THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4561, 9 May 1923, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

♦ — At Hie end of December, 1922, the purchasing power pf the sovereign expressed in terms of commodities stood at 14s 4%d, or 5s 7%d below its prewai value. From December to Mahdi its purchasing power * diminished slightly, the value at the end of the latter month being 14s The newly-elected District Jligh School Committee has commenced its work in rather an energetic manner. On Saturday afternoon last some of the members formed themselves into a working bee, and their energies were directed on levelling a .portion of the playground prior to it being sahded. Unfortunately heavy rain fell and prevented the work being completed. One thousand dozen eggs were despatched from the Levin Poulty.vlieepers’ Association’s depot last week. The wholesale price is quoted at 3s 3d per dozen. According to the‘'Government Abstract of Statistics six artisans and 81 labourers were employed on the Woihi-Tauranga section of the East Coast Main Trunk railway line during March month. On the TaurangaTaneat.ua section there were 92 artisans and 322 labourers. The people of New Zealand are consuming more concentrated sugar per capita in the form of sweats and such like than any other country in the world, states' Colonel Hunter, Director of the Dental Division. —“Wairarapai Age,” The Health Department states that under the Sale of Foods and Drugs Act they have innumerable duties to perform; including the., seizure and destruction of foodstuffs which are considered to be unfit for human consumption. A brief summary of the “ captures ” effected during the month of February indicate that the officers-of the Department have a watchful eye on the various foods that are sold to the public. Herrings in tomato sauce, 228 tins ; kippered herrings, 191 tins; sild, 24 tins; flounders. 81 tins; peaches, 701bs; plums, 5 cases ; pears, 4 cases ; dates, 1 case; biscuits, 142 cases.; chocolates, 1201bs ; dessert pears, lOlbs ; oat food. 601bs; sherbet,,, 5 bottles; jelly, 1141b5.; marmalade, 701bs. Into a suburban chemist’s there came a woman bearing a bottle (states the “Taranaki Budget”), which she handed to the proprietor. “Is this all right to take ?” she asked. The chemist inspected ■ the bottle carefully. “You didn’t buy this here, I thi.ik ?” he said, courteously. “Oh, no. It’s a nerve tonic I saw advertised. I felt a bit dubious about it. and 1 thought you’d tell me whether I ought to take it.” The chemist handed the bottle back. “I don’t trink,” he replied “there is any necessity for you to take it. There is nothing wrong with your nerve.”

A Dunedin commercial traveller had an unenviable nocturnal experi-’ ence on .a recent, visit to Invercargill, falling, during a fit of sleep-walking, from the hotel balcony to .the ground 21ft below. In earlier life he had been a somnambulist, but the habit had left him for a number of years, anti it seems probable that its reappeaia’ice was due t.o the fact that he thought of an appointment with a client at an unusually early hour was distuibing his mind. Fortunately, results that might easily have been fatal were no worse than some injury to the thigh bones. This is explained by t,he principle known to gymnasts and others acquainted with the human frame that a lax body will not suffer the injury by contact that will happen to a body that is braced in anticipation of a shock. The sleeper did not waken as he fell, otherwise it. does not seem likely that his hfe would have been spared. “Otago Daily Times.” Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. For Coughs and Colds, never fails.

A kauri log with a diameter,.of lift 6in of solid timber was recently on Mr J. Newman’s farm( Gumtown Road, Turua. One hundred and one tramline sleepers were obtained from one cut.

Auckland has 431 legal practitioners, Wellington 256, Canterbury 14% and Otago 113.

An announcement in the New Zealand Gazette states that Empire Day will be celebrated on Monday, June 4. 1923 in conjunction with the anniversary of the birthday of His Majesty the King ; and that day will be observed as a Government holiday n the Government offices throughout th J Dominion.

At 'he meeting of the Plunket Society yesterday Mrs P. E. Branan intimated that that meeting would be her last public appearance in lhe capacity of Mayoress. She took the opportunity of expressing grab ful thanks to the ladies of Paeroa for their loyal help and co operation during her term of office. The speaker added that she hoped the same assistance would be accorded the Mayoress elect, Mrs. W. Marshall.

Reserve -Thursday, January 14, for the Paeroa Tennis Club’s dance.*

The correspondence system by which for more than a year,the Education Department has been providing insti action for children who live remote from public schools is at present catering for the educational needs of 226 children, 180 of whom reside Bi the North Island. The Minister of Education (Mr Parr) stated on Thursday last, at Wellington that 21 of the pupils lived in lighthouses or on islands, or would have to travel by water to reach nearest school. Two pupils lived 70 miles from the nearest school seven were between 40 and 50 miles from a school, 11 between 20 and 30 miles., and 44' between 10 and 12-miles.

There seems to be good money, if not for the writers at least for the publishers, even in the most epehemeral forms of literature. The estate of the late Mr Richard S. Cartwright proprietor of the publications known as the “Novelette” and the “Family Novelette,” was recently passed for duty at £102,054—a queer' commentary on the tastes of the multitude.

; For the second time within a fortnight in London a girl of five years of age has been killed by a toy balloon. Both the girls were trying to inflate their ballons when the rubber slipped into the larynx in such a position that every time the girls breathed the balloons partially inflated. They were each suffocated within a few hours.' 1

The member for Tauranga and party, who left Tauranga at 4 p-m. on Thursday t.o attend a meeting pf reformers- and a banquet held in his honour at Katikati, had a somewhat unique experience. The party left Tauranga per launch a.n<l in trying 10 negotiate a sand bar approaching the Wainni River the boat became firmly stuck in a sand bar. After waiting for the.tide, they eventually made .t landing, and afterwards had to walk some considerable distance to where a motor car was in waiting. Having successfully negotiated this uninteresting part of the journey the party headed for Katikati and r-xpected to arrive there about 7 p.m., but owing to the recent heavy rains the car skidded and the party pulled up very suddenly in a swamp. Eventually Mr Macmillan and party reached Katikati at 10.30 p.m. and exhibited much evidence of the severe ordeal they had passed through.

A meeting of the Ngatea Hall Committee was held last evening, Mr KShaw was granted permission to enlarge his stall, and the Ngatea Footba’l Club was granted permission to hold one meeting a week for ,£2 2s for the season. For the use of the hail for gymnastic purposes the charge was fixed at 7s 6d a night. The Thames Valley Electric Power Board reported that the electric light could be installed during the school holiand the mat.ter was left in the hands of the chairman and the secretary to arrange. It was decided that the committee run weekly dances on Satin day evenings. The annual meeting of the society was fixed for Wednesday, May 23.

A resident, gf Suva, writing to a

friend in Christchurch,, states that there is a man on the island who has reached the age of 99 years, and who has for years past, in Anticipation Of his death, had a coffin on the verandah of his residence (states the “Press”). A few weeks ago he became ill, and, to save inconvenience to his friends, he attired himself in a stretched himself out, in the coffin, where he lay for a whole day. Ln the words of the Irish wit, he “could not die for the life of him,” and at latest accounts he was still going strong.

. “A lot has been said about the effect on the teeth of the lime in New Zealand water,” said Colonel T. Hunter. C.8.E., Director of the Division of Dental Hygiene, at the opening of the school clinic at New Plymouth, “but tlie Maoris drank the same water and they had very good teeth. The trouble is,” he added, “that people give the bulk of the lime in foodstuffs to the hens so that, they can make eggshells. It should be given to the children so that they can make teeth.’’ —“Taranaki Daily News.”

A lemarkable case of a letter taking over 19 years to go from Midhirst to its destination in New Plymouth is •recorded (states the "Taranaki Daily News”). Mr Rennell, secretary to the New Plymouth Harbour Board, has received a communication addressed to his father, the late Mr Clarence 1 Rbnneil, and posted at Midhirst in January, 1904. The contents are a demand for harbour rates dated August, 1903, and a cheque for the amount plus exchange, dated January 15, 1904. The communication was therefore posted Nineteen years three months and eleven days ago, and the explanation of the log delay is that the letter has only just been found in the lining of the postal box. For Children’s Hacking Cough, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.