LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4511, 5 January 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Work pn the Lands Department wharf which, is now being erected,at Kerepeehi, and will be the biggest wharf on .the Plains, is being pushed ahead. , When completed the structure will be'6oft by 46ft, and will carry a 29ft 6in by 36ft store, a ten-ton crane, and a tramway leading to the fitting shops and the dump. Mr D. J. O’CaiToll, president of the Kopuarahi Cricket Club, in welcoming the Turua eleven last Saturday, expressed the hope that that match would be the first of many, and bhat more clubs would be formed on the Plains, sp that eventually a Hauraki Plains Cricket Associaticp could be formed and matches arranged without the necessity of travelling long distances.

An experiment with rubber paving is tp be made by the Holborn (London) Borough Council. It, is intended to lay a section of thfe road at Upper. St. Martin’s Lane, W.C., with concrete blocks covered with rubber pads, about a quarter of an inch thick. Mr Spurrell, the borough surveyor, stated that the life of a yvopd block ■was 12 to 14 years. The cost of rubber paving would be 70s a square yard, compared with 45s for wood. Experiments had shown .that the rubber pads would adhere quite well to concrete blocks and would withstand the weather.

Plagued with his nagging mother-in-law, a Parisian named Ludovic Codeon, when his wife refused to leave her mother, decided that, life held no further charms for him. Clad only in his underclothep, he jumped out Oif a third-floor window. His wife fell in a swoon, while the mother-in-law rushed down to thfe street ,t,p pick up tlie lemains of the victim of her ■tongue. She found no signs’ of him, but a few minutes later the ‘suicide,”’ wearing a sheepish ’look and his scanty underclothes, appear.edywith a policeman. It seems that when he made his jump a waggon loaded wich hay was passing by, and instead or falling to the pavement lie fell right in the middle of the hay I An old man wishing ito invest £lOOO in war bonds’ recently toddled -to the public counter at a certain post office not, 100 miles from Stratford (states the Stratford Evening Post) and made known his wants. He was referred to the Money Order department, ami repeated them. Then with shaking hand he tpok his cheque bobk from the inside pocket of his coat and handed it to the clerk, with a request to fill it in for the amount named and he would, sign the same. The clerk gruffly replied that he had ~no time to do so, and that when the customer presented the cheque properly filled in he would be* attended to ! The old man, with still shakier hand, returned the book to his inside pocket again, and slowly went, away. “My blood boiled at such treatment of the old fellow,” said an eye-witness when relating the incident. “Tha.t’s not red tape, either—it’s amazing impertinence and disrespect for age that is growing far too common nowadays !”

As a souvenir of the Auckland Racing Club’s and Auckland Trotting Club’s carnivals this week’s issue M the “Sporting and Dramatic Review” stands unrivalled pictorially in up-to-date interest. The major portion of an abundantly illustrated journal is devoted to many full pages of snapshots traversing Cup Day at Ellerslie, Great Northern Derby Day, the Islington Plate, and other principal evnets of the meeting. The Trotting Cup and Trotting Derby at Alexandra Park make up a series that should be a lasting record. The Mannwatu Racing Club’s carnival is also depicted in interesting fashion, while .the Wanganui Motof Boat and Sailing Club’s opening is represented in picturesque pages. T;he Queensland v. Upper Hutt bowling match is the subject of an attractive and characteristic set of studies. Amongst a large miscellany of overseas photographs, showing notable architectural structures in America- and novel scenes m London, a full page is devoted to the recent railway disaster near Paris, in addition to which are mapy other pictures of wide interest.

A replace advertisement appeal's in this issue in which Messrs Brocket and Shand draw attention to the special quality of their tea.

The auxiliary scow “Edna” arrived at the Puke on Tuesday with 850 'cases of’ explosives aboard. Fifty cases were for Paeroa. and the balance for Waihi. The scow was expeditiously unloaded, and the explosives conveyed straight through by Brenan and Co.’s motor lorries.

An expert, rabbiter told .the Ashburton County Council last week that the best method of poisoning rabbits was by the usq of phosphorus. There was a great danger in using strychnine, as this poison penetrated not only to the flesh of the rabbit, but also to the bones, and even if the animal’s bones lay for 12 months they would kill any dog that picked them up.

On New Year’s Day several parties from Paeroa motored to the Waihi Beach, and have cause to well remember the outing. Soon after arriving at the beach heavy rain commenced to fall, and although a start was almost immediately made for home great difficulty was experienced in regaining the main road, which took upwards of two hours.

H is understood that the Minister in charge intends almost immediately to increase .the staff engaged on the construction of the Wailii-K.ati-kati section of the East Coast railway line, and that .fully 150 men will shortly be employed. In conversation some months ago with a well-known Tauranga. resident the Minister for Public Works (Hon. J. G. Coates) made the statement that this section would bo completed and ready for traffic by the end of 1923, and it looks as if the Minister’s assertion is going to be borne out.