Local and General.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10314, 25 January 1927, Page 4

Local and General.

To give birth to a heifer calf and, after milking for three weeks to repeat the performance, is the record claimed for . a daily cow owned by Mr F. King, of Waingake. Both calves are healthy and well-grown.

Visiting members of the United Fire Brigades’ Association to the conference to be held here next month will be transported to and from the district by the De Luxe Motor Servince Co. Approximately 170 members will make the trip‘ via Napier, and 40 via .Rotorua.*

A deposit of iron ore discovered at Tambura Pass, in the Central Appenines, is declared to contain 68 per cent, of metal, compared with 40 per cent, in other European mines. It is hoped the daily output will be 300 tons of pure metal, enabling Italy to discard imports.—A. and N.Z.C.A.

H.M.S. Dunedin, flag-ship of the New Zealand division of the Navy, is to leave Auckland at 11.30 a.m. to-day for England to refit.' She Will be absent for* six months. To-day Commodore G. P. T. C. Swabey transferred his broad pennant to JELM.S. Diomede, which will be the flagship until the Dunedin’s return. Captain J. S. M. Ritchie, of the Diomede, will bo in command of the Dunedin.—P A.

' Staig’s chairoplane will be in full swing this afternoon and to-night on the location Feel Street,, opposite the Times office, when a generous portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Maeßae bath fund.

lars using explosives blew open in King George Theatre, Low_utt, at 4 a.in. yesterday. The jnd was heard and the burglars , ere disturbed "by a person approachjig to Investigate. The burglars decamped with only a small part of a large sum in the safe.—P.A. .

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A sign of the times was noticeable at Matawhero yesterday, when there were very few drovers .lining the pens at the Ram Fair. On the other hand over twenty lorries were lined up on the roadside awaiting consignments. One pen in particular had not changed hands fifteen minutes before it.was, being loaded on to a l#ry for the back country.

'n the occasion of the anniversary

mi the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, a supper and social will be neld in the City Hall on Friday, 28th. under the auspices of the Gisborne Scottish Society. The chair will be taken by Mr. J. R. Kirk and Mr. Thos. Todd will propose, the toast of the evening, ‘‘The Immortal Memory,’’ and deliver a short address. A good programme has been arranged. Supper will commence at ets may be obtained from any member of the committee or at the door.

That the permanent road surfaces at ■ present being laid down by the Cook County Council are equal to anything of the kind he had seen anywhere, was the opinion expressed by the Mayor, Mr. Gr Wildish, who has just returned from a tour of the North Island. Mr. Wildish said he considered that Taranaki’s bitumen roads had made the district famous, and that if the work were carried out on similar lines in Poverty Bay this district would be boomed in a like manner. Provision must be made for fast traffic, and in his opinion the bitumen work in this district was on the right lines.

The Education Department created a record for monetary grants for school improvements in Poverty Bay on Friday last, when the Hawke’s Bay Board ivas advised that grants had been approved for the construction of a septic tank at the Muriwai school, the erection of the new school at Awapuni, and the connection of Mangapapa schoor with the borough drainage system. The contract for the erection of the Awapuni school has been let to Mr. J. E. Sheen at £331, and the building is expected to be completed in three months. The building will comprise four class rooms and a teachers’ room, and will be constructed on the most modern lines. The excavation work has already been completed and a start on the foundations will be made to-day. Tenders for the installation and connection of Mangapapa school are now being invited.

It seems, according to an authority quoted by Roiarian Albertson at the Rotary lunch yesterday, that the earliest bridge-builders were humans when they Jived in trees. Their idea of the art was to bridge a span between trees by means of linking themselves together. In dealing with the efforts of uncivilised races, he mentioned that the Red Indians Lad made some very creditable arch bridges. Their mode of testing them was to stand their squaws upon the structures. Presumably they regarded their squaws as tlie least valuable of their possessions-. (Laughter.)

The British Empire possesses another curious and valuable lake besides the pitch lake of Trinidad. This is the vast natural deposit of soda situated at Magadi, in Kenya Colony, east of Lake Victoria Nyanza. This lake lias an'area of at least 50 square miles and an unknown depth. It is' so concentrated as to contain crystals as well as their “mother liquor,” and it looks in consequence as if it were frozen. -No sooner has excavation taken place than more soda is deposited from saturated water from many springs. Thus the supply seems inexhaustible, and a railway has been built especially to serve it, refineries have been established, and something approaching h‘oo,ooo tons of soda are produced there.

“lie was a man ot marvellous energy ; he had no time for the people who did not exert themselves and just took things as they came.” in these words Maurice Moscovitch, the Russian actor visiting Christchurch described Arnold Daly, tiie actor who ■was burned to death in New Yoriv. Moscovitch who knew Daly well, said that he was an actor who always did reliable work. At times he attempted too much but he always deserved credit. fo'r being a- trier. He had a passion for good plays, and New York laughed him to scorn when he gave there the first production in English of Strinburg’s ‘‘The Father.” Six years ago Daly went to England to produce some good plays, but the managers would not give him a theatre. so he left the country full ct anger at his fruitless Journey. “Poor fellow—what a terrible-end lie had!" said Moscovitch.

The speaker at yesterday's Rotary luuch was Rotarian G. IV. Albertson, who traced the history of bridgebuilding. He gave some very interesting information concerning the earliest known effort’s in that direction, and remarked, incidentally, that most progress of ah ad been made only in the fast forty years. "What had necessitated the building of much stronger bridges in every country was the railways advancement. In the early days of railways an engine would not weigh more than ten tons ; to-day in the United States the heaviest engines, with tender, weighed 400 tons. Great strides were now being made in bridge construction by the introduction of iron, steel, and ferro concrete. The risk of failure had not, however, yet been altogether obviated, as was shown by the two disasters in connection with the Quebec bridge. One difficulty in the past had l>een that not sufficient light had been shed on the causes of failures. Rotarian Albertson was heartilv thanked for his address.

The Oamaru Beautifying Society is so impressed by the increasing disfigurement of roads and rural districts of North Otago by advertisements and hoardings that it lias decided to introduce a private Bill in Parliament to deal with the matter. Mr. E. J. Lee, member for the dis-

trict, has agreed to take charge of ' the Bill which will he on the lines of the existing English legislation, giving statutory powers to county authorities to control or prohibit disfiguring advertisements on country roads. A circular letter is being issued to kindred societies throughout the Dominion, and also to the North and South Island Motor Unions inviting their co-operation. ..A resolution supporting such a movement ha > already been passed by the South Island Motor Union. A deputation from the Society waited on the Railway Board last evening and emphasised their opposition to the Department’s policy in the wholesale erection of hoardings, 1 and asked that one in course of erection in the borough be not proceeded with. Mr. Tones, chairman of the board, replying! supgesed that the erection of the hoarding in question would improve the locality. He said the Board endeavored to keep its advertising within decent limits, and where it interfered with scenic beauty or the amenities of a place, it was ''prohibited.—.

A woman resident of South Du*?, din who was struck by lightning is confined to her bed. She was standing in a right-of-way at her lu.me, when a flash of lightning, widen was conducted by' a steel buckle of one of her slippers, 'struck her. She is suffering from a severe swelling of the leg. The injury is not serious.

- The infectious diseases notifications for the Dominion for the week ending yesterday are as follow, states a P.A. message from Wellington: Scarlet fever 22, diphtheria 21, enteric fever 8, tuberculosis 27, poliomyelitis 2, pneumonic influenza 3, pneumonia 13, erysepalas 6. puerperal fever 10, eclampsia 1, hydatids 1; total. 114. .

The City Band has finanlised its arrangements for its Coast trip. On Sunday afternoon the band play on the Recreation Ground, Tokomnru Bay, and in the evening it will give a sacred. Concert in Reynold’s Hail, Tolaga Bay. It is intended to take the band on tour at full strength, so that Coast residents will have a musical treat.

A lady resident of Oamaru who leeently underwent an X-ray examination in the pubic hospital for an injury to the elbow was surprised to learn that the photograph of her injuries also revealed the presence of a needle in her arm. She does not know how, or when it penetrated the arm, and lias suffered no inconvenience from it.

The fqlowing tenders have been accepted for railway uniform contracts for two years, states a P.A. wire from Wellington: Stationmastefc’. caps, C. Hall and Sons, Wellingtoiy; guards, porters, drivers and firemen’s caps, Ross and Glendining, Dunedin; shunters’ wideawake hats, Russ and Glendining Dunedin; stationmasters’ suits, A. Levy. Ltd., Wellington; Russell cord coats, W. Strange and Co., Christchurch.—P.A.

The Hon. O. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture and Conservator of StateForests, and the Hon. A. D. McLeod Minister of Lands, met deputations at Ohakune yesterday from the Karioi run in reference : ■

Government’s intentions to convert the run into forestry plantations. Business interests, headed bv the

Mayor of Ohakune, and the president of the Chamber of Commerce, supported the intentions, but local farmers were strongly opposed. At the conclusion, the Ministers stressed the the facts relative to the economic importance of afforestation and farming on poor lands, promising a decision later. .The Kariroi run is 40,000 acres poor land and a Government lease of threepence per acre. It has been occupied for about fiftv years. — P.A-

In connection with the recent reductions in prices of fertilisers announced from Auckland, it is understood from inquiries in Wellington, states a P.A. message, that farmers in other parts of the North Island, and also probably those in the South Island, will benefit, although the latter reduction may not take place immediately. Meantime the lower prices operate throughout the North Island and railage will be charged tho farm- • er as from the nearest works, Auckland, Wanganui or New Plymouth. The new prices are 44 to 46 per cent, super £4 17s Gd, basic super .£4 10s, and Nauru phosphate £4 los, all net cash on trucks. The lower prices are the result of the recent merger by the New Zealand Co-operative Co. Ltd., and Mesrs Wright. Stephenson and Co., Ltd., for the acquisition of the latter company’s works