LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4407, 28 April 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Portion of the report on matters put before the Minister of Public Works (Hon. J. G. Coates) on Wednesday and Thursday are crowded out to day, and will be published on Monday.

Mails which left Auckland on March 21, per R.M.S. Makura., vix Vancouver, arrived in London on April 24.

There were over fifty persons present in the Ohinemuri County Council chambers on Wednesday night, When deputations waited upon the Minister for Public Works (Hon. J. G. Coates),, to make . representations iri regard to various public projects.

Chief Haora Tererenui asked, the Hon. Mr Coates (Minister of Public Works) what he intended to do with the "tapu” places on Pereniki’s, bend where some 2000 natives were buried. The Minister said the burial ground would not be interfered with, but would be concreted over.

An important property sale is to be conducted by Messrs Bernard Stansfield and Co. at their mart on Friday, May 5. Particulars of the sale are advertised.

"Let us knock out the formal part of the business. I want, to have a smoke ” said the Hon. J. G, Coates to a deputation at Ngatea yesterday, at the same time inviting the spokesman to sit down while stating his case. .

A quantity of fencing wire is advertised for sale by Mr W. M. Cullen. Attention is directed to Mr Cullen's advertisement on our fourth page to-day. A seat in the Ohinemuri County chambers collapsed under the weight of hefty deputationists on Wednesday evening when/ the. Hon. J. G. Coates. Minister of Public Works, was deceiving a deputation in reference to the Paeroa Post Office. "Now, if you can get your old . post office to do that the Department will erect a new" one for you right away,” commented the Minister.

On Wednesday last Misses Lipsey and Smales opened a very successful dancing class in the Soldiers’ Hall, and there was -a good attendance both at the afternoon (children) session arid ,tbe evening (adults). Miss Smales was a pupil of . Miss Daphne Knight, of Auckland, and is well advanced in all the latest dances. Parents wishing their children “o learn correct dancing should 'avail themseves cf this opportunity for the, afternoon classes, while adults will receive tuition in the evening. The classes are held on Wednesday afternoons and evenings.

Evidently the Public Works Department gets ha’pence as well as kicks,, though the latter are far more numerous. T4ie Hon. Mr Coates told a deputation at Paeroa that some settlers in another district assured him that Whereas a certain road was once be’ng constructed at tihe rate of one mile in seven years, the work was now going dn at the rate of seven miles in one year.

A good reputation is something that is built up little by. little- until it be come a part, and a very big part of one’s life. Without its influence we cannot progress, and if it is taken awry the loser withers and dies like a flower deprived of water and sunlight. “Reputation” is to be screened at the Central Theatre on Wednesday, May 10.

It is anticipated that the conference between the engineers of! the Public Works Department ,and the representatives of contributing bodies' to the cost of the Rivers Improvement Scheme will be held in about a fortnight’s timei

Shooting season goods—guns, game bags, waders, et.c. are announced in Messrs Tisdall, Ltd’s. (Hamilton), replace advertisement to-day.

Speak'ng qn the River Improvement Scheme allocations, Mr EL W. Porritt (chairman of; the Thames Valley Drainage Reference Board), said the Board did not object to the details of the allocations. . What it wanted was for tihe unsold Crown lands to be loaded with a portion of the cost, and the, contributing bodies’ burden lightened accordingly. The Minister of Public Works (Hon J. G. Coates), to whom these remarks were addressed, concurred, and stated that Mr J. B. Thompson (Chief Drainage Engineer) was agreeable to such loading.

A promise was made by the Hon. J. G. Coates (Minister .of Public Works) to a deputation from the Thames Valley Drainage Reference Board that waited on him bn Wednesday nighti .that the Betterment Clause in the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Improvement Act was unjust, and that he would have it amended to remove the obvious injustices pointed out by Mr W. McLean, on behalf of tihe Reference Board. A full report will appear later.

Complimentary references were made by the Hon. J. G. Coates (Minister of Public Works), to the manner in which local deputations put their representations before him. The procedure was the method consistently adopted by the Paeroa Borough Council; namely, to have all requests typewritten, in duplicate. The original is handed to the Minister, and the copy read .to him. • The Minister retains the original, and the copy is later handed to the Gazette,” so that the Minister has a permanent record, and the public an accurate verbatim report of the representations made on its behalf. On several occasions Ministers of the Crown have expressed particular appreciation of this concise and busi* nesslike way of presenting requests.