THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5080, 26 January 1927, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

For the week ended January 22 the rates paid at the Paeroa Municipal Chambers totalled £1250. Of this sum over £6OO was paid in on Friday last the final day on which ratepayers could escape, the ten per cent, penalty.

A large number o'f Paeroa and district Maoris left by train on Friday night and Saturday morning to attend the opening of the Ratana Memorial Church at Ratana Village, Wanganui.

The Auckland Education Board has decided that the schools under its jurisdiction shall be open 'full time during the. month of February, and to delete the. provision that if a committee thought fit it could allow the school concerned to be opened in the mornings only, thus avoiding the necessity o'f full attendance, in the extreme heat that usually prevails in February.

With the thermometer almost touching 80 over a hundred people spent last Saturday evening dancing at the Ngatea Public Hall at the tennis and football clubs’ weekly dance and euchre tournament. During the winter months these functions were not well patronised, but as the weather became warmer the attendance increased and now dancers from all parts of the Plains attend regularly. The organisation of the dances is in the capable hands of Mr and Mrs Bertelsen, Mr Ludlow and Mr King supply the music, and Mr Neate is M.C.

The Te Aroha District Co-operative Dairy Co. has been dissolved and struck off the register of companies.

The contract for the sea wall at Thorndon, Wellington, has been completed. The first contract was for a concrete, wall 3429 ft in length and the contract price was £181,794 ; a second contract 'for an extra 450 ft (making a total df 3879 ft) was let, but the price is not given. The area that will be reclaimed is 68 acres, and the wall will provide a base, nearly three-quarters of a mile long for berths for ocean-going steamers, with an average depth o'f 36ft to 40>ft. As the Kaiwarra end the depth of water is 53ft, the total height of the. wall at this point being 61ft. The reclamation is being done conjointly by the Harbour Board and the Railway Department; practically one-fourth o’f the total are,a is dry land at present, and the reclamation is expected to be completed by the end of the next year.

The present season is proving a. very satisfactory one for the; dairyfarmers of the Hauraki Plains. Advice from the various factories indicates that during the early months the supply was very much above that of s'milar periods in previous, years, and although a setback was recorded in November and December on account of the cold, boisterous weather, the supply since then has remained practically stationary, and the total for the season to date is very much ahead of that for similar periods o'f past seasons. At the Hauraki Plains factory at Turua 80 cheeses were made daily early in November. The bad weather caused the. daily make to drop to 72, and now it is averaging 70 a day, as. compared with 66 last year. At the Hui ran Road factory the daily make has not varied for over a month, and is now only five cheeses below the highest total o<f the flush months.

Further heavy rain in Queensland has caused the cancellation df all northern trains (states a report front Brisbane). Burdekin and Herbert Rivers are flooded, while repot’te'fi'om practically all southern centres state that flood conditions prevail. Rain is still falling, with every indication of cont'nuing. Three drownings have so Tar been reported. The town of Nainbour is isolated, being surrounded by the flood.

There was a totalisator decrease of £2317 at the Te Aroha Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday, compar>ast year. The sum o'f £13,127 passed through the machine this year.

As evidence of the interest taken locally in provincial cricket, three inquiries were made at this office yesterday for information concerning the progress of .the Auckland-Wellington ffiatch at Auckland.

Monday was the hottest day experienced this summer at Morrinsville, the maximum temperature being 86 degrees in the shade. So intense was the heat that at least one man, engaged in outdoor work, had to be taken home and medical attention obtained.

The Public Works Department notifies that from midnight on Friday next until further notice the bridge over the Waitakaruru Stream on the Paeroa Pokeno main highway, and situated three miles west of Waitakaruru, will be closed ‘for repairs. The public are, advised to take the alternative route, via Miranda.

The first sitting this year of the Paeroa Magistrate’s Court will be held to-morrow, Mr F. W. Platts, S.M., presiding. Included in the business for hearing is an alleged unlawful carnal knowledge case, one of bodily assault, one charge of driving a motor lorry in a manner dangerous to the public, one of failing to keep to the correct side of the road, and one of failing to keep the terms of a maintenance order. The number of civil plaints total 27, while there are also six judgment summonses, three claims for exemption from military training, and an application for a wine-maker’s license. In the; Warden’s Court six miscellaneous applications are set down for hearing,

Shortly after the Ngatea Tennis Club had opened its chip courts it was faced with the problem of the rapid growth of weeds and grass on the playing area. Various weedkillers were used, but they proved very expensive, and the advice of the Department of Agriculture was sought.. The department recommended spent oxide as obtainable from gasworks, but the club was of the opinion that a mistake had been made in the quantity, as the amount recommended would have raised the level of the courts by several inches/ Accordingly, a lesser quantity was used and the result was not satisfactory. From an old copy of the Journal of Agriculture the club recently learned that oxide in small quantities was a fertiliser, and that a very large, quantity had to be used to destroy plant-life.

Good work is being done by the Franklin County Council on its portion of the Paeroa-Pokeno section of the main highway. Graders, drags, scarifiers, and a roller are constantly at work. The section in the Whangamarino Road Board’s district is badly in heed Of attention, and if something is not done before long the road will need reconstructing. As present the traffic runs on the side of the road as much as possible. The section of the highway in the Hauraki Plains County which was metalled recently is showing signs of wear. It is a great pity that the unmetalled portion df the road is not graded up during the present fine weather, as in its present rough state it will become very bad during the next wet period. On the whole the route through Miranda and Mangatangi is to be preferred to the highway. The clay section is rough, but it is rapidly improving.

Wireless enthusiasts 1 justify the expenditure on their broadcasting receiver by mentioning the amount that would otherwise be spent by their families on other forms df amusement, particularly motion picture,s. That wireless does adversely affect; the attendance at pictures was demonstrated at Turua on a Tuesday night some wQeks ago when IYA, Auckland, broadcasted a special programme as a sample of future entertainments when revenue permitted. The astute directors of the Public Hall Company found that the box office receipts were about £5 below normal, and they immediately set about counteracting the counter-, attraction by making provision for patrons of the Town Hall to hear wireless at the pictures. A splendid six-valve neutrodyne of a well-known make was secured and installed last week-end for use in conjunction with the usual form of music, which, it is recognised, will not be entirely supplanted.

A 'feature that always mars every public holiday is the number of accidents that occur. This year (writes the Melbourne Age.) was no exception—the motor-car, the se.a, the river, all took more than their share. Where large numbers of people are “let loose” from the restrictions Of everyday life such things are inevitable in some degree, but that in no wise detracts from their sadness. In one respect, however, three was an improvement this year: there were fewer shooting accidents. The deadly pea-rifle was comparatively quiet.

All the hill roads in the Hauraki Plains County are now in first-class order, having recently been graded. The bush bend, on the Kaihere-Tore-hape road, is now being gravelled. The Torehape-Puhanga road is also in good orde.r. Notices warning motorists to exercise caution in driving round dangerous bends have been erected along the Patetonga-Waitaka-ruru road.

From 12 to 15 chains of Pouarua Road near the corner of Torehape Road is to be. reclayed, for which purpose a .tramline is to be laid ever the narrow bridge at the corner. This will probably mean the closing of the road for. a period. However, the alternative route around the river to the Kaihere landing is in good order, having recently been graded.

To be able to walk 35 miles at the age o'f 79 years is a rare accomplishment, yet this is an excursion made frequently by Frederick Tayjor, farmer, of Port Charles. At a meeting of creditors recently he stated that every time he visited Auckland he walked the 35 miles from his fam to Coromandel. He also adde,d that he was still fit for a hard day’s work.