THE Hauraki Plain Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1924. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4660, 11 February 1924, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plain Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1924. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A special meeting of tlie Hauraki Drainage Board was held at Turua on Friday evening to discuss work to be done during the coming year. It was decided to call tendres. for the cleaning of several outlets, and to ask the Lands Drainage Engineer to inspect, with members of the board, all the drains on which loan money is tp be spent.

Owing to a dredge having its mooring lines across the river above the Ngahina bridge the Tauiwha was unable to berth in her customary position at the Puke wharf on Friday la,st. Ins’ead, she was berthed at the new Ngahina wharf, where her cargo was discharged. Vehicular traffic experienced great difficulty in negotiating the road leading from the Ngahina wharf to the Puke main road owing to the bad state of tlie road for several ch.iins. The bad strip is composed of loose sand, several feet deep, and at the present time it is almost impossible to pass over it with anything like a. reasonable load on. If steamer-, are to be berthed al Ngahina wli.irf it-will be necessary to provide rea'-’onablc ingress and egress tp enable cargo to be handled expeditiously and with a minimum of difficulty and inconvenience to consignees and carriers.

A start was made on Saturday morning by the Railway Department to survey a portion of the Hararahi No. 1 Block, adjoining Aorangi Road, Paeroa, in anticipation of the erection at an early date of a number of railway workers’ cottages.

A poll of the ratepayers of a special area near the Orchard East road on a proposal to borrow £l4l'o for the construction of drainage works was held on Saturday, and was carried ur an absolute majority, thirty-two votes being recorded for the proposal and none against. The polling must have been heavy, as there were only 22 names on the roll.

\pi ague o£ caterpillars causing concern to some of the settlers on the Turua-Orongo road. One farmer noticed that the insect's had got into a ten acre paddock from which he expected to cut 30 acres of hay. He decided to mow it immediately, and worked until dark, but about font .acres remained uncut. By morning the caterpillars had stripped every leaf, and only the bare stalks remained. There were millions of green and black and white striped caterpillars.

A humorous position arose al a meeting of the Hauraki Drainage Di-.linage Board during the discussion on a question affecting the control of the work within the Turua Town Board area. The member representing that area on the board is also chairman- of. the town board, and wa*. instructed to confer with him'self, wl-.ile the clerk was instructed to write to himself as clerk of the town board.

The death occurred at Thames on Friday night of Mr L. W. Parsons, at the age of 64 years. He was born at Kenilworth,-and educated at Bishop Vesey Grammar School, near Birmingham. Subsequently he entered upon a journalistic career. He. arrived at Auckland in 1879 by the City of Agra, and went to Thames in 1880. He was connected with the “ Advertiser ” and “Star” till 1906, being editor of the latter paper for some time. His late, years were taken up with accountancy and auditing. In 1882 he married a daughter of the late Mr J. Ensor, of Thames, and leaves a widow, one son and four daughters.

The purchasing power of the sovereign (expressed in commodities) during the quarter ended December 31, 1923, is given by the Government Statistician as 13s 7%d, a drop of 4d when compared .with tlie preceding quarter, when it stood at 13s 11 %-dThere was a gradual fall during 1923 the March figure being 14s 3%d, compared with 14s 4%d in December, .1922, while in June is stood at 14s O%<L The comparisons are made with tlie worth of the sovereign, in July, 1914,, just before the outbreak of war-

■ Appearing in one of the Auckland daily papers a few days ago was an annourcement to the effect that Mr Missey had promised to give consideration to the local option question for Te Kuiti, which movement was taken up last year in that King Country town by the local bodies. It .will be remembered that the local chamber spent hours at one of its meetings last year discussing the question of local option for Paeroa and framing resolutions to forward to Wellington fo r consideration. The Prime Minister has promised to consider the claims of Te Kuiti at the next session, so if Paeroa is still desirous of securing local option it will, no doubt, he advisable for the members of local, bodies who are interested in the matter to get busy at once and revive the question again, and, if necessary, send a deputation to Wellington to state a case lor Paeroa in the interests of licenses.

The Hauraki Plains has, been enveloped in a pall of .smoke for the past week. Peat firos are raging between Waitakaruru and Ngatea, but most of the smoke is coming over the lii) Is from the swamp fires near Huntly Many farmers are taking advantage of the dry weather to butn off scrub and stumps.

The American steam dipper dredge which has been erected at Kerepeehi was on Friday shifted up the river ot the Awaiti-Piako cut, where it will commence work.

Owing to the addition to the Kerepeehi school not being completed the opening has been postponed until Monday, February 1.7.

During the month of January the es’tite of Edward Gambling, late of Paeroa, was accepted for administration by the Public Trustee.