LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIII, Issue 3064, 31 May 1923, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A parade of Boy and Girl Scouts will be held at St. Paul’s Methodist Church on 'Sunday morning next.

The Christians who usually meet at. the Oddfellows’ Hall on Sundays are holding their annual conference meetings in the Army Hall. The British submarine XI., which is nearing completion at Chatham, will be the world’s largest, most powerful, and swiftest submarine. It will possess a great cruising range, and will displace 3600 tons when submerged. It will mount a 12-inch gun. Within a month the largest flying boat in the world will fly regularly on service between Southampton and Le Havre. According to the Daily Mail, it will have engines of 800 h.p., will cany 14 passengers, as well as a pilot and a mechanic, and will have a speed of 100 miles an hour.

At a public meeting held at Auckland on Tuesday, a Literary, Elocutionary and Musical Competitions Society was formed, and a strong provisional executive was set up to make preliminary arrangements for holding competitions.

A Sydney paper, referring to the extravagance and waste in the Post and Telegraph service in Australia, states that there are something like .100,000 men and women in the service who could be dispensed with in the interests of the taxpayer and efficiency.

A herd of 200 dairy cows has just been brought from Taranaki to Morrinsville district (says the Star), the .journey from Stratford to Te Kuiti being undertaken by road and occupying a fortnight. From Te Kuiti they were failed to Morrinsville, Waihou and neighbouring stations. Of the 200 only one cow did not survive, and two completed the journey lame.

The Matamata Town Clerk (Mr B. Blennerhassott) has prepared an interesting set of statistics in connection with the town of Matamata. The town area was formed iu 19.17, when there was sr population of about. 500. To day the .population is estimated at about 900. There are nine miles of roads'in the area, with twe miles of formed footways. The acreage is 830, with a ratable value of £407,000. There are 48 electric lights in the streets.

It was announced at the Anglican Church Congress that Mr Hickson had generously agreed to extend his to two and a-half months, from the beginning of October until the middle of December. Ho will arrive in Auckland some rime previously, where he intends to rest for a short period after has Australian mission, which concludes in Western Australia in August. His opening dates for New Zealand are Auek land. October 1 to 5 inclusive.

“I don’t understand plumbing in New Zealand,” said an immigrant, who had obtained the Glasgow Technical College certificate for that trade, in the Supreme Court at Now Plymouth. “ Here you embrace three trades under the one heading, tinsmithing, sheet iron work and plumbing,” he added. “Rather interesting to hear of so many trades under one heading,” Mr JusticeKced observed, “ft is generally the other way about. You have to get three or four tradesmen for the one job.”

A series of charges of having fraudulently failed to account for moneys received- on terms requiring him to account for the same to his employer was admitted by Harold Gordon Peter Ghent (Mr Moody), a. salesman, aged 27, in the Auckland Police Court on Monday, before Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M. The total amount involved was just over £IOO, and the moneys had been received at Paeroa, Cambridge. Waikato, Thames, Karangabake ami Matamata. The magistrate said he could not give a short term. There was too mnf.L sjc-sbrirf'Yroni eiapKy&rl'd' A : c-‘ ■cased--was sentenced fct> »\x months’ imprisonment.

.During the past three years New Zealand's export of butter had trebled itself. We now supply one-third of the whole of the butter imported by Great Britain, and one-half of the Motherland’s total importation of cheese. —Mr Massey in his address at the Waikato Winter Show on Tuesday last.

At a well-attended meeting of ratepayers of the Tamahere Road District, held at Tamahere on Saturday evening last, the following resolution was carried unanimously:—“That this meeting of Tamahere ratepayers affirm the principle of merging with the Waikato County Council, ami that the Board be asked to invite the members of the Council to attend a meeting and address the ratepayers on the question.” One speaker at the meeting favoured the creation of two counties out. of the present Waikato County, which he con sidered too unwieldly.

There was a rise of three points during April in the three foot groups used bv the. Government Statistician for

comparative purposes in connection with the cost of living. April’s index number was 1515 points as against 1512 in March. Compared with July, 1914, the index munber shows an increase of 41,59 per cent. Sugar was responsible for nearly all of the 11 points rise hi the groceries section; dairy products showed an increase of 10 points, and the. meat group showed a decrease of 9 points.

In his speech at Hamilton on Tuesday, the Prime Minister spoke of the tremendous importance that. Nauru phosphates were to this' country, and urged farmers to give this fertiliser a fair trial, as in many parts of the country its use very greatly increased production. Mr Massey quoted figures to show the reduction in prices of this commodity, stating that in 1921 the landed cost was £4 5/, whereas now it was only £2 12/.‘5. Ground rock rvn? sold at Auckland in 1921 at £9 11/(5, and. to-day it could be bought there for £5 10/.