GENERAL ITEMS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1242, 13 May 1922, Page 3

GENERAL ITEMS.

The Hawke’s Bay County Council has a' credit balance of over £2OOO

A schnapper, weighing about 251 b, was obtained by a launch party at New Plymouth the other day.

For the week ending April 29, the Westport Coal Company shipped 3702 tons lOcwt of coal and 11 tons of coke.

At the Maori gathering, at Ratana’s camp, Ratan’s son was selected as a candidate to stand against Dr. Pomare for a seat in Parliament.

Mirimar (Wellington) is to have a new industry, a firm of varnish manufacturers, of Sydney, having decided to start a factory there forthwith.

Eleven tenders were received for the erection of the new municipal offices- at Christchurch, and that of Mr W. Williamson, of Christchurch, was accepted. The contract price is £40,980, and the building has to be finished in ten months.

A tour of the Matamata district this month fails generally to show anything in the form of turnip crops with any promise. Fortunately the hay crops were heavy, otherwise it is probable that there would be a pronounced shortage of winter feed.

According to the society's report at the end of the last completed year,” said the Rev. J. Perkins at a meeting of the Christchurch Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, “it has distributed from 100 depots in different parts of the world, 8,600-,000 copies of the Bible. This is a remarkable record, considering the destruction wrought by the war and the suspension of the society’s work in Turkey, European Russia, and Siberia.

“ Ice cream shall not contain more than 5,000 micro-organisms in an cubic centimetre,” said Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court at Gisborne, when quoting from the Food and Drugs regulations in the course of an action against a confectioner who was alleged to have sold ice cream containing a< thickening substance. “I don’t know whether he counts them,” added his Worship.

The culture methods adopted on the Government’s demonstration lucerne areas along the railway line have recently been the subject of criticism. Referring particularly to the area near the Ashburton saleygrds (says the Guardain), Mr F. E. Ward, instructor in agriculture, was asked should the culture methods used there be adopted by the ordinary farmer. Mr Ward replied that during the past two seasons the area had received every care in regard to its management, and that the methods adopted were those that could be expected of any good practical farmer. He regretted; to say the returns were not as high as expected when.the working costs' were considered.

It has been frequently suggested that Palmerston North should have one of the most beautiful chimes of bells to be bought for money (says the local Daily Times). Money is not the difficulty. There is another, and a greater reason why we cannot have them. To know its full import, one has only to sit in the Square gardens on a sunijy Sunday morning, or a peaceful Sunday evening, fully to realise the nature of that other obstacle, without being told. It is discord. Discord, not of people, but of the irq'nthroated clangour of the four or five church bells ringing out apart from all semblance of harmony or unison. The result is extremely painful in more senses than one. Its unmusical effect is as 7)ad as its ethical effect.

At a meeting of the Wanganui Acclimatisation Society, a member asked whether it was permissible for a farmer who held a license and had game on his property to allow an employee to shoot under his license. The chairman replied that this could not be done. The farmer would have to transfer his license, and the transfer would have to be approved by the society before it became effectual.

“We have a Government supposed to be favourable to farmers’ interests.” In making this comment at the annual meeting of the Pahiatua Farmers’ Union, Mr Bolton, states the Wairarapa Daily Times, deprecated the movement in the north to form a Farmers’ Political Party, and he declared that if persisted in, it would be the death-knell of the union. The latter body was formed to benefit farmers as a whole, and the introduction of politics would probably prevent many Settlers from becoming members. i

The Levin Dairy Company is 1 forwarding its butter to Wellington by motor lorry, with the result that the

butter is in cool store at 2 sm. on the day of shipment, instead of being in the railway trucks all night (says the Levin Chronicle). Vegetables and eggs are also being taken down. On the return trip the lorries bring chiefly benzine. Shannon is also receiving and sending a good deal of goods per road.

Details have been reported to the Christchurch Electricity Committee (states the Press) of a somewhat serious accident resulting from an’ electrical -burn sustained by a householder while using a vacuum cleaner. “The accident emphasises the fact that electrical apparatus which may be perfectly safe when in good order, might becomd $ serious menace if repaired or put together by unskilled persons,” was the comment of the committee in a report put before the City Council

Mr J. C. Cooper, managing director of the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company, states that the meat stores in the Dominion will finish up the season practically empty, this being the first time for some years, almost from the beginning of the war, that this has been the case (states the Wairarapa Age). Next season meat will be shipped to a market .which has been practically without supplies of New Zealand meat for some months.

“Beef has never been so cheap in New Zealand as it is at the present time,” said Mr F. G. Cobbe, of Feilding (a member of the Wellington Harbour Board) to a representative of a Wellington paper. He related that a neighbour of his paid £9 a head for cattle two years ago, and he had to accept £7 a head for them. In another instance a neighbour only a few days previously had drawn his attento some fine heifers, which he had paid £2 5s to £3 per head for.

A strong appeal was made for the preservation of the remaining bush along the Wanganui River bf Mr Gregor McGregoi- at the last meeting of the Wanganui Domain Board. He said that from time to time the most beautiful portions ot the /bush were cut down, and these gaps m|foe what might justly be called eyesores. The land in many cases was of little or no value from a grazing point of view, and the bush was wantonly destroyed. If it were preserved it would not only beautify the banks of the river, but would afford shelter to stock. He considered the board should have power to reserve all bush on the banks, not only in reserves, but on native land as well, and that drastic action should be taken to preserve the scenery.