THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1925. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4905, 20 November 1925, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1925. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is' proposed to hold a meeting of delegates in Paeroa on December 3, representing the various parts of the. Ohinemuri electorate, with a) view to\ discussing the question of a public testimonial to Mr H. Poland, late M.P. for the district, in recognition of his twenty years' service in the interests of the electors. The preliminary arrangements are in the hands of the Mayor of Waihi (Mr W. M. Wallnutt), * with whom is associated the Mayor of Paeroa (Mr AV. Marshall;). The appointment l of delegates will be made at meetings to be held during the interim.

The Hduraki Agricultural and Pastorial Associaiton is at present negotiating with the bank for a supply of alluvial gold to be used as. a prize for the proposed art union. The promoters of the raffle are confident that when the gold has been secured there will not be any trouble in getting the sanction of 'the Minister of Internal Affairs to raffle it.

It is understood that the Empire Hotel in Willis Street. Wellington, has been sold, and the price is said to be approximately £75,000. The hotel, consists of a three-storey brick building with basement, with frontages ,to Willis Street of 72ft and Victoria Street of 75ft. From this it will be seen that the price of land and building is slightly over £lOOO per foot of frontage.

A remarkable coincidence in connection with the recent election in New Zealand was that ( a fatality seemed to attach to those candidates whose surname began with the letter M (reports an exchange). In the Na;tionalists . the defeated included Messrs Murdock, Moi'|t(on, Milner, Mackay, Masters, McGrath, McCallum, and Macpherson. Of the Reformers, Miss, Melville, Mr Massey, and Mr McNicol were defeated; ajnd Labour lost Messrs Mason, Mcllvride, McClymont, Martin, Monteith, Munro, MacManus-, and Mackenzie, with the seat of Mr McCoombs still in doubt.

“I. am going to grant this discharge from bankruptcy,” said His Honour, Mr Justice Alpers, at Napier on Saturday morning, when dealing with a Maori bankrupt who was, stated to be very lazy, “just to show my attitude towards those Hastings shopkeepers who were foolish enough to grant such a man credit.”

Allotments of shipping space by the Dairy Produce Control Board for dairy produce from New Zealand from November 17 to December 12 provide for the ■shipment during that period of 574,058 boxes of butter and 207,800 crates of cheese. The consignments from Auckland include 399,240' boxes of butter and 43,298 crates of cheese. The largest shipment will be taken by the Corinthic, which a total of 94,000 boxes of butter and 22,800 crates of cheese. The Auckland contribution to this total will be 79,000 boxes of butter and 7000 crates of cheese.

The takings at the Anglican Bazaar yesterday amounted to £l9O.

Mr A. W. Curtis, contractor, Paeroa, has, been ■successful in securing three contracts from the Public Works Department for formation work on the Waitakaruru-Pokeno road, and has already made a start grading the first cutting near Waitakaruru.

Mr J. N. Anderson, assistant engineer of the Hauraki Plains County and engineer to the Horahia Drainage Board, has been appointed assistant engineer to the Franklin County Council;. He will leave for Pukekohe after Christmas.

The road to Auckland is now in good order. There are two or three short stretches of rough clay road in the Hauraki Plains County, but generally, .the road is much better than it was last summer. The roughest parts of the metalled road are from Papakura to the bitumen road at Papatoetoe, and the portion on the Hauraki On the Waitak’aruruMaramarua section of the main highway two big gangs of. men are at work easing the grades of hills.

The steamer lonic, which arrived at Wellington on Wednesday from Southampton, brought 355 assisted immigrants, of whom 120—4'5 men, 54 women, and 21 children—are booked for Auckland. Included in the contingent are sdx public school boys and 46 domestics. There will be only two more immigrant ships this year, the Remuera, due at Auckland on November 29, and. the Ruapehu, expected to arrive at Wellington on December 30, both from Southampton.

'.The Mayor of Waihi has received from the Minister for Education, Sir J. C. Parr, a reply to his, request for a compassionate allowance- for the Waihi schoolboy, J. R. Quintal, who had a leg amputated just below the knee some time ago following on a fall from a bicycle when on an errand foi; Illis teacher. The Minister points qut that while his sympathies are iwith the parents of the lad, he cannot see his way clear to grant an allowance, as to do so. would be to create a precedent opening the way to claims on behalf of any school children sustaining injuries. In Quintal’s case it seemed that the little fellow was sent a message on foot, and in carrying out his mission on behind another lad on the latter s bicycle.

An action has been instituted by Mr Farrow, of Walton, against .the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Co. seeking an injunction from the Supreme Court to compel the company to produce to plaintiff for his inspection the auditors’ report to the shareholders, to restrain the company from transferring money from any one group to any other group, and asking for accounts to be taken to ascertain what moneys have been taken from any one group to any other group.

The contract of laying down ofthree concrete tennis courts for the use of the Ngatea Tennis Club com-, menced on Thursday.

Mr J. J. Ritchie, town . clerk of Waihi, has received a communication from the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. J. G. Coates, stating that the council's request for a grant towards repairing the Waihi Beach Road Jiad been reconsidered, and th.at he had decided to vote a eum of £4OO on the £ for £ basis of expenditure. In the first instance the Minister refused assistance on the ground that the road was essentially for tourist traffic and of little or no- benefit >to settlers, but the Mayor persisted in his efforts, .at the same time pointing out that numbers of settlers used the road, and in his representations he had tlie support of Mr H. Poland, ex-member for O'hniemuri. In the course of his letter Mr Coates touched on the assistance given by Mr Poland. —Telegraph.

The “Grey River Argus,” founded in 186'5 by the Hon. J. Kerr, has, published a special sixteen-page diamond jubilee number. In the first week of November, 1865, among the arrivals at the new township was a young Scotchman of about 30 years of age named James Kerr, a native of Dumfries, and by trade a. printer. Brandy Jacks had already been rushed, and fresh gold finds in the Grey Valley were being made almost every day— Sullivan’s being rushed on the 3rd, Duffer’s on the 9th, and Nelson’S; Creek on 25th November. Mr Kerr immediately saw' his opportunity and seized it. He obtained a partner, a well educated young Irishman named Keogh. Together the two erected, mostly with their own hands, a large tent, or calico hut, ,in which, is now Gresson Street, and there set up the first printing press in Greymouth. They secured the services of'Thomas Woods, a youthful compositor, from the “Lyttelton Times.,” destined- to remain a faithful servant of the paper for nearly half a century. The three energetic men, with the assistance of casual, labour, brought out the first issue (November 14, 1865) of “The Grey River Argus,” a journal which has had an uninterrupted career until the present time.

What, has been the outcome of Queensland’s surrender to political Labour ? The answer. can be given without a deluge of tedious statistics, though these are ghastly from the viewpoint of national accountancy. This is what has happened in radiant Queensland. The railways, which paid handsomely before Labour’s advent of powef", have lost over 11 million pounds sterling in nine years. And tl\e discipline of the staff has gone the same way as the profits. When the Labour Government ignobly capitulated to the railway strikers recently, the first trains to resume running went out with red flags flying, whistling defiantly, and decorated with banners appealing <o the workers to unite with Moscow. The latest report of the State Trading Commiisston'er reveals extraordinary loss-, esi Almost every State enterprise passes its losses on to the future generation. The State mining business :hiis lost a million pounds. And so on. —Christchurch Sun. 1