LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The annual picnic of the Opunake Church of England was held yesterday at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth. Cycling into a barbed-wire fence at Tikorangi on Thursday night, Mr. V. Whitehead, a young man, received severe lacerated wounds on the face and had to receive medical treatment. He had been visiting a friend’s house and was not familiar with the locality. A largely-attended meeting of watersiders at the port of New Plymouth was addressed at noon yesterday by Major W. N. Pharazyn on the condition of Russia to-day. Major Pharazyn spoke on the same lines as at his evening lecture on Thursday. Mr. R. J. Cameron enrolled 15 or 16 new members for the Friends of the Soviet Union.

“Do you admit the amount of the claim?” asked counsel in the Opunake court yesterday in suave tones of a Maori who had appeared in answer to a debt summons. The Maori appeared non-plussed as he turned to Constable G Clouston and said something in Maori. “Do you owe Bill the money?” asked the constable, and at once was given the answer, “Yes!” “Judgment by consent,” said the magistrate.

“There was no body-line bowling,” remarked the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, referring to the friendly atmosphere which prevailed at the Coalition caucus.

One line of stock specially favoured by the increased exchange rate in New Zealand is said to be freezing works bulls. It is reported that prices at recent sales have shown an encouraging increase, the Urenui sale having been mentioned particularly by a farmer at New Plymouth yesterday.

Improvements recently carried out in the Huatoki Domain include the straightening of the western bank of the swimming pool, with the result that there is now a straight swimming distance of from 10 to 5 feet in depth. Another work over 100 yards in still water Varying completed on the western side of the river is the excavation of a site for two tennis courts, which will be laid down in grass in March.

“The only sound way of getting New Zealand back to prosperity is by the reduction o‘f the burden of her national and internal indebtedness,” said Mr. F. G. Payne, London, who is visiting New Zealand to investigate the development of alluvial mining by modern dredging, when expressing his opposition to the raising of the exchange rate. “I feel that the higher exchange is a mistake, and that the increase in the interest charges which it involves will not ease the country’s burden.” Clothes do not make the man, it is said, but when the plaintiff in a civil action appeared in the Christchurch Court this week in his shirt sleeves, prepared to t enter the witness-box, the law had to object. So plaintiff looked round for a coat to cover him while he took the oath. One of his witnesses surrendered his coat and the shirt-sleeved plaintiff was duly sworn in in his borrowed plumes. The witness next had to take the stand. He was bundled back into his own coat by the plaintiff and entered the box pulling on the garment. “Do you know all the signatories on this petition?” inquired Mr. F. W. Aicken, of 'the Railways Department, of Mr. J. Gibson during the hearing of an appeal before the Transport Appeal Board at Wanganui. “Yes, I do,” replied Mr. Gibson. “And I suppose they are all over the age of 21?” asked Mr. Aicken. “Yes,” answered Mr. Gibson. “Except the ladies, of course,” remarked .-Mr. Justice Frazer. “They never are,” he added with a smile. , Christchurch policeme'n frequently find during their night rounds that business people have forgotten to lock up goods used for street display. The articles found are usually small enough to come under the personal care of a constable, but the other evening the police van had to be used to remove two long stands of assorted hardware which had been left outside a shop. Similar carelessness on the part of another shopkeeper caused a police constable considerable embarrassment, for he was obliged to march some distance along a fairly crowded street with'a string of children’s leather school bags hanging over his shoulder. The suggestion was made at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture that the Dominion might easily grow all the vegetable and most of the flower seeds it needs, instead of importing them. Seeds of practically all kinds, it was said, could be harvested in New Zealand just as well as in any other country, and better than in many. A market outside the country could be found for New Zealand-grown seed; in fact there was already a demand in America for New Zealand lawn grass. Seed growing, it was pointed out, would offer lucrative employment to many, and it was suggested that the Government’s development of certification of some lines of seed was a step which might well be extended. One of the disadvantages, of .having university examination papers marked in England was mentioned by Professor J - .' Macmillan Brown, chancellor of the University of New Zealand, in discussing the recent decision of the University Senate to inquire into the possibilities of marking degree examinations in the Dominion. That difficulty was the time and hazard involved in sending the papers overseas. There was one occasion when the steamer Mataura was lost at the straits of Magellan, and all the papers with her. Third-stage students were passed or failed on the professors’ recommendations, but the honours students had to sit all over again, and their papers were marked by Australians. A Waikato motor lorry proprietor three months ago was charged with a breach of the law by conveying lambs to the works on a Sunday. A conviction was entered, the man being fined. The Raglan County Council took the matter up with the Minister of Justice, who has written to the county clerk as follows: “Regarding the legality of conveying live stock (including fat lambs) in vehicles on Sundays, as the department has now been advised that the conveyance . of stock in vehicles on Sundays comes within sub-section 3of section -18 of the Police Offences Act, 1927, exempting the driving of stock on Sunday, and therefore, is not a breach of the law, it is not proposed to take further action in the matter.”

Said to be a “woolly thistle,” a rare plant in Taranaki has been discovered at Puniho by Mr. W. T. Simons. It was growing among a clump of Scotch thistle and was the only specimen to be seen. Except for the fact that the flower is white, not purple, the thistle resembles the Scotch thistle in every way. In identifying the plant Crucus eriophorus, ■Mr. W. W. Smith, New Plymouth, pointed out its rarity in the Dominion. A native of Europe, it is one of the large family popularly termed “thistle.” The first record of its appearance in New Zealand was in the Wairarapa 30 years ago and Mr. Smith has noticed two instances prior to the present one in Taranaki. The sharp spines are very irritating when the skin of hands or legs is pierced.

An instance of the misfortunes experienced by a Scottish family which came to New Zealand seven years ago was before the Auckland Hospital Board at its meeting on Tuesday. The board considered a recommendation that the wife and two children of a man who had been a hospital patient for three years should be assisted to return to Aberdeen. The chairman, Mr. W. Wallace, said the man was suffering from a chronic illness and his wife had recently been in hospital. The family had been in receipt of the board’s aid. It was stated that the cost of sending the family to Aberdeen, where there were relatives, would be about £lOO. The wife had at first been disinclined to leave the Dominion, but she had lately consented to return. . It was costing as much to keep the family each year as to return the members to Scotland. The board agreed that there were exceptional circumstances about the case and decided to arrange for the return of the family to Scotland.

Buy Now and Save! —Don’t hold off ordering your Besley Suit any longer prices are almost certain to rise on account of the higher exchange. Were still making the smartest, finest, made-to-measure suit in Taranaki for 75/-, but we can’t say how much longer <£he price will remain so low. Elsewhere is given further particulars of this wonderful offering. Besley’s, Ltd., Devon Street.

The unexpected rise in exchange has caught everybody “napping,” and wholesale soft goods houses are already putting up prices. Higher costs are unavoidable and for this reason it is good policy to patronise Scanlan’s great Summer Sale. Those visiting the popular Melbourne Corner will be amazed and delighted with the bargains. See windows.*