LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In another column we commence the publication of a series of articles on American conditions and their effect on world recovery, and the Administration’s “new deal.” They are from the pen of' “T.C.L.,” who has just returned from a visit to the United States, where he had special opportunities of learning from the inside many things that enter into the problems affecting the present and future condition of that great nation and therefore of the whole world.

For allowing a chimney fire on August 12 in the dwelling he occupies in the New Plymouth borough, Charles Matthews was fined 10s (costs 10s) in the New Plymouth Court yesterday by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M.

An address on the Douglas Social Credit Plan of monetary reform was given to the members of the New Plymouth Round Table Club at their weekly luncheon yesterday by Mr. D. C. Davie on the lines of previous addresses delivered throughout Taranaki. A young Jersey cow paraded the brightly lighted central portion of New Plymouth’s main business street on Tuesday night and again last night at about 9.30 o’clock. Her behaviour appears to have been exemplary but so far she has shunned her fellow-strollers and uses the middle of the roadway. The opinion that conviction for theft was even more serious at the present time than ever before was expressed by counsel in the course of a plea for a client who appeared in the New Plymouth Cpurt yesterday. He explained that there was a scarcity of work and the publication of the conviction prejudiced employers against a man seeking a position.

With the loading of 3764 crates of cheese at New Plymouth by the Port Campbell, which is expected to arrive at New Plymouth to-night, the last of the 1932-33 season's cheese will be cleared from the port. The final shipment of old season's butter was cleared from New Plymouth by the Port Dunedin, which took 14,000 boxes on August 2, and the Matakana, which loaded 14,097 boxes on August 3. There is no gainsaying the prevalent uncertainty among primary producers and business men throughout the Dominion (says the Wellington Post) as to the future of the rate of exchange New Zealand on London. The overseas trade returns for the seven months in New Zealand currency, and excluding specie, showed a credit balance to the Dominion of £12,000,000. They also showed the persistent fall in importing. In normal times an excess of exports of £10,000,000 was sufficient to provide for the payment of New Zealand Government and local authorities’ requirements in London, and to fully satisfy the demands of merchants when imports were flowing to the Dominion in very much greater volume than they are to-day. There is a fairly large body of mercantile opinion inclining to the view that a change in the exchange rate is near, and that it will be, and must be, in the downward direction.

The houseboat which was destroyed by fire at Whakahora (Wanganui River) on Saturday originally cost £lO,OOO, and was owned by the Wanganui River Services, Ltd. A few weeks back the vessel received a severe buffeting by a wall of water, which swept down a nearby stream. Bitten by a dog while gazing in a shop-window in Victoria Street, Hamilton, Mr. F. Rees, an Auckland visitor, received severe lacerations to the hand. His injuries necessitated attention at the Waikato Hospital, from which he was discharged after attention. The police were notified and searched for . the dog, which was believed to be a black and white hull-terrier. An unusual charge, that of driving a tractor equipped with grippers on the Maraekakaho Road, near Stortford Lodge, with a consequent danger of causing damage to the road surface, was preferred against A. Lowe in the Napier Magistrate’s Court, before Mr. A. M. Mowlem, S.M. “A Clydesdale horse, shod in tire ordinary way, would be more detrimental to the road than my tractor,” declared the defendant in denying that the tractor had caused any damage to the road surface. He was convicted and discharged. Approval has been given to the Wellington City Council to a suggestion from its Legislation Committee that the Municipal Association be asked to consider the promotion of legislation regarding byelections. It is suggested that provision be made for the three unsuccessful candidates at the biennial elections receiving the highest number of votes to be declared “councillors elect,” to fill any vacancy which might occur during the life of the council, so avoiding the expense of by-elections. The settlement some years ago of a number of German immigrants at Jackson’s Bay, in the Milford Sound district, where they proposed to grow grapes, were recalled during the course of a lecture given by Mr. Alan Mulgan in Auckland. The speaker said the settlement naturally failed. As details of its history were little known, he. hoped that anyone knowing something of its founding and ultimate fate would supply the missing gaps. Akaroa is one of the few districts in New Zealand where the commercial walnut flourishes. When Mr. A. H. Oswin mentioned that fact at the sitting of the Tariff Commission at Auckland. Professor B. E. Murphy remarked that the green walnut made a very acceptable pickle. Mr. Oswin said one advantage possessed by Christchurch was that it was near the Akaroa walnutgrowing district. “I have never seen any advantage in Christchurch being near Akaroa,” commented Mr. G. A. Pascoe dubiously. “As you are a resident of Christchurch I will not pursue that subject then,” said Mr. Oswin. A resolution protesting against the action of Mr. P. O. Veale, research chemist to the Federation of Taranaki Dairy Companies, in sending an open letter to the Press in terms which were derogatory to the director of the dairy division of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. W. M. Singleton, was moved at a meeting of dairy farmers in Palmerston North last week by Mr. P. W. Dixon, chairman of directors of the Makowhai Dairy Company. “I understand the director is not allowed to reply in public and, such being the case, the letter was a most unfair one,” said Mr. Dixon. There was no seconder to the motion. A brisk trade in motor-car batteries is reported in Ashburton. Several factors enter into this, one being that the stress of the times has encouraged car owners to leave to the very last the repairs and renewals that were necessary. It is found that most of the batteries that have been discarded lately were those belonging to some of the large number of cars sold during the boom period of five or six years past. Another factor that has tended to keep battery experts busy is that the present winter has been hard on batteries, according to one man. In one garage in Ashburton over 300 new batteries have been sold this winter, and the recharging plant is in operation night and day. “There is a restlessness about modern novels and a freedom of speech that can be very ugly and sometimes very beautiful,” said Mr. L. F. de Berry, speaking on modem novels to the Society for Imperial Culture, at Christchurch, on Saturday night. He went on to read an extract from the work of Gertrude Stein. “Really,” he said, “what such novelists are talking about sometimes I am at a loss to know. However, what their work lacks in some directions is perhaps made up by a certain. characteristic rhythm—a rhythm which is barbaric but nevertheless wonderful. You see, they are being allowed to do as they please; they are not bound by any rules. And yet Gertrude Stein may still be called one of the great moderns. She is great in her desire for freedom. The curious fact that no flax plant has yet been found which can be considered to breed true from seed is recorded in an annual report of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. In general it may be said that in the department’s pedigree seedlings there is a very marked similarity between parent and offspring in such features as vigour and habit of growth and in date of flowering. Closer examination, however, reveals considerable differences among seedling plants of an apparently uniform row. In some of the best fibre plants the seedlings show extremely wide variations in habit and vigour of growth, in colour and hi fibre quality. Not one per cent, of the progeny could be said to resemble the parent. Concerning a suggestion that the combined singing of bellbirds should be broadcast, a correspondent to the Otago Daily Times relates that an evening before he arrived in the backblocks of Taranaki, he heard a record of a Bournemouth carillon on the gramophone.. To his delight and astonishment the singing of the bellbirds appeared to be a concerted achievement of the same order, and might be termed a carillon of bellbirds. They finished as though they were under a conductor. During next day the correspondent was intrigued to hear a bellbird practising his part, keeping time and dropping notes. Anyone who has the facilities for taking a gramophone record has an opportunity of conferring a great pleasure on innumerable music lovers.

A definite indication that confidence has been restored is showfl by the fact that money has loosened up to a considerable extent when required for investment in legitimate industries and businesses, primary and secondary, which show a reasonable prospect of success (says the Waikato Times). Money is now available for purposes for which, through lack of funds and confidence, two years ago it would have been found impossible to raise even a small loan. All classes of business, if the request is reasonable and the prospects fair, receive every consideration and are practically assured of assistance. Each case is gone into thoroughly and considered on its merits. In the case of farm lands, while money is pot yet readily available for dealings in laige areas, the small holding farmer can, generally speaking, be assured of reasonable assistance. This is specially so of younger men, who although they have little capital, can show that they have fair prospects at even the present low prices. It is noticeable that in the Waikato especially a great deal of subdivision is going on, and this is looked upon with favour by lending authorities, in that they are more inclined to assist the smaller man.