LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

After a vacation of six weeks the primary schools throughout Taranaki will re-open to-morrow morning. The secondary schools will resume next Tuesday.

Nine members of the New Plymouth Ramblers’ Club made a trip up the Waiwakaiho River during the week-end. A blackberry gathering expedition yielded good returns and the party returned to New Plymouth early in the evening. A parade of all ranks of the Ist Battalion Taranaki Regiment has been called for to-morrow night, when troops will receive final instructions for the coming camp at Waverley. The advance party will be selected at the parade.

About 90 people attended the Taranaki Regimental-Municipal Band picnic at Urenui beach during the week-end. On arrival at the river much amusement was caused by the carrying out of an edict that everyone connected in any way with the band had to be dumped in the water and ducked. Nobody escaped. During the day the band played a number of selections under the conductorship of Lieut. F. W. G. McLeod to the enjoyment of campers and a big crowd of picnickers. The outing was such a success that it has been decided to make the picnic an annual affair.

“I often feel inclined to deplore the fact that the cackling of geese once saved Rome. Ever since then we have had our cackling geese all oyer the world.” This expression was used by Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P., in reference at Stratford last night to anti-exchange propagandists. The rain which fell yesterday evening throughout North Taranaki was welcomed by farmers generally, with the possible exception of a few who were harvesting wheat and oats. Practically everyone was hoping that the rain would last for 24 hours, as the pastures, particularly on the land near the coast, were beginning to look very dry.

The opinion that New Plymouth was an ideal place for a holiday was expressed by Professor G. S. Peren, principal of Massey Agricultural College, when he addressed members of the New Plymouth Rotary Club yesterday. The wide variety of scenic attractions within easy reach of New Plymouth and the beauty of the town itself were features that appealed to Dr. Peren. Voluminous amendments to the bylaws were discussed at a special meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council last night. They will be adopted at the ordinary meeting of the council next Monday. Present last night were the Mayor (Mr. H. V, S. Griffiths) and Crs. R. W. D. Robertson, F. Amoore, P. E. Stainton, F. J.. Hill, J. W. Darby, T. P. Anderson and. J. Brown. The northerly wind that sprang up yesterday has meant delay to the completion of the New Plymouth sewerage outfall at the foot of Eliot Street. The sheet piling of the coffer dams sprang a few leaks, necessitating driving some of them a little deeper. This will prevent the laying of the final eight pipes until the next spring tides. The excavation work had been completed in readiness and when the tides are again low enough it is possible that two or three days’ work will see the outfall fully completed. • Small, but intense, a whirlwind occurred at Fitzroy shortly after 6 o’clock yesterday morning. It had its origin probably on the beach near Strandon. Thence it swept up Baring Terrace, over Waiwaka Terrace and across the Girls’ High School property. There it left the ground and could be seen afterwards whirling amongst the clouds until finally it disappeared in them. . On its way across iJitroy it took many peaches off a tree and even blew one of them through an open window into a house. The sales of Bibles by the British and Foreign Bible Society in New Zealand last year reached the total number of 16,062. copies. This is 5949 in excess of those sold in the previous best year, and about double the number sold three years agb. The sales of Testaments and Portions reached 29,791, making a grand total for the society for 1932 of 34,602 copies of the Scriptures. “Records in the sales of whole Bibles,” says the Rev. David Calder, Dominion Secretary of the society, “are a marked feature of the world' work at the present time. Particularly is this so in China and among the Mohammedans of the Levant.”

A copy of the Brighton and Hove Herald for November 12 received at New Plymouth contains an eight-inches double-column advertisement of considerable interest for New Zealand. Messrs. G. and J. Brampton, 114 St. George’s Road, Brighton, advertise: Scotch lamb, legs (4 to 61b), per lb Is; shoulders (3 to 51b), per lb lid and Canterbury (N.Z.j lamb, Tegs (4 to 51b), per lb 9d; shoulders (3 to 51b), per lb Bd. “These prices are below the cost of production and therefore cannot last long” said the announcement. A butcher told a reporter yesterday that in November the retail prices for lamb eat New Plymouth were practically the same as those quoted for Canterbury in the English paper. A saving in time, a most important consideration where fat lambs are concerned, and a saving in distance of 40 miles compared with the alternative rhil--age to Westfield has been made possible to Taumarunui stock agents as a result of the opening of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway. An agent told a News reporter last night that at 6 o’clock he had railed 800 lambs from Taumarunui to the Waitara works, via the Ohura. They are due at Waitara this morning, after a journey occupying only 13 hours. This ensures that they will be killed in much better condition than they would have been had they been sent the longer journey to Auckland. When it was suggested at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture at Wellington that name labels should be placed on all trees, etc.;in school gardens, one delegate wanted to know how it would be possible to prevent the labels being removed by the children. His experience had been that labels in school gardens had a very short life, and he believed this experience to be world-wide. Other speakers, however, contended that such a state of affairs reflected adversely on the discipline of the school and on the headmaster, neither did it say much for our future citizens. It was also urged that articles on elementary - botany, with illustrations, should be published in the School Journal. “What’s the use?” queried a delegate, “when botany is going* to be taken out of the matriculation syllabus and that hybrid, domestic science, substituted for it?” “The fleece of the sheep to-day is still regarded by some as so much wool,” said Mr. R. Waters, wool research officer for the Massey Agricultural College, lecturing to the Auckland A. and P. Association recently. “Wool-buyers and breeders certainly distinguish between bad wool and good wool, coarse wool and long wool, hairy wool and pure wool. Dr. Dry’s investigations, however, have been concerned with the individual fibre types which go to make up the fleece of the Romney. He is now able to recognise over 17 different fibre types, some of which are of the utmost value, whilst others may be regarded as weed fibres. His work is fundamental to the production of better quality Romney wool. His ideas will afford a more intelligent basis for the selection of breeding animals and for securing greater permanency of character in the breed. If we are to make the best use of him we should prepare at once to commercialise his results as fast as he hands them out.”

A good story was told by Mr. W. Bargrove, who has been appointed manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Patea, at the valedictory social on Friday when Mr. A. C. Thompson was the guest of honour. Mr. Bargrove said that a native who had a. £lOO deposit entered the bank after an absence of some months and asked to withdraw the amount. The Maori after being furnished with a cheque book presented a cheque for the whole amount and stipulated that the payment be in £1 notes. This presented some difficulty as the bank’s business was small and a hundred £1 notes were not easily collected, but after some changing of notes of larger denominations with local tradespeople the £lOO in singles was handed over. The Maori retired to a cubicle and after laboriously counting them through several times was satisfied that his £lOO was complete. He then returned to the teller and handed back the notes. He said he had just wanted to be certain that his account was O.K. He then departed, leaving the startled teller with the hundred £1 notes that had been collected with so much trouble.

Scanlan’s Summer Sale at the Melbourne Corner continues to offer unprecedented values. For instance: Wonderful white towels, now 1/H P air l Striped Pyjama Poplins, 1/44; 40-inch Silk and Cotton Curtain Nets, 1/6 yard; Coloured Crepe de Chines, 2/11; 32-mch Shadow Tissues, 1/3; and 26-inch Cretonnes and Printed Haircords, 6d yard.

“In any church where there is a good choir, as there is here, when the choir is absent on holiday the people stay away,” said Archbishop Julius in the Christchurch Cathedral recently. “They seem never to have heard ’ the English Church liturgy before and to be quite incapable of joining in it themselves. They cannot answer the responses, they cannot sing, they cannot speak up without a choir to help them —they are a set of dumb dogs. So, you see, you boys have come to our help to-day.” The veteran prelate was speaking to the Young Australia League’s Boys’ Band, which held a church parade at the Cathedral.

It is not only wheat that promises a bountiful crop this year. A number of unemployed men have been busy for the last week or two cutting the cocksfoot that has grown so plentifully on the sides of the road this summer, says the Christchurch Sun, and some of them have made a few pounds through their efforts. Two young men have spent the last few weeks cutting the cocksfoot on the sides of the road in Waimairi, Fendalton, and Cashmere, and have now turned their attention to Quail Island, where, through the courtesy of the lessee, Mr. J. O. Jameson, they are at present camping and working with the scythe. A number of unemployed are also at work with the sickle at Banks Peninsula. Sentence of two months’ hard labour was passed at Strabane, County Tyrone, on Robert McNeill, aged 19, on summonses alleging that he spread false reports calculated to interfere with the success of the police in preserving law and order in Northern Island.. Captain Walshe stated that a report was received by the Strabane police that McNeill had been detained the previous night by four or five men, .and at daybreak they stripped him, bouryi his ankles with v/ire, wired his hands behind his back, and tarred his body, afterwards throwing him into a drain. McNeill later admitted tarring himself and putting the letters I.R.A. on his legs. The false story, it was stated, received great publicity, and was followed by a report that McNeill, who ,was an Orangeman, had been attacked by Roman Catholics, with the result that for several dayq. serious disorder threatened the country.

Bristol has always been famous for its merchant adventurers. Its small boys of to-day, apparently, have inherited the adventurous spirit. Many of them know that at a certain point on the Great Western Railway, on the outskirts of the city, trains stop for a .minute or two, and the boys go there because by singing and doing tricks they are thrown pennies by passengers. But three of the boys decided that the trains did not stop long enough. They devised a plan which led to their appearance at Court. To stop a train they went behind a signal box and tied* up the signal wires. The result was that the signal could not be put back from the danger position. The signal men were also unable to move the points, and the Birmingham express was delayed for 20 minutes. A linesman had to be fetched to untie the wire. The fathers of the boys were each ordered to pay 10s.

“Seen, from the train on the way from Christchurch .to Dimedin, the Southern Alps reminded me much of the Himalayas as seen from Simla,” said Sir Joseph Smith, speaking to the Auckland Travelmen’s Club (reports the Auckland Star). Sir Joseph was giving a talk on Simla to the club. “But there is one difference. While the country between Christchurch, say, and the Southern Alps is flat, with the mountains rising sheer from the plain, that between Simla and the Himalayas is nothing but range on range of foothills swelling into mountains. And then away in the distance, some 60 miles perhaps, rise the Himalayas. On a day, so rarefied is the air, one feels that it might be possible to take a hop, skip, and jump and be right among the snow.”

The parks committee of the Auckland City Council reported to the council last week on the matter of the opossum menace. The Auckland institute recently asked the council to support it in asking that, pending more definite information as to the effect opossums had on forests and plantations, protection of them should be withdrawn and further liberation be prohibited. The parks committee recommended that the council support the view of the institute, but in respect of the North Island only. The report was adopted. An illustration of the mischief caused by opossums occurred at the house of Mrs. F. Parker, Rewa Road, Mount Roskill, during the holidays. When the occupants of the house were absent for some days an opossum got inside by way of the chimney, and in its efforts to escape it raced round the walls and shelves, damaging paper and furniture and breaking crockery.’ It had chewed into a window ledge in trying to work a way out.