THE Hauraki Plain Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1924. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4661, 13 February 1924, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plain Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1924. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Shortly before 8 o’clock, this morning light rain fell. A heavy downpour would be particularly welcome, and its value to pastures, root crops, and gardens inestimable. The whole country is very parched, and and peal fires have been raging in the district for weeks past, adding heaf to the atmosphere and making .it hazy and smoky. The last occasion on which rain fell in Paerpa was on Monday January 30.

During his visit to the Paeroa school yesterday morning the Hon. C. J. Parr commented favouyibly on the splendid ventilation of the various classrooms, and “commended the headmuster. Mr G. H. Taylor, on the clean and orderly appearance of the school generally, remarking that it was splendid to see the work being carried out under such healthy conditions.

A few interesting factsj concerning tile early history of the Waikato are mentioned by Mr El Earle Vaile, of Waiotapu, in a letter to the N.Z. Cooperative Dairy Co., Ltd., expressing appreciation of the company’s booklet. “The Empire’s Dairy Farm.” Mr Vaile mentions that in 1896 he sold the land adjoining the Tamahere station (now Matangi, where the glaxo factory is), fenced in and in grass, for £2 per acre. The “Brierley’’ estate of 1000 acres adjoining, with a kauri house that cost £lOOO, and outbuildings, was sold at £2 os per acre on very easy terms, and the sales even at these very low prices were not easy to effect. These figures of nearly thirty years back are very interesting when compared with the high values ruling to-day in the same district.

Speaking to the junior clasts in the f secondary department at the Paeroa High School yesterday the Hon. Mr G. J. Parr said that it ,was 40 years this month since he and Mr H. Poland had entered the Auckland Grammar School both having won scholarships which enabled them to enter the school.

Judgment for plaintiff by default was given in the following cases at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Mr J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M.Commissioner of Taxes v. J. Parrett, £6 12s 10d, costs 19s ; D. McWattersi v. W. Sheehy, £lO 12s lid, costs £2 10s ; W. R. Dales v. A. T. Simmons, £1 13s 6d. coi-ts 12s ; D. McWatters v. P. G. Gallagher, 14s Ild, costs 8s; D. McWatters v. H. J. Tietjens, £2 14s Bd, coifs £1 10s 6d.

When being shown the school gardens yesterday morning the Minister for Education, The Hon. C. J. Parr, expressed pleasure at the work that was .eing done, and said he considered that class of work tc be of far greater importance than manual training for pupils. He was pleased to see that an effort was being made to propagate New Zealand trees and shrubs in the school grounds, and displayed keen interest in a healthy young kauri tree that had been planted by Mr D. W. Dunlop, who was head - master in Paeroa a number of years ago.

At the Magistrate’s Court at Paeroa yesterday a young man named Reginald Thomas Shaw was ordered to pay 10s 6d per week towards the support of his illegitimate child. He was also ordered to pay £l9 14s costs.

Before leaving for Waihi yesterday the M ; nister for Education congratulated the school committee on the good work carried put in improving the school grounds. Mr Parr said that it was very gratifying to see any committee making an effort to better and beautify its grounds, and in this respect Paeroa had certainly done good work.

A party of Balclutha motorists had a rather curious experience (reports a southern paper). While returning homeward from the country they came across a car which bad got off the road and down a bank a short distance to the side. The Balclutha driver went on a little way and stopped his car at the top of a rise, walking buck to proffer aid. This was gratefully accepted, and the sufferers were working away at the front of the derelict car when, bang! was heard, a crash at the back. It was the good Samaritan’s car blown back down the road by the force of the wind and over the bank at precisely the same spot where the first motorist had come to grief. It took twice as long to get two cars up the bank, but neithei was appreciably damaged.

The establishing of a telephone exchange at Te Uku, in the Hamilton district *will shortly necessitate the termination of the services of the present postmaster ,Mr E. C. Moon, an officer unique, in the postal world (says a local paper). Mr Moon has not the use of; his hands, and is unable to “walk, but for nearly thirty years he has conducted the work of his post office steadily and satisfactorily. Writing he performs by means of his feet—his feet are his hands, as it were, in all things—and though in dealing with mail work Mr Moon has had the help of an assistant, he has personally dealt with all money order, postal note, and savings bank work, as well as with the general clerical work of the post office. Who is the youngest regular volunteer milker in the Dominion ? Mawheraiti has an example hard to bent fsays the West Coast correspondent of the “Christchurch Press”). The three-year-old son of a wellknown local fanner' milks a heavyproducing cow twice daily. He not only bails up the cow and leg-ropes it, but also feeds and paddocks the animal. They appear to have formed a strong mutual attachment, and it is stated that on one occasion, when the boy was absent through illness, the cow almost ceased yielding milk, although it was in the middle of the season.