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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19783, 5 March 1927, Page 6

A motorist who travelled from Otorohanga to To Kuiti counted 23 burning haystacks on the route. He also saw signs of scores of others that had been burned. An increase in the number of weasels and stoa.s has been noted in Taranaki as well as in other parts. A farmer near Managatoki reports the effective work done by a cat on the farm, which has killed dozens. The cat appears to take a. delight in tracking them down and dispatching them.

An incident which occurred in Rotorua during the progress of the bowling tournament last week gave rise to much amuseemnt to those on tho inside of the joke. While driving in one of the main streets of the town, a Gisborne bowler witnessed an accident, which resulted in a traffic inspector being knocked over by a car and badly shaken. The Gisbornitc stepped over to the dazed inspector ,secured his notebook from his pocket, and demanded the necessary particulars as to “name and address,” which were meekly given by the offending driver. The book was slipped back into the inspector’s pocket, and the Gisborne visitor drove away, conscious of having performed his one good deed for the day.

Wholesale houses in Auckland are now clearing up the balance of their forward business on March account, but it has hardly been atlogether a satisfactory volume. There is considerable anxiety in most directions, and city trade is discounted by tho cutting in prices which apparently must be done in order to get the business. Traders arc reluctant to commit themselves very far forward when there is a considerable amount of unemployment, which is likely to continue through the winter. This may be relieved in good time by works of a public character, but the immediate future is not altogethr promising and this naturally restricts trade.

Tho progress of the Napier-Wairoa branch of the East Coast railway is pushing slowly but surely towards Wniroa, its goal, and it will be not very long now before the northern township is reached. The rails are laid as far as Waikoau and such of the line as has been completed has proved an inestimable boon to settiers living in the vicinity, for the transport of stock. The population in the several camps totals about 150. The camps are served with full postal and telephone services, as well as a Government Savings Bank branch. At Chimney Creek —still nearer to Wairoa—good progress continues to be made on the two tunnels now being driven, double shifts being engaged on one of them, and the other will be put on shortly.

Disorder prevailed outside the Morrinsville Courthouse on a recent afternoon, the cause of the trouble being two cartloads of pigs (states the Auckland Star). A case concerning the ownership of a porker was being heard inside, and the hearing was disturbed at times by loud squealing from the pig carts, as waiting witnesses in the case were making an inspection. At the conclusion of the evidence, the magistrate, Mr F. W. Flatts, counsel, and principals of the case went out to inspect t-he squealers. It was then that there was a riot in the pig carts. Two of the animals got loose, and beat the fastest runners in the crowd down the street. One pig was eventually captured, but the other was still at large when the court resumed. The explosion of two and a-quarter tons of gelignite at Muku Creek quarry to provide stone for the huge dam at the Arapuni hydro-electric construction works, was carried out according to schedule on Tuesday afternoon of last week at about 6 o’clock. The face of the hillside had been tunnelled for over 50 feet with crosscuts and chambers at the ends for the explosive and with a muffled roar and reverberations echoing for many seconds ,the whole face of the cliff, nearly 4000 feet high, trembled and crumpled, sending up a dense cloud of dust and smoke. It had been planned to dislodge about 18,000 tons of rock from the toe of tho face, with expectations, that, with luck, a further 18000 tons might be loosened. The result exceeded all expectations for fully 50,000 tons came down, providing plenty of work for tho quarry staff for many months to come.