LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 November 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Taihape resident is reported to have won over £IOOO at the concluding day of the Auckland races.

It is estimated that the area sown in wheat in New Zealand this year is 170,000 acres. The total area of wheat harvested last year was 175,493 acres. Large numbers of anglers have been visiting the Teremakau; River of late, and some exceedingly good catches have been reported. The Wanganui City Council has decided to erect a stone to commemorate the purchase of the city from the Maoris.

The estimated area planted in potatoes in the South Island this year is 18,000 acres (states the Oamaru Times). The area last year was 15,363 acres. A peculiar form of blight has affected apple trees in Oamaru this season, and in some orchards the trees are quite barren (states the North Otago Times).

Ah astounding example of depraved taste is revealed in a letter received by a Wanganui resident. It. states that the girls in a certain high school in Dubuque, lowa, U.S.A., idolise Leopold and'Leob, the youthful murderers, because they are so good • looking! Suitably framed enlarged photographs of the municipal milk factory in its associate branches, at a cost not exceeding £lO, are to be furnished to the Labour Department by the Wellington City Council for, the purposes of display at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition.

Seven years before the war, in 1907, Christinas gratuities were given by the Auckland Hospital Board to fewer thaii 500 recipients at'a cost of £23. That sum has steadily mounte dup year by year till now those who receive the bounty number well into four figures. What the gratuity means to over 1000 people can only be understood when it is realised with what pleasure it is received. A Masterton angler states that there is splendid fishing to be obtained in some of the rivers this season, particularly ig the upper reaches of the Ruamahanga river, where several particularly good catches were made recently. He states (say s the Wairarapa Daily Times) that the recent flood in the Ruamahanga river has greatly improved it for fishing. ' “You will have to see for yourself how things are before you will understand them; I can see that,” was a pithy remark made by a female witness in the Whangarei courthouse (reports the Northern Adovcate). It was addressed to counsel for the opposing side, when he professed not to understand the extent of some alleged defects in the building of a dwellinghouse

What, might he considered as a clear definition of “tin kettling” was made at the Amberley sitting of the Magistrate’s 001114; (states the Christchurch Press). A witness in .a case of a breach of the peace informed the Magistrate that a party of you no: fellows were giving “tin kettling.” ‘‘What i® that?” asked Mr. W’vvern vVilson. S.M.. “Oh. you see. when a chap gets married it’s the usual thing for him to- supply about ten gallons of beer, and von go along for a ‘stun up,’ ” replied the witness. The Magistrate asked: “Are you sure? Surely it means drinking from a tin kettle.” The witness, however, averred that has definition was the correct one.

W r ithin wireless range:—Auckland: Sonoma, Tofua, Kentucky, Makura, Rona, W r ingatui, Karori, Canadian Traveller, Turakina, Cumberland, Lingnam. Chatham Islands: Knockfierna. 'Wellington : Maori, Mararoa, Ngaio, •Vrawa, Tutanekai, Kaiwarra, Kaiapoi, Orari, Atholl, Port Chalmers, Karamea, Maunganui, IVaihora, Waihemo, City of Dunedin, Moeraki, Mahana, Ngakuta, Arahura. , SHOW TIME BONED SUITS. Our ready-to-wcar boxed suits are better than ever, and you will require a smt for the show, and now is the time to see the 11.8. ready-to-wears; they are well cut and beautifully made, and rightly priced, 59/6, have the navy serge, clerical greys or light grevs, dark and light colour tweeds. Call and get your show time suit fr#m the New Zealand Clothing Factory, Hawera.—Advt.

The gate and stand takings at the Carterton Show amounted to £353 ss, against £302 last year. The first day’s takings were £4O 18s, against £36 12s ; The Wanganui Herald reports that a Wanganui farmer who has been keeping poultry as a side lino and who buys two sacks of wheat per month, states that he kept an account, of the eggs sold last month, and after deducting those for household nte, which incidentally did not amount to very many, he showed a profit of 5s for the month, which would not compensate his family for the time spent gathering in the eggs. This period of the year finds colonial folk busy .mailing Christmas gifts and letters to relatives and friends in the Homeland. One Wanganui resident, whose family lives in England, 'has sent four whole carcases of frozen lamb to different members of the family in addition to bundles of New Zealand Christmas publications. An interesting land, transaction was reported last week, Mr. John Macdonald, late of “Strathvale,' ’ Otautau, and now of Timaru, having purchased Messrs. J. and E. Deegan’s “B'a.llyhooley” property in the Drummond district (says the Southland Times). The price is reported to be in the vicinity of £ls per acre. Ciceiro employed the first shorthand reporters, it is believed. They were scholars who took down his senate speeches in a sort of modified alphabet. History speaks of numerous forms of shortened systems, but it remained for the /Pitmans, Isaac and Ben, to living our/ present system to its perfection. There have been improvements since, but the scientific systems set forth by the brothers, who were born a century ago, were the foundation for our sjjorthand now in use.

Customs revenue collected at Napier during October showed a decrease when compared with that for the same month of last year, figures for the two periods being, 1923 in parentheses: Customs duties, £17,758 14s 4d (£20,139 14s 4d); beer duty, £1172 7s id (£824 17s); miscellaneous receipts, £339 18s 7d (£338 3s 3d). Totals, £19,271 Os 3d (£21,302 15s 7d). Following upon his undertaking when meeting Messrs Hayward and Todd, Dunedin Exhibition directors, on Monday night last Mr. L. O. Hooker interviewed the Mayor of New Plymouth yesterday to discuss the representation of Taranaki. Mr, Hooker suggested to Mr. Wilson that he should communicate with the Mayor of Hawera, and that jointly they should convene a meeting, to be held at Stratford, of delegates from 'every local body and dairy company from Mokau to Waverley (inclusive). If Mr. Bone falls in with the suggestion it is hoped to arrange a meeting before the .end of the month. Mr. Hooker states that Mr. Wilson is very keen on having ail adequate representation. Nearly 1,000,000 eggs were exported from New Zealand by the Rotorua. The bulk of the eggs came from the South Island. Given a favourable market in London, this shipment should return £IO,OOO. This shipment makes a total of 2,000,000 eggs sent away this season. It is anticipated that fully £40,000 worth of eggs will be sent from the Dominion to London this year.

Commenting upon the recent mishap at the lion’s tent at the Gisborne show grounds, the Napier Telegraph remarks: This is presumably the same lioness which endeavoured to attack a small girl standing alongside its cage at the show at Hastings. With a. recurrence of the incident at Gisborne, it seems obvious that the dangerous beast should he subject to more severe restrictions than are imposed on it at present.

A case of what appeared to be systematic pillaging was brought 'under the notice of a Southland News reporter on Thursday afternoon by a local boot importer, who lost a considerable amount of goods that were consigned ® n S^ an -d and were landed in Dunedin. From the appearance of the cases in which the goods were enclosed it seems as if the pillager were interrupted. One case had been smashed open, and the contents were also badly damaged by water. “Invercargill has one of the best public -libraries that I have seen while n n the Chautauqua circuit,'’ stated Professor D. J>. Vaughan at the coneluding programme of the season in the Municipal Theatre on Friday even-* ing (says the Southland Times). Professor Vaughan added that he seen two publications in the local library, which he had not come across m any other library on the circuit. The stamp vending machines in the lobby of the Auckland chief post office took £35 in two day s recently, the weight of the 8400 pennies being 1751 b. An official with a taste for calculation mentioned (states the Herald) that for last year the machines took one-third of a million pennies, and that if the stamps were placed in a. line they would reach from the G.P.O. to One Tree Hill. The inventor of this very useful machine, which is now in use in a number of countries is Mr. Dickie, of the mail department, at Auckland.

butter and cheese factories t i * are joined up with the South island Dairy Association commenced making this season in September . as usual, but a. week or two later than is customary, on account of the dry winter and early spring (states the Dunedin Star). Up to now the deliveries have not been quite so large as in the corresponding period of last year, but the association has been able to fill all the space allotments tor shipping, and butter and cheese are now coming in abundantly, with every promise of a really good season, f'be first ship to carry new season's butter overseas was the Kaikoura. She took a small shipment. The Arawa, now on the coast, will have taken from the four southern ports (Bluff, Dunedin, Timaru, and Lyttelton) 16,899 boxes of butter and 8610 crates of oneese.

“The profit for the half-year vppears to be large, but it must bo realised that the figures represent the two winter quarters in which receipts for domestic purposes are larger than those for the summer quarters, consequently a reduction in these figures, if Laken proportionately fosr the year, must be allowed,” states a report accompanying the quarterly statement to the Auckland Electric Power Board. The net profit for the period is £1",572. The net revenue showed receipts totalling £100,798, including £356 mteiest on fixed deposits. Expenditure included interest, £46,058; depreciation, £13,681; sinking funds, £19,056; and amounts written off capital, charges. £4429, making a total of £83,226. Including the amount of £4004 brought forward from April 1, 1924, the credit balance shown on September 30 totalled £2l,s76.—Star.

The Melbourne’s Rebuilding Sale is providing wonderful bargains for all Avho care about saving money. The huge stocks at New Plymouth have to be cleared out quickly to make room for carpenters. The builders are at present working on the exterior, and expect to be busy inside the shop within a couple of weeks.—Advt.