LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume VI, Issue 271, 9 December 1913, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We are advised that Mr T. E. Rodda, Government orchard instructor, will visit le Awamutu Jo-morrow afternoon for the purpose of meeting the land owners who have offered land for the purpose of co-operative fruit testing.

Tenders are invited by the Kihikihi Hack Racing Club for the temperance booth at the race meeting on New Year’s Day. The same club also notifies that Mr Herbert Taylor has been appointed its honorary veterinary surgeon.

Preliminary notice appears today of the visit of the Marist Bros, old Boys Concert Party to Te Awamutu, Ohaupo and Kihikihi early ( in the new year. Entertainments will be held at each of the three places on January Ist, 2nd, and 3rd. The Daily Mail, which recently offered a prize of £SOOO to the first person piloting a British hydroaeroplane round the British coast, has now offered another prize of £IO,OOO to the first person who waterplanes from Great Britain or Ireland to either the United States, Canada, or .Newfoundland within 72 hours. The first inter-club tennis match will take place at Cambridge tomorrow, when a team from Te Awamutu will try conclusions with Cambridge players. Following is the Te Awamutu team Ladies: Mrs Cox, Mrs Henderson, Miss Irvine, Mrs Wade, Miss Mackenzie, Miss Masters, Men : Messrs Johns, Cox, Parker, L. North, Cran, and Dr Henderson. In the Gazette dated November 20th, notice appears that the sum of £4OOO has been voted by Parliament for distribution to

public libraries. The distribution is to take place on February 9th, 1914, and no claim shall be entitled to consideration unless sent in on the form provided for the purpose and received by the Secretary for Education on or before January 26th, igiA. The committee of the Te Awamutu Polo Club has arranged for a coach to leave the post office at 2.15 .p.m., to-morrow (sharp) to convey ladies free of charge to the polo grounds on the occasion

of the official opening of the.club for this season, it is requested that those desirous of using this

coach will communicate with the

secretary (Mr S. A. Empson) beforehand so that seats may be arranged. The Te Awamutu Polo Club

opens its season at “ Green Hill ” to-morrow (Wednesday) at 2.30 p.m., and an invitation isextended to all residents to be present at the opening ceremony. Some very good games are promised,

as members of neighbouringclubs will be present, and as the local club can put some very good teams on the field competition should be keen. The club had a practice last'Saturday and several new members were present, and this, with the fact, that the older players are in very good form, augurs well for a most successful polo season. A bolt of a mild though exciting nature occurred at 6.30 o’clock this morning, when a pair of horses with the sanitary contractor’s vehicle in tow set oif lor

Tome at a brisk trot along Alexandra Street. We do not know what prompted the beasts to take the law into their own hands, and not gallop but brisk!v trot home, though possibly it was the knowledge that in some dark corner of 'the Town Board’s office are regulations affecting this contract, and that they,, as part of the outfit concerned, were required to be home at an hour earlier than 6.30 a.m. If it was the spirit of strike that prompted the horses’, unruly act we feel sure that they will have a great measure of public support if they refuse to work at an hour later than even their knowledge of common decency will permit. On Saturday next the To Awamulu Town Band bazaar takes place at the Town Hall. It will be remembered that it was first intended that a two days’ function be held, but owing to the

strike the committee abandoned its intention of holding the bazaar in November. If has no.w been found impossible to arrange for two suitable consecutive days this side ot Christinas, so that the band's officers have been compelled to determine upon a one day bazaar only. Consequently, there will be a big lot of goods to dispose ol in the one day and prices will consequently be reduced in order to quit the goods. The committee is now busy preparing lor the bazaar and arranging numerous side attractions, which will provide amusement for all throughout the day.

Given hue weather it is'sale to assume that the bazaar will be an undoubted success, as no effort is being spaied for the fullest possible completion of all necessary preliminaries.

For making false entries in his

wages book Gordon Rosser Weir, a restaurant keeper in Auckland, was fined £6O. Girls were being paid 15s whereas 22s a week was recorded in the book.

Notification appears in the [ Gazette of November 20th that certain lands on the Kihikihi- j Waotu main road have been tern- * porarily reserved as a site for a public school at Tautari. A plan of the proposed drainage area was submitted by the engineer at Friday’s meeting of the Town Board. The estimates of this work will be to hand in ! about a week’s time, when a meeting will be held to discuss the loan proposals. Mr J. D. Duncan,.in a replace advertisement in this issue, draws attention to the grand Christmas dispiav of toys, cards, fancy goods, novelties, etc. To avoid disappointment patrons are requested to make their purchases early."' The death occurred at the Waikato Hospital on Monday morning of Mr Melville Henry Quick, at the age of 40 years. The deceased held the position of subeditor on the Waikato Argus, and was also a shareholder in the Waikato Argus Company. He leaves a wife and one child.

A thoroughly up-to-date plan of the Te. AWamutu town district, showing town boundaries, sewerage scheme, etc., has been presented to the Town Board by the engineer, Mr H. Munro Wilson. The subdivision of all properties is shown, in the ordinary way this plan would have meant an expenditure to the Board of £IOO. Mr Gardiner, a delegate from the central strike committee, addressed a meeting of the seamen at Port Ahuriri on Wednesday last, and as a result a vote was taken, and it was decided that ail members must cease work on the ships and on the wharves. It was pointed out by several speakers that the men had no grievance whatever with the Richardson Company, but they felt 1 it their duty to leave their ships when called out. What do vou think of the drop in prices at the 'Auckland wool sale ? said a Lyttelton Times representative to a farmer. The latter replied that very little importance could be attached to the sale in question, which was early, and may have suffered a setback owing to the strike, but he was doubtful whether the latter was responsible for the drop. He was convinced that when the big sales were entered upon that growers would have no reason to complain of the prices obtained by them. Mr R. M’Nab’s valuable library, which has been presented to the city of Dunedin, is to be shipped south from Wellington this week. It is packed up in twenty cases, which contain, besides 3,000 volumes, many historic manur scripts, original charts of three early navigators, and copies of archives relating to the history of New Zealand long before it beI came a Crown colony. The consignment weighs nearly two tons. Mr M’Nab has also presented Dunedin with many interesting relics of Cook and other early navigators, among them beingxa bayonet in an excellent state of preservation. . The following is a summary of strikes in New Zealand from the inception of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1894 to 31st March, 1913 Number of strikes coming within scope of the Act, 35 ; number of strikes outside the Act, 63. Of this total 31 strikes were of I slaughtermen, six being within | the scope of the Act, and 25 outside it. Number of disputes in- . eluded in total, which may be classed as trivial or unimportant, ' 43; men fullv successful in 25 . j cases, employers successful in ■142; compromise effected in 28; . j average duration of all strikes, ! trivial cases not included, 23 : ! days; total number of strikers, | trivial cases not included, 3,686 ; j total number of men rendered idle jby .strikes, 8,380; approximate I loss to employers concerned, j £160,414; approximate loss in ! wages to workmen concerned . | (average £6 10s), £283,206 ; total j amount of fines inflicted on. j strikers, £i,917; total amounts ! collected to date, £i,532i There are three special features of the Auckland Exhibition which are worth mentioning. The first i is the presence of the band of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, which has been brought to Auckland by the Exhibition authorities at a cost of about £7OOO. The second feature is the splendid collection of over 600 paintings which has been brought to Auckland by Mr Johnßaillie and which are now on view in the Exhibii tion Art. Gallery. They repre- | sent some of the best work of all | 01 the leading modern painters ! of Britain, and some very fine examples of the work ot the older masters are also shown. The third special feature is the Fairy Fountain. The basin, which has a diameter of 60 feet, is situated just in front of the Palace of Industries. Thirty pipes send columns of water to a height of 70 feet, and powerful lamps let into the bottom of .the basin play coloured lights upon the fountain. The effect which is obtained at night when the grounds and buildings are lighted up with ‘thousands of lamps can be better imagined than described. The cost of such an installation has been considerable, but the expense has been more than justified by the result.