LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ducks and pheasants were plentiful in the Matapu district at the commencement of the shooting season and a North Taranaki sportsman obtained excellent shooting. The gams was in fine condition and in larger numbers than in previous years.

He had reason to suspect certain farmers in the county were using their motorlorries for hire in opposition to licensed carriers, reported the Inglewood County inspector to the council yesterday. He asked for the assistance of members in stamping out the practice.

During the year ended on March 31 £3403 17s 3d was paid through the Inglewood County Council to relief workers. Of that amount £1195 17s 5d was spent on county roads and £2104 9s lOd represented free labour “over the fence” on farms.

Farmers of the Tarata district, which was one of the first in Taranaki to take up field root competitions, still take a very live interest in the competitions. At last night’s meeting of' the Farmers’ Union branch 19 entries were received for this year’s competitions, and it was stated there were further entries to come.

A framed enlarged photograph of “the youngest surf team in New Zealand,” which was formed entirely of pupils of the West End School in the 1931-32 season, has been presented to the school by Mr. L. Petty. The average age. of the boys was about 11. The team attracted considerable attention because of . its smart work under the Nelson Shield rules. The presentation was made to the committee by the headmaster (Mr. J. E. Shimmin) on behalf of Mr. Petty.

A settler at Kaimata had telephoned the Inglewood County Council stating that he had seen a rabbit, reported the county clerk to the council yesterday. That was the only reply hi response to the county advertisement on the subject. The engineer said the positon bore out his assertion that he had seen one rabbit hi that district, about which councillors had been sceptical. A councillor stated that a rabbit had also been seen at Inglewood. There was no mistaking it for a hare “as it had its tail up.

Fat and store cows and heifers and two horses will be amongst the offerings by Newton King, Ltd., at the Rahotu sale to-morrow.

The success of the recent Farmers’ Union rifle shooting meeting at New Plymouth has aroused enthusiasm over the whole district, states the secretary of the provincial executive of the union (Mr. D. LeC. Morgan). The result has been that some branches have been making inquiries with a view to establishing their own ranges and clubs. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon.. G. W. Forbes, has informed Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., that he will be unable to visit New Plymouth on June 6 to open the Taranaki Metropolitan Agricultural Society’s winter show owing to an engagement in the South Island. Mr. Forbes expresses the wish that he could have been present and wishes the show and the society success.

Objectionable features arising from Government interference in private enterprise were being discussed by the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last night when the question was asked whether the State 1 should intervene to combat the oil companies’ monopoly. “Oh, that is being met by the importation of Russian oil by private enterprise,” said Mr. J. P. Luke, Wellington, 'who was attending the meeting with Mr. A. O. Heany, organising secretary of the Associated Chambers. “But they are going to place an embargo on that,” someone suggested. “We’re going to combat the monopoly from the wells at Ngamotu,” said Mr. J. A. R. McGregor. “And that’s just the kind of competition we want,” said Mr. Luke.

A Tarata settler, Mr. J. Mackie, who motored to Inglewood about 8 o'clock on Monday evening found when returning home about two hours later that the road was blocked by a huge tawa tree which, its roots evidently having been loosened by the heavy rain, had fallen, blocking the road near the top of the Zig-zag. Mr. Mackie, who had a narrow escape from running into the obstruction, which 'he came upon suddenly round a bend, had to leave his motor on the roadside and walked to Tarata. Early next, morning the tree was cut ’up and the road opened by a gang of Inglewood county men en route to work on Pukeho Road. It provided also another example of the old adage. “It’s an ill wind,” etc., as on that evening the lorry took back to Inglewood a load of firewood that will prove a welcome addition to the men’s supply during the winter. And there is still more left on the roadside. ,

A little check to evolutionary progress would appear to be announced in the statement that a firm of Dunedin coachbuilders has been instructed to build a baker’s two-wheeled delivery cart—the first order of its kind to be placed with the firm within the last twenty years. The reversion to horse-drawn vehicles is justified by a vendor, who has had considerable experience with motor vans, on the grounds of the greatly reduced outlay and running expenses as against the relatively small saving through expedition. Undoubtedly the heavy motor taxation and the unfavourable exchange for motor importation are compelling an investigation into the costs of delivery, and, judging by the number of orders already placed with local coachbuilders, there is not the slightest doubt that before long there will be a substantial increase of horse traffic in Dunedin. A strange fowl, now nearly a year old, and a splendid layer, which will not eat grain, roosts in the fowlhouse of an Auckland resident. The hen is of a decidedly friendly nature, and allows itself to be stroked without trying to get away. When the other fowls have grain thrown to them, this one refuses to take any notice, and just goes away and scratches at the ground. Wheat, oats, or maize make no appeal to it, but it will come for food if a boiled potato, pumpkin, or any soft food is offered to it. In the morning, when the other fowls are picking up the grain, it will remain ravenous till the desired vegetable is brought, when it eats it in a way which shows it to be hungry. Any attempt made to leave it without its favourite food, so as to compel it to eat grain like the other fowls, is fruitless. It simply has no time for grain, and the owner, who has been familiar with fowls for half a century, says no case like it has been seen before, as far as he knows.

One of the great difficulties which was hampering the work of the Bird Protection Society and other societies interested in the preservation of our forests and birds was the divided control exercised through different departments of State, said Mr. R. A. Anderson at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society. A good deal had been written in regard to the control of wild life, and it did certainly seem a wise thing that this should be vested in one department of State, with assistance from local committees in each centre throughout the Dominion. There was an increasing number of people who were keenly alive to the necessity for preservation of our native forests and birds and who would certainly, without reward, be quite prepared to give any assistance necessary to a really live policy undertaken by" a proper controlling head whose policy would be the interests of the Dominion first and private interests second. It did seem an anomaly that several departments should be interested, or rather have certain powers delegated to them, and this must lead to confusion and want of systematic control. The Bird Protection Society was prepared, through its members, to give every assistance . to any department which might be appointed to a unified controlling position.

Train cruises to be run through the scenic areas of England and Scotland are apparently very similar to the farmers’ train idea which proved so popular in New Zealand and Australia a few years ago. . Australia s cruising trains were known as “Reso trains, and were organised to give passengers a first-hand knowledge of the primary resources of the country. The Victorian railways have recently evolved a new type of touring train, the passengers, instead of living in sleeping and dining cars, being accommodated at hotels in the centres visited. A fourday tour was conducted at Easter, the train visting Colac, Camperdown, Warmambool, and Portland, and motor sightseeing excursions were provided from each centre to the most attractive scenic features. The Easter party of 60—the maximum for which hotel accommodation was available—was fully booked more than a month before Easter.

A new tariff system such as the big harbour bridge (and all it implies) has had an altering effect in Sydney city values, and the control of transport is meaning a good deal to particular businesses. For instance, a big drapery firm complains that alteration of certain bus routes so interfered with its business that “the directors were compelled to open branch shops in the suburbs as feeders and showrooms for the city emporium. A shop in P arr ®* matta was opened, and a second will shortly be opened at Bondi. The firm’s next step was towards providing its own transport, and it “applied to the Commissioner for Road Transport for permission to run buses from Parramatta to Sydney so that customers might be brought from the branch shop to the city emporium to make purchases. The proposal was that the customers should be carried free from Parramatta to Sydney, but should provide their own return transport by train or other means.” To this the Commissioner objects. He states that a general instituting _ of “transport services as an advertising medjumfor trading purposes” would “interfere materially with the provision of a regular and properly-ordered transport system for the benefit of the general public.”