LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18443, 29 March 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Egmont A. and P. Association has decided to revert to a spring show. Direct wireless communication has been established between Berlin and New York.

Included in accounts passed by the Borough Council last evening was an item lor £BOO legal expenses for services over a period of several years. On Monday night burglars raided the sample room of Schofield, indent merchant of Gisborn , and took elec-tro-plate and cutlery valued at £2OO. Several minor burglaries are also reported. According to a decision arrived at by the Palmerston North Borough Council, the Housing Committee will inspect all houses undsr its charge every six months. The first inspection is to be undertaken early in May next. The Appeal Court refused an application for a new trial in the case of Thomas Fearon, who was convicted at Auckland in February last of stealing £35 from A. McGuire. The application was made on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence. The New Zealand C operative Dairy Company has decided to close its dried milk factories at Waitoa, Waharoa, and Te Awamutu for six months from April 7th, owing to the fact that sufficient powder has been manufactured to meet the trade requirements until the new season's make is available.

In a recent case taken by a Te Kuiti farmer against the Valuation Department on the assessment of the unimproved value of his farm, the Court of Appeal gave judgment against the department on the ground that the law governing unimproved values as laid down in the Valuation of Land Act was not sound.

Palmerston North retailers, at a meeting on Monday evening, decided to keep their shops open on Easter Saturday.

Altogether there were twenty-one applications for the position of matron of the Palmerston North Hospital. The applicants were scattered over all parts of the Dominion. At the Court yesterday morning, W. H. Churton proceeded against F. Young for trespassing on his Property at Putikj and for alleged damages tn fences, etc. The Court awarded plaintiff £2, with costs. At a meeting of the ManawatuOroua Electric Power Board in Palmerston North on Tuesday, Mr W. A. W aters. of Auckland, was appointed to the position of resident engineer at a salary of £750 per annum.

The Borough Council have decided to bring under the notice of the Railway Department that some of the bells at the railway crossings fail to ring on the approach of trains, and are consequently a danger and not a safeguard. A remarkable spectacle was witnessed at Deal, says a London cable. A huge black cloud a mile long was seen ■coming across the Channel. The noise was like an approaching aircraft. As it came closer it proved to be an enormous Hock :.f migratory starlings from Franco or North Africa.

In committee on Monday night the Palmerston North Borough Council decided that the tender of the New Zealand Express Company for the supply of two ’buses ot 2) ton passenger type chassis, fitted with Michelin disc wheels and body built by Collingwood and Ellitt, Palmerston North, be accepted at a price of £1535 each. On Monday evening a burglar forced open the back door of Messrs. Maison, Struthers’ shop, but apparently did not make a big haul. He directed his attention to the till, and atlthough it was open and empty, managed to break a handle of the machine. A sporting rifle, together with some ammunition, is missing.

The local wholesale market is well supplied with fruit at present, consignments having arrived - from Nelson and Hawke’s Bay. At auction yesterday morning there was little demand. Some idea of the fruit consumed in Wanganui can be gathered from the fact that in the season the takings of one local ship on Friday exceeds £lOO.

A fire occurred in Arawa Street, Rotorua, on Monday night by which Wallen’s tobacconist and billiard saloon,, and McNeil's fancy goods shop were bodly damaged. Mrs Dannetaerd’s Maori curios were damaged and soaked by water. The premises were owned by W. J. Robinson. Insurance: McNeil, £450; Walden, £4OO. The amount on the stock is not available.

A meeting of the Auckland police members of the Public Service Association, passed a resolution “That the police members of the Auckland branch suggest to the executive of the Association that in view ol the overwhelming voting in favour of the police force remaining members when the subject of forming a separate Police Association was submitted to a ballot, and in view ol the fact that there is no evidence that the police force generally support the action of fifty police members in Wellington in withdrawing from the Association, ,the executive should proceed with questions affecting police officers.” The “Wairarapa Age” says:—lnquiries made i.’- Masterton during the last few days reveal unexpected signs of buoyancy in business circles, auguring well for the return of normal business conditions. Business houses of various kinds report a decided revival in trade and increased turnover. The renewed activity of the motor garage is in itself a sign of recovering vitality, for there is no surer indication of the prosperity of a place than the number of motors in use and the quantity of petrol that is burned. A young lady bathi -g near Karaka Bay wharf, Wellington, in kneedeep water found an octopus coiling its tentacles round her leg. She tried to shake it off, and then fell forward on her knees, clawing the sand with energy born of terror. She managed at last to -ay the evil fish ashore, when - youth just arrived in response to the girl’s cries, and killed it with a knife. The octopus measured six feet from tip to tip of the te. 'acles. The young woman is suffering considerably from shock.

The Prime Minister is considering names submitted to him by the Associated Chambers of Commerce in connection with the proposed conference between representative business men and the Commissioner of Taxes. Mr Massey stated during the last session of Parliament that the revision of the system of taxation was necessary in order that anomalies might be removed and injustices remedied. He was asked if he would let some business men confer with the Commissioner on the point and he gave his consent. The proposed informal conference is the outcome.

Last evening the Wanganui Borough Council approved of the purchase of a Merewether chassis for the tramway department at a cost of £625. In connection with the matter a letter of protest was received from the Wanganui Motor Garage Proprietors’ Association, who claimed, that all things being equal, orders should be placed with local firms, and that the Council should not go outside of Wanganui to make purchases. The letter was received only, but Cr. Halligan took the opportunity to express the opinion that tenders should always be advertised and that everyone should be given an opportunity to tender. As lor payment of the chassis, the Mayor said, in answer to a question by Cr. Oakley Browne, that he had been informed by the engineer that the cost was provided for in the loan. In consequence of a letter to the Borough Council last evening from the Wanganui Competitions Society, who desire au eight nights’ continuous season, it was ascertained that if tne present agreement in connection with the Opera House was not dealt with by April Ist it would continue in force for another two years. Cr. Oakley Browne condemned the present agreement and said that it had the effect of keeping good shows away from Wanganui. Several other councillors urged that the matter should receive very careful consideration, and it was decided to hold a special meeting-of the Council on Thursday evening, when the question of altering the present agreement will be discussed. At present Saturday and Monday evenings are exclusively reserved for pictures.

Several war memorials in different parts of New Zealand are to be unveiled on Anzac Day. The Waikato Times has been informed that a farm in that district which last year was sold at £lOO per acre has recently changed hands at £6O per acre. Good progress is still being made on the To Roti-Kapuni section of the Manaia railway. Rails have been laid on tire Waingongoro bridge, and residents of Kapuni will very soon hear the long, expected scream of the ballast engine.

Heavy thunderstorms have been experienced in the Waikato. Five cows owned by Mr E. J. Anderson, and a bull, owned by Mr D. B. Bryant, at Te Rapa, were struck by lightning and killed. Mr. Wm. Godfellow, states that when at Home recently he found large quantities of powder were used, and he considered it had a great future. He also saw Tndications in the butter market of firm prices, which were more likely to advance than recede. A motorcar was completely destroyed by fire on the Opuuake-El-tham road one afternoon last week, and so quickly did the flames spread that the occupants had barely time to escape, one passenger not even having time to take his overcoat. The owner’s insurance lapsed a few days previously. Quite a number of farms in the Wairarapa have recently been taken over by the mortgagees, who were the original owners (says an exchange). In some cases the properties have gone back so much during the last year or two that it will take more than the amount received on account of the purchase to restore them to order.

A number of newspapers have recently been removed from the register in the Dominion. They include the Buller Miner (Westport), the Wairoa Guardian (Hawko’s Bay), Wheeling, New Zealand Shipping and Commerce, the New Zealand Nautical Review (Wellington), the New Zealand Picture News and Theatre Journal (Auckland), the Democrat (Dunedin), etc. Bill Sikes is threatened from a new direction. A lady in Melbourne has been charged with burglary in quite a number of suburbs, and in several cases she has been committed for trial. The work attributed to her is the usual burglar trick of boring a hole in a door in order to turn the key. A deposit slip for £lOOO is one of the things said to have been stolen from a house.

An employee of a local body giving evi. dence :n a case before the Magistrate’s Court. New Plymouth, recently, proceeded to explain his presence in a certain coastal hotel. “That is where all the council’s business is fixed up and the resolutions agreed upon,” he said, amidst laughter. “Take it from me it is true,” he added, as though he thought some of those present in Court might be incredulous. Talking with a Standard reporter on Saturday, the Prime Minister foreshadowed a decrease in railway frieights, involving a general adjustment of the railway tariff. Questioned with regard to the outcry in some parts of the country relative to the motor lorry competition with the railways, and the undercutting of the latter, Mr Massey said that, \n order io raise revenue at a time Alien it was most required. the freights had been necessarily high, but a reduction was pending.

In yesterday’s issue a correspondent “C.T.,” complained that on Wednesday Ir.nt he missed connection with the morning train at Wanganui East owing to the want of punctuality on the part of the tramways. We interviewed the tramway officials yesterday, and were informed that the tram in question, according to the time-table, leaves Taupo Quay at 7 a.m., arriving at Eastown at 7.17 |a.m., whereas the train leaves Eastown at 7.15 a.m. We further learned that the car was not late on Wednesday or any other day last week, that the conductor did not inform anyone that the car was late in leaving the barn ; that no delay was caused at Dub. lin Street Bridge through replenishing sand box, or any other reason; and that sand boxes are never replenished at the bridge or at any other point on the road.