THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 23 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5092, 23 February 1927, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 23 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A "farm of acres at, Mangatarata was put up for auction at the Farmers’ Co-operative Auctioneering Company’s Ngatea sale last week but failed to secure a bid, although it was offered at as low as £4 an acre.

In response to representations made by Mr A. M. Samuel, M.P. for. Ohinemuri, the Minister of Public Works (Hon. K. S. Williams) lias approved of the authorisation o'f an amount o'f £520 on a £2 for £1 basis for expenditure by the Waihi Borough Council on the Waihi Beach road. The expenditure of this money will be helpful in some measure in relieving unemployment, which is stated to be somewhat acute in Waihi.

“The average tourist who comes to New Zealand from Australia as a rule leaves about £55 in the Dominion. Multiply this figure by the hundreds, of tourists who make the trip annually and you can form some idea of what such traffic means to the country,” said Mr. W. R. Blow (New Zealand Government Agent, Sydney), who is at present :>n a visit to New Zealand after an absence of four and a half years, iit the course of an interview at Christchurch. The average tourist left about £BO or £9O. he continued, of which about £25 went in steamer fares, the balance allowing him to spend some three or four weeks in both Islands. —Evening Post.

A slight mishap pccurred at the Ngatea bridge* on Monday morning, when a scow carrying poles for the Power Board’s lino to Kaihere became caught in the fendej- piles. Little damage was done, but traffic ewer the bridge was held up for a period until the scow "was released.

A man seventy years of age was taken to Hobart Hospital very sick last month. He did not know what was the matter, but he had been writhing with severe pains 'fur. days. Diagnosis indicated a "foreign body,’’ and after the operation the old patient was questioned about, his meals. He remembered having eaten some rolled beel some days earlier. That was the secret of his trouble. Dr. V. R. R. Hatten had removed a piece of wooden skewer 2% inches long. This was the third time the hospital had treated patients who had swallowed bits of skewers with the Sunday roast.

An amateur party o'f deep-se.i anglers from the Hauraki Plains found, during the .week-end. that catching a shark with a ihandjine is not as easy a matter as they had imagined (says the Thames Star). S<ime distance out from Tapu a sinister looking fin was sighted about 30ft, fr : in the launch. Amidst cri.'s of "it’s a swordfish,” "Must be a mako," one of the party feverishly threw a schnapper-baited line in the direction o'f the fish, which took the bait, and made off at a tremendous pace. The line was rather short, however and its bolder twisted it round the woodwork of the boat i l ' order to ea-e the strain on his blistered hands. At that moment the launch began to rock violently and the huge fish dived right under it, dragging the boat down at the stern. One of the party managed to twist the line in the desired direction, but it, became entangled in some wordwork. In the height of the confusion another member slid into the water. He managed to clamber on board just in time t,. see the woodwork and line severed with a bl'w front an axe, which allowed the fish to escape, to the intense relief of the anglers, who say they will do their deep-.sea fishing from the depths of an armchair ami the newspaper stories of its thrills.

“He has always been known in the district as ‘Tom Mix,’ and he has been worshipped by the children,” said Mr McGregor to Mr Justice Stringer at Hamilton yesterday,, when Frank Hubbard appeared for sentence for breaking and entering and theft at Patetonga. Counsel commented on the prisoner’s resemblance to Tom Mix, and said his downfall had been brought about by attending pictures. He was engaged to a Mm rinsville girl, but he was held in such high esteem by her parents that it had been decided not to break it off, despite the offences. The judge admitted accused to probation for two years, and ordered him to refiain ’from attending pictures.

Benefit entertainment, Thursday, Marclt 3*

A plea; by Mr A. Sando l< r the abolition df compulsory homework found favour at a meeting of the Wellington School Committees’ Association on Monday night. Mr Sando considers that although compulsory homework should be abolished, headmasters should give special home study to scholars in those subjects in which they are backward, but such work should be of a restricted nature, and occupy only occasional hours.

Since the mention last week in this column cif an incident at Turua of a motor-car being driven through the back wall of a. garage t.hc Hauraki Plains County official who examines applicants for motor drivers’ licenses has 'facetiously complained that such mishaps reflect on his integrity. Were the inspector te learn of all the mishaps that occur to Hauraki Plains drivers whom he had certified as competent to handle a motor vehicle he would probably wonder if there was anyone really entitled to a license. On Monday the following ipcidents were seen or heard of: A man’s foot was run over by the wheel of a car driven by a professional man, a grocer’s van ran over and killed a dog, a service car backed into a perambulator, a motor-cycle and sidecar capsized into a drain, and a farmer backed his car out of his garage and into the drain on the other side of the road.

A painful accident befell Mr Patterson, mechanic in the Turua garage, on Monday afternoon. He was cleaning the top of an accumulator when the hack-saw blade he was using snapped, throwing some supphuric acid into ihis eye.

At the Ngatea saleyards on Monday a group of farmers were discussing the payment of dog tax, and it came about that a tally of the dogs present was made. ,Of the seventeen dogs seen only seven were wearing collars, an it was known that some o'f the collars were not last year's.

Two blocks of second-class land are declared in the latest issue of the N.Z. Gazette to be open for sale or selection on March 28 next. One block of 305 acres, of which the capital value is £l5O, is situated about 10 miles from Patetonga and 25 miles from Morrinsville, and is of poor loam resting on a clay foundation. " It might prove suitable as a run-off for a wet section on the Hauraki Plains,’ states the Gazette. The other block is of 333 acres, and is situated on the hills about six miles from Waitakar.uru township, and there is a store and post office (presumably Mangatarata) one mile distant from the section. The section comprises hilly scrub land, and about 20 acres have been cleared and gr.assed.

A clearing sale, on behalf of Mr O. C. Dunlop, is to take place at Net,herton on Tuesday next March 1. This sale was advertised to take place on Monday, but owing t;i the Te Arona races on that day the date has been altered to Tuesday. The N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. will conduct the sale, and will offer the whole of the live and dead stock of Mr Dunlop. Particulars are advertised.*

“ Some people do n ; 't believe in adv'crtis'ng at all,” said Mr Tauo Fama in his lecture to the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on Monday. “ They are like the young mail who winked at a pretty girl in tjie dark to attract her attention. There are others who think because they have been in business for thirty years that they do not need to advertise. Let me tell you that there is a church not far from here which has been built nearly forty years, yet they still ring the bell bn a Sunday.”