LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Members of Lodge Ara, Auckland, who with their families have been visiting their sister lodge of the Irish Grand Lodge, the De Burgh Adams, left New Plymouth on their return to Auckland yesterday morning.

Showing the effect of the drop in the price of dairy produce, a farmer at Oakura last night stated that though during the flush month of this year his output of butterfat was 2J times as much as it was the first year that he took the farm, his milk cheque was £lO less. He had seen in the Taranaki Press that North Taranaki was the district between Opunake and the Mokau River, remarked a speaker at a gathering at Aria on Wednesday. That, however, was wrong, as Aria was part of North Taranaki, and was proud of that fact. A special train conveying 88 children and 85 adults arrived at Ngamotu yesterday, when the annual picnic of the Midhirst school was held. Intermittent showers affected the enjoyment of the outing, but the children had a happy time on the beach and in the town.

Impressions taken away by visitors to New Plymouth from all parts of New Zealand for the Presbyterian Bible Class Conference in the summer holidays have been recorded in The Outlook and reveal complete unanimity in the satisfaction and pleasure expressed by visitors to the town with the week they spent there. Members of the commercial delegation to the Ohura and other parts of Taranaki’s hinterland were somewhat surprised to find copies of the Daily News available early each morning at the various points visited. Since the railway was opened to traffic it has been possible to get the paper in to the Ohura by the 5.15 a.rp. train from Stratford, and as a result the settlers obtain their morning paper as early as settlers in the more settled parts of the province. “We were perfectly sober,’’ said a witness in the Supreme Court yesterday. “We had half a bottle before we left Hawera.” That was at 7 pan., and he was describing an accident about 1.30 a.m. to a motor-cycle on which he was riding pillion. “Half a bottle of what?” asked Mr. Justice Ostler. “If it was absinthe I should say they would both be seriously drunk.” It was beer, witness said. “Oh, that’s all right,” observed His Honour with a smile. Much more hay than is usual has been lost in Taranaki as a result of the prolonged spell of wet weather, which has lasted now for nearly three weeks. Though rain is essential to Taranaki pastures the beneficial effects of recent falls are being lost through too continued a wet spell. Though it is extraordinarily late in the season one fanner in South Taranaki has lost a paddock of 40 acres through rain, and many others have reported losses. The settlers of some of the favoured valleys in the Ohura are beginning to realise the value of small paddocks for the keeping down of ragwort and other weeds. At one time large paddocks were the order. Cattle were allowed to wander over the whole section. Consequently the weeds came and multiplied. That is how being changed and the carrying capacity of the country is increasing. Settlers no longer have the land hunger, realising that it is better to farm a small place well than a large one indifferently.

A Maori was accosted by a striker in a Taranaki town the other day and reprimanded for taking work in the local freezing works. The striker told the Maori he was “scabbing” on his fellows and was a fool to play the game of the obnoxious employers. The Maori looked him over, and said: “Te other day you work in te freezing works; I stand on the comer loafing. Now you stand on the comer and I work in the freezing works. Who the fool? I tink you are, not mel”

A record for the port of New Plymouth was established in January, when the total export cargo handled was greater than it had ever been in any previous month. Last month 8468 tons of cargo was exported, beating by 1338 tons the previous record of 7130 tons set up in December, 1927. The total cargo handled in January, 1933, was 12,642 tons, an increase of 1475 tons when compared with the 11,167 tons handled in January last year.

One farmer in the Ohura is not afraid of his sheep being covered with nutuwai (bidibidi). He explained to a News reporter that at one time he cleaned his place of the bidibidi so that the price of His sheep would not be affected. But he found that his clean sheep brought less in the sales than his neighbours’, all covered with bidibidi. One of the buyers explained. He said that he was always suspicious of clean sheep in the Ohura, but when they were covered with bidibidi he felt sure that they came from the high hills and were therefore strong and hardy. Now he kept a paddock full of bidibidi and turned the sheep he was to offer for sale into it before he went to the saleyards! For this time of the year he had never seen Taranaki look so well as at present, declared Mr. J. B. Mac Ewan, of Wellington, to a News reporter yesterday. He had been practically all round the province, and had never been more impressed with its fertility and prosparity. Ho had also visited the dairy factories, which were up-to-date and replete with the latest equipment. The managers were keen on their work, and the directors seemed to be alive to the necessity for bringing about an improvement in the quality of the products, particularly of cheese, and were evidently only too anxious to join in a movement to bring this improvement about Pio Pio possesses a modem dairy factory, which had an output of 560 tons last year. Among its 250 suppliers are a number of Maoris. The factory has made remarkable progress during its 22 years’ existence, especially considering that in the early days the district was handicapped by the hostility of the Maoris. At the welcome to the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce party on Wednesday a speaker remarked that the erection of the first factory nearly resulted in Maori trouble as a number of Maori women armed with titree waddies squatted on the site and the assistance of the police had to be obtained to remove them before the building could be proceeded with.

Waiting on the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce as representative of the Awakino Settlers Association Mr. L. RJones on Wednesday drew attention to the very sparse allocation that was being given to unemployed relief workers in that district. There were about 15 men in the district, said Mr. Jones, and under the No. 5. scheme the allocation for married men with two children was only 17/6 per week, the allocation for other classes being in proportion. Members of the Chamber of Commerce agreed that the allocation appeared very small, and representations on the subject will be made to the proper quarter. The Railway Department advertises particulars of train arrangements in connection with the Waitara annual regatta. Particulars will be found in the advertising columns in to-day’s issue.

The cargo of a steamer which recently discharged at King George V dock, on the Thames, included bags containing about two tons of dried flies. The insects in question are indeed giants, being some four inches in length. They are caught by the million as they settle on the surface of lakes in South America, and are used in England in the manufacture of fertiliser.

It was found at the Palmerston North Supreme Court on Tuesday when a jury was being empanelled, that after eleven seats had been filled the list was exhausted. Upon the position being placed before counsel by his Honour, My. Justice MacGregor, they expressed their willingness to have the case proceed before eleven jurors. Had counsel not agreed to this course his Honour could have had the doors of the Court locked and ordered the sheriff to call a. member of the gallery to fill the vacant seat. It is understood that it is at least 30 years since a similar happening occurred in the Supreme Court in Palmerston North. The 23rd annual conference of the New Zealand Municipal Association will be held at Rotorua, commencing on March 2. The order paper is not as long as in some previous years, nor are the proposals embodied in the 89 remits particularly arresting. There is no mention on the printed order paper of the vital question of the effect of high exchange upon local body loan finance, but it is expected that the conference will discuss this new problem as one of the main topics. A former Wellington journalist, Mr. Louis Woolcott, who suffered a fractured jaw recently by falling down some concrete steps in Sydney, has been visited by a further misfortune. He awoke on a recent morning to find that his gold chronometer watch, presented to him when he left Wellington about 30 years ago, gold sovereign case and wallet containing money, had been stolen by a thief during the night. Mr. Woolcott is slowly recovering from the effects or his accident. Mr. Woolcott was at one time on the reporting staff of a New Plymouth paper.

Asked whether he had noticed any appreciable improvement in the timber trade since the rise in the exchange rate, a prominent West Coast sawmiller stated that as far as he could see there had been no improvement. The fact that two boats were to load over a million feet for Australia toward the end of the month could not be construed as an improvement. His opinion of the matter was that the Government was causing such an upheaval with exchange rates, sales taxes, etc., that the merchants were afraid to place orders, in case they got “let in” in some direction.

The increases in taxation were not the only cause of a black day experienced by a Gore resident on Thursday. He was turning a comer near the business area of the town when he cams upon a party of borough employees spraying the footway with tar. To avoid any chance of a splashing of tar he walked out on the road, but this was all in vain. Apparently the nozzle of the sprayer was too much for the holder and flit — was sprayed fsom head to foot. A dash to a nearby office, a wash in petrol hurriedly procured from the bowser and he was presentable once more, but not so his clothing. It .is rumoured that*more will be heard of the