LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4308, 24 August 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr G. Buchanan” director of the N.Z. Co-op. Dairy Co., Ltd., made some references to the freight charges when speaking at the final annual meeting of the Thames Valley Dairying Co., Ltd,, on Monday. He thought the time was ripe to discuss the whole problem of shipping freights with a view to devising relief. This view found hearty appreciation among those present.

Milk was a scarce c.ommodity for breakfast at Tapu on Sunday morning, and some of the settlers living down the Coast between Thames and' Tapu are wondering whether the Thames County poundkeeper stays up all night to be.up early in the morning? On Sunday morning- several Tapuites were early astir, looking for their cows ,fo milk them, but could not get upon their tracks until r-mo,tor-car hied along about 7 a.m. and the occupants advised the cowseekers to try the Thames County pound, as they had passed the poundkeeper driving a mob of .cattle an.l several horses Thamesward. The conjecture proved to be well founded, and quite a number of cow-owners had to ride do Thames and pay 14s each’ for their animals before they could drive them home. The use of the long paddock is not now so general, as it formerly was.

A sense of humour is not ‘the least of the qualifications of Mr A. J. Sinclair, assistant manager of the N.Z. Co-op Dairy Co., Ltd.;, who, by the way, is one of Mr W. Goodfellow’s ‘‘finds,” and a distinct acquisition to the Company. Mr Sinclair was giving the suppliers at Paeroa an idea of the extent of the Company’s coal seams in the Huntly district. He said a cautious expert, of Scottish extraction, had at first estimated the quantity to he sufficient to 'last for 100 years, even if 100,000 tons per annum were produced. But the cautious Scot had revised this estimate and made it 80 years. “However,” said Mr Sinclair, “we hope that more of us will be requiring heat in 80 years’ time.” We hope that Mr Sinclair is not anticipating that his company’s suppliers are destined to go to a region where the climate is reputed to be uncomfortably warm !

A social evening is to be tendered by the Paeroa Volunteer Fire Brigade to Captain W. Moore on. 31s,t inst, when he will be presented with a gold star for having completed 25 years’ as a fireman.

“It is the best Government we-ve got, and the best we’ve ever had,” was a remark made by Mr A. J. Sinclair, assistant manager of the N.Z. Co-Op. Dairy Co., Ltd., at a meeting at Paeroa on Monday.

“When the Faeroa-Pokeno railway is built, coal will be delivered on the Hauraki Plains more cheaply ■than it is to-day by steamers” —Mr GeoBuchanan, at a meeting ot dairymen at Paeroa.

The Lands Department at Kerepeehi has now got delivery of a new Pucyrus dragline dredge; also a new Rood land dredge is due to arrive. It is hoped that good progress will shortly be under way towards draining some 2000 acres of land near Kerepeehi, making it ready for settlement.

The first ball, under the auspices of the Paeroa Returned Soldiers’ Association, is to be held in the Central Theatre to-morrow evening. The returned soldiers have spared no efforts to make their balf'a successful function. so a good attendance of the public is antipicated. The admission to the ball has been fixed at six shillings for gentlemen, four shillings for ladies, and 2s 6d for spectators.

“During the war,” said a speaker at a meeting of dairy suppliers at Paeroa, “we could not remonstrate with a man if he kicked the cream cans about at the factory, because he would first tell us to get someone else, and that was often impossible. Now, however, we may expect to insist on reasonable care and efficiency on the part of the "employees.”

An instance of the astonishing law: of gumption some people display was given by Mr W. Claud Motion, chairman of direcjto.rs of the N.Z. Co-op. Dairy Co., Ltd., when addressing a meeting at Paeroa on Monday. Mr Motion told how," when there was a covert .threat to! place Imperial purchase butter on the local market in competition with the new season’? supply, the company advised all local committees to wire protests to the Government. *lt gave the committees seven or,eight drafts of the wording that might be used in such wires, trusting to their discretion to vary the phraseology somewhat, and from the lo* .to compose one, and one only, suitable message. What was his chagrin on getting to Wellington to be faced by Mr Massey with a’ sheaf of eight wires sent by the one committee I This committee had been confused in the matter and had promptly wired away the lot to the Prime Minister !

The auction sale of the houses and furniture of the Talisman Consolidated Limited (in liquidation) on Monday last at Kaiangahake was well attended, and good prices were reached for almost every line offered. The accountant’s house of eight rooms at Mackaytown was bought' by Miss Bluck, of Paeroa, for £340. A' sixroomed .house at Karangahake was sold to Mrs Fitzgerald, of Karangahake. for £l7O. The battery manager’s ' house of eight rooms reached £2OO, and was bought by Mr Claud McMillan, Ngatea. . The engineer’s house, of five rooms was knocked down to Mr Walters, of the Plains, fb»’ £135. The engineer’s office was purchased by Mr S. Heslop for £29, and the stable and feed-room by Mr Hayward, of the Plains, for £l3. The sale was successfully conducted by the popular knig.ht of the hammer, Mr Bert Dunlop, of the Farmers’ Auctioneering Company, An interesting sidelight was she! on a debatable topic of considerable interest to business men by a speaker at a meeting of the Thames Valley C,o-op. Dairying Co., Ltd. (in liquidation)', at Paeroa on Monday.'. Mr Geo. Buchanan was explaining why it was that some suppliers had not received their voting papers for the election of directors to the companv. He said he knew for a fact that in one instance several notices had been thrown on fthe floor of ,the post office, under the counter, by suppliers who thought the papers were merely circulars from some business firm or other, never troubling to examine them .closely. The of interest to business men in this case is that hundreds of pounds may be wasted in circularising—paper, postage, 'iypeing,.etc. On the other hand, an advertisement in a wellt-arranged paper like the “Gazette” is bound to be seen whether the reader is actually looking for it or not. This happy and effective result is due to the scientific arrangement of the reading matter in this paper. Just for curiosity’s sake, let the reader try to read the letterpress on pages 1 or 4, and see if he or she can do so without seeing every advertisement. Jt is scarcely possible to miss the advertisements, and in this respec*. the “Gazette”- gives better service to advertisers than do 99 per cent, of papers in the Dominion.

The characteristics of delirium tremens were described by Dr. G. H. Thompson, in giving evidence at the Magistrate’s Court. Christchurch, during the hearing of a manslaughter charge (states the Lyttelton Times). The witness said that in cases of de,l’erium tremens the patient first of all shows signs of excitability, manifested by tremor of the hand, and his senses are very alert. His conditio r may continue in that state for quite a time ; lie 'then becomes a subject for hallucinations, which are conveyed to him by his sense of signt, hearing, smell, etc. Thus he may hear sounds and see objects, usually of a terrifying nature, which are purely arising from his imagination—a man may see devils or snakes or all sorts of wier-1 objects, and his whole wish is to get away from them. He consequently struggles violently with any person attempting to restrain him, and in the case under notice Dr. Thompson took a powerful doctor, two porters and two nurses to hold the patient down. For Influenza, take Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. .

A man who was arrested in Wel-

lington was, according to a citv paper, suffering from delusions that “the girls were after him.” For being so silly he was sent to gaol for three days.

One of the strangest cases of freax deformity in animal life heard of for some time occurred recently, when among a litter of pigs born in Blenheim was a member without legs, though still alive (says the Marlborough Express). The malformed creature was destroyed, as it would eventually have succumbed under the natural law of the survival ot the fittest.

A Christchurch paper states that when the death sentence on Reginald Matthews was commuted in Marcn last, and he was sent to the Seacliff Mental Hospital, he Remarked that he would stay in the mental hospital for three months, as a sort of con cession to the authorities. He kept his promise.

Last year saw the invention of a safety comb fitted with ,a razor blade, with which anyone could cut his own hair. Now another still mure ingenious hair-cutting appliance has been invented, which consists of a tiny electric motor and hair cbpper combined. The whole thing is so small that it can be held easily in one hand, and is connected by a piece of flexible wire .to any ordinary electric lamp socket? The, clip-clip of the barber’s scissors will soon be heard no more.

Dr. Woods Hutchinson, of Nevv York, defending the twentieth century strenuous plan of living, : made th? assertion that the slower you live the faster you die, thus controverting the popular theory that a placid existence is the best insurance of longevity. The consensus of opinion among hundreds of American leaders of industry is that constant activity is productive of longer life, better health, and greater happiness than early retirement and passive indolence.

A Perth message to the Sydney “Sun,” under date August 12, stated : “By yesterday’s post the Chief Justice (Sir Robert McMillan), Justice Burnside, Justice* Northmore, and the Minister for Agriculture (Mr Maley) each received an envelope containing the playing card seven of diamonds. No message accompanied the card. The envelope bore the postal mark of Mornington Mills, a timber township near Bunbury. The recipients of the seven of diamonds are puzzled to know the meaning of the communication. As hazards are the chief amusement of the timber hands at Mornington, it is suggested that the sender of the cards had in his mind something about the recipients “throwing a seven,” a slang phrase for death. The police are investigating.