Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 169, 17 October 1941, Page 4

Local and General

Offensive Guilly Trap

A gully trap in the Strand near the N.Z. Road Services Office is to be water sealed, complaints having been received by the Borough Council regarding the offensive smell aris« ing from this.

Buttercups in the Paddocks

Golden buttercups are now showing up in paddocks in the Whakatane district, making pleasing patterns in the green grass. No doubt farmers would prefer to see no buttercups, which are a weed, for all their beauty.

No Loaning of Plant

In reply to a question by the fore-man-engineer the Borough Council has decided that the majo<r plant of the Council", except that listed in the approved scale of plant charges, be not lent or hired without the C&un-

cil's consent

Signposting of Crete Street,

The confusion* arising from inadequate signposting in Crete Street does not, as stated, concern Salonika Street, sot much as Goulstone' Road. Motorists proceeding from Vallev Rioad along Goulstone Road are apt, instead of turning to the right bordering the Domain, to continue to the left and find themselves in Salonika Street, heading through RamSoai Road to King Street, at a point a considerable distance from Goulstone Road. Better signposting would assist people, particularly visitors, by saving them from making this simple error.

Hay Feeding in October. Farmers on the Rangitailu Plains who have been feeding cut hay during the first half of October comment 011 the fact that seldom if evenhave they found it necessary to give their cows hay so late in the year, [n other seasons the grass has grown so well during September that cattle have preferred grass to hay by the end of September. This year cattle have been eating all the hay put before them. This is apparently the result of dry weatlier in September retarding the growth of pasture on low-lying country. On the other hand it may be due to the hay being so palatable—another case of "the proof of the pudding (or hay) being in the eating."

Hawthorn Buds Opening.

Hawthorn trees that are remnants of hedges planted by pioneer settlers of Whakatane district are now bursting into white blossom. " Formerly hawthorn was a popular hedge plant, but it is not now planted because it gets fire blight, a dread disease which attacks fruit trees also. This is a pity, for hawthorn hedges covered with white blossom are a pretty sight in other districts of New Zealand, and in other lands. "White as the hawthorn buds that open in the month of May," is a quotation from one of Longfellow's poems, which shows that October in New Zealand corresponds to May in the Northern Hemisphere.