THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1928. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5226, 13 January 1928, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1928. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The heavy pall of smoke Which has hung over the town during the past few days increased in intensity yesterday afternoon and evening, indicating that the peat swamp fires in various parts of the. Hauraki Plains are showing no signs of decreasingOn the Karangahake Mountain a large fire was visible last night, while there was another large fire on Puket awa Hill, on the Coromandel Range, behind the. Paeroa water supply catchment area. During the last few .day 6 there has also beqn rather an ex-* tensive; fire in the Karangahake Gorge, and last night it was burning fiercely alongside the, road. A large area, of beautiful bush has been destroyed by fire in the district this summer, including an area, at the 'head of the Waitawheta Valley.

Steady progress is heiiig made with the erection of the Criterion traffic bridge trt Paeroa. On the Te Aroha side one 30ft span ofl reinforced concrete has been completed, together with the necessary drainage and wheel-guards. The steelwork and reinforcing for the. second 30ft span is new in position, and the concreting of the span will probably be completed td-day. The riveting of one of the 60ft main spans is finished, and good progress has been made on the second one. AH the. material required to finish the bridge is now on the site, and it is anticipated that there will be no delay from now onward. Two gangs of! men, both of which have been inewsed lately, are now engaged oh4he job.

The final tennis match of the Howell Williams Memorial Shield eliminating round will be played at Kerepeehi to-morrow, when the Patetonga. team will play the Kerepeiehi team.

It is understood (states the Waihi Telegraph) that a well-known Auckland citizen interested in gold mining will leave shortly for the Uniteid States -of America to endeavour to raise capital there for mining propositions, including certain oif the claims recently pegge l out in the Karangahake distret.

At Dunedin the other day a middleaged woman was charged with being an idle and disorderly person. She entered a plea of not guilty. The case was described as a pathetic one. The. defendant had a craving foil' drink which she could'not resist. In reply to thq police she stated she held a. B.A. degree and ihad held several positions in State and private schools. She had been working as a. weaver in the Roslyn Mills. Accused was remanded for medical examination.

Private advice from Pukekohq is to the effect that on account of the dry weather feed for stock has become so short that cows are being dried off. Many herds are bqing milked only once a day.

Fine, dry weather continues to prevail locally- The barometer has fallen nearly a point during the’’ last 24 hours, but is nohv steady at 29.9 degrees. The temperature in the shade at 11 o’clock this morning was 65.5 degrees.

The name of Mervyn James Taylor, a pupil of the Paeroa District High School, appears in the list of names of candidates who reached the -standard qf qualification for the Jun’or National Scholarship, 59% per cent. The marks he obtained were 507. The, highest marks in the Auckland Education District, 599, were gained by Nancy Heddon Coates, a pupil of the Epsom Girls’ Grammar School.

Owing to the work of clearing the debris at the headrace at Horahora power station, consequent upon the hydro-electric operations at Arapuni, the Thames Valley Electric Power Board has received advice from the Public Works Dephrtment that the supply of electricity will be cut off for six hours on Sunday, from 9a.m. until 3 p.m.

Soldier settlers of Orongo are burning off the tall fescue, on the hundreds of acres of unoccupied Crown land beyond the settlement. The idea ia to set the grass alight when the wind is in a suitable; direction and {burn the fescue from around the abandoned farmhouses and sheds, so that they will not be destroyed in the event of an uncontrolled fire. Thei fescue is now ergot infested, and the new grass which will spring up in a week or so will not be so bad. By regular burn’ng the settlers hope to .have a growth of young fescue available for winter feed. It will be very popr feed, but the soldier settlers cannot afford to pay for grazing, and the nature of the soil on their holdings is, such that it is imperative that no stock should be carried in wet weather.

Speeding by motorists on the Great South Road during the holidays was the subject of a report made by the traffic inspector to the Papakura Town Board. The inspector said: the numbers of 43'5 motorists and 89 motorcyclists had been takqn for speeding during this period. It was decided to take action against the offenders.

The dried milk plant at the Te Aroha We,st factory has been sold to McLaren’s Gelatine Cbmpany and is now being dismantled for removal to Christchurch. The plant was, brought to Te Aroha West from Bunnyt'horpe about four years ago, and since, then no use ihas been made of it.

The return from the; Waihi Gold Mining Company from July, 1890, to December, 1926, totalled £15,115,428, out of which £812,620 was paid in income; and corporation profits taxes, while £5,470,352 was distributed amongst shareholders. During the year 1927, there have been regular retuins. each month, and dividends totalling 2s per share were paid.

Jack, of Putney, a dog who saw war service in Flanders and was, wounded times, has just celebrated his twentieth birthday. He had a birthday party, with a cake surmounted by 20 candles. He sat at the head of .the table, and, with his mistress holding the right paw, cut the cake himself with a silver kn'fe. There were seven guests, six suman beings and one dog, Moo, a PekingeseJack had three slices of cake, and afterwards presented 'each of his guests with a silk handkerchief. He went out to Mons with his former master, a major in the 12Uh Lancers, in 1914, and served three years at Mons and Ypres, where he killed over 1000 rats in the British trenches. His master was killed at Mons in 1917.

“If what L have eaten in the hotels in tihis country is a sample of the bacon they propose to export, well, they will never sell it. I haven’t tasted a good bit of bacon since I have been in New Zealand ; it is absolutely vile.” These were the remarks of Dr. L. Harding, of Manchester, who is visiting New Zealand to investigate the possibilities of utilising the, food products of whey, speaking in Hawera the other day (says an exchange). He said tlie reason for this inferior bacon was the improper feeding of the pigs. It was quite, impossible to feed a bacon pig on whey and grass, as was done in this, country. “Unless you can get cheap grain or millers’ offals you will never get good bacon,” he said. '