LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume XX, Issue 1177, 3 December 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Landru, the French Bluebeard, has been found guilty of murder, forgery and theft, and is condemned to death. He still protests his innocence. An intimation appears in another column that Mrs G. Ahier, Junr., is prepared to undertake millinery for ladies at her residence, S'loane Street.

Favourable reports are received of the hay crop this season, the recent rains having had a good effect upon the grass. A record hay harvest is anticipated. The Manawatu - Oroua, the Horowhenua, and the Wanganui - Rangitikei electric power districts have been constituted by notice in this week’s gazette. Mr J. Oliver, whose ' ankle was broken by a falling pole at Ohaupo on Tuesday afternoon, is progressing well at the hospital in Hamilton. The break is of a less serious nature than was at first thought. Nominations for the Alexandra Racing Club’s meeting on Boxing Day will close with the secretary, Mr W. G. Sim (telephones 62s and 62d) Pirongia, on Tuesday next. A recital was given by the Te Awamutu Municipal Band in Alexandra Street last night. The band, under the baton of Bandmaster Newsome, gave a very creditable performance, and its playing was much appreciated by the public. The Trounson Kauri Park, comprising a thousand acres of forest, and situated about four miles from Dargaville, is recognised as one of the wonders of New Zealand, and with improved facilities for reaching it will be a source of great attraction for tourists.

Attention is drawn to the sale by public auction at the Te Awamutu sale yards on 10th December of a modern dwelling house, training stables, and grounds comprising altogether about eight acres, situate on Kihikihi Road, Te Awamutu. Further particulars appear on the first page of this- issue. A public meeting is to be held at Kihikihi on Monday night to consider the erection of a war memorial for that township and district. As the question is one which conoerns settlers over a wide area it is hoped there will be a representative attendance, and that each district, as well as Kihikihi itself, will be well represented.

A concert and dance in aid of the Anglican church funds will be held at the Kihikihi Town Hall on Wednesday evening, when an attractive and well-arranged programme of vocal and instrumental items will be presented. The Rev. C. W. Turner, who has a high reputation as a ventriloquist and entertainer, is expected to take part.

Although there was not a large attendance of the public at the auction sale of Town Board sections at Kihikihi, held there yesterday afternoon, there was spirited bidding for the land, which is leased for a term of 14 years. Mr J. W. Boyce acted as auctioneer. Bidding started at £5, and quickly rose to £los ss, at which it was secured by Mr J. Lawless, of Hairini. A punt load of soft brown coal, taken from extensive deposits in the western portion of the Tauranga harbour, is being carted to the gasworks, which have already carried out experiments which demonstrate that this 'lignite is suitable for manufacturing gas (says the Bay of Plenty Times). The supply is said to be unlimited, and it is considered that the coal is suitable for certain household requirements. A Levin business man (says the Otago Daily Times), who has just returned from the Main Trunk district, states that the mills are all working full time, but nowhere are there any large stocks of timber, the outputs apparently being absorbed as quickly as they are sawn, showing that there is little, if any, depression in the timber business. Prices are, however, a little easier, and it is expected that there will be a reduction in wages of the mill hands after the holidays.

In a housing scheme, which includes the building of a number ol five-roomed houses to be let at 25s a week each, in one of the northern towns of England it is proposed entirely to eliminate chimneys. The money saved will be spent in installing electric equipment, consisting of fires, kitchen range, and the like. The kitchen range will be of a type possessing an elevated oven, so that no stopping"is necessary, an innovation which evtry housewife will appreciate. There is already a “chimneyless” colony on the outskirts of Glasgow, the houses being occupied chiefly by artisans. In reply to Mr H. V. Potter (Roskill) the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs said on Wednesday that he would be glad to give the matter of the removal of commissions to private vendors of stamps his most earnest consideration. He would remark, however, that in times of economy and retrenchment the percentage that couid be saved on the sale of stamps was money worth having. He did not wish to cause any inconvenience to the public, but the department must pay, and it was going to be made to pay. Any saving that could be made would be in the interests of the officers of the department and the whole country. Recently a great swarm of grass grubs, in the developed form of beetles, were heard on the wing by a Wyndham resident. The sound they made was as pronounced as that of an aeroplane. Those who turn over the soil know >hat the grub is omnipresent (says the Wyndham Herald), and it only requires favourable seasons for them to develop their destructiveness. In Continental countries since .the war flame-throwers have been used to destroy great insect pests, such as locusts, and such means. might be adopted in some localities in New Zealand to decimate the swams of beetles on the wing. Most insects on the wing make for a light at night, and probably the beetles would be no exception. When they swarm, as they appear to do, they 'come in myn'ads, and might .be destroyed wholesale by a powerful flame.