Local &. General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 37, 12 September 1949, Page 4

Local &. General

McConachy Beaten In his final snooker game when he played A. Lindwood, during his visit to Whakatane last week Clark McConachy, the New Zealand champion, was defeated by Lind. 4 wood- 84 to 79. This was the only--* game lost by McConachy at Whakatane. f ■' No Tenders No replies were received- when tenders were called by the W-haka-tsne School Committee recently for the construction of the new home life block at the school. However, negotiations are still going on for the job. The Cabinet and the Building Controller have both approved the construction of the building. Crash in Race Riding in the ladies’ face at the Point to Point meeting at Te Teko on Saturday, Miss M. Gillanders, Oh ope, had a nasty crash when her horse struck a guide post on the edge of the course with its shoulder. Though knocked out and ■ badly shaken, Miss Gillanders was fortunately not seriously hurt. New Piano For High School A new piano for the secondary department of the Whakatane Dis- . trict High School is expected to be 4 delivered before the end or this month. The piano has been on order from England for some time and will replace one of the present instruments. When the new piano ar- ■ rives there will be three at the school. Poliutukawa at Sydney Skirting the waterfront at Rose Bay, Sydney, are a number .of polrutukawa trees from New Zealand, according to one Whakatane resident who returned from a trip to Australia. They were taken over some years ago by a member of the Sydney Harbour Board, who was rather keen on the tree, and now they have- reached a fair’size and are a fine signt when flowering in the warmer weather.

742 New Immigrants The immigrant ship Atlantis on her present voyage to New Zealand is carrying 742 Government assisted settlers, 458 men and 284 -women. In addition, there are 150 armed forces personnel.' The proportion of nominated settlers in drafts arriving continues to increase, there be>ihg 116 on this occasion, as against 98 for the previous voyage. The Atlantis was due at Wellington last night.

Fohutukawa Blooming A sure sign, acoraing to the Maoris, of a fine early summer a pohutukawa tree at Ohope Beach has now broken into bloom with its bright scarlet .flowers. Situated on a camp.ng ground the tree has attracted some attention and if the Maori prophecy proves correct this area of the Bay of Plenty at any rate should have a pleasant summer. The recent mild weather has probably caused the tree to flower earlier than usual.

Orange Tree Raiders According to the Gisborne Herald orange tree raiding has become rife in Gisbone. Growers who have kept oranges on the trees for final ripening have found that the fruit has suddenly disappeared off the trees. Raiders have been more, active this year than in the past. From all accounts Gisborne is not th only place where fruit thieves have been active. Water Heater Wastage A wastage equal to almost the whole output of one Karapiro generator, which produces 20(K000,000 units a year, is caused by faulty electric water heaters. This is ' approximately 8.9 per cent of the total power generated in the country, says the Standards Institute, when setting out specifications for a standard electric water heater. Of the total power cansumption in New Zealand, 32 per cent is used by thermal storage water heaters. Bee Swarm Ousted After 14 years of occupancy, the swarm of bees which lived in the wall of Patterson’s Bargain • Store next door to the Beacon building have been removed. The bees had resisted a number of previous attempts to get them out, but this time Mr N. Dawson, with a spray gun full of cyanogas powder, massacred the lot in about 10 minutes. Having stopped up all obvious avenues of escape, he sprayed in the powder at two places. Then, after a few minutes’ wait, a sheet of iron was removed and the corpses swept out.