TIMARU ITEMS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17418, 31 March 1922, Page 12

TIMARU ITEMS.

| New Post Office. I The additions to the Post Office, which have been in hand for more than two years, and which have cost £26,000, are now almost complete, and are' in'use. T!io new offices are very commodious', and will meet the requirements of the district for many years. The automatic telephone is to be installed at Tima.ru at an early date. There is big business done at the Timaru P os t Office now. Taking the past four weeks as an average specimon period, the total receipts handled amounted to -£iys 477 and the payments to £14,924 this reprcscntingthe financial side of'the business for Timaru and its branch o.ticca in tho district. As a matter of far*, tho Post Oifico is now the financial bureau for all branches of the iiener'il Government, and apart from Uhe Railway and Customs Departments almost all official receipts and payments are handled by it. Lucerne Growing. Lucerne is now being extensively grown in South Canterbury, and on Saturday last the South Canterbury Lucerne Committee made their first visit of inspection to growing plots, when they were delighted with what they saw. One of the farms visited belonged to IVIr J. C. King, four miles from Timaru. Mr King is an enthusiastic hicernc grower, and has achieved a very full measure of success with his ■lucerne. Nearly seven years ago il.e made two sowings—one in drills lind.the other broadcast. In both cases there was a good strike, but Mr King found that the plants required inter-cultiva-tion, and while the five acres which lie planted in rows is still "going strong,'' he lias ploughed in the plot which was broadcasted. The five-acre plot has just been fed off, and bo it was seen *t its worst on Saturday. Nevertheless,

we r e to be verv and U> be again throwing ud <?, growth. After each leed?,* King cultivates betwonTi S that r d sd „^ra e ohi! and the soil u, kept open, tlu« t? t0 freely ti Which it draws f rom the } stiff clay subsoil on Mr Ki n J and the lucerne has such a st™ that it is impossible to pull u hand, or even with a cultivate curiosity one day Mr Kin" tf n 1)0lv f h »«nfe down, but after tracinrr tL Un tlu a five-acre plot Mr Kin, aittb, sheep, and horses ami 1 cent.y he had SOO lambs on it 2 st November Mr Kino additional 18 acres of his I luucerno, all 0 f tho Marlb orou , cty, so satisfied was ho with plot! 1 h 0 had obtained f rom the Money at Call. The Tiinaru Borough Cotim • v oHmncd £55,000 on loan yean; at 6 per cent., and witß vo been enabled to pay money which they hacf at cill Hospital Levy. Local bodies in South Cat, are strongly protesting ? action of the South Canfcß tal Board m levying on tl g [or capita expenditure. TV buting bodies do not object to i for maintenance of the Hosr,ii they contend that the Hc«p7b should raise what monev thev « the.erection of buildings bv bor as it is and they can do, from tin Trust, at >6 per cent. When tl ter was under aiscussion bv the Borough Council, tho Mayor (N Holleston) said it was rather a on the Local BodiesAct (which 'had been avowedly to prevent local bodies from si revenue on capital undertaking Hospital Boards had authority nnv capital work they j|M the local bodies pay for ; t . 1