LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 21, 27 June 1911, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Plans and specifications have been received by the officer in charge of the Tokanui Reformatory for the erection of the superintendent’s residence at the Reformatory. The work, we understand, will be commenced at once by the Justice Department.

The following reply has been received in answer to the congratulatory cablegram sent to Their Majesties by the Te Awamutu school children: —“Headmaster, the School, Te Awamutu: “ Please convey to the school children Their Majesties’ sincere thanks for their cablegram of congratulation and good wishes. —BIGGE.”

There is evidently a true municipal spirit in Foxton. Lately the Mayor and nine councillors subscribed £ls each to a fund to erect a Coronation hall. One other councillor put in £5 and the town clerk came to light with £lO. The Herald claims it is a Dominion record —we believe it is.

Those whose business causes them to rise early in the morning will be glad to learn that the shortest day of the. year has already been reached. June 21st is technically the shortest day, and actually is so in higher latitudes. Here, however, the twelve days from June 13th to June 24th are all of equal length, the sun rising at 7.24 and setting at 4.36. In London the shortest day is from 8-5 to 3.51, which is a much less pleasant arrangement than ours, though the longer summer evenings there do something to balance our advantage in winter.

The people of Hastings have forwarded a petition to the Minister for Railways asking that the railway workshops at Napier be removed to Hastings. The fourteen arguments with which the petition is supported include a gentle boast at the expense of Napier, that while the latter town has been isolated by floods on more than one occasion, the land at Hastings has been “ high and dry at all seasons.” From a military point of view” the petition affirms “ it is important the workshops should be in such a locality as Hastings, as, by blowing up the Waitangi Bridge, the present shops could always be easily cut off by an enemy and the whole service at once deranged.’

Mr Wm. North, the only candidate nominated, has been elected to fill the vacancy on the Te Awamutu Town Board.

We give local contractors a final reminder of the Te Awamutu Post Office contract, tenders for which are called, returnable up to July 3rd.

In our advertising columns Mr G. G. Cross notifies that he is prepared to sink artesian bores in any part of the district. Mr Cross has put down several bores in this locality, all of which have been very satisfactory.

The representatives of Messrs Donald McLean and Sons are at present in Te Awamutu making arrangements for an early start on the buildings to be erected to the order of Mr J. B. leasdale. The contractors expect to have all the material on the ground at an early date, and a start is to be made at once.

A Coronation medal of the time of George IV. has been sent to the Hawera “Star” office by Mr James Davidson. It was found by Maoris at Taiporohenui, and is supposed to have been lost by a soldier belonging to General Cameron’s or General Chute’s regiments. Mr Davidson got it from one of the Maoris for a stick of tobacco.

A Sydney cable states that the chief Railway Commissioner has taken a strong stand against gambling amongst the service employees,, refusing to consider the cases in which certain employees were dismissed in connection with a gambling raid prosecution. He said he intended, with a view to stamping out gambling in the service, to deal very harshly with all cases of the kind.

A gentleman who knows the' cheese trade tho /oughly remarks as strange the fact that the colonial prejudice in favour of coloured in preference to white cheese still exists in New Zealand, in defiance of the common knowledge that the natural tint of cheese is a light creamy white, and that the darkening material is, to say the least of it, of no nutritious value. The educated classes at Home know the truth, and demand cheese that is white, but the old preference for dark cheese continues here, apparently as a result of the mistaken idea that the dark colour means richness.

A very narrow escape from a serious mishap happened to the last train from Woodville to Palmerston on Monday night, when coming through the Manawatu Gorge, through running into a large boulder which had fallen on the line. Fortunately the train was not travelling very fast at the time, and was quickly pulled up. The cow-catcher was somewhat damaged by the contact, the stone being smashed into several pieces. The force of the collision was such as to throw the passengers about, but fortunately no one was hurt. The spot at which the accident happened is a dangerous one, and had the train been derailed the consequences would have been serious.