GENERAL NEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19641, 8 November 1933, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS

Mid-week fishermen are having a fairly slack time at present, as all the rivers are much discoloured as a result of the heavy rain which fell throughout the district during the week-end. Owing to the wet weather, it was not possible to continue the work of plastering the town clock tower on Monday, but the workmen were again busy yesterday. A fair amount of rain water found its way into the interior of the tower during the week-end, but this was easily disposed of. The Timaru Harbour Board’s Dredge 350 will leave this morning for Port Chalmers to undergo her annual overhaul. A fair amount of work has been done by the dredge staff since the vessel was laid up, and it is not anticipated that the overhaul will occupy as much time as in former years. Mr Justice Ostler congratulated the district at the opening of the Supreme Court yesterday on the fact that for the second successive session there was a clean sheet so far as criminal cases for trial were concerned, though at the last mintite one prisoner had been sent from Whakatane for sentence.—P.A. message from Gisborne.

An immediate start with the designing of the proposed woodpulp and paper mills to be erected in the Bay of Plenty district by Timberlands Woodpulp, Limited, is to be made by De Guere and Worley, Limited, consulting engineers, of Auckland. For this purpose, Mr L. A. De Guere, whose home is in Wisconin, United States, arrived by the Monterey on Friday. The plant will have a capacity for about 30,000 tons of paper and fibre board a year.

After having been laid up at Wellington since October 16, when she arrived from Sydney, the intercolonial liner Marama was shifted from her berth at the Clyde Quay Wharf to the floating dock on Monday. She is undergoing cleaning and painting before resuming in the trans-Tasman service next Friday, when she will sail for Sydney. During the summer months three vessels will be engaged in this service, the Monowai, the Marama, and the Wanganella.

A letter received recently from London states that the price of sovereigns continues at a high level. The price for September averaged over 30/- sterling, and towards the end of that month the record price of 31/5 was offered by some bullion merchants. The writer says that in spite of the heavy selling of gold coins ever since England went off the gold standard, two years ago, people still seem to have some left, and every time the price improves, enough are produced to keep the dealers busy.

A public building in New Plymouth had a new type of lock attached to its main entrance recently, with the dual object of resisting and if this failed, trapping burglars. From the outside it can be opened by a key, but from the inside it will not yield to a key or any other instrument. In order to prevent members of the staff from being locked in for the night a rule was made that the door must be closed only by the last person to leave the premises. It is rumoured that despite precautions several members of the staff have recently been “hoist on their own petard.” On Saturday morning the original lock was restored to its former place.

“Thank God your cows have all got their heads down,” said a passenger in a first class smoker on a country train the other morning. The other passengers were startled, wondering which mental hospital had lost a patient, so the passenger, seeing their looks of apprehension, called out: “Oh, don’t worry. I’m an Aussie from the far west—over on a holiday—and our cows have to keep their heads in the air, trying to get some food there, because there is no grass for them to chew, so I can’t help calling out sometimes when I see your cows in natural attitude. Great little country, this New Zealand,” and then he looked out of the windows and was silent in admiration.

“I find among Americans a desire to visit New Zealand,” said Mr J. David Larson, trade counsellor to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, who arrived by the Monterey on Friday on a visit to the Dominion. He said that since visiting this country earlier in the year he had had opportunity on many occasions, in public and private, to voice praises of New Zealand. Apart from the settlement of a number of men on individual holdings it has rot been found possible to prosecute small farm settlement to any extent in the South Island. Explaining this position in comparison with the greater activity in the North Island, the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ranscm, stated last w-eek that there were practically no areas of suitable unoccupied Crown land available in the South, while the better class lands suitable for small farm settlement were, generally speaking, comparatively closely occupied. The Minister said that the prices at which South Isalnd properties had been offered had been so much in excess of valuation that it had not been possible to recommend their acquisition. An effort is to be made, however, to extend the scheme to the South Island. What an Education! We refer to the English and Australian Tennis Players. And what a practical demonstration of the necessity of a good—a really good Racquet. England Mcßae do not suggest that you take the field with a small family of Racquets tucked under your arm, but we do suggest that you call along and inspect our magnificent range of high grade stocks. Note particularly these prices. Slazenger’s latest model “Match Point” £4 15s, Slazenger’s “Silver Flash” £4, Slazenger’s “Swift Stroke” 60/-, also Spalding’s “Balmoral” at 75/-. England McRae’s—for Good Racquets