LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Rahotu school’s annual picnic was held yesterday at the Okahu beach, Rahotu. In perfect weather a most enjoyable day was spent. The annual match between cricket elevens of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School and the Wanganui Collegiate School will take place at Wanganui on Wednesday and Thursday, March 22 and 23.

■ The monthly stop-work meeting of the New Plymouth Waterside Workers’ Union yesterday morning was uneventful. No business of general interest was transacted.

A letter “expressing gratitude for what you did for us both” and enclosing a small donation has been received by the Fitzroy Surf Club from two swimmers who were assisted when in difficulties at Fitzroy beach one day last, month. Enclosed with a note stating they were for “the prevention of cruelty to bobby calves,” two £5 notes were received by Mr. F. W. Sandford, New Plymouth. He has paid the money to the secretary of the S.P.C.A. at New Plymouth. A significant feature of the legislation imposing a further tax on benzine was that inquiries had already been received from users of benzine engines with a view to obtaining a supply of electric power, stated a paragraph in the report of the secretary at the meeting of the Opunake Power Board yesterday. “I’ll work if I can get work, but where’s a bloke going to get it?” replied a judgment debtor to a question by the magistrate at Opunake Court yesterday. Later when an order was made for the payment of £1 a month the debtor was asked whether he could find that amount. He replied nonchalantly,. “I’ll give it a go.” Success in the annual swimming sports of the Auckland Training College was attained by Miss J. Charters, a trainee from New Plymouth. Miss Charters won the 50 yards free style handicap, was second in the 25 yards free style championship and third in both the 50 yards and 75 yards free style championships. Two boy cyclists collided at the corner of Devon and Brougham Streets, New Plymouth, shortly before 1 o’clock yesterday. Both were travelling along Devon Street towards the post office when one of them turned into Brougham Street and collided with the other. The boy who attempted to turn fell from his machine and received abrasions and bruises. He was taken to a shop for attention. It is understood he was not seriously hurt. What may have been a case of pursesnatching was reported yesterday. A woman attending a sale at a New Plymouth bookshop in the morning missed her purse, which she had been holding either in her hand or under her arm. There were a number of people in the shop at the time. The owner could not say how the purse was lost, though she did not think she dropped it. An electric iron that had been left plugged in within reach of children was responsible for a fire in a house in Newton Street, Fitzroy, about midday yesterday. The place was occupied by MrW. H. Martin. The iron was stood on the floor. As the only persons in the house were small children it is assumed that they switched it on and left the iron heating, for when Mr. Martin’s small daughter returned to the house a few minutes before noon she found flames issuing from the floor. The outbreak was extinguished with a basin of water before the brigade arrived.

Morey’s Ltd. great summer sale definitely ends on March 18. Greater sale reductions are made to clear the stocks. Don’t miss this great opportunity for saving money and buy during Morey’s final sale week.*

“If we did not have little differences of opinion now and again we would not get on at all,” said Mr. Donald Ross at a meeting of the Wanganui Harbour Board.

The 5000 varieties of dahlias on display at the Auckland .Horticultural Society’s annual show this week do not include a single blue bloom. A dahlia of this colour has never been produced, the nearest approach to it being mauve. Dahlias of practically every shade other than blue have been grown.

“The sheep in New Zealand look so clean,” said Mr. John Brownlee, the singer, in a chat with a Waikato Times representative. “In Australia the country is very parched, and the sheep in the paddocks are dusty and dirty. In New Zealand the fields are refreshingly green, and the sheep look as though they have just had a bath!”

A farmer of Otorohanga was noticed by a traveller greasing his drill with butter. The traveller was astonished, and asked why grease was not employed. The farmer retorted: “1 called at a store for a tin of grease, and found that the cost was Is 2d for a 11b tin. As I am only getting 7d (advance) for my butter, I thought I would make 7d by using this product of the farm!” The following police transfers in this area have been notified:—Constable W. I. Trask transferred from Cambridge to Castle Cliff, Wanganui; Constable O. S. Rice from Hamilton to Cambridge; Constable J. B. Davies from Tauranga to Whakatane; Constable V. A. Bolland from Hamilton to New Plymouth; Constable S. Brown from Hamilton to Auckland; Constable B. H. Huntly from Mokai to Hamilton.

Persistent rumours refer to the importation of the white butterfly pest as an effort to check the growth of ragwort, but they appear to be without foundation, states a Rotorua correspondent. An official of the Agricultural Department recently secured 15 healthy Caterpillars of the species and placed them in a box with fresh ragwort. Although tempted with this food for several days, the caterpillars refused to touch the weed. Then a piece of cabbage leaf was put in, and upon the box being opened pot. a vestige of it remained. Steady work is proceeding in the making of the road that skirts Lake Te Anau and leads to Eglinton Valley. The road will some day continue to the shores of the West Coast. Already it gives access to marvellous scenery that has been greatly admired by tourists who are familiar with the old-established routes. Operations now are abreast of Lake Fergus. It is expected by June to have the advance gang of workmen as far west as the saddle dividing the Eglinton and Hollyford Valley, a distance of 53 miles from Te Anau.

A report that a speed trap had been set on the Great South Road at the intersection of Jubilee Road on a recent afternoon, but that not a single case of dangerous driving had been noticed, was received by the One Tree Hill Borough Council at its last meeting. “I think that this must be the first occasion on which a speed trap has been set without catching anyone,” commented the Mayor, Mr. I. J. Goldstine. “It locks to me as if there must have been some collusion,” facetiously remarked a member of the council, in reply to the voiced opinion of a fellow member that the fact that no dangerous driving had been seen suggested that traffic within the borough was well controlled.

Several reports have recently been published to the effect that gold has been found coating the teeth of sheep, and the opinion thus formulated that goldbearing deposits must exist in the vicinity where the animals were grazing. The experience of a Waihi Plains farmer, who had conjured up visions of a gold mine, however, considerably discounts the value of these so-called “discoveries.” In his case the “glittering” teeth—and, by the way, gold does not glitter—were submitted to a metallurgist for examination, with the result that the gold-like substance turned out to be oxide of iron, which had evidently come from the basic slag, or similar fertiliser, with which the pastures had been top-dressed. Mica is another mineral which, under certain conditions, bears .a remarkable resemblance to gold.

The equivalent of 600 sheep has been donated by farmers in the Wanganui County in response to the appeal of the Mayor of Wanganui for meat to assist in feeding the unemployed during the approaching winter.'“The effort has been splendid,” said Mr. R. R. Dawson, county engineer. It is proposed to have a stock drive from the Kakataki area on March 14 and on March 20 from Karioi and Mangamahu localities. In the Waitotara County, which is in charge of Mr. T. Dix, just as ready a response is'being made. A total of 68 sheep was brought from Brunswick on Saturday and killed. Over 150 are ready for collection at Maxwell. Other areas in the country are also being canvassed. The killing and freezing of these animals is being handled free by the New Zealand Refrigerating Company.

The directors of the Mataura Dairy Factory have just received advice that the rate of advance on cheese to exporters has been reduced from 41d to 3Jd, the reduction to take effect from the Ist inst. The disastrous drop in prices can be gauged from a comparison of the payouts already recorded this season—ls in September-October, 9d in November-December and 8d in January, while February's payout will show a reduction to sd, the lowest recorded in the memory of the oldest dairyman in this district for a great number of years. It is stated that only on one occasion has a lower advance been made. These figures clearly indicate the difficulty of dairymen at the present time, especially when it is stated that the present return is equivalent to ltd per gallon for milk.

A novel sale was conducted in a Temuka auction room on Monday afternoon, when over 100 gallons of ‘ home brew” beer, confiscated by the police as the result of a recent Court judgment, were offered by public auction. This being the first sale of its kind held in Temuka for many years, it attracted a large attendance. As a preliminary to the sale, the auctioneer announced that the purchasers who intended to take the beer away with them would have to pay the tax of Is 6d per gallon. If they desired the casks alone, the beer would be tipped into a nearby drain. Bidding was not keen, 36 gallon casks realising only 10s each, subject to the tax. Eightyfour bottles of beer netted only Bs, which meant a little over Id per bottle to the vendors—the police.

Selfishness on the part of motorists and other road users is a common cause of accidents. One form of wheel selfishness, the action of slow-moving vehicles holding to the middle of the road and blocking overtaking traffic, is referred to in the latest Issue of the official bulletin of the Auckland Automobile Association. “This offence,” says the bulletin, is accentuated when the driver of the slowermoving car deliberately accelerates when overtaken, thus forcing the overtaking car to fall back. The practice is not clever, and 1s ungentlemanly and selfish. Moreover, it is a breach of the motor regulations. On the horn being sounded by an overtaking car, it is the duty of the driver of the overtaken vehicle to pull over as near as is practicable to the left-hand side of the road to permit the other car through. Speed must not be increased. This is a little point that motorists should watch, for it is one that will save the other fellow a lot of worry, and will make motoring much more pleasurable.”