LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 727, 2 May 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Fooball competitions unde the Pukekohe and Franklin Rugby sub-Un-ions commence on Saturday, Mav 6th.

The first annual meeting of the Pukekohe Beautifying Society will be held in 'the Masonic Hall on Friday next, sth May, at 8.30 p,m. A full attendance is requested.

Rev.. J. P. Cowie has received from the Papatoetoe Trust Board acknowledgment of receipt of £l4 3 6d. the proceeds of the Black and White social, given in Puni on Easter Monday eveining.

In common with other cities and towns in New Zealand, Gisborne is experiencing a wave of burglaries. The property stolen is mostly stock from business premises.

The Tuakau footballers’ ball takes place tomorrow (Wednesday) night. Roll up and make this event a monster success. An enjoyable t:me is assured patrons

A Palmerston Notffh grower says that by placing unripened tomatoes under grass in the open before the frost comes, growers may have them fresh and luscious right through the winter.

It is stated that Ratana continues to have much success in the faithhealing portion of his work, several cures by him having been reported during the last two or three weeks (says the Wanganui Chronicle).

Fodtjball clubs desiring the use of these columns for the purpose of publishing football teams should have their copy in this office by 9.30 a.m. on the day preceding publication, otherwise they will not be published in the particular issue. Names o,f players wil be published grats.

On Winter Show Day, May 20th, dhe Hamilton Rugby Union’s senior rep football team will meet' the Franklin Union’s team on the Show grounds. This is a game all should see. The Franklin team will include some noted players and an exciting game should result.

“During the past year the results of the influenza epidemic at the end of 1918 have been much in evidence. Many of the persons who have come to me during the year with signs of tuberculosis, have dated their illness from an attack of influenza in the epidemic year.” The foregoing was a paragraph on the working of the tuberculosis institutions under the North Canterbury Hospital Board read at the annual mee'ting.

“In some parts of Poverty Bay you are going down in sheep-carrying capacity, but in so doing you are losingmore from the good country than the poorer country,” said Mr Cockayne during his address to farmers at Gisborne. In explanation he added that in many cases the grassing of the better class country was not as good as it might be, but the more liberal use of cocksfoot and (reduction in the amount of Italian rye would considerably improve the position.

A singular incident, which might have ended in a serious outbreak of fire, occurred at a house in Thomdon Quay(Wellington) the other day when the tenant of the house discovered her dressing table alight. The fire was caused by the sums irays striking a water decanter anl playing on to a celluloid soap box, which, being highly inflamable, quickly became ignited when the rays were concentrated at one point,, similar to the. action of

the sun’s rays through a magnifying glass. Fortunately no material damage was done.

! A red glow at all points of the compass about Ashburton has been a common feature of the skyscape of recent evenings (says the Guardian). The cause is the burning of straw stacks after threshing. Wheat straw lias very little fodder value, and so far, it has found) no other uses in New Zealand. When burnt', however, the stacks are no longer an obstacle to agricultural operations, and 'the ash is a very valuable manure when it is poughed in. So much so, that at least one retired farmer in Ashburton makes a point of obtaining a few sacks of the ash for garden manure.

Testimony to the high reputation ! which New Zealand butter has gained in other countries, through the rapid extension of its overseas markets j is contained in a letter recently written by a lady resident of St. Johns (Newfoundland) to a iriend in Auckland. “Just imagine,” she writes, ‘we •v>'e been using TSev: Zea'and bin ter at our table all the winter. It is doI'icous, and we all enjoy it verv n>.i:h. It is sold here at 43 cents a This is the first time we have ever had it nere, and everv- i>e speaks ve'v b ilily of it. file price quoted j> equivalent to abou fis 4d per lb at the present rate of exchange.

‘'lf education can make a girl a good housekeeper, it will fufilfil its highest function as far as she is concerned,” said the Minister for Education (the Hon. C. J. Pair), at the Beckham School. ‘"I hope that in the new curriculum (the course from 12 to 16) the girls will give half their time to domestic science, as it is done in Victoria. With the other half of the curriculum devoted to English, arithmetic, book-keepmg, etc., the course will tiain a gi>'l to become a proper housewife, and an intelligent companion for her husband. The importance of domestic science cannot be stressed too much.'"

Laughable coincidences take place occasionally even during - the solemnities of a church service (says the Christchurch Press). The other Sunday evening, for instance, in a certain sacred building - that stands, let us say at least within 10 miltes of the Cathedral a lady member of the choir was constrained to leave her place owing to the persistence with which her nose bled. Just as a fellow member rose to follow, with the object of rendering first aid;, the minister from the pulpit above, who was holding forth in prayer and was sublimely unconscious of whalfc was transpiring, with fine effect brought out the scriptural injunction “to bind up the bruised and bleeding”

This is surely the winter of the farmer’s discontent, especially those with beef cattle on their hands. The depressing spectacle was seen at the last Levin sale (says the Chronicle) of big prime bullocks being passed in a long way beneath a modest reserve, and it moved one of the spectators to talk of the days when —. Well, everyone knows what they were, but one of this man’s experiences may be worth noting'. Before the war he had a team of working bullocks, and those patient animals, purchased at £5 apiece worked early and late for 12 long years. Then came the war and the piping days of high prices. The owner received £ls each for his bullocks., and they, loyal tto the end, went to the front, encased in the armour of preserved meat tins.

A Levin resident has returned from a visit to Hawke’s Bay much impressed( by the prosperity apparent in that district, and the undoubted growing qualities of its soil and climate (says the Chronicle). Recent rains there had caused a plethora of grass, and in consequence there was a much greater demand for store cattle than was the case in the Levin district, for instance. At Stortford Lodge, the principal sale in the vicinity of Hastings, he watched stores going at very satisfactory prices. The evidences of wealth were everywhere, he says, land at this particular sale long strings of motor cars were parked in the way, so many, in fact, that he moved to photograph them. He in tends using the picture as an antidote for fits of despondency in farmers, the first dangerous symptoms of which, he says, is a declaration that the country is going to the dogs.

A light that stays lit after you turn it out is one of electricity’s most recent developments. The advantages of such a light will be readily apparent to anyone who, in the sudden darkness, has stumbled over a chair en route to bed, or kicked over the waste basket on the way out of a dark office. The lamp Stays on for one minute after the chain is pulled. That brief illumination, however, gives ample opportunity to leave the cellar, to get into bed, to lock 'the garage, or to close the office; in fact, to do any number of things that the darkness makes hazardous. All this is made possible by an ingenious though very simple and rugged therthermostat employed does not itself tehrmostat employed does not itself act as a slowly moving contact to break rthe circuit, but performs the function of a spring latch, which, when cool, permits the leaf contacts to snap apart- Heating of the thermostatic latch is accomplished by a small resistance unit that is thrown Into contact by pulling the socket chaiin, as if to turn out the light. The positiveness of the switch action is such that it can plainly be heard across an ordinary room at the time the light actually is extinguished,. 60 seconds later.'