LOCAL AND GENERAL

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3212, 4 August 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

We learn that St. John's Girls' Glee Club is practising assiduously for its nautical entertainment to be held on Tuesday evening next.

Speaking at Patea last week;, Mr A. W. Heyes, a representative of one of the firms handling export produce from New Zealand, said that 47,000 tons of eggs were imported annually into Tooley Street. That would work out at 845,500.000 eggs—enough to supply quite a large number of omelettes, he commented.

Unemployment taxes are being collected from employees but some employers have failed to purchase the stamps whereby the taxes are paid. The delay in the payment of these taxes is causing inconvenience to the Unemployment Board and to rectify the position the board are sending out inspectors to. examine wage receipts. Those guilty of non-payment will, it is understood, be prosecuted. Last year the same procedure was adopt-ed-and it resulted in a considerable speeding up of payments of taxes.

' An interesting commentary on the present wave of economy is afforded by the experience of the caretaker oi a Ghristchurch school which is attended by a large number of children. When there was .no talk of depression he used to collect on. the average a barrel and a-half a scraps of- food in the playground after' the School closj fed each day, and he was able to feed 'quite a number of fowls in this- way. Now- he collects barely half a barrel of scraps in a week, and consequently he has reduced the number of his fowls.,'. The credit for the reduction ;dn the Jwaste of f ood at the school is, of course, partly due to the teachers' who take every opportunity of impressing on the children that it is wrong to waste food while there are so many persons in want.

It was stated at the School Committee meeting on Wednesday evening, when reference was made to dental clinic affairs, that a temporary assistant for Miss Sefton would be arriving in Te Awamutu next week.

Seepage of water has occurred, in the sides of the headrace at Arapuni, and the diversion tunnel has been opened to lower the level of the water in teh race to permit of a full investigation being made.

The local C.E.M.S. has arranged to hold an admission service at St. John's Church next Sunday evening, when several new candidates will be admitted. The society is also having a special communion service at 11 a.m.

A feature of the Rugby games at Albert Park on Wednesday afternoon that the spectators especially enjoyed was the exhibition of a Maori haka by the Wakeria team just before the junior game commenced. When the final whistle sounded there were requests for a repetition of the haka and the Waikeria boys obliged. Mr Harold Moreland, of Newstead, who was recommended by the New Zealand Jersey Counc.l for the position of Jersey judge at the Melbourne .Royal Show in September, has accepted the appointment. Mr Moreiand, a member of the Jersey Council and the owner of the Royton stud, Newstead has been identified with the Jersey breed in Waikato for several years.

The referees appointed for Saturday's games are: Te Awamutu seniors v. Pirongia, Mr E. Maddern; Rovers v. Waikeria. Mr J. Turner; Te Awamutu juniors v. Rovers, Mr R. Callis; Arohena v. Ngutunui, Mr T. Martin; Ohaupo juniors v. Te Mawhai. Mr R. H. Annibal; Te Mawhai thirds v. Te Awamutu, Mr G. Jeffs; Ohaupo thirds v. High School, Mr R. L. Adams.

An extraordnary example of malformation of the teeth in a rabbit is supplied by a specimen caught at Hillersden within the past few days (says the Marlborough Express). The four front teeth of the rabbit, which is a fully-developed adult in fat condition, are greatly elongated, and must have been quite useless in feeding. The two teeth in the lower jaw'have grown in a curve, probably an inch and ahalf long, up over the nose of the rabbit, wnile the two upper teeth have crossed at a point near the gum, and slant toward the corners of the mouth, They are over half an inch in length. How the animal managed to feed itself is rather a mystery. The specimen is now in the possession of the Live Stock Division of the Department of Agriculture at Blenheim.

A strange indirect effect of the recent earthquake on a pen of poultry is vouched for by a New Plymouth resident (states the Taranaki News). The shake smashed in his house a bottle each of wine, Worchester sauce, ammoniated quinine, ale and varnish polish, a packet of .curry, a packet of cornflour, and four jars of jams and jellies, which all mixed. They were collected, and the man of the house, thinking the mixture would, with addition of pollard, make a good mash, fed the hens next morning. Inside half an hour the fowls were all a cackle, and during the day several laid double-yolked egg - s, while others each laid two eggs before nightfall. The poultry-owner should have tried some of the mixture himself!"

A proposal for laying a bitumen surface on nine and a half mi'.es of the Hamilton-Morrinsville Road at an estimated cost of £19,000, to be spread over five years, was introduced by Mr E. M. Masters at the Hamilton meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association on Monday evening. He said the cost of maintenance of the section was £2400 annually, and an immense saving would be effected if the work were carried out. Specifications had been submitted by a Christchurch contracting firm, and had been approved by Mr A. A. Woodward, the Waikato county engineer. TThe matter was recommended to'the Auckland Council for consideration. While the Unemployment Board's building scheme, like the farm labour scheme, is open to abuses, the general result bids fair to show an overwhelming rate of profit to the community, comments the Dominion. Working on applications for subsidies to date, Mr Walter Bromley reckons that for an expenditure by the board of £9978, a sum of about £65,000 would be paid in wages. The total expenditure released by the scheme would be £10*3,000. Herein is represented a loosening of purse-strings whose beneficial influence will be widely felt. From the workers' viewpoint it U a good thing that hundreds of unemployed will be engaged on useful work, on jobs they are trained to do, and at regular wages. Some private individuals may profit by the schnmo but who can clearly draw the line betAveen private profit' and public good? Flagrant abuses should be kept in check by the local committees in the rare cases where conscience and public spirit are deficient. Altogether the scheme can be summed up as a handy sprat to catch a big mackerel.

Mr Justice Ostler's remarks on the financial position of the Thames Borough Council once again direct attention to the urgent need for reform in local body government., The Minister of Internal Affairs is studying .the problem but the importance and of the case appear to call for more than administrative action. Eighteen months ago the Prime Minister spoke of rates as one of the most onerous items in the overhead costs of farming. ■ Mr Forbes undertook' then to institute an inquiry because " economy in all directions is now a matter of paramount importance to the welfare of the country." He stated, however, that the whole matter bristled, with difficulties, although that is no excuse for hot attempting to overcome them. Parochialism and the inertia of local bodies should not be permitted to obstruct the solution of a problem whose dimensions make it of national concern. In. the last 18 months the has rid itself of many preoccupations! It should now be able to' turn more attention to the local sphere where action could exercise a considerable and favourable influence on the process,of recovery. Vv>

The usual monthly sitting of the S.M. Court at T» Awamutu is to be held on Monday next. To-day is the eighteenth anniversary of Britain's entry into the Great War.

Vital statistics as registered at Te Awamutu during July were: Births 10, marriages 6, deaths 12.

, Messrs R. Callis and T. Martin, of the Waipa Referees' Association, are to represent that body at a conference of Rugby referees at Morrinsville tomorrow evening.

Owing to local storekeepers pushing the sale of the outside butter, a meeting of the Tauranga Farmers' Union decided to ask the directors of the Tauranga Dairy Association to enter the general storekeeping business.

" What does this ' flat and watery ' report mean that the manager sometimes gives on my cream ? " asked a supplier amid laughter at the annual meeting of the Omata Dairy Company. " Some of us have been getting it for three years and we haven't found out yet what it means." The chairman replied that the manager was away on holiday and he himself hardly felt competent to explain. At length a supplier who keeps two cows at Spotswood solemnly rose and said that though he had had many kind reorts en his cream he had never yet had " flat and watery-" The reason must be that he grazed his cows on the hills.

"For landlords these are days of shock and sorrow," said a well-known Christchurch man, commenting on the ways of tenants and on the tricks of some artful tenants in particular. " This week," he said. " I went to one of my houses in a certain suburb hoping to pick up a bit of overdue rent. There was not a penny on the premises; nor a tenant either. He had flown, and taken with him electric light bulbs and fittings, some curtain rods, and two door knobs. I heard of another house that is now empty, and likely to remain so because the tenant carried off with him the washhouse copper and the lead pipes that he had not too carefully sawn off."

" Some people are under the impression that for future aircraft less landing space will be required than for the aeroplanes in use at present," remarked Squadron Leader J. L. Findlay, in an address to the Christchurch branch of the Town Planning Institute. The autogiro, he thought, had been responsible for this impression, which, in his opinion, was quite unjustified. He described the autogiro as an "interesting but impracticable toy," and expressed the opinion (says the Press) that larger landing grounds would be needed in the future to cater for the larger and faster aircraft.

A rather good story was told by Mr C. M. Hume, Dominion Herd Testing Federation supervisor, at a gathering of farmers in Eketahuna. In

company with a dairy breeder he attended a sale of marked calves. The breeder, who had an entry, expressed nervousness and stated he could not sell a penny below £3 5s for marked heifers, as it had cost that to rear them. Mr Hume predicted that the sale would justify itself. When the breeder's stock was offered the bidding went up to £7 ss, and the auctioneer asked, " What about it ? " The breeder considered and then replied with apparent reluctance: " Oh, well, I suppose I will have to meet "the market."

The correct procedure in planting roses was explained by Mr W. Elliott during a recent Wanganui lecture on the rose. " Care should always be exercised in the planting," he said. " If the ground was not prepared the plant should be heeled until the ground was ready. A hole three feet deep should be dug, and all the rubbish deposited in it that was possible. Cow manure in particular was especially good. The point at which the branches of the plant spread out should be placed level with the ground, and exceptional care should be taken that the roots were not interlaced. There was a possibility that if the roots were not planted correctly they would be scorched by the sun. No manure should be given a new rose, but a little bone dust was sometimes beneficial."

Some notoriety has been gained by Fraser Street because of the troubles besetting the regrading works in progress, but an incident on a recent Saturday afternoon is deserving of mention. A lorry, which had been travelling all day and which, at that hour was journeying homeward, became securely bogged in the filling. When the driver, aided by willing helpers, was attempting to raise the vehicle, there, comfortably perched on the back axle, was a barnyard fowl, ilt was not the least perturbed when the workers manipulated a jack only a few inches away, nor was it to be disturbed by a shower of mud when the wheels were finally sent skidding along the uncertain road. It remained safely perched in its unusual resting place when the journey ended, having completed very many miles of road-seeing from beneath the vehicle. The driver considered himself proof against traffic inspectors that day as, if he did not have a light, he certainly could point to a tail.