LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4349, 30 November 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Amateur judging competitions are to be.held at the Hauraki A. and P. Show next Week. Particulars are advertised.

Mr E. C. Banks, Chairman of the Board of Education, has signified that he will be present in Paeroa on Friday to formally open the new extensions. to the Paeroa District High School.

An auction sale of the furniture and effects of Mr F. Brooker will be conducted by Messrs Stansfield and Co. on Saturday next, December 3, at one o’clock sharp, at the residence in Victoria Street (opposite the post office).

Two of the active members of the Hauraki A. and P. Association are also members of the Paeroa Borough Council, and therefrom some little amusing confusion sometimes arises. At. a meeting of the association held last night the chairman, Mr J. A. Reid, was twice addressed as "Your Worship.” “There are many here who will be ‘worshipped’ before I will,” commented Mr Reid.

The esteem in which the Jat?e William James Moylan was held by Aucklanders was exhibited by the large number of wreaths that came up from the city with the coffin aboard the Taniwha this morning Wreath after wreatjh of the choicest of flowers was handed aboard until the cabin was full, and, pushed for further room to accommodate the balance, a lifeboat was utilised fpr the purpose, and even this in turn wan soon taxed to its utmost capacity. Many friends of the deceased and others who only knew deceased by name gathered at the ship’s side as it drew away -from the Northern Go’s, jetty, with her flag at half-mast, •on her journey to x Paeroa.

The district officers of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows paid a visit to the Loyal Jubilee Lodge, Pae.roa, last night. Matters of local Interest were discussed, particularly in reference tp the dispensing ofl medicine and kindred topics. Suggestions were put forward by the District officers, which will no doubt bear fruit in due course. Representatives of the Waikino and Morrinsville Lodges were present.

“Yes, Paeroa how has its chance of getting a good share of the Hajiraki Plains trade, thanks to Messrs Brenan and Co’s, bus service,” remarked a Ngatea lady to .a "Gazette” representative yesterday. "But,” she added, “tjhe business people will need to carry larger stocks and to at least equal Thames houses, otherwise the.? will not hold the trade.” The fondness that English .women have for the cigarette-was evidence ! by the appearance on the promenade deck of the lonic at Wellington on Sunday night after dinner.' Fui'y fifty woraqn, young and old, were to be seen puffing away with apparent satisfaction.

The old-time bullock teams are to be seen at work along the Pekapek-i Road, Netheiton. Huge logs are being brought from Fisher’s bush tp Fisher’s landing, where the scow Ngaru is loading, the logs, of which there are 100 at present on tlfie bank. In all the scow will load about 60,000 feet, which will be taken to Golder’s mills at Auckland.

Not long ago it ,was no easy matter for county councils to find suitable men who were willing to accept employment as surfacemen.. That things have changed since then' was shown to the Waikouaiti County Council last week, when it received 24 applications for a surfaceman’s position. The wages offered were 1.3 s a day, and the successful applicant had to keep a horse owing to the nature ’off! his work.

Paeroa a couple of years ago might well have gone in for encouraging the erection of suspension verandahs instead of the old-fashioned post sunports. An example of what can be done may be seen at Waiuku, in the Franklin County.'' There the Tow?i Board tactfully went round and got all the owners of shops to agree to the abolition of verandah posts, in favour of suspension supports, and the change made a very great improvement in the appearance of the main street. No matter how artistic verandah posts may be, they destroy the view down the street. It is cerr tain that a s,treet of shops without verandah posts looks more broad and spacious and uninterrupted in its contour does one with a medley of posts of all shapes and sizes.

The Sonoma’s gold robbery, which is now exciting attention, has points of resemblance to a remarkable thett of a £lO,OOO necklace of pink pearls which was shipped from England -o Bangkok for the Queen S'owaya Pongsi of Siam in 1909. The pearls were put up in a metal case, which was soldered down and then in a wooden case securely locked and bound'with cord sealed in four places. The head of the jewellery firm supplying it took it himself to Southampton to deliver it to tjhe liner carrying it. over to Calcutta. The case was duly handed over to the captain, signed for, and placed in the ship’s strongroom. On arrival at Singapore it was placed in custody of the wharfinger to h,old pending dispatch by steamer to Bangkok. This official handed it over to the captain of the steamer for Bangkok, and eventually it landed at a bank there, where the Siamese Court Chamberlain and staff attended to take delivery. Everything appeared to be in order externally—the cord unbroken and the seals intact —but when the wooden box was opened the metal case inside was found to have been burst open and the pearls had vanished. A close examination showed that the bottom of the box had been cut in strips with a fine saw, each cut. running underneath a piece of the ebrd. Once cut it was an easy matter to slip the strips out, smash the inner case, and remove the pearls. The pieces had been most expertly replaced, and tin cord on top, itself untouched and intact, concealed from view the fine line of tjhe saw cuts.