LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4593, 27 August 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr F. E. Flatt has been appointed coroner for Paeroa district. This appointment will be a great convenience to the district. A freak calf with six legs was born at Turua last week. Two legs appeared above the shoulder, one at the side of the shoulder, and one beside the hip. The two hind legs were in the normal position,, but the tail appeared where ithe front legs should have been. Speaking at St. Paul’s Church on Sunday evening on the Spiritual Healing Mission, the Rev. F. B. Dobson said that owing t,o the limited size of the buildings, and in order that they should not be filled with people who had come merely out of curiosity, admission would be by ticket only, in order that the tickets may be out in good time, it was necessary* to make application through the vicars of the Church of England on or before Thursday next in the case of those wishing to attend the mission at St. Matthew's Church, Auckland, and a week later oy Thursday, September 6, for those wishing to attend the mission in StPeter’s Church, Hamilton. The drag-line dredge which has been engaged for many months in widening the Puhonga canal will complete its job within the next fortnight. After rounding off the point between t,he canal and the river the dredge will probably be iemoved to Ngarua. Somt months ago, when the Puhonga road became impassable an enterprising business man of Ngatea acquired a launch to enaole him to retain customers along the canal and river to Ngarua and Kaihere. This has proved a boon to settlers, who now receive bread, groceries, meat, papers, and mail regularly, and the sound of his bugle call is eagerly awaited. He reports that they respond to “ Come to the cook-house door " quicker than to more orthodox calls. Mr R. Howard,' eyesight specialist, representing Samuel Barry, Queen Street, Auckland,) will attend at Mrs Crosby’s Paeroa Hotel on Wednesday, August 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.* The vast difference in weather conditions in a small area wap demonstrated on the Plains on Friday evening,' when Turua was experiencing an exceptionally heavy downfall while on the rest of the Plains nothing but a clear sky could be seen. On Tuesday last at the Riccarton races a patron of the sport lost - a banknote for £lOO in the bar. Search was made, but it was not recovered until the morning of the second day of the races (says the ‘‘Sun”),,, when the man engaged in sweeping the room noticed a piece of paper that, had a clean, crisp appearance. It was the missing £lOO. It was worth £2O besides the day’s wages to the sweener. From the location of the note it appeared to have rested there the two days. Hundreds of dry sports must have tramped over it as tjiey slaked their thirs.t between races and collections. The road alongside the Puhonga canal—which is the main road from Ngatea to Kaihere and Patetonga—is drying up rapidly with the present fine weather, but is still impassable for wheeled traffic. A start has been made with the work, of constructing a ’’oad behind the stop-bank, but very slow progress is being made. A temporary bridge has been erected across a drain near the canal bridge so that the route of the new road can be utilised for a short distance. If another temporary bridge were erected farther up the canal a considerable portion of the worst part of the road could be missed. Now that the dairying season has opened, an acute shortage of farm labour is being experienced on the Plains.