LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 83, 6 February 1912, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A farmer in the neighbourhood of Masterton has just dug a potato crop which yeilded 21 tons to the acre.

According to the New Zealand Times, Mr Herman Lewis has purchased 24,000 acres of pastoral country near the proposed route of the East Coast railway at thirty shillings an acre.

On Saturday evening l- next the Town Band will assemble in the main street, and play several selections. As on former occasions, contributions will be received for the uniform fund.

Within the past few days an officer of the Stock Department has been purchasing in Hawera and other districts horses for the Defence Department. Useful active sorts, of the milk-carter type, have been most sought after, as the horses are required for the artillery, branch of the service.

A sudden drop in the price of horse feed is reported in Dunedin this week. The agents have been at their wits' end to place consignments of chaff, and values have receded fully £l per ton, many lines having been disposed of as low as £3 10s and £3 I2s 6d.

The last of the plate glass windows in the new block of shops erected by Mr J. B. Teasdale was put in position on Saturday. With this portion of the work completed the buildings have a very much finer appearance. It is expected that the work will be completed within the next fortnight, so that, in a comparatively short space of time, it is expected that the respective quarters will have been taken over by the various tenants. Although the Town Board is having the footpath formed to the proper level at these buildings, it is a matter for regret that the work was not undertaken sooner, so that the loose earth would have had time to consolidate before the tenants took possession.

On Friday evening a public meeting in connection with the forthcoming combined trades picnic will be held in Le Sueur's club room.

The Te Awamutu public school was opened yesterday after the summer holidays. The attendance was good, and showed an increase since the holidays were commenced.

There was a very satisfactory attendance at the fortnightly Territorial drill last evening. A few members find it impossible to attend on Monday evenings, and these members will assemble at Kihikihi on alternate Fridays, as it is compulsory for them to attend the required number of parades.

By advertisement in another column a meeting of the Oddfellows' Sports and Picnic Committee is called for to-morrow (Wednesday) evening, at 8 o'clock, in the Cosmopolitan' reading room. The business of the meeting is important, as preliminary arrangements for the sports on Easter Monday are to be made.

The work of moving Lyon's buildings to the proper frontage has been commenced, so that, within the next few days, we may expect to see Alexandra Street a uniform width. With this work completed, it but requires the Town Board's speedy action in forming the footpath to complete what has long been recognised a much-needed improvement to Te Awamutu.

The Town Cierk this morning received a letter from the King Country Agricultural and Pastoral Association asking whether arrangements could be made for a full holiday on Thursday, February 15th, so as to enable residents of this district to visit Te Kuiti on the occasion of the first show at that town. An endeavour is being made to fall in with this request, which, up to the present, has been heartily approved.

There being no applicant for the position of lady teacher in experimental science at the Wellington Girls' College, Mr Robert Lee, at the meeting of the colfege governors yestesday, asked why a man could not be appointed. A smile went round the board table when someone remarked that the last male teacher at the college, the French master had married the lady principal. Further consideraiion of the question was deferred.

A rather serious assault was made on Mr. P. K. Wurr at Kihikihi on Friday evening, resulting in his sustaining a double fracture of the lower jaw. It appears that Mr. Wurr had been asked by a native to procure some goods, and an alleged breach of faith was at the root of the trouble. Within a few minutes the Maori had attacked Mr. Wurr, and an attack of a most' violent nature ensued. After the affray Mr. Wurr was brought to Te Awamutu, where his injuries were attended to by Dr Henderson. It is understood that the native has been placed under arrest, and that Court proceedings will naturally follow.

What time to cut Calitornian thistle is a question that 'puzzles many farmers. In a discussion that took place on the train en route from Gore to Invercargill a few mornings ago between four well-known district farmers (says the "Ensign") one of them asserted that it was almost impossible to eradicate the thistle except by intense cultivation; and contended that this was the only one cure. Another farmer maintained that a great deal could be done to eradicate the weed at the propertime, and the proper time was just when it came into full flower. His experience was that the weed when cut down at this stage " bled " profusely and exhausted itself to such an extent that it withered and died.

The Triad is nothing if not critical. Here is the way the editor " deals" with a recentim> portation of the Fuller's for their vaudeville circuit: " She was billed as an English star. If she is that, so much the worse for the English. She had positively nothing to commend her. Some of her songs were foetid with the beastliest suggestion. She had neither charm, nor beauty, nor youth to commend her. Her voice was a "tinny cackle with bad breaks in it: She dressed poorly. She was altogether the sort of performer who could not exist if she did not appeal to the basest tastes of the vulgarest mob !"

In an interview with the Southland News, Mr R. McNab, formerly Minister for Lands, said he did not expect an early appeal to the country, as neither party would care to incur the odium of plunging the country into a general election, thereby postponing the next licensing poll until the end of the next Parliament. The Labour party was organising with more vigour, and was not anxious for an election before three years, as it would take that time to make the necessary preparations, which he understood were to be fairly extensive, in order to try to put the party in New Zealand in line w jth Labour in Australia as a political power.