THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1926. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4956, 26 March 1926, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1926. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In order to obvia.terthe ‘‘necessity for large classes the Education Board has ..temporary appointment of Nathan to the Paeroa District Hiph-’School. Miss Nathan, who has five years’, teaching experience, t.ajtes up her new duties after the Easter holidays. The telephone exchange ■' hours, at Waihi are to be extendell,. and in future" the town will- have an 18-hourS service, the exchanger opening, at 8 a.m. and closing at midnight. The subscribers in,"-Waihi, including Waihi Plains, and Beach' Rbad, total 173. Of that number the '.farming community represents - 30. \ ; - Commenting on the recent accident to the two motor buses in the Karangahake Gorge, a visitor‘to .this office suggested that it; might be a good pjan if it could be . arranged for all traffic from Paeroa to Wajhi to. turn, to the,. IM on reaching the old Mackaytown liotel and use Rahu Road, and traffic from Waihi to Paeroa to use the pre\ sent main roatl through the gorge.* He considers that i* tills, practice could be adopted there., would be-.no need for vehicles to pasjs in the gorge. It is understood that Rahn Road’is metalled; and . strikes- the -main ■ road, again about half-way between Waikino and Karangakake. - > ,■' --

The takings at the Orongo ferry on Saturday last, the day. of the Thames, trotting races, are said to have amounted to over £5O, a sum which constitutes a record for any r one day. Numerous'cars and buses from Auckland went back to the Wharepoa ferry on account of the congestion and consequent delay, but owing to the state of . the roads in the Thames . County •the motorists express a doubt as to whether any time was saved. ’

On Wednesday afternoon the scaffolding in front of the new municipal office in Normanby Roa.d was removed, disclosing: a solid little structure with an attractive front appearance. The contractors have nearly completed this building, and it is) possible that it may be really for occupation towards the middle of next month.

The first scovvload of the 2500 yards of red metal recently ordered by.-the ■ Hauraki Plains County 'Council forthe;maintenance of tntf met|alledroads, in the county arrived at -Ngatea on Monday last, but as no notification of< its arrival had been received, no preparations for unloading, had been, made, and it was accordingly diverted to the Pipiroa ferry work. The' metalled roads df the county have deteriorated very' much during the past summer, and are. now in a rougher state'than ever before. Some of the red roads, almost require scarifying, and reforming on account of the lack of maintenance. 2500 yards of metal due to arrive shortly will not go very far, but it is all that can be’ afforded out of the general rate available.. A rapid deteriorationin the state of the roads Was predicted. by' the engineer when the rates were being struck unless they were increased.sufficiently to permit of adequate maintenance. Despite this, many: of the councillors were not brave enough to have the genera!rate for their ridings increased .to the -amount advised,, and the inevitable result of parsim,qnv' has followed.

The Railway Department calls attention to an advertisement which ap-; pears in this, issue regarding holiday excursion tickets and train arrangements during the Easter holiday peribd. ,

Work on the construction of-’the approaches for the'ferry over the Piako River near Pipiroa is proceeding as fa'sit as possible, but is being delayed somewhat by the non-arrival of the timber for the ramp and the railA 'Che ear.th formation on both sides of the river ijs practically completed.

: A course of first-aid le'ctures isi now being given thd pupils of the Ngatea District High School by the local doctor.

Members of the Paeroa Croquet Club played an enjoyable inter-club match with Thames on. the local lawn on Wednesday afternoon. /The visitors ha,d little difficulty in defeating the home team.

’ It was, to be expected that after the accident on the night of the Paeroa races, when an Auckland char-a-banc ran into a horse on the road near Ngatea and was’ badly damaged, an effort would have been made to clear the roads of straying stock, but such has not been the l and on Wednesday night a car ran into a mob of horses on the Kerepeehi-Ngatea road. No damage was done in this, case.

The Ohinemuri Acclimatisation Society has received a consignment of 50 4-months-olid purebred Mongolian pheasants from Mr A. Dobson’ts game farm at W.hangara.ta, through the Auckland society. These birds were taken charge Of on arrival ,at Paeroa by Mr G. Stembridge, and have been divided into small groups between the settlers and liberated on the Wirihana estate, Netherton.

The solemnities in connection witn Palm Sunday, which have been customary tor over twenty years at St. Paul’s' Church, will be observed as usual on Sunday next. There will be a celebration of the Blessed Sacrament at 8 a.m., mattins and sermon at 11, and evensong and sermon, with “The Story of the Cross,’’ at 7 p.m. At the latter service Mr Harold Hill will sing the tenor recitative and air "0, wa,s there ever loneliness dike His, from the ol'atoria “Olivet to Calvaiy.

Further rajn commenced, to fall locally last; night, and‘has continued steadily up to the time of going to press. The downpour is particularly welcome, and will be the means, of adding considerably to brighter prospects • for winter pastures for stock. The ground being warm, the rain will have a very beneficial effect on growth.

The remains or the steamer Kar.u, which was wrecked at Cape Maria Van Diemen last month, were sold.by public auction at Auckland this week. The wreck and contents were knocked down to Mr W. Wright, of Onehunga, ’for £2O. The buyer,- it seems, will have a difficult task in salvaging anything, a.s the Karu lies in an. exposed position. Should luck attend his venture, however, he might easily a substantial turnover on ,hisi small outlay.

Sunday next,, March 28.—Paeroa Presbyterian Church services, 11 a-m. and 7 p.m.; Netherton Hall, 2.30- p.m. Preacher, Pastor Clark. Newcomers .and visitors heartily welcomed.*

■“This . practice .of ' nominating a whole string of vice-presidents, without Reference to them, simply in' the hope "of getting .a donation out of them; is like painting- names on a jam tin—it’s an honour neither to' them nor to. the club,” said Mr .'J. Loughlin during the election of officers at'’the. annual meeting ot the Hamilton Kennel. Club.

The. minimum number of shares in the Turua Hall Company, Ltd., have been subscribed, and the provisional directorsi will now be able to proceed to allotment. I.t is said tjiat everyone in-and around Turua with the exr ception of about half a dozen: has ijaken up shares. The highest application was for 250 shares and the lowest for four. Half-a-crown is payable on application and the same* by. annua! calls. ; Despite strenuous attempts to stop ■the ‘fire: that is raging in the peat land Vouth of Patetonga it is rapidly spreading and doing a large amount of- damage. ■ Hundreds of acres, of flax'have .been burned during the past week. \ The silied on tiie Kopuarahi wharf dropped- into the Piako. River early on Wednesday morning. A settler of the district! had eight tons of basic slag landed from the Auckland steamer on Tuesday, but as this was left on' the 'wharf, where it obstructed the landing of road, metal for the ferry 'approaches, sotoe five tons of it were shifted into the shed -on Tuesday afternoon by county employees. Fourteen hours later stringer under the shed 'measuring 14in by. 4in broke, and the shed, decking,-and manure now lie at the .bottom of the river. A The new bridge over the Waitete stream on the. ma.in Waihi-Paeroa road was opened for vehicular traffic yesterday, but the approaches still require straightening up. It is. two. years' s,ince the old bridge, was sjwept away by the weight of logs and deffi’is, brought 'down stream by. the 1924 floods. The present structure is, however, not likely to meet the,same fate? even should there come 'a. record fresh, as it stands well above the point reached by- flood-water in the past, and is much more strongly con-' str acted than was, the old bridge.

A start was made yesterday morning with the formation of the footpath on the post office side of Normanby Road from that bui’ding-to a point near .the Commercial Hotel.

It,is. rumoured that an arrest has been made in .connection with the recent, burglary at Patetonga,, but so far it has not been possible to obtain confirmation of the report.

Play in the Hauarki Rlains Tennis ; Association’s handicap tournaments is proceeding very slowly, or else the results are not being forwarded to the se'creta,ry. So few results, have been received that it is not yet posisible to make the draw for the next rounds.

At-last iiigrit’s meeting o® the Paeroa Golf Club .the question of securing the services-of a coach for the ensuing season was referred to the committee,’ with the recommendation that one be engaged tor a week.

Although, a big quantity of metal has been accumulated on the hank of the Waitakafuru-Maukoro canal, and scowloads are arriving regularly, a start with the spreading on the road has not yet been made. •'