LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17570, 8 March 1929, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Private advice has been received in Thames from Auckland that the Auckland cricket team will arrive in Thames on Good Friday morning, returning on Easter Tuesday. ■ s.

At a meeting of ratepayers of tlie Waitakaruru and Pipiroa Ridings of tho Hauraki Plains County it was decided to form a Ratepayers’ Association. The following committee was elected: —President, Mr. C.. Adams; committee, Messrs. W. E. Murphy, D. McAulav, J. Foote, A. Wylie, I A. Henderson. G. Coxhead, J. Motion, H. Tarr, J. Keith, J. Fagan, C. A. Hayward, and Donaldson; secretary, Mr. S. Kendall.

It is one of the charms of youth that it is so disingenuous. An example of a genuine “howler” in which the unconquerable, optimism of the perpetrator sought to overcome a total lack of knowledge occurred in one of the secondary schools in Dunedin a few days ago during, a lesson on the meaning of words. The word “decade” proved. a pitfall for several of the pupils; but one bright young star, rather than confess her ignorance, furnished an astonished teacher with the following example of its use: “He had a decade tooth in his mouth.”

A youth, of good address, but with morals of get-rich-quick order, has recently been operating the confidence trick on a minor scale in Wellington city and suburbs. His line is the selling of electric light globes, for which he charges about 7/6, and this method is, after disposing of a globe to a too-trusting housewife or.business man to come hack again and borrow the globe on the pretext of wanting to demonstrate it to another eusomer. That is the last seen of the globe and of the guileful yOuth. The male population of Wellington for the‘past six months has ruthessly disregarded the “correct” rules of footwea (writes “Fashion” in the Dominion). Patent leather shoes, which should be reserved exclusively for dress attire, are worn to work, and tan shoes with navy blue suits—a ghastly combination—are a common sight. With such increasing contempt for the conventions, it should not be 'ori<r refore the “boiled” shirt is displaced by the soft, or even the canoe variety. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Farmers’ Union (women’s branch) at Mart on, the Hon. Edward Newman said he hoped that young farmers would not allow local branches to die. Before long there might be a desperate struggle betwen encroaching outside trust combinations and farmers of New Zealand. Only members of Parliament could realise the beneficial influence of the Farmers’ Union in politics. Farmers should bestir > themselves and keep their union strong. “I am now working in the Wellington tunnel, and I can’t offend it,” .was the strange explanation given by letter by a defendant charged in the Napier Police Court the other morning with a breach of his prohibition order. The writer, apparently ''•anticipating matters, had sent along* £2 in the letter containing his statement. The magistrate would not take the letter as a plea, however, and the case was accordingly adjourned for a week. Concrete evidence of the recent storms in the Atlantic has reached some Napier residents in the form of newspaper mail from the Motherland, which received such a drenching during its passage across the Atlantic that many papers received last- week were still dampand in most cases practically unreadable. The fact that the water penetrated the hold wherein the mail was confined gives some idea of the tremendous seas that must have been running. With the writing on the labels almost washed out, the postal officials responsible for the sorting of the mail must have been faced with a difficult task.

A local grocer, while busily engaged attending to the wants of a customer one day last week, was suddenly startled by , the smashing of glass. On making investigations he discovered that one of the large plate-glass windows of his establishment had been considerably damaged. The. cause of the trouble was one of three members of the canine tribe which, while engaged in a tussle with his companions, came in contact with the window, which failed to resist the sudden onslaught. Fortunately for the shopkeeper, the window was insured. Some surprise was expressed by members of the Highways Board which visited Te Kuit-i last week when it was learned that the roads under the jurisdiction of the Borough (18 miles) were maintained on an allocation of £I7OO annually for street purposes. It was explained to members of the Board that this restricted revenue was available on account of the frict that there were so many native and Crown sections within the borough from which no revenue was collected. Members expressed surprise at • the excellent condition in which borough roads were maintained.

“There were only two peaches left on the tree, and those were on the ground,” said an indignant Pukekohe lady, when leporting the stripping over-night of her tree of late peaches, which she had hoped shortly to see floating in syrup in a long row of preserving jars on her pantry shelf. It must be supposed that the natural warmth of her feelings induced this choice Hibernianism. Mr. D. Hebenton, who has been associated with the Reform Party in the cajacity of chief organiser since August, 1923, left by the Marama for Sydney’ en route for England. During his stay’ in England it is his intention to make a study of electioneering methods adopted by the several parties at the forthcoming general election. He expected to return to the Dominion in about nine months’ time. Mr. E. A. James still remains in charge of the organisation as Dominion secretary at the national headquarters.

That Mercury Bay has attracted visitors from far afield is shown by tlie ■piublipatidn of two pictures of the place in a Christchurch paper;. The captionsVdesaribe it as a delightful holiday recsort, stating that a Christchurch visitor thoroughly enjoyed his stay there. At the Cambridge Show Mr. A. M. Samuel, M..P. for the Thames electorate scooped the pool with his champion hunter El Arish, winning all tho hunter and champion hack classes. The latest topical happenings are pictured in this week’s issue of the New Zealand Sporting and Dramatic Review making a brilliant display that will appeal to all tastes. — The coloured supplement of Doi-ii HilJ’. the vivacious screen star is of real artistic merit, and equally charming is the frontispiece of another screen star. The centre pages are very attractive with animated scenes from abroad, ski-ing in Switzerland, girl physical culturists, rehearsing for the chorus, and launching of two Chilian submarines. The Auckland Motor Racing Club’s motor cycle sports at Takapuna fills a page of striking snapshots and some vivid glimpses are given of thrilling incidents. Tlie Review is pn sale at all booksellers and stationers.

What! Fifty guineas for a tobacco pipe? Yes, that was the figure demanded by a London tobacconist recently for an elaborately carved Meerschaum exhibited in his Bond Street window. Some pipe that. But a smoke out of a shilling briar would taste just as good! It’s not the pipe that counts. It’s the tobacco you stuff it with! Purity is the great tiling. The purer the tobacco the less nicotine it will contain. The foreign tobaccos are full of the stuff. That’s why their constant use is so bad. The purest tobaccos, of all are tlie New Zealand. Their comparative freedom from nicotine is largely due to the toasting of the leaf. You can smoke them till the cows come home, and no harm done. There’s a brand to suit everybody. Those in most request are “Cavendish” (the sporting man’s favourite), “Navy Cut No. 3” (another delightful medium),.“Riverhead Gold” (a mild, sweet aromatic), and “Cut Plug No. 10!’ (a tobacco the veteran smoker will enjoy because it is a rich, dark, full-flavoured sort). They are on sale, by all tobacconists.