THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5179, 16 September 1927, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is pleasing to report that Hui Bennett, of Junction Street, Paeroa, who was seriously injured in a motor collision on Thames Road on Friday evening last, is making good progress towards recovery at the Thames Hospital. Several X-ray examinations have been made of the right leg, which was badly fractured, and advice received last night indicates that there is every hope of saving the limb.

A first offender, aged '53 years, was charged before Mr H. J. Hare, J.P.. at the. local Police Court this morning wi'th drunkenness in Arney Street yesterday evening. Defendant, who did not appear, Was convicted and fined 10s, the amount of his bail.

A meeting of settlers entitled to participate in the compassionate allowance of £5OOO granted by Cabinet for damage caused by flooding in the Pereniki Bend and Wai-hi Road areas is being held to-day. The obje'et of the meeting, it is understood, is to endeavour to arrive at an equitable apportionment of the grant.

For a position as office junior in one of the City Council’s departments in Christchurch just over 100 applications were received (Ws the “Press”). The successful applicant had to her credit a matriculation examination and a first section of. a Bachelor of Arts examination.

Hauraki Plains has provided much work for Parliament, and will provide more. The disastrous, effect of the Hauraki Plains A. and P. Association’s art union venture which made the association insolvent has brought to light the fact that there is no statutory means by which an A- and PAssociation can be wound up. The Minister has intimated his intention of amending the Act accordingly.

The persistent rumour in the Railway Department as to a proposed staff reorganisation has been confirmed by a prominent railway official at /Christchurch. “The changes will not be in the nature of retrenchment,” hei said, “but in the lower grades of the department I understand that all positions will be made vacant and employees given an opportunity of making application for them. This will give the lower men an opportunity of obtaining better positions, and should mean an advance rather than a, retrograde step for most of our men.’

During the year ended March 31, 1927, there were 40 industrial disturbances in the Dominion, and according to the annual report of tne Department of Labour 27 of them could be classed as unimportant or trivial. The disturbances were confined to coal miners, freezing-works employees, and waterside workers, and in only one instance did the dispute relate to main questions, such as the wages of the workers in the industry generally.

Patching 'of the pot-holes in Belmont Road is being undertaken at present, the repairs being carried out in the cold mix method. The system adopted is to thoroughly clean the holes of all dust after squaring them up. The hole is then painted with bitumen and crude oil, and before this is quite dry an application of 3 /4-ineh metal and bitumen, which has been previously mixed oni a. board, is placed in the hole, filling it to a little above the level of the street. This compound is then rammed down tightly and sealed with boiling bituman, and finally coated with granulated chips. In making the compound the proportion used is eight gallons of bitumen to one ton of metal. The lower portion of Belmont Road was similarly treated last year, and the repairs have withstood the traffic without requiring attention. Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. First aid for coughs, colds, influenza I

On account of the derailment of a goods train at Mahia station, south of Manur&wa, just after seven o’clock last night the Main Trunk trains were delayed. The 10.40 p.m. FranktonThames train, which is due at Paeroa shortly before 1 a.m., was over two and a half hours late in arriving on account of waiting at Frankton Junction for the expresses.

Advice has been received by Mr E. L Walton, solicitor for the Hauraki United Drainage Board, that further proceedings in the appeals against the classification of lands for rating purposes will be taken at the Magistrate’s Court, Thames, on Thursday, September 22.

A particularly glaring case of cruelty to an animal is alleged to have occurred at Waihi a few days ago. A drover was driving a mob of cattle through the town when by some means a heifer sustained a fracture of the right foreleg. The animal is said to have been alwlowefl to lie on the side of the road for six days and was finally destroyed. It is understood that the police have the matter in hand.

From Hastings recently a shipment of no fewer than ten tons of parsnips was railed as an order on a Hastings farmer by a Sydney firm (states the “Tribune”).

A strange theft was perpetrated on a visiting motorist in Stratford (says the Taranaki Daily News). A commercial traveller from Auckland put up at one of the hotels and garaged his expensive car in some premises at the rear. When he visited the shed on Sunday morning to continue his journey he found that someone had removed his five tyres, with their rims and bolts. The car was left on the jack, but a thorough search failed to reveal any trace of the missing tyres. At first a practical joke was suspected, but as no information regarding the tyres could be found the matter was placed in the hands of the police.

Since the announcement of the death of “The Shiner,” stories of his nomadic pranks have begun to pour in thick and fast (says the North Otago Times). One of his best is an attempt he made to secure a jar of whisky from a loc.al hotelkeeper in the days of license. The jar was filled, but as he could not find the cash required the whisky was, poured back into the quarter cask. “The Shiner” left the bar, with the jar under his arm, muttering imprecations against the heartless publican. When he was next seen he was squeezing a sponge, from which he extracted a. couple of good stiff nips. He had placed the sponge in the jar before entering the hotel. On another occasion he went to an hotel with a theodolite to make an official survey of the frontage. He then confided to the publican th?t his building was 2ft on the road line. He was lavishly “treated” and given a handsome sum of money on condition that he “hit the trail” and said no more about it. “The Shiner” was- a well-known identity in Canterbury and Southland, was a most jovial personality and a general favourite of the school children, who extracted a good deal of amusement from him.