LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXVII, Issue 2869, 3 December 1927, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Messrs Dalgety and Co., Ltd., hold their regular sale at Cambridge on Monday next.

In to-day’s issue Miss McDevitt, of tho Triangle refreshment rooms announces that tho summer menu is now available. The rooms are open up til 9 o’clock on Friday evenings.

We understand tho newspaper proprietors of New Zealand have unanimously decided not to publish newspapers on December 26 and January 2 next. Hamilton’s rainfall for November totalled 2.17 in, which fell on 17 days. To Aivamutu had a record of 3.79 in,

The annual meeting in connection with tho Cambridge Competitions Society (Inc.) will be held on Monday evening next at 8 o ’clock, as advertised.

The To Ivuiti Operatic Society has commenced practices of "The Mikado,” which is to be presented at Cambridge in February next.

Tho long-desired .Sunday school hall for the Presbyterian community at To Awamutu is soon to be an accomplished fact, for a contract for the erection of a concreto structure has been let toMr A. Christie, at £1039 17/. An appropriation of £4OO by tlic Cambridge and Te Awamutu Terminating Building Society, Ltd., was tendered for on Tuesday last. Two tenders were received and the executive accepted that of the highest tenderer, Mr Spears, of Te Awamutu, at £l2O.

A pair of first penny postage stamps issued for New Zealand, valued at £l5O, has been obtained by an Auckland collector. The lucky philatelist is Mr A. Brodic. There aro only about 16 copies of the stamps in existence. They form a link with New Zealand’s early history, penny stamps having been limited to letters '‘sent or received bv sailors or soldiers of her Majesty’s Forces. ’ ’ They were issued in 1855.

What must have been something in the nature of a record shipment of pigs left Cambridge on Thursday, consisting of five trucks of pigs, numbering 266 in . all, purchased by Messrs Thos. Borthwick and Sons, Ltd. Another big consignment of 140 pigs was despatched from Cambridge on Monday, for another firm. Evidently the pig industry is assuming considerable proportions in the Cambridge district.

Every now and then school teachers are treated to a quiet laugh at the expense of their scholars, who periodically perpetrate what is generally referred to as a “howler’ ’ (states the Southland Times). The palm must, however, be given the small girl who, when recently asked to write a sentence containing the word burden, replied with the following: “The Maoris go mutton-birdin’ every year!”

A fine residence for the manager is | in course of erection at the Ruakura .

State Experimental Farm.

A considerable number of Cambridge district residents are at Auckland, attending the big show in the city. The rainfall during November in Christchurch was 68 per cent in excess of the average for the month. Nineteen days were wet. The double railway line will be in operation between Auckland and Papatoetoe from Mpnday next, Otahuhu now being the terminus of the double section.

Fifteen bankruptcies were notified in last week’s issue of the New Zealand Cf-kette; eleven of the number were Tn tse North In. ft nd.

It would appear that the hardship that daylight saving would inflict on school children of country settlers was over-estimated. We notice that Te Miro school committee recently decided to revert to 9 a.m. for school opening, instead of 10 as previously arranged. Now Leamington has changed its hour of school opening from 9.55 a.m. to 9.30. a.m.

The Matamata Town Board has accepted the tender of Messrs Isherwood and Bellain for work on main highways in the town area, the amount being £1835 11/6. The total amount involved in the scheme to undertaken is £6400, the balance being f6r materials, principally metal, bitumen and tar. The Town Board finds £3105 7/8, the balance being contributed by the Main Highways Board.

A settler in the 'Morore district, on tho East Coast, recently had a most unpleasant - experience. In an attempt to kill weeds ho sprayed a portion of his land with sheep-dip, little thinking that his milking cows would eat the grass from that part. However, this evidently was the case and not knowing that tho 'cows had fed from the sprayed weeds and grass tho family used tho milk twice. By this time the poison had taken effect upon the cattle and one died. The baby in the home was i also affected but fortunately it soon recovered.

Young People’s Day will be celebrated in Trinity Presbyterian Church tomorrow. The Rev. Jas. Hay will conduct the services. "Youth Related to Jesus Christ” will form the morning theme and in the evening the subject will be ‘ ‘ The Utmost for the Highest. ’ ’ There will be a talk to the children in the morning on "Tho Boy Whom Everybody Wants.” The soloist for the day will be Mr Cecil Thompson. At the evening service the anthem, "O Saviour of the World” will be sung.*

Already the proud possessor of the largest eel, Inglewood has gone a step further and now claims to own the largest mushroom. The eel of 28|lbs, which recently occupied a prominent position in a shop window was later displaced by a mushroom nine inches in diameter and 28 inches in circumference, with a stalk six inches long and 34 inches in circumference. Another mushroom found in tho same vicinity as this, measured eight inches in diameter. They, are regarded as remarkable specimens for the unusual season for mushrooms.

That we are 'only experiencing the commencement of motor transportation is the opinion of Mr L. T. Watkins, who has just returned from a nine months’ trip abroad (reports the Wellington Post). "Taxi fares in Europe” he says, "are becoming astonishingly cheap; in Paris, for instance, the minimum meter fare is' 1.25 to 1.75 francs (3d to 4d). Cheap taxis everywhere—everybody rides. Motor bus competition in other places is being beaten by taxi owner organisations. The trains are going, as the stage coaches went. Railway systems to pay dividends will have to compete by providing convenient, cheap, rapid and mass movement or quantity transportation.”.

As a dairy cow cannot miss a milking without danger of suffering harm,, something in the nature of a roll call at the shed is desirable. When the cows arc numerous it is difficult to detee*. the absence of one by merely looking them over in the yard. A farmer near Tnglcwoed (says the Taranaki Herald) after giving tho matter considerable attention, has fitted his shed with a simple yet ingenious counting apparatus. A wire runs overhead along the bails, connecting at one end with an electric bell and a large dial bearing numbers around its circumference. Bach time a cow is released after milkng the wire is pffiled, ringing the boll and moving to the ncxr number a pointer which, is operated by a cog wheel. The iotal of the cows milked is thus obtained, and if that docs not correspond with the herd tote.i a careful check is made.