LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 162, 5 April 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Operations at the Taupiri Company's Extended, mine were suspended last Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. The reason is stated if. have been a shortage of coal trucks. Officials of the company report that no trucks were available on Wednesday afternoon, and therefore no work was dhnn in t,hc mine after about 1 p.m. On Thursday, because there was a great shortage of trucks, Hie miners took a vote as to whether any work should be done in the mine, and it was decided by 5G votes to 54 not to start work. It is stated that the reduction of output on account of no trucks being forthcoming was 900 tons.

One of Hip British manufacturing developments delayed by the war .was the production of a new lyw of sowing machine. Already, however, large numbers of- these British-designed nrd Bri-tish-built machines are on the nmiiet. A still more notable development is,the. mass production of typewriting machines by more than one British firm. It is expected that the appearance of this supply will hiivo a very marked effect on markets for these machines in nil pufta of the world.

Ronald Holmes, a married man residing at 21 Waripori Street, was admitted to tho Hospital yesterday afternoon, suffering from a fracture, of his right arm sustained through frilling off a fence in liintoul Street.' i

It is Hie intentinn of the New Plymouth Harbour Board engineers to lire another shot on the Island of Moturoa. this afternoon. This explosion will be tho, biggest yet made in connection with the' bonrd's works, and it is estimated will bring down about -1000 tons of rock from tho summit of tho island on to tho lino of the wall which i.° to connect tho island with the seaivard end of the present breakwater. The charge, which had been sealed in a tunnel on the eastern face of tho island, noar. the top, contains about twico the quantity of explosives used in any previous dislodgement.

It was stated by Mr. L. M'llvrid'e at a, Wanganui gathering, that a girl at one of the woollen mills in New Zealand bought some material she had helped to make at Bs. Gd. a yard. Later she went to a. shop to buy a couple more yards of tho material, and found the price was „£2 ss. a yard.

At the annual meeting of the Wellington Rowing Association, officers for the ensuing year were elected as follow:—President, Sir Francis Bell; vice-presidents, Col. G. F. C. Campbell. Messrs. N. Oalbraith, C. Peavce, J. Hutcheson, R. W. M'Villy'; committee, Messrs. D, Godfrey, A. W. Jacks-in, F. Lacey, F. H. G. Galvin, C. H. Lawrence, D. E. Mcnzies. W. R, Hume, 0. 11. Haddock, M. Ford, J. E. Widdopj ; hon. secretary and treasurer, Mr. M. A. Turner.

There has been a marked revival in locomotive building in G"cnt Britain since the conclusion of the -war. One large engineering firm which recently entered this field" is engaged on an order for many thousand, locomotives for a foreign Government. In the production of these locomotives all the highest refinements in economical mass production have been secured. The various shops are arranged so that the materials 'parts flow uninterruptedly through to the finished locomotive, and each step in tlie process of manufacture and assembly is subjected to close continuous observation in order to prevent the slackening of one nart in tlje process of evolution delaying" the subsequent steps. So well planned were the whole arrangements that this firm has the credit of turning out the first locomotivn built and completed after the armistice.

Though the cabled advices as to rabbitskins convev a suggestion that values may drop, the taking of rabbits in Otago is being pursued with' more eagerness than at any previous time. _ Men are out everywhere trapping, poisoning, ferreting, and catching bunny by oil sorts of devices. As a result, rabbit traps are not to be bought. Some second-hand traps recently auctioned fetched mors than new ones sold n year or two ago. Tlie rabbiters do not fear a fall in prices, knowing that even a big depreciation would leave them a handsome profit.

Details just to hand from America indicate the very serious character of the milk record frauds in America (says an exchange). The president of the Hol-steiii-Priesinn Association of America, Mr. D. D. Aitken, in a statement sent to members, 1 gives some details of the extraordinary fraud which the porpetrator, in the presence of members of the executive committee at a, meeting in Chicago, confessed that he had "made" 40 to 50pound butter records with HolsteinEriesinn cows; The confession, sworn to and signed, is in the custody of the committee. He "made" cows "make" phenomenal records .by introducing several pounds of cream into tile pail at each milking.' It is stated that he' carried the required quantity of cream, diluted with water, in a rubber hot-water bottle, which was fastened to and suspended from a band round his neck, and concealed bv a loose jumper. A rubber tube extended from the water bottle down inside the wearer's overalls,_ and, through a slit in the crotch, was introduced into the pail. ' A stopper in or dump near the end of the. tube was removed at the right time ami place, and the requisite quantity of cream ran into the milk pan when the latter was full or "foam-fall." It was fi simplo trick. performed with considerable: skill. The conditions surrounding the performer were important. Tho stall required to be built or arranged so that while he milked n cow in it there should be no room nt her head or tail, or at the left side for a supervisor to sit or stand. The supervisor, looking on from the only j .position which it was physically possible, for him to take while the milker handled the cow. could not. see what was done. A Court case was tried in a bakehouse at Lvttelton 011 Thursday last. A man had been nriested on n 'charge of petty theft, and only one Justice of the Peace was available. Since the police duLnot desire to keep the nccused in custody over the holiday, tho whole Court proceeded to a bakehouse, where another J.P. was hard at work making l Easter buns. Here the Court was iheld 111 a corner of the bakehouse, the Court or-. dcrly first proclaiming, in front of the confectionery shop, that "the Magi*-, l.rate's Court is now open. The clerk, with his hook on a sack of (lour, read the charge,' and the Bench, one member of which was in the usual baker's dress, including apron, retired a few paces to consider the case. The decision was boot) arrived at, and the whole party filed out. into the street again, leaving the baker, who had not been taken from Jus work more than three minutes, to carry 1 on. Wear and tear on theWairarapa roads through the increase in motor traffic is such that the controlling authorities are alarjned at the prospect of continued deterioration. County councillors, at a recent meeting oi Carterton wore unanimous in their opinion, reports the "News," that the time was soo.ll coitusx 'when.the Wnirarapa South county would have to go in for a big loan proposal for the making of concrete or other substantial roads.