NEWS AND MOTHS.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1924, Page 3

NEWS AND MOTHS.

As evidence of the laet that land values m South Canterbury are being stabilised and brought back t>> prewar simulat'd, a Timaru solicitor wlm ha> a great deal to do with arrangin'' mortgage-, oil land, informed a

"Herald" reporter that lie had had eases which had passed through bis oMiee, in which the pri> c at which land bad been sold in the boom period, had been reduced lately by from IM2 to L'.'il

per acre, in order to give the purchasers opportunity to win through, and to place the sale and purchase transactions on a stable hast*. A breezy little discussion developed at a recent meeting of the Devoiiport Borough Council, when tenders wore epciicd lor various "soli mails. When Devoiiport's l.ig road loan was autlmri-'d a delinile schedule was issued covering tile cost ol lormaliou of every read in the borough (stall's the Auckland "Star"), and the presem council i' endeavouring to "cut Lite coat according to the cloth. So far the loan estimate hn* not come within couee I.!' the c.eLilnl i-u-t. anil this lal-

e-i exiieriemv was no exeeptioii. Hue eottueillo'.' s!re.ugly urged limiting ex]>editlire to the loan estimate, whethei the job was linished or not. but the maioritv decided against him. Why said one member, "you'll leave the mad suspended like Mahomet'- collin 'tween earth and heaven! and the inaptne-s ol the analogy settled the point. To be violently punched on the jaw*, robbed of a sum ol money, and left in a right-of-way beside a church was the experience of a Timaru resident a recent evening (state- the "Post ). The man concerned states that he was going home at about « o’clock when, in North Street, bo was aeeo-ted by an unknown individual, who invited him to have a "spot.” Several refusals ettd the unknown, who dealt the other a blow nil the iaw that sent him to sleep. When the resident came hack to life and was able to take an interest in things about him. ho found himself seated in the midst of a pile of papers in the ground- of the Congregational Church. The assailant had gone through all his pockets, scattering papers right and left, hut retaining the money he found. The narrator states that it was some time in the early hours of the next morning before he regained consciousness.