LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr A. J. Graham, Mayor of Pal merston North, had been visiting Wa nganui.

A first offender for drunkenness was yesterday fined 32s 6d at the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court.

On and after to-morrow the Sunday tram service will be half-hourly on all routes during the winter months.

Primary students in the Wanganui Education Board’s district resume school duties on Monday. Secondary schools re-open the following day.

“They say that times are hard, yet the country spent £7,000,000 on motor cars and petrol last year, and hundreds of pounds are at present being invested in Wanganui on the totalisator,” said a visitor to the city yesterday.

Discharge in bankruptcy was granted the following at the Wanganui Supreme Court yesterday: Henry James Angus, Albert Switzer Ashmore and Kenneth Cyril Webster, all farmers of Raetihi. Mr W. J. Treadwell appeared iu support of the motions.

Two loud explosive reports were heard at Gisborne at about 3 o’clock yesterday morning, says a Press Association telegram. Similar sounds were also heard at Tangihau, 20 miles inland. The origin of the mysterious noises cannot be traced.

“I have noticed that most of these bankrupts come from the Raetihi district,” said his Honour Mr Justice Ostler at the Wanganui Supreme Court yesterday. Mr AV. J. Treadwell pointed out that it was due to fanners buying land at too high a price. “Deteriorated lands,” added his Honour.

“America cannot supply the work} with timber indefinitely, and my strong advice to New Zealand is to grow every tree is can,” said a Californian timber merchant who visited Wanganui yesterday. He thought that the Japanese were adopting the most sensible policy by conserving their forests and in the meantime obtaining supplies from other countries.

The case of Draffins Ltd. v. A. E. Flygcr was called at the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday, Mr W. J. Treadwell for the plaintiff company announcing that an arrangement satisfactory to both parties had been come to. On Mr Treadwell’s application the judge adjourned the hearing of the case sine die to allow the settlement to be given effect to.

In the statement of Power Board finances published yesterday the estimates for next year were inadvertently made to appear as this year’s revenue.

The never-ending struggle of the farmer to eradicate the blackberry has prompted throe progressive Morcrc residents to experiment with Angora goats, and about 112 have been brought into the district. So far each of the settlers gives a good account of the way the goats are tackling the blackberry (says the Poverty Bay Herald), and the experiment is being watched with keen interest.

New Zealand has never been so much in the limelight as during this Royal tour (writes a London correspondent). The reporting has been done very well, and we have had some very interesting little stories, such as that curious one about the woman who removed from the Hamilton war memorial the bouquet of flowers placed there by the Duchess. That read very strangely here, where the loveliest flowers are heaped around the Cenotaph.

There is quite a good demand for dairy farms in Taranaki this year, but prospective purchasers will not enterlain anything that will not show a good margin with butter-fat at Is 3 I a pound. Owners of land seem to think the boom .is still in existence

judging by the prices asked for farm properties, says the Taranaki News. It is difficult, said an agent, to -ell dairy farms now unless at or below prices ruling before the war. This is a fact that was being proved every

in olden times the Wanganui Maoris drew large food supplies from the Wanganui River, and a favourite article ot diet was the tuna. Ail through the year they were caught, but the great harvest came annually in the first week of April, when the tuna were making en masse for the open sea. The hinaki, a basket of conical shape, was placed in the water to trap the migrating tuna, the riri (angry eel), has both about three feet high and two feet wide was used for placing the fish in after capture. This was a necessary precaution, as one variety of the migrating tunt, the rir (angry’ eel), lias both a reputation for ferocity and agility. One of the holding baskets has been presenter} to the Auckland Museum by Mr T. W. Downes, of Wanganui, who, incidentally is recognised as one of the world’s authorities on the subject of eel migration.

In a certain small Southland town recently a. commercial traveller was patiently waiting for the local train to leave for Invercargill, states the Otago Daily Times. His business had been completed, and the surroundings were dull, hut much to his disgust the train r- inained stubbornly at the platform. He strobed to a nearby store for cigarettes, and was about to state his requirements when the station oell clanged, and a loud voice cried “AH seats please!” Back to the train he rushed, and arrived breathless in his carriage. Yet the train did not move. Again ho tried for cigarettes, but only half the distance to the store had been covered when again the bell clanged and the warning voice was heard. Another rush to the carriage proved needless, and the angry traveller noted the fact that the train was 15 minutes late. When the bell clanged for the third time he leaped from the carriage and beheld a brother of the road walking away from the bell. “What’s the ideal” said traveller N. 1. “Well, for the last quarter of an hour I have been doing my best to get out of this hole,” said the second traveller; “but the engine-driver won’t take any notice!’’ And the amateur stationmaster angrily kicked his suitcase with impatience.