimously decided to donate to Welcome Lodge, . New Plymouth, either a crate of cheese or a box. of butter at the option of the Salvation Army, which is conducting the lodge. It is surprising the number of pine and macroearpa trees that are being cut down in Taranaki just now. The cutting provides work for idle days, and, now that rata and native trees have disappeared from a large part of the province the split wood is in demand for domestic fires.

Workmen are employed just now logging and cleaning up the triangular piece of ground near the Normanby factory. What has been an eyesore for years gives promise of being a tidy and interesting open space. The planting of a few flowering shrubs would add considerably to its appearance. He hoped that any suppliers contemplating purchasing a motor-car would see that it was English and not American, said Mr. W. C. Green, chairman, at the annual meeting of the Rahotu. Dairy Co. yesterday. He said the company had found satisfaction with? its English lorry, the cost of which had been written off. . It is not often that well-established macroearpa treca are affected by frost or cold winds in Taranaki, but the unusual heavy frosts and cold, biting winds which have prevailed, on and ofl?, during the past three weeks have had their effect in the Hawera district on this hardy shelter tree. Many of them appear as if they had been scorched by fire.

A coastal resident who is also interested in a farm on the Hauraki Plains has just made up his year’s returns. These show that the 150 acres on which 100 cows are milked has produced 31,2141 b. of butterfat. That represents 208.091 b. of fat per acre and 312.141 b. of fat per cow. During the 12 years that he has been interested in the property it has never received any fertiliser, but the pasture has received plenty of harrowing. Th first year’s output was 18,5961 b. of fat, so that there has been an average yearly increase of over 10001 b. The necessity for shareholders to attend in sufficient numbers to ensure a quorum being present at a special meeting which is to be held to confirm an alteration to the articles of association made at an extraordinary meeting of the Okato-Puniho Dairy Company yesterday was being stressed by the secretary when a supplier remarked that the directors should arrange a euchre party the same evening with a 401 b. cheese as prize. That, he said, would ensure a satisfactory attendance. The idea was supported and, it is understood, will be put into operation with possibly an amendment to the suggested prize. There appears to be some misapprehension in the minds of some ratepayers in regard to the special rate of Bd. in the £1 to be pledged as security for the new loan, states a New Plymouth borough official. In all special loans of the borough a rate is pledged as security for the loan. The Bd. special rate for the new loan will take the placq of the rates which have been pledged in the past for the loans now falling due. The old rates so pledged will automatically lapse when the old loans are paid off in April next. In view of the fact that over £lOO,OOO will be found out of accumulated sinking fund towards the repayment of the old loans the new rate of Bd. will be' considerably less than the total of the special rates pledged for the old loans. The pledge of the Bd. rate will therefore decrease the liability of ratepayers, nbt increase it. Advice has been received by the secretary of tho Ruapehu Ski Club that three Australians, Messrs. T. Mitchell and S. Tennant and Miss J. Tennant, will be present at the New Zealand ski championships to be held at National Park toward the end of August. The cablegram also stated there was a strong possibility that the party would be aug-. mented, ami that Australia would be represented by a team. Mr. Mitchell is a prominent Australian skier, and represented Australia in the first Federation Internationale Do Ski downhill championship held at Murren, Switzerland, in February, 1931. He has won the club championship of Victoria and is well known in the ski-ing world. Prior to coining to New Zealand he is to compete at Mount Hatham, Victoria, in the interstate and Australian national championships, to bo held from August 6 to August 13.

A few years ago New Zealanders used to say that it was no good buying an English cai - because it was not suitable for local conditions, said Mr. W. C. GreCn, chairman, at the annual meeting of the Rahotu Dairy Co. yesterday. They had been determined to buy an American ear, but they had expected, nevertheless, that the English people should eat all the New Zealand butter and cheese sent, whether of the finest quality or not. Mr. Green urged the importance of taking only first-quality milk to the factory and making the best article possible to meet the needs of the British consumer. He was satisfied every man desired to supply first-grade milk. Under a system Of differential payments a man’s pocket would soOu bo touched by the supply of second-grade milk. The manager said that in tests made from the beginning of March to the end of May less than one per cent, of the Rahotu milk was graded second. The moral effect of grading was important, he thought. Apples, vegetables, hams and bacon will be included in the offering at Newton King, Ltd.’s Kaponga mart sale tomorrow. 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

A Hamilton carrier covered his horse the other evening and turned it out. Next morning he found the animal shivering and the cover missing. A few inquiries, says the Times, elicited the fact hat a neighbour in the early morning had seen a man in the enclosure removing the cover. .Thinking it was the owner, he thought no more of the incident until the theft was reported, and the robber got away with his spoil. “Samoa is one place where the depression is not being felt badly,” said Lieut.Colonel R. B. Neill, of Canterbury, who has returned to New Zealand after a Pacific Islands tour. “Naturally,” he said, “conditions are not so good there as during the boom times, but sOine of< the districts have had quite good prices for their copra.” Lieut.-Colonel Neill said he saw no signs of the recently reported disaffection among the natives. In order to gain evidence for a Dental Board prosecution, a Melbourne constable recently went to a dental surgery in Preston and had a tooth extracted. This amazing statement of devotion to duty was revealed at the Court when the holder of a denial permit was charged with having practised dentistry for reward contrary to the provisions of the Medical Act of 1928, defendant not being registered as a dentist. He was fined £7, with £2 15s costs. An announcement that wool flock was proving a very satisfactory material for insulating electric hot water heaters was made at a meeting of the Franklin Power Board. The engineer (Mr. L. G. Sharp) stated that, in tests he had carried out, water that was boiling when the current was switched off became cooler at the rate of 3i to 4 degrees an hour in a heater insulated with pumice, Where wool flock was used the loss of heat was reduced to 2 and 3 degrees an hour. Wool flock comprises short ends ajid pieces of wool that are rejected for spinning. Terms applied to currency reform were humorously referred to by Sir Andrew Russell during the course of an address on this subject at Auckland. Sir Andrew said that to use the word “inflation” was unpopular; it was fairly respectable to say “reflation,” but perfectly (respectable to employ the term, “devaluation of gold.” “When conversing with bankers,” added the speaker, “the expression ‘devaluation of gold’ would be advisable. ‘Reflation’ could be used when talking with your friends. If you want to be shot at, ?ay ‘inflation.’ I am prepared to be shot at.”

The prospects of Angora, rabbit farming as a means of giving employment to disabled returned soldiers were repotted as being bright at a meeting of the Canterbury Disabled Soldiers’ Reestablishment Committee. The committee decided to wait upon the Prime Minister to ascertain what help the Government could give in settling soldiers on five-acre farms. It was stated that if the proposed scheme was the means of settling even ten soldiers on rabbit farms, there would, be a saving in pensions of £5OO annually after the first 18 months. This point will be stressed whCn the committee meets the Prime Minister.

“Bird students are prone to advocate the transference of rare birds to sanctuaries in order - to save threatened extermination,” writes Captain E. V. Sanderson in the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society’s publication, “but frequent reports state that Little Barrier has a numerous wild cat population. Kapiti, too, has its enemies against weka, kiwis and kakapo, besides which rats aro present in extraordinary numbers, and those on the island inform me that nests are depleted of their contents time and time again. In past years many different species have been introduced on to this island, and it cannot be said that they have prospered. Some indeed have never been heard of again, while only one kakapo has been seen in many years.” A w-.g in the grandstand at Lansdowne Park, Blenheim, on Saturday afternoon at the representative match between Marlborough and Bush scored a hearty laugh, says the Express, off the recentlyadopted rule prohibiting the replacement of players. There was a sudden, stoppage in the game, the usual significant clustering of players around one of their number - and a series of frantic signals in the direction of the grandstand, where the manager of the Bush team was seated. For a while the semaphoring was resultless, so the gesturing player on tho field supplemented his signals with an urgent request for “shorts —pants—trousers.” A gale of laughter swept the stand as a firm voice called back with a tone of finality: “No replacements!”

An interesting commentary on the present wave of economy is afforded by the experience of the caretaker of a Christchurch school which is attended by a large number of children. When there was no talk of depression he used to collect on the average a barrel and a half of scraps of food in the playground after the school closed each day, and he was able to feed quite a number of fowls in this way. Now he collects barely half a barrel of scraps in a week and consequently has reduced the number of his fowls. .The credit for the reduction in the waste of food at the school is partly due to the teachers, who take every opportunity of. impressing on the children that it is wrong to waste food while there are so many persons in want. which were liberated on Little Barrier some three years back were harried by tuis on the second day after liberation, and never heard of again, while those liberated on Kapiti are reported as being still present some 12 months back,” writes Captain E. V. Sanderson in the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society’s publication in dealing with the transfer of birds to sancturaries where they have never been known to exist. “Bell-birds liberated in Waipoua kauri forest, a most unusual area for such birds, have never been reported as being seen since their liberation. Failure with loss of effoit and money is the usual result of experiments in transferring birds. Further, out of some 30 species of game birds introduced into New Zealand at considerable cost; only two or three species have survived.”

Mr. John Tatham, who farms 35 acres of ragwort-infested land, adjoining Otorohanga, has kept a careful tally of his time, and expenses, in his endeavour to cope with the menace of ragwort during the past two years. The cost of sodium chlorate is £27, to date, and it took one man 120 days to check the larger growths. Mr. Tatham used the Sodium both as a spray and in its powdered fbrm. He has found that he can get over the infested a.rea. four times quicker with the dry applications than with the spray, and is perfectly satisfied, says the King Country Chronicle, that by either method plants can be exterminated. His only complaint is the cost of the sodium chlorate, which he thinks the Government should supply at much cheaper rates. Mr. Tatham is now using five parts of lime to one of sodium. The application is merely placed on the budding crowns of the plant, a pinch on each, when the plants wither right throughout their root system, and give no further trouble. In connection with the New Plymouth Borough Council’s proposals to raise a loan of £553,000 to repay loans falling duo in April next a meeting of ratepayers will be held in the' Workers’ Social Hall on Wednesday next, August 3.