LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Children at the Westown School, New Plymouth, began swimming lessons tost week, about 130 children attending the baths on three days of the week. It is reported that 25 children who were unable to swim at the beginning of season are now in various stages of solo progress.

The large rata tree that fell across the North Egmont road on Thursday, temporarily blocking it, will be removed by about midday to-day, states the secretary of the North Egmont Committee, Mr. L. Lovell. The road should therefore be open for traffic again this afternoon.

In an endeavour to eliminate interference to radio sets caused by Morse signals from the land lines, apparatus has been installed at the New Plymout post office and experiments are in progress. Interference has occurred only in very isolated instances in the New Plymouth district and is dependent on atmospheric conditions.

Mr. J. J. Darby, who recently completed 50 years’ service on the typographical staff of the New Zealand Herald, has two brothers in the trade. One is Mr. H. Darby (New Plymouth), formerly of Auckland, a bookbinder, ana the other Mr. T. J. Darby, a jobbing hand on the staff of the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

A settler in the Ohura, under stress of the economic weather, got into arrears’ with the payment of the wages of his farmer assistant. “What are you going to do about it?’’ inquired a friend whom he was confiding in. “Oh,” came the reply, “give him the farm.” What then?” asked the friend. “Just work for him until I get the farm back!

"I understand a good many motorcycles require repairing in Taranaki, said counsel humorously when questioning 3 motor-cycle mechanic in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday. “Well, there are a good many, said the mechanic with a smile. Later he said he had to deal with an average of one bent fork a week. “As many as that?” asked Mr. R. H. Quilliam. I didn’t think there were as many as that. I am afraid a great many of the cases must be settled.” • /.

“Not many of us have the good fortune to be bom like oil paintings,” said Mr. Justice Ostler in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday when speaking to the jury of the general damages to be awarded a motor-cyclist whose face was disfigured in an accident. “Many of us, to begin with, are not as good looking as the plaintiff is now.? He did not think the young man would be at very much of a disadvantage with the girls as a result of the accident. “Why, in Germany,” he added, “the sears would be considered an attraction. There, if a student is cut on the face in a duel he takes good care to rub in salt or some other substance to ensure that the scar will remain.”

Fifty years ago Thomas Taylor, Waitara, was one of Taranaki’s best known runners and athletes. His son, the late Reg. Taylor, was a Taranaki and New Zealand representative footballer, whilst another son, G. Taylor, was a Taranaki representative. History looks like repeating itself in the third generation of Taylors, as at the Warea School sports the three children of another son, Jack Taylor, secured three medals. A six-year-old boy, L. Taylor, won the junior championship, whilst his nine-year-old sister, Evaline Taylor, and a twelve-year-old brother, O. Taylor, were run-ners-up in the senior championship. Another grandson, G. Fowler, is the wellknown Waitara runner and Taranaki Rugby representative. “What strikes me as odd,” remarked the Principal (Mr. John Stewart, M.A.) at a Marlborough College Board meeting, “is that the Education Department, after going to all the trouble of requiring all candidates to sit the examination for the senior free place this year, after upsetting the schools over the last part of the year, upsetting the pupils and keeping them on edge all through the holidays while examiners worked Saturdays and Sundays to mark the papers—after all this, it immediately turned around and disregarded the examination by allowing practically everyone who wants to do so return to school. However, it is not fair to judge the Department on what appears on the surface, because the examination might not have been so much a test of the pupils as a test of the schools. In the past pupils have secured the senior free place on the recommendation of the headmasters, and the Department probably thought, as was possibly the case, that the percentage of pupils accredited was higher than was warranted. That may have been the reason for the examination. In our own case, we came out of the test remarkably well, because our percentage of passes was very high—higher than by the accrediting method.”

“Recent cabled reports from Great Britain have been suggestive of an unusual outbreak of epidemic influenza,” said a letter received from the Medical Officer of Health, Wellington, at the last meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board. It was referred to the House Committee with power’ to act. “While the definite information in the possession of the department discounts this, and points to the outbreak being nothing more than the usual recrudescence of the disease, with the usual percentage of severe cases, it would nevertheless be advisable for executives of hospital boards to investigate their facilities for providing emergency hospital accommodation,” continued the letter. “I would ask you, therefore, to review your resources in this respect to ensure that, in the unlikely event of emergency accommodation being required, you will know what existing building you may wish to occupy, and from what sources you will obtain the necessary equipment." Residents of the Oakura and surrounding districts can look forward to an enjoyable time on Tuesday, when a tennis carnival dance will be held in aid of the funds for providing the district with tennis courts. The settlers both young and old are entering enthusiastically into the arrangements with a view to making it an outstanding success. Special attention is being paid to the decoration and the floor will be hi first-class order. The catering will be of the best. A splendid dance programme has been arranged, including a valuable Monte Carlo dance.

Arrangements in connection with the girls’ appeal day next Friday, when a street collection will be taken in aid of the funds of the Y.W.C.A., were completed at New Plymouth last night, when Mr. T. C. List presided over a citizens’ committee of over 20.

Owing to an alteration in the official tonnage figure of the Federal steamer Kent, the tonnage record at the port of New Plymouth is 33,909. The Kent s tonnage is 8694 tons.

Buyers of lambs and ewes off hilly country are recommended to attend the Inglewood supplementary sheep fair on Wednesday. A large entry will be yarded on behalf of back-country clients who are submitting their annual drafts.

“This man is New Zealand s champion pessimist—members of the Cabinet excluded,” said a member of the Christchurch Disabled Soldiers’ Civil Re-estab-lishment Committee recently, when a certain case was being discussed. The last of the Queensland State enterprises has gone the way of all unprofitable ventures. A syndicate of Brisbane umber merchants has purchased the State timber yards at Newstead (Brisbane), and the saw mills at Yarraman and Taromeo, for £16,000 cash. For the three years ended June 30 last the carrying on of the enterprise has shown a working loss of £16,400. “Where rabbiters used to get two and three a day you can get anything up to 20 now,’’ said a farmer in the Kai Iwi district to the Wanganui Chronicle, with reference to the increase in the rabbit pest. He added that several farmers, apprehensive of the future, and with the inducement that there was a little to be earned, have been destroying rabbits. Shooting them, however, costs threepence a cartridge and it depends on a man’s capabilities as a shot how profitable he can make the work when the rabbit board allows one shilling per adult rabbit.

That there are still unexplored methods of making a living for those who possess a little initiative is illustrated by the enterprise of two unemployed men in Napier who recently conceived the idea of selling manuka poles to orchardists for the purpose of propping up the fruit trees. These poles they are offering at the price of 2Ad. each, and they are said to be making a good living from the proceeds. Their venture has already met with a ready response from fruitgrowers, and it is understood that they have received orders for some thousands, the preparation of which will keep them employed for some time to come. “It is no use being downhearted. I was once out of work myself,” said the principal of the Christchurch Technical College, Dr. D. E. Hansen, recently, when addressing unemployed boys. “I had spent considerable time and money in search of university degrees and for some months after that I did not know where I was going to find work.” Dr. Hansen urged the boys never to lose hope. “There is a saying, ‘Hope lost, all lost,’ ” he added, “But I want to congratulate you on your neat and alert appearance. You certainly don’t look down and out, and an employer entering this room would want to take one of you boys away to a job.” One of several applicants in the Wellington Supreme Court this week for exemption from service on the jury said he was in charge of the Khandallah baths, and had been instructed to apply to be excused. In reply to the . Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), the juror said he was employed by the City Corporation. “Why shouldn’t they send somebody else?” asked his Honor. “You don’t object to serve, of course?” “Not a bit, sir,” replied the juror. His Honor: “The Corporation must send someone else. There is no difficulty about it?” The juror explained that there were four permanent hands at Khandallah, but he was the only one able to swim. His Honor: “Well, they shouldn’t have instructed you to ask for exemption. I m afraid you’ll have to be sworn-” “When I have completed this trip on the Lurline to Australia, the island of Bali and New Zealand, I will have visited practically every country in the world, remarked Mr. G. A. Kartack, a retired newspaper proprietor, who hails from Denver (Colorado), the largest city of the Rocky Mountains. “I must say that in all my travels I have never seen a cleaner city than Auckland, or met a more hospitable people than the Aucklanders.” He was greatly impressed with the Museum, because it seemed so typical of the country, but he did not care for the Zoo. The founder of the “Baraboo News,” which is still being published at Denver, a city with a population of 300,000 people, recalled having printed the first tickets for Ringling Brothers, the famous circus pioneers, who subsequently absorbed Barnum and Bailey’s.

The occupants of a touring model motor-car had a remarkable escape from injury last week-end when the vehicle left the road across the Takapau Plains, Hawke’s Bay, somersaulted down an incline, and crashed on its side at the foot of the gradient, says an exchange. A howling gale was blowing at the time and the accident to the car, which was driven by Mr. L. Jowett, of Napier, occurred immediately-'Ufter the hood had been wrenched from its supports by the wind and had wrapped itself round the driver. Leaving the road, the car plunged down a slope and turned a complete somersault. The four occupants were not thrown out until the car turned over on its side. Under the circumstances severe Injury would not have been prising, but the most serious sustained by any member of the party was a bruise. The car was badly damaged. The following is from the New Zealand News, published in London:— “Butter at Is 8d! This is not a worried farmer’s dream. It is a fact. The New Zealand Dairy Board has advertised extensively in the Dominion a Christmas offer to send four pounds of best New Zealand butter to any nominated person in Britain. The price charged was 6s Bd. Finest New Zealand butter can be bought in London for Is a lb. The postage on four lbs. of butter (and a lb. allowance for packing) is 9d. Allowing threepence for overhead expenses and the cost of posting a list of names to London, the approximate cost to the Dairy Board is ss. The profit thus indicated is 33 1-3 per cent.—on Christmas presents designed to stimulate the demand for New Zealand butter in Britain. We shall be pleased to print any explanation that may be forthcoming of this apparent anomaly.” The story of the learned professor who gave a public lecture on memory training and then hurried home by taxi, to be reminded on arrival that he had forgotten to bring his wife, who had accompanied him to the lecture, was recalled by an incident at an Auckland meeting. The members of the Auckland LifeSaving Society received a letter from the secretary of the New Zealand Council of the Royal Life-Saving Society. The chairman read the Setter, in which the writer stated at the outset that the council had received a letter from the Milford Surf Club’s secretary, but that the latter had forgotten to sign his name to the epistle—a lapse, he added, which could no doubt be excused in these times of stress. A general laugh went round the room when the chairman, after carrying on with his reading of the letter dealing with the subject of the absentminded Milford secretary’s communication, came to a rather perplexed halt, and then announced with a grin that the New Zealand Council secretary, too, had forgotten to sign his name to the communication.

Sensational drapery bargains are advertised by Scanlan’s Ltd.* on Page 2 in to-day’s paper. The firm’s End-of-Season Sale commences on Monday morning at 9 o’clock sharp, when hosts of buyers from all parts of Taranaki will converge on New Plymouth and head for the popular Melbourne Comer. Amazing bargains can be secured in all departments of the store.*

Why buy new clothes when the old ones can be renovated equal to new at the cost of a few shillings? We have been dyeing and cleaning garments for over 20 years. Let us have your soiled or faded suits, costumes, dresses, etc., to renovate and you will be surprised at the result. We also renovate and reblock felt hats. Why not have yours done at J. K. Hawkins and Co., corner Devon and Liardet Street. New Plymouth. ’Phone 685. Mrs. Rudkin (Everybody’s) is our Stratford agent.