MASTERTON NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 8

MASTERTON NOTES.

,'By Tclegraph.-Spccial Correspondent.) m, „ . -Mastcrton, February 20. The Maiinceville RiUo Club iired tho fourth competition for tho club's championship and the handicap aggregate on Saturday last, tho conditions bein" seven shots at 500, GOO.nnd .700 yards. Pimo very ercditable scorc-ij were compiled, Captain R. 1. Wilton heading the list with 1)6 from fcratch. The Wningawa freezing works are still very busy. About 1600 sheep and lambs are being put through daily. The outSinnn r»' ciw >t montli will bo about : Mr. Peter Shinnick, of the local staff of the railway station, who is being transferred to Wanganui, was presented, on tho eve of his departure, with a case of pipes and inscribed tobacco pouch by his fellow-workers on tho local staff. After a prolonged spell of hot, humid weather, a. downpour of rain occurred this afternoon. Tho hope is generally entertained among farmers that it will continue, for its is badly wanted. The Lansdowno School .Committee is approaching tho School Commissioners, with a view, to securing a further extension of its,school grounds. About twenty members of. tho Opaki Rifle Club will compete in the - matches at Greytown next week, and at Trenthnm on 3 and succeeding days. Tho "A" team of tho club has already won the champion shield on two occasions. at Trcntham, and it is not improbable that it may win again this year. The team has never yet been lower than third in tho competition. Mr. W. T. Mansfield is to bo presented with a testimonial by tradespeople of Masterton prior to his departure for Wanganui,' where he will tako up duty at the begin-i ning of next_ month; " Mr. Sedgwick, who, has been visiting tho English boys who were recently placed on farms in this district, expresses himself as being very pleased with the conditions under which they aro working. Harvest thanksgiving services were held yesterday in tho Ideal Anglican and Wcsloyan Churches.. Appropriate addresses were given, and 'special '• musio was rendered. . ■ ■ ';,._ . Building operatioh's'in,and around Masterton are fairly animated just now. There is said to.be plenty, of work for carpenters and general labourers. Rabbi trapping is being profitably undertaken by sevornl men in this district at present. .It is, from one point of view, a matter for very general regret that this should be so, for tho. rabbit is no friend of the farmer. . There lias, unhappily, been a recrudescence of the rabbjt pest during tho last few. years in various parts of the district, this being due, in a measure, to tho exceptionally favourable seasons... ~' • The' judging competitions at the, recent Mastcrton Show were .highly successful. In one class there were forty-fivo competitors, and. in another, thirty-six. Strangely enough,.not one of the latter placed the winning; peas of sheep as they were placed by tho judge at tho 6liow. 'Dr. Bradshaw.ofChi'isfehurch, was tonight appointed judge of music, and Mr. B. J. Dolan,' of .'Napier, judge of elocution at tho July competitions in connection with., tho Mastcrton Musical Elocutionary Competitions Society.