LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16799, 29 May 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Star will not be published on Thursday, June 3rd., the King’s Birthday. The Australian Land Company has declared an interim dividend of five per cent. The Marquis of Bute has received a letter signed “British Communist,” threatening to kidnap his 13-year-old son unless he pays £SOOO to charity. Sight-seeing on- Auckland wharves is to become a thing of the past, regulations which were adopted by the Harbour Board on Tuesday providing that none but those people having legitimate business on the waterfront are to have access to the wharf area. The offices at Ohaupo belonging to the Waipa County Council, and where the councillors met for their monthly meetings until quite recently, are to be leased to the Presbyterian Church for six months. The Council decided to ask their solicitors to prepare a clause for insertion in the Washing-up Bill giving permission for the offices and property to be sold.. When the necessary sanction is obtained the property will probably be submitted for sale by tender.

It was stated at a meeting of the Waipa County Council the other day that heavy motor vehicles were being daily driven through from Auckland to Hamilton and travelling over a portion of the County roads. The classification specified loads of four tons in the County, while weights in excess of this were being carried. The Council resolved to prosecute the owners of such vehicles and also in all other instances where cases had been reported of excessive loads being carried.

In taking the. chair at the statutory meeting of the Raglan County Council on Wednesday, the clerk, Mr H. Marsland, stated that it was the twentieth occasion on which he had had such a duty to perform. In giving some interesting figures dealing with the progress of the County during the period referred to, Mr Marsland stated that in 1906-7 the receipts were under £SOOO, while at the latest return they were £91,000. The rates 20 years back totalled only £3OOO, while the European rate alone was now £24,000.

The new chairman of the Piako County Council (Cr W. R. Lowry), it will be remembered, was a stout advocate of the removal of the County offices from Te Aroha to Morrinsville, When the question was decided, the proposal was negatived on the casting vote of the chairman (Cr P. W. Walters.) As Mr Lowry was elected chairman the question of County offices was put to him by a representative of the Waikato Times on Tuesday. Cr Lowry said that the matter had been fairly discussed, and the Council had made its decision, and therefore the matter would not be further dealt with.

There is no shortage of positions for teachers in the Hawke’s Bay district as appears to be the case in the south. In fact the secretary of the Education Board, Mr W. L. Dunn, said: —“Let some of those without positions communicate with us, and we will place them. If we cannot place them immediately in permanent positions we can probably give them relieving work to do.”

The coming winter promises to be a hard one for those out of work in Auckland. Their number is already numerous, and distress is general in certain city areas.

One generally looks to the London Times for accuracy in all things, but a map received from that concern by a Hamilton business firm shows Wanganui on the East Coast, north of Auckland.

Mr Claxton, at the Thames Valley Power Board’s annual meeting on Thursday, specially thanked the press for the care always exercised in the distributing of correct information to the public. Especially did he thank the press for the great service it had rendered the Board in connection with the recent loan proposal.

In a report to the Raglan County Council, the treasurer, Mr H. Marsland, advised that of a total European rate for the year ending March 31st,, 1926, of £24,057/19/3, only £242 was outstanding. This represents a collection of practically 99 per cent., a happy result upon which the treasurer earned the commendation of members of the Council. Mr Marsland indicated that the greater portion of the balance of rates outstanding would be in hand inside a couple of months. Sometimes things come over the ether that are never intended for the ears of the listeners-in. The following example, vouched for by a wireless enthusiast, caused a laugh to be raised at the Luncheon Club at Palmerston North, when the subject of wireless was being discussed. An Australian station was broadcasting its usual bedtime story for the kiddies, and the lecturer was just finishing. “ . . . and all was happy ever after. Good-night, children; now toddle oft to bed. Good-night! Good-night!” But at this point the operator forgot to switch off the microphone, and presently, stealing over the ether, came the appeal, “For heaven’s sake, Jim, give us a beer.” It must have been a very hot night across the Tasman!