LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, 25 October 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Nearly four inches of rain have been registered in the Hawke’s Bay district during the past fortnight.

Six workers’ dwellings in New Plymouth have been completed, and three others are in course of construction.

The Manawatu Utility Poultry Club has handled £30,000 worth of business since the commencement of the year. A heavy hail storm did considerable damage at Woodville on Saturday, particularly to the gooseberry crop, and other fruit trees.

New drains, of a total length of 39 miles 48 chains, were constructed on the Hauraki Plains last year, making a total of 483 miles 32 chains.

An advance has been made in the price of factory butter in Palmerston North. On Saturday some brands were being retailed at Is lid per lb. By using a motor lorry in place ol the railway, it is calculated that £] per ton can be saved on the carriage of benzine from Wellington to Feild ing.

Pick-pockets were operating at tki Trentham racecourse on Several ladies are. reported lost their purses from their handbags. Two absentee owners of property in the Auckland district were fined £3O and £2O respectively last week for failing to destroy the rabbits on their properties. As indicating the quantity of rain that has fallen in Sopth Canterbury during the past five weeks, creeks on the downs are running for the first time for 30 years.

A Pahiatua business man who recently indented a erate of crockery from England at a purchase price of £l7, found that freight and other charges came to £27 10s.

Owing to the heavy rain in Masterton yesterday, it was necessary to postpone the Labour Day celebrations as was unfortunately the case also last year. It has been decided to hold the sports on Saturday week.

Two men named Ernest Bull and Hector O’Halloran were each fined £2 at Dannevirke last week for being found on licensed premises during the hours when such premises were required by law to be closed. Two men who are charged with the theft of jewellery valued at over £4OO, the property of Niniwa Heremaia, of Lyall Bay and ■ Martinborough, arrived under escort from Sydney by the Maheno.

As a natural consequence of thf world-wide rise in the cost of living there has come an increase also ir the cost of dying. The Auckland Citj Council last week decided to raise the prices for burial lots from 50s tc £4 apiece, and to increase the soak of fees for grave-digging tc 20s, 3Os. and 4Os.

A dismal picture of the second-hand “scrap” trade was painted by a witness in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court. He said that the bottom had completely fallen out of the market. Old sacks were once worth 2s or 2s 6d each. Now it was hard to get 8d for them. When scrap iron brought £5 a ton, business was bright. Now it brought 50s; His total earnings in eight weeks came to £6, and the outlook was duller than ever.

A young woman who was a patient in Masterton Hospital left the institution about 4 o’clock yesterday morning in her night clothes, and wandered about until about 10 a.m., when she returned to the hospital. Considering the state of the weather and the bitter southerly which set in about & a.m. she must have suffered considerably from the exposure. Her friends came up from Carterton in the afternoon. She is now comfortably installed again and apparently none the worse for the experience. Owing to the inclement state of the weather last evening, the attendance at the concert and picture entertainment at the Masterton Opera House in aid of funds of the Soldiers’ Memorial Park, was by no means large. The first portion of the programme consisted of pictures, while the following contributed to the second half : The Misses G. Evans, Z. Carroll, Effie Brice and S. Breen (all of Wellington), and Miss Mavis Howard, Mr T. Wood, and Master Douglas Towards (of Masterton). Mr W. J. Scrimgeour acted as accompanist. A Marton deputation waited upon the Minister of Labour in Wellingto i on Thursday in connection with the half-holiday in that town. They received a very sympathetic hearing and were informed by the Minister that he was preparing amendments for the Shops and Offices Act which would come before Parliament within a month. He was fully aware that small towns were suffering by the Saturday half-holiday, as he already had had several deputations from towns in his own electorate, also from Timaru. He would not remain in office and aliosthe cities to bleed the small towns. He would be pleased to receive any suggestions that would overcome the difficulty.

In a sense, said Semor-oergeant T. Bourke, of Wanganui, while speaking at a farewell gathering on the eve of his retirement from the Police Force, the police were the government of the country, for the members were the representatives of the law to the great majority of people, not only to those who were in trouble through failure to follow the laws, but to many of those who needed a. helping hand in their private trouble. His 44 years of service in the force had been pleasant, and during all those years it had been impressed upon him'that there was no “crooked business,” the New Zealand Police Force being a power for good.

Factory leather is being retailed in Palmerston North at Is 8d per lb. The Christchurch City Council is paying 3d per head for rats caught in the city. _ There is reported to be only one habitable empty house in Westport at the present time. The Pahiatua egg circle consigned 540 dozen eggs to Wellington one day last week. Feilding has postponed for a rear its proposal to raise money fo*the establishment of a St. Helen’s Home. Ixports for September qu.u ,r er totalled £9,261,920, against £12,360.695 for the September quarter of 1920. The Auckland Advertising Club recommend that a sum of at least £lO,OOO per annum be spent in advertising New Zealand. The rainfall for the 24 days of October amounts to 6 inches, which is in excess of any October since 1911. The highest on record for the whole month is 5.99 inches for October, 1913. An “Age” reporter was on good authority yesterday it was very probable that the hearing of the freezing workers dispute would commence before the Arbitration Court about November 1. The train from Palmerston North, which usually reaches Masterton about 10 o’clock, was delayed by a heavy slip on the line near Mangatainoka for about four hours last night, and the passengers had a most unenviable experience. There are large supplies of oranges and local apples on the market at Auckland. The first shipment of Canadian apples for the season is due by Makura at the end the ■ s railway balance for the four weeiko ended September 17 shows considerable improviment over the previous month, the total excess of expenditure being £(<94o as against £52,232. The North Island showed a revenue excess of £20,081. The price of benzine in Auckland was recently reduced by approximately Is a case. High-grade benzine and motor spirit are now being sold at 29s 6d a case ex store and 29s ex ship, and power benzine at 27s 6d. Certain other grades are on sale at 25s a case. The present state of unemployment is strongly exemplified by Aft experience of a Taranaki dairy company. It recently advertised in the “Daily News” for two casual hands, “wages £3 15s and usual allowances.” As a result 150 applications came to hand in. three days.

A Wellington Press Association telegram states that one result of the southerly gale on Sunday was the upsetting of Walsh Bros.’ flying boat, which was moored between the King’s Wharf and Glasgow Wharf. It is not anticipated that the damage done is serious, but it may be necessary to send the engine to Auckland. “In my judgment,” states Mr A. Seifert, who has just returned to Palmerston North from the United States, “trade depression in America will soon come to an end. At the present about 5,000,0Qfc men are out of work, but it has to be remembered that before the war started America had 7,000,000 men out of employment.” It is rumoured in Masterton that an Independent Labourite, or Moderate Labourite, will contest the seat at the general election. Already the names of several other prospective candidates are being mentioned, and there is every probability of several entering the field against the sitting member, Mr G. R. Sykes, who has now definitely announced his intention to again stand. As an illustration of the fact that every country has its peculiar difficulties in dealing with road construction, Mr Alfred Seifert mentioned to a Palmerston North reporter that in the States of lowa and Minnesota the roads iifVmany places have to be tile-drained along the sides in order to take the surface water away. This is necessary to prevent prairie rats from burrowing underneath and so undermining the roads. If there is no water present the rats will not live in the locality. Mr Seifert noticed many roads tiledrained in this fashion while on a motor trip through these two states. As an illustration of W’hat an organ sing teacher sometimes encounters in the back districts, Mr J. A. Valintine (senior inspector) told the Taranaki Education Board that in the course of his visit to a back-blocks school one teacher came across a b-»y of 14 years who had never been to school before. There were also others of school age in the family, and as the result of the organiser’s investigations the children were now going to school three times a week to get some education. The roads in the locality were rather rough to permit of the pupils going every day. Some of the worries of the officials are disclosed in a report seated to Parliament. During the past Bost Office year there won) 5465 letters and 2858 letter-cards.posted without addresses; 25,451 letters were wrongly addressed; 99 bore libellous addresses and were intercepted; 26 letters were discovered to bear previously used stamps; 8063 registered letters were dealt with in the Dead Letter Office; 3473 newspapers and 3268 books and other articles were received without addresses( but nijyiv of these were subsequently applied ’ for and delivered; 29,632 newspapers were returned to publishers. There v, ere 6132 inquiries made during 1920 for postal packages alleged to have been posted and not delivered. In 3621 ;f the inquiries—sinore than half of the total j number—the investigations nude by the department resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for.

The business people of Masterton are invited to close their premises at 11 a.m. on Thursday next, on the occasion of the People’s Day of the Carterton show.

The extraordinary general meeting of the Masterton Horticultural Society which was to have been held to-night has been postponed till abater date.