LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

An address on the gold standard was given members of the New Plymouth Round Table Club at the fortnightly luncheon yesterday by Mr. F. T. Davis.

The Taranaki Education Board yesterday decided that the date of the annual householders’ meeting for the election of school committtees should be May 1. The Taranaki Education Board proposes again visiting the schools in the Ohura district this summer. The itinerary and date of the visit will be decided at the February meeting. Under Scoutmaster E. H. Muggridge, a party of six boys of the Ohura Scout Troop camped at the Belt Road motor camp at New Plymouth from Saturday until yesterday, when they resumed their journey home via Te Kuiti. By the time Ohura is reached almost 450 miles will have been covered on bicycles in a little over a fortnight. The troop has visited Tongariro National Park, Wanganui, Hawei-a and New Plymouth and has camped ,on the roadside wherever the end of the day has found, it. The cost for each boy per day has worked out at just'over Is.

At a meeting of the executive of the Old Thamesites Association at New Plymouth last night, Mr. J. Garcia presiding, it was decided to forward a letter of sympathy to Mrs. A. Corney, a member of the association, because of the bereavement sustained by the death of her sister, Mrs. W. F. Obson. It was also decided to entertain the visiting Thames bowlers at a social next Tuesday evening. The Taranaki Education Board had a brief order paper for its monthly meeting yesterday and the meeting was the shortest within the memory of any of the present members. The meeting began as usual at 8.30 a.m. and the order paper, including morning tea, was disposed of by 11.15 a.m. It is seldom the meeting finishes before 1 p.m., while it frequently lasts well into the afternoon despite the fact that committees meeting the night before simplify matters considerably. “If Ottawa had been a 100 per cent, success what good would it have done,” asked Dr. G. Smith, Hokianga, in an address at Hawera on Tuesday. The United States, consisting of 46 States, had free trade throughout and was selfcontained but was seriously affected by the depression. Tariffs were not the cause of the trouble, only a system, he said.

The proposed establishment of a district high school at Inglewood was referred to at the meeting of the Taranaki Education Board yesterday, when it was stated that the proposal had not been advanced much. It was stated that parents whose children would be unable to receive secondary education at any other school should send them back to Inglewood next year, when the headmaster would commence a standard VII, which would be the nucleus of a district high school. An acute shortage of oranges in the near future, with a consequent rise in prices, is the opinion of Auckland merchants. Although there were adequate supplies of the fruit in cold storage for current requirements, it was stated that a shortage would soon develop owing to ihe embargo recently imposed on imports of Australian fruit into New, Zealand. Owing to exchange rates and other factors the importation of oranges in large quantities from California was impracticable.

The population of the Taranaki Education district, which comprises the greater portion of the Taranaki province as well as a portion of the Auckland province, is 70,000 it was reported at the meeting of the Taranaki Education Board yesterday. The district contains 174 schools with a total roll number of 12,000 pupils and a teaching staff of 365. Coincidentally during last financial year the Taranaki Education Board made 365 appointments, for which there were 5400 applicants. The number of unemployed in New Plymouth has been fairly constant during the past few months. Inquiries yesterday revealed the fact that for the three weeks prior to Christmas there was a slight reduction, probably due to a greater amount of casual work being then obtainable; but during the new year there has been a proportionate increase in the total. There is some tendency on the part of married men to seek work in the married men’s camps in the country. Recently 12 men have left New Plymouth for the Public Works camps at Carrington Road and Mohakatino.

The New Plymouth High School boys at present camping at Toko went off on an eeling expedition and hauled in 20 eels from one pool the first night. The eels were skinned and cleaned and the boys made ready for a feast on the. morrow. Unfortunately one more energetic than the others. decided to try the pool again early next morning, and in pulling in another his hook became entangled in something else, and a sack of drowned kittens came to light. Strange to say, when he arrived back with his story the boys’ taste for eels seemed to evaporate, and the feast that had been prepared went begging. The danthonia grass was high round a vicarage near Auckland. The vicar had watched it grow and ripen. He decided that it had to be cut. He put on old clothes and got to work. A man, who was evidently a visitor to the district, came along. “May I have a look at the church?” he inquired. The request was granted with pleasure. After inspecting the church the visitor watched the grass-cutting. “I’m blowed if we can get any of the laymen down our way to do that,” he said. “Neither can I,” said the vicar. When the visitor found out the identity of. the man with the scythe he probably reflected on the many odd jobs that come the way of a country vicar. Initiative and resourcefulness were outstanding features of many of the jobs undertaken in the pioneering days of Auckland engineering. Mr. George Fraser, whose death occurred on Friday, was associated with some spectacular engineering feats executed by the firm established by his father, who died nearly 32 years ago. The first battery erected at the Thames was made by this firm, which also designed and built the steamer Rotomahana, 130 tons, which ran between Auckland and Thames and Coromandel for many years. Other works were the raising of the wreck of the steamer Triumph and its successful reconditioning; the erection of the sheerlegs at Calliope Dock was another undertaking. A number of Hastings shopkeepers were victimised during the holidays by the passing of spurious coins, which vfrere passed on in good faith to the banks before detection. The majority were shillings, but there were also florins and half-crowns, some of which were made of such poor material that they broke to pieces in the hand. A number of half-crowns with large pieces cut from them were also tendered for payment of goods, and, concealed among other coins of a similar denomination, they escaped notice until the cash was being checked. A cattle dog, which had evidently been maddened by poison, ran amok in Empire Street, Frankton Junction, on Monday. The dog ran into a steam laundry and caused a good deal of excitement among the employees. It went out again at a furious pace and entered the front door of a neighbouring house. A second house was visited by the animal in its mad career, and the inmates locked themselves in a bedroom. A police constable was called upon to deal with the afiimal. He ran the dog into a shed and threw buckets of water over it. He thus succeeded in quietening it. The animal was later destroyed. No one was bitten by the dog. . Cricket may not derive much moral benefit from the present series of Test matches in Australia, says the Auckland Star, but it certainly will get a .financial uplift in both Australia and England. There have been record attendances at the first three test matches. Figures are not given, but’a line may be obtained through the takings in 192425, when the gross receipts for the second test at Melbourne amount to £22,628. This left a sum of £B4BB to go to the M.C.C., while £8763 went to Australian cricket. On this basis something like £40,000 will go to the M.C.C. this time. Half of this will be taken up by the expenses of the team's visit to Australia. and the rest will be divided among the English county clubs, which are much in need of the funds just now. The financial arrangement for these tours is that 50 per cent, of the net proceeds goes to the M.C.C., and the other half to the Australian Board of Control.

Mr. David Henry Collins, aged 61, who has been missing from his Kapuni home since Monday, has not yet been found. The search was continued yesterday, when no trace of Mr. Collins was found in the Kapuni River.

The wasteful use of garden hoses at Waitara was commented on at the borough council meeting last night. In spite of notices in the newspapers prohibiting the use of hoses within certain hours, said councillors, the regulation was being disregarded openly. The inspector will be instructed to prosecute the first offender ho discovers.

“I believe that men should be allowto dress as they please,” said the Mayor (Mr. J. Hine) when dress reform was mentioned at the monthly meeting of the Waitara Borough Council last night. “I am an ’individualist,’ I suppose,” he added. The matter was discussed only informally.

The condition of Mr. Alec Campbell, who was admitted to the New Plymouth hospital on Monday night suffering from leg injuries received in a collision between his motor-cycle and a tram in Devdn Street West, was reported last night to be much the same. He received a compound fracture of the right leg below the knee, a double fracture of the right thigh and a deep gash on the right thigh.

Fossickers and prospectors are busy these days searching for gold in many remarkable places, but it is unlikely that the most optimistic of them would have thought to investigate the gizzard of a goose. Nevertheless, a small speck of the precious metal was recently found inside a three months’ old goose which, after spending its gosling days at Henley, where it probably found the river banks a happy hunting ground, was killed and sold at Dunedin.

The Governor-General has presented, on behalf of himself and Lady Bledisloe, a processional cross on an ebonised staff to the cathedral parish, Napier, states the Church Chronicle. The cross, which was made for the Governor-General in England from a handsome design chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, bears the inscription: “Presented to the Anglican Cathedral at Napier by Charles Bathurst, Baron Bledisloe, and Elaine, his wife, in admiration of the heroism and self-sacrifice displayed during the great earthquake of February 3, 1931.” In England there is a revival of the drama in the church, according to Dame Sybil Thorpdike, who gave a very interesting address to Anglo-Catholics at Christchurch, states the Christchurch Times.. She said that the art by which she earned her living was cradled in the church. Before the Reformation there was no church that did not have plays. Serious drama and the problem plays came from the church and were performed for the benefit and uplift of the people. Churches in England were now being used for the performance of plays, with Rondon as the kernel of the movement. At St. Anne’s, Soho, the play “Good Friday” had been performed. She was very pleased at the growth of church plays.

It was reported at a meeting of the Senate of the New Zealand University by the executive committee that university bursaries, for the present at least, had been discontinued and university national bursaries substituted for them, these being administered by the 'Education Department. Mr. F. A. de la Mare described the discontinuance of these bursaries as “an insensate piece of folly.” He suggested that strong representations be made to the Government protesting against what had been done. Professor j, Hight agreed with what had been said, and moved for the appointment of a committee to consider the withdrawal of the bursaries, and report ’to the senate. This motion was adopted. - An unhealthy pallor characterised the features of a man from the Waitara freezing works when he was giving evidence in the Police Court at New Plymouth yesterday. As he stood in the box his complexion changed from a pale yellow to white, and beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead. Then, while he was being cross-examin-ed, he leaned forward' and coughed, straightened, swayed a little, and asked the lawyer to repeat his question. “Is this man ill?” asked counsel. “Yes,” said Senior-Sergeant Turner. No sooner had he spoken than the witness collapsed and was caught in the arms of officials who rushed to his assistance. He recovered later, but did not return to the courtroom. It appears that he had gone to bed with influenza some days ago. At a Conciliation .Council meeting at Auckland the disputants “took their coats off to it” —literally, not in the figurative sense. The moist, muggy weather was too much for'them, and a suggestion that the business might be more suitable attacked in rolled-up shirt sleeves was hailed with delight. The only really cool-lboking person at the table was a woman who was one of the representatives of the employees. She could hardly be invited to take off her blouse, but one of the men gallantly suggested she should take off her hat, but she preferred to wear that important part of a woman’s outfit. It was fortunately one of those airy “confections” which women are sensible enough to wear—in marked contrast to the hotlooking bowlers and felt hats of the men of the party. Fowlruns in the Wellington South district are being seriously depleted by a band of raiders. Several thefts, some of which were committed in broad daylight, occurred over the holiday period. Sixteen fowls were taken from the Presbyterian Boys’ Home at Berhampore while the boys were having their Christmas dinner. The fowls were fed at noon, and when they were looked at again at 3 p.m. it was found that 16 out of a total of 30 had disappeared. The loss was a serious one to the home authorities, for it has deprived the boys of a dozen eggs a day. A poultry breeder had his fowl run cleaned right out, with the exception of one hen and five chickens. The majority of the birds were of a very good strain, and the indications are that they ended in cooking pots. Blood and quantities of feathers told their fate. It is not known how they were taken away, bqt it is probable that they were carried in sacks or suitcases. It is also reported that a resident of Berhampore lost 16 geese. From time to time we have been told that the Danish farmers are the model for other countries to follow, and that they have brought their co-operative systems to such- a state that they can command markets, writes a correspondent in the Auckland Star. A friend in London has sent me a clipping from the Times dated November 23, from a correspondent at Copenhagen. It says: “Many farms have been reduced to insolvency, and it is estimated that the indebtedness of the agricultural industry as a whole has increased by about 200,000,000 kroner last year in order, among other things, to cover interest charges on mortgages, the premier investment of the Danish small rentier. All this has been going on notwithstanding cheerful cries of optimism over an expanding market by the London distributors of bacon, who must accept their share of responsibility. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is likely that if the British bacon quota forces a thorough reconstruction of Danish agricultural problems it will work in the best interests of Denmark.” It occurred to me, that if thorough reconstruction is needed in Denmark the enthusiasm of some here for Danish methods may need justifying.

A letter was delivered on board the Mariposa at Auckland on Tuesday addressed to “Marjory, with two long plaits, sailing by R.M.S. Mariposa.” The address was not a joke. The letter was from a ladies’ hairdressing establishment in the city where a young lady had left her gold wristlet watch. An assistant heard the visitor, who had her hair in two plaits, addressed as Marjory, and understood that she was to be a passenger by the Mariposa, which sailed for Les Angeles at 5 p.m.

An advance of 7Ad a lb butter-fat for cream supplied for butter-making during December has been authorised by the directors of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company, while the payment for milk supplied for cheesemaking will be 9d a lb butter-fat. Payments made in the corresponding month last year for the December supply were at the rate of 9d a lb for cream for buttermaking and lOd a lb butter-fat for milk received for the manufacture of cheese. The jubilee of the Salvation Army in New Zealand is to be commemorated this year. Fifty years ago, on April 1, 1883, the work of the Army was commenced at Dunedin, and, in spite of adverse criticism, considerable opposition and some persecution, the pioneer officer succeeded in establishing 16 posts or corps throughout the Dominion in the first year of operations. In course of time opposition wore down and the tide cf public approval of the Army set in, as it was recognised that the organisation was doing work of great benefit to the community.

The task Of marshalling the 77 tourists who comprise the Victorian farmers party visiting New Zealand is no light one. To assist him the secretary, Mr. EG. Ham, carries a shrill whistle, which he blows when an assembly is called for, such as when the members have teen sight-seeing and the conveyances are about to depart. After the Mariposa had berthed at Auckland on Tuesday and preparations for disembarking we .-2 peing made, the whistle could os heard shrilling up and down the ship, while men and women wearing the large metal and enamel badge of ihe party mass their way along the decks and up and down companion ways it) answer to the calk

The wooden coastal motor-ship Foxton, which grazed on a rock off the Karori Rock at 8 p.m. on Saturday when she was feeling her way through the fog, was placed on the patent slip at Wellington. The vessel sprang a slight leak. The cargo from Patea was discharged before she was placed on the slip. From an examination made of the vessel on the slip it is stated that the damage is of a minor nature. Repairs are proceeding, and it was expected the Foxton would come off the slip this evening and sail for Patea. The .Mai me Department held a preliminary inquiry into the circumstances of the vessel grazing the rock.

For the second time in the annals of local body government in New Zealand a poll is to be held at which two persons only are entitled to vote. The occasion, says the Christchurch Times, is a poll to be held by the Waimairi County Council for tile purpose of extending the Christchurch drainage area. Two sections in the Middleton Riding are concerned and the poll is being held under the Christchurch Drainage Amendment Act, 1920, the Counties Act, 1920, and the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925. The Waimairi County Clerk stated that the last similar occasion was at Heathcote about a year ago. The purpose of that poll was exactly the same—the inclusion of two sections in the Christchurch Drainage Board’s area.