THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5166, 17 August 1927, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A petition, signed by 470 residents of Claudelands;, Hamilton East, has been forwarded to the Hon. J. A. Young, asking him to use his influence to have the expresses between Thames and Auckland stopped at the. Claudelands station.

For the year 1926 the rat-catching department of Sydney City Council has cost 44723. The department constantly employed nine expert ratcatchers, who set 47,000 traps and caught 3800 rats at a cost to the council of 12s 6d per bead.

There was an improvement in the weather locally yesterday. Following 011 the rain which fell on Monday there was a frost at night, and yesterday was blight and sunshiny. In the afternoon a fairly stiff south-westerly wind prevailed, and this, combined with t|ie sunshine, did much towards drying up the mud and slush which abounded. Similar weather conditions obtained this morning.

In a paragraph appearing in the Taranaki Weekly Herijld published on Saturday, February 9, 1878, it is stated : “Satisfactory progress is being made with the erection of Mr Paul’s brewer)’ in Queen Street, New Plymouth. The building is being constructed of concrete, and as this is the first building in New Plymouth formed of this substitute for stone, tire experiment will be keenly watched.” .

“Within the past 12 months I have been into two fairly large boot and shoe shops in this city,” said the Mayor of Christchurch (Rev. J. K. Archer) at the opening of the Winter Show, “and I have been shown all kinds of, boots and shoes, but 1 have never yet been asked to buy a. New Zealand-made pair. I think it shows that there is something lacking, a lack of co-operation. We irfiist have co-operation not only between the producers, primary and secondary, but between distributors and those who have to buy and use the things put upon the market.”

Forty-four Auckland motor-cyclists, members: of the Sports Motor-cycle Club, who were taking part in a reliability test, passed through Paeroa on Sunday moroing last. They left Auckland early on Saturday afternoon and spent the night at Cambridge. The schedule provided that they •should leave Cambridge at 7 a.m. and travel through Matamata, Te Arolia, and Paeroa to Auckland at an average speed of 22 or 23 miles an hour. However, road conditions, must have been very bad, for it was well after mid-day—when they should have been beyond Pokeno —when they reached Ngatea. Across the Plains they endeavoured to make up time by breaking tiio rules of the test and the county by-laws, and one rider came to grief at the Orchard East corner and ran into the drain, smashing his machine. He states that he was travelling at over 50 miles an hour, and did not know that the route was round the cornei- till lie reached it. Another rider on a four-cylinder machine blew a cylinder head out between Waitakaruru and the clay, and was walking until picked up by a service car. All the riders got over the clay but lost a lot of time.

The annual report of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company records a successful year’s operations. The butter manufactured last season was 25,772 tons, an increase' of 15.7 per cent, over the past season. Cheese manufactured was 5286 tons, casein 767 tons, and mills: powder 4114 tons. Land, buildings and plant, excluding and colliery, are now Valued at £1,131,221. The issued capital is £1,303,899, and tine paid-up capital £1,000,039. The reserve fund has been increased to £28,585 19 s- 3d. The total average price paid for superfine butter-fat during the season will be 16.17fid.

For Influenza Colds. Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.

“Unfortunately we have a great number of our boys at Porirua,” said the chairman, Colonel G. T. Hall, at the annual meeting of the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association. “There are no fewer than 87 of them there at present, and the secretary visits them every two weeks and distributes cigarettes and other comforts. I havebeen there several times-, and it makes my heart bleed, but they are all well looked after, :jnd better cared for than they would be anywhere else in New Zealand.” Colonel Hall added that there were now in the public hospital 45 returned men, and these also received comforts, and each wfis visitos.! four times a month.

In a colump headed “News of the Week” appearing in the. Taranaki Budget, dated March 9, 4878, is the following terse paragraph: “Another vacancy is likely to occur in the House of Representatives before next session. Mr H. H. Lusk told the- electors of Franklyn that he thought of resigning, as he did not see how, in justice to his family and profession, he could absent himself for HVe months, which was the length of the last season. He thought constituents would soon have to pay their members a salary instead of an allowance i’ o1 ’ expenses. Mr Lusk would be no Ipss to the House —he would be dear at any price.”

Further progress was; made iin connection with the proposal to lay a coat of sand on the football field in the Turua domain, in an effort to countbract the wetness, and improve the natural drainage, at a meeting of tlie Turua Football Club last Monday evening. A contract for the delivery of 500 yards of sand was entered into. A start will be ma.de almost immediately to deliver the sand, but it is intended to wait until the ground dries before spreading it. It was reported that funds in hand for the project were in the neighbourhood of 419.

An advertisement of interest appears in these columns with reference to the announcement of Corban’s, the wine people, of 31 Fort Street, Auckland, or the Mt. Lebanon Vineyards, Henderson.*

Bright new farthings have been issued gratis by a certain firm in Ashburton in return for Ufi; purchase of goods, and as the coins are the same size as half sovereigns,, possessors of these fragments of wealth have been amusing their friends with displays of jingling copper (says the Guardian). It is even stated that an attempt has been made to pass one of the farthings as a half sovereign.