LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4509, 29 December 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Will our advertisers please note that there will be no publication of the “Gazette” on Monday, New Year's Day. The Foxton Racing Club will Teach the sixtieth, year of its existence next 'month, and will mark the'occasion by holding a Diamond Jubilee Meeting on January 20 and 22. The club was formed in 1863, and is’ therefore one of the oldest in New Zealand, and holds a deservedly popular place botn with, owners and the racing public. The programme for the jubilee meeting includes a special race tb commemorate the club’s sixtieth birthday. That the people of Waihi and Waikino respond generously to any deserving cause is indicated by the large sum collected in connection with the recent hospital campaign, the gross amount from all sources being £lO7B, as compared with £lO3B, which was the previous record, and was - not expected to be equalled, let alone exceeded. The exact total pf .the expenses has not yet been determined, but it is anticipated that the net receipts will exceed £950, which', with the Government subsidy, will swell the hospital funds by upwards of £2OOO. For this splendid achievement a large measure of credit is due to the organising secretary, Mr N. J. Moon, and many ladies who collected donations and in various’ other directions assisted the movement.— Telegraph.

Sellers' of art union tickets, with' good commission, are advertised for in this issue. Mr J. G. McDpugall, local postmaster, .'has received advice that malls which left Wellington on November 15, via Sap Franciscq, arrived in London on December 21. AH the local butchers’ shops' will be closed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week (New Year holidays)?* The Railway Department draws attention ip .the advertising columns of this issue to a special advertisement in connection with, train arrangements for the New Year helidays. About 150. men will be employed on the Waihi-Katikati section of the East Coast jailway construction works after the holidays, representing nearly double the number employed for some years. A party of New Zealand miners left this country for Russia about four months ago, states. the Grey River Argus - , and, it is believed, reached their destination safely. They will wdrk in the Siberian mines. At the recent Sacred Heart College Scholarship examination Cecil Hughes and France Barakat, pupils of the Paeroa Convent School, were, successful in securing high marks. Brother Borgia, Director of the College, wrote congratulating the two pupils on their excellent work.

The road across the Hauraki Plains from Auckland to the Thames Valley is becoming popular with motorists, and a continuous 1 stream of cars and motor-cycles was noticed passing through during the holidays. The Maramarua road is in fair order, though ’rough in places, but the Miranga road is practically’ impassable.

Indignation often impels .a man to do strange things (says - the Southland Times), bat it is seldpm that it ic the cause tof a generous action. At the Wallacetown sale a well-known grazier, who offered a pep. of. vealer.-a became so indignant at the languid bidding that he impetuously'informed the auctioneer to give the vealers' to these butchers who had put in bids. Two butchers benefited by the generosity inspired by the grazier’s indignation, while the auctioneer readily assented to forgo his commission.

-Visitors to town for. the races will appreciate and commend the up-to-dateness and enterprise of the proprietors of the "N.Z. Sporting and Dramatic Review” in bringing but in an incredibly short time a pictorial issue that gives a definite idea of the Auckland Racing Club’s events on Boxing Day, and enables those interested to make a forecast for the concluding days’ events. Spiking photographs appear of Scion, the cup winner, after his notable victory, while one gets a real kinematbgraphic view of the progress of the race in its various stages'. The '"Railway Handicap is also depicted in a selrtes of snapshots indicating the progress of the placed contestants. The Waipa Racing Club’s and the Rotorua Racing Club’s meetings are represented in an excellent page. The overseas section is particularly attractive and the miscellaneous portion is moire than usually animated, while stage and screen occupy one of the most popular pictorial departments.

Fruthcr wanton mischief was committed at the Beautifying Society's plot at the local. railway station during Monday evening. The bed of flowers tended by Miss Brownbill was the one to suffer again, as on a previous occasion. In this instance a healthy border of Ipbelias has been pulled up for almost the entire length length of the bed. Footprints were clearly discernible in the soft ground-. The police have the matter in hand, and it is sincerely hbped that' a conviction and a substantial penalty wi.'.l be the iresult. One can hjy'dly understand the pleasure or satisfaction a person could gain by such a mean, despicable action, and it is high! tim ? an example was made of the culprit. The grass has come on and thickened splendidly on this area, and the flowers, .too, have done well, and are very showy at present, evoking mucli praise from passengers’ on the train? passing through. Such well-kept lawns and pretty flowerbeds are certainly a great credit to the Beautifying Society and others concerned, and will do much to create a favourable impression of Paeroa by the travelling public. When such good work is ruthlessly destroyed by such vandalic acts it is most discouraging to those promoting the improvement bi the town, and it is time such contemptible practices wbre stopped.

The phrase “listening in” is no-.v becoming familiar in connection with broadcasting (says the Otago Daily Times). It. has, however, other possible applications. Experiments have, for example, been Carried out in the use of public electric supply circuits both as antennae flor wireless ireceiving and also as paths along which electric waves can be transmitted to special receivers connected to lampholders. In this experiment it wasfpund that theire was a good deal -ff interference, caused by the switching on and off of motors’ and by other occurrences in connection with the ordinary use of. eletcricity supply. A British inventor has had .the happy thought of adapting a (receiving device to the actual observing of these disturbances. For example, by “listening in” on any part of. an electric supply system it is possible to detect when an electric motor is working badly. A motor which is - running well has a particular note, and one running badly is distinguished by its peculiar noise, wh.ich can be heard above the others. Even the slipping of a. belt can be detected. This ingenious device has been actually employed in keeping watch upon a pump motor which was at work continuously at a remote point. The least, irregularity in the working of this pump could easily be heard by "listening in..” ,an’d therefore the engineer in charge could tell whether it wasnecessary to send a. man to adjust the machine.

”1 never used the word in my Iftfr’’ said a defendant at Upper Hutt'the other day when shown a certain woFd, not to be found in the dictionary, which it was alleged he had used to his daughter. The humour of the situation dawned on the Court when it became known that defendant could not read and was quite unaware what word had been pointed out to (him by 'inis solicitor. A Manaia resident who spent the week-end at Opunake had the misfortune to fall among thieves (relates the Manaia On dopning bis garments after taking a dip he found that his money had disappeared- A gpod beach is almost at Manaia’s’ back doors, but as distant fields look the greenest, s'o to the unwary a distant patch of sand look the safest. Truly, in this, as in. some other matters, one may go farther and fali'e worse.