Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 91, 22 November 1939, Page 4

Local and General

Avenue of Red-Gums

Supply of Ranges. The unfairness of the total prohibition of the import of electric ranges, while gas ranges had been only restricted to 50 per cent, was stressed by Mr J. Mitchell at the monthly meeting of the Bay of Plenty Power Board. Mr Dicker informed the board that the total ranges that could be manufactured in New Zealand —provided supplies of raw material were available —was only sufficient for the Dominion's replacement purposes. Butterfat Production. In commenting on the effects of the severe winter on dairy stock in the Bay of Plenty Power Board's area, the engineer-manager, Mr J. D. Dicker, informed the board at t?he monthly meeting that up to the end of September, revenue from dairy sheds was below that of the same period of the previous year. Mr Dicker stated that the board's revenue figures were close to the estimates and they still had the two best periods of the year to come. "401bs of fat lost in 7 weeks. Tiy Bonkora! Obtainable F. G. Marklov/, Chemist, Whakatane. Call to-day.

A Bit of Everything,

A witness in a case heard in the Auckland Police Court was a young Maori, who began by agreeing with Detective-Sergeant McHugh that he (witness) was a full-blood Maori. "What tribe?" asked the prosecuting officer. "Oh, I dunno," replied the Xalive, "a bit of everything, I think" "Well, are voli of the Ngapuhi tribe or—" continued Mr McHugh. "Pm a bit of Ngapuhi, a bit of Waikato, a bit of Arawa—and a bit of pakeha too, perhaps," he added.

Ambulances' Day,

Some idea of the amount of work the St. John Ambulance Brigade does is given by a glance at the mileage figures of the ambulances. One day recently Auckland ambulances covered nearly 800 miles, and this included no long-distance trips About 200 miles were traversed transferring sick troops from Papakura to hospital, and all trips, including two or three accident cases, were within a radius of 20 miles.

A Centennial avenue of scarletgum trees, half a mile long, on the Wanganui side of Fordell will ibe planted by the Fordell-Mangamahu Branch of the Women's Division of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. Other branches are also busy with Centennial tree-planting projects. In addition to their beauty, the redgums will offer feasts of nectar for this and bell birds. The number of these delightful singers has been much increased in the Wanganui district during recent times by the acclimatisation society's well-sustain ed planting of red and pink gums.

Another Whale.

Two residents of Rotorua who have been spending their annual holidays at a famous pig-game fishing ground, returned this week with a tale of what was perhaps one of the biggest of those that have ever "got away" in the history of fishing. The story was told that they were out in. a launch together and were peacefully trolling a couple of lines when they were surprised to see a large whale rise to the surface a short distance from the launch. "Quick, pull that line in," cried one of them, "we don't want to get hooked up with a whale" The lines were hastily reeled in, and an anxious watch was kept on the whale, which after some minutes, submerged again. It was noticeable that this whale was not equipped witli a conning-tower and periscope.