THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY, 27, 1928. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5244, 27 February 1928, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY, 27, 1928. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The local office of the Public Works Department has arrangements well in hand for the expenditure ®f the £750 on the Waitawheta road. Towards the end of this week 18 men will be given employment, these men comprising twelve unemployed from Waihi and six local men. A party of 25 unemployed is due to arrive at Whangamata. from Auckland by steamer tomorrow, and will proceed to work on the southern portion of the WaihiWhangamata road, between Mr O. Bjerring’s property and. Ross’ deviation.

The trip to Tauranga which a team of Paeroa bowlers proposed to make on Saturday morning was abandoned n account of the rain.

In New Zealand, during the last five years there have been 514 deaths from appendicitis, most of these being young adults.

A mild ssnsationn was caused in Dunedin last week when it became known that the curate of one of the leading city, churches whose household goods had been disposed of. by auction a few days previously, had disappeared, leaving his wife behind, and that his departure apparently coincided with that of a young married woman who was a member of the church choir. The curate is.fe.aid to have been a constant visitor to the house of the young woman, who, 'with her husband, a city business man, lived with her invalid mother.

It.is reported that British scientists claim to have developed a cure for leprosy. This is known as the hydnocarpus oil remedy. It will be used in a fresh campaign, which is shortly to be launched to stamp out the scourge in the Empire.

A dispute over a gold watch and chain, said to be worth £l7, was heard by Mr E. Page, S.M., in the Magis-

trate’s. Court at Wellington when Charles Hamilton asked for an order to have the w;atch, which was held by a pawnbroker named James, William Batten, returned to him, as ib was his property and had been stolen. The magistrate said he was willing to believe that the watch belonged to Hamilton and he would make an order that it be returned on the condition that the pawnbroker be given the £3 which he had lent on'it.

Following upon representations made by Messrs R. W. Rowntree, N. C. Snedden, and P. C. Furley, Mr H. E. Butler, president of the Paeroa Cricket Club, waited on Mr G. H. lor, headmaster of the Paeroa District High School, and asked that the mem--bers of the school teams should be allowed time from school to see the Auckland bastmen in action at the domain last Wednesday. The thoughtful act on the Aucklanders’ part was much appreciated, and permission being granted, needless to say the boys were interested spectators at the match.

As a new Rugby motor-car, driven by Mr Alberhart, of Turua, and containing six passengers, some of whom were residents of Paei-oa, .was returning from the Waihi Beach yesterday evening an accident occurred. The party had travelled only a short distance from the beach when they reached the stretch which is marked a one-way road. In order to allow another motor vehicle to pass the driver pulled on to the side of the road, and had all but stopped when the edge gave way and the car turned a complete somersault over the bank. The passengers were thrown out in all directions, but fortunately the ti-tree held the weight of car up and! the occupants escaped with nothing worse than bruises and scratches. The car was pulled back on to the road by Mr Donaldson, of Waihi, and it was found that the hood .and windscreen were smashed and other portions bent and twisted. After some repairs had been effected the car was driven to Waihi undter its own power.

Good progress is being made with the claying of the Wai'hou River stopbank near Netherton, where, it is to be. used as a road. The Public Works Department’s enormous Ruston steam driven land dredge is obtaining clay from the riverbank and lifting it right over the present road on to the sandbank.

The peat lire in the Torehape district is now reasonably safe for a few days, until the surface of the peat dries out sufficiently, to burn. The firebreak betweeni the flax stands of Mr A. B. McDonald and Mr Ingram was completed on Friday and is now being widened and extended. Beneath the surface the peat is still smouldering, and the fire is by no means safe yet.

The Official Year Book of 1927, recently to hand, shows that the total taxation of the Dominion for the year, amounting to the enormous sum of £17,437,827, has only been exceeded once during the Dominion’s history, in tile year 1921, when the figure reached £22,184,414.

A driver of Messrs Thomas Bros’. Auckland-Paeroa. service par stated on arrival at Paeroa at 11 o’clock this, morning that there had! beep iheavy rain in the city when he left. When crossing the Razorback deviation he came across, a large motor lorry which' was capsized on the roadside. It was learned that the lorry, which was proceeding from Auckland to Hamilton, had! skidded on the clay, and before the vehicle could be righted it went over the side of the road. A woman who jvas riding on the lorry was injured aboutl the body, but as help was at hand and a doctor sent for, the service car came on, accomplishing the journey to Paeroa in three and a quarter hours.

For the first time since the bitumniisng of the borough highways was commenced the work was held up on account of rain on Friday afternoon. A gang was at work early, this mornnig on Puke Road below the Hill Street inter-section, and it was proposed to divert all traffic from the Hauraki Plains via. Hubbard’s and Thames Rioadfc to Paeroa,, and vice versa, but owing to the heavy rain work had to be abandoned and the, Puke Road was opened for traffic as usual.

A wealthy couple of Anglo-Indians, toured New Zealand recently, bringing with them their tame Himalayan rat, Alphonso, as he was called, was put in quarantine at Sydney, and this delayed the arrival in New Zealand. When they were visiting friends (says an exchange) the 'inquiry" waß always made: “Do you keep a cat ?” and, if so, Alphonso was not allowed to visit. In due time the couple returned to India, and the other week the leading New Zealand newspapers contained the pathetic announcement of Alphonso’is death, aged two years and' seven months, deeply mourned.

Oh Thursday Mr J. Langridge, the professional cricket coach, visited Thames.,and spent the greater part of the morning at the high school coaching the senior boys. Ip the afternoon he was engaged on the cricket ground', where he gave valuable instruction and practical, demonstrations to the Thames cricket teamsIn the evening he was the guesif of the Thames Cricket Association at a smoke concert, Mr W. H. Holt, vicepresident, presiding. Four members of the Paeroa Cricket Club attended the function, which wafe; thoroughly enjoyed.

iOne of the chairs removed from the airplane Ao-te-a-roa before the New Zealand airmen essayed the Tasman flight, was offered at auction during the interval in the performance of “RPse Marie” at the Wellington Grand Opera House recently. The bidding was lively, and reached £5O, at which price the chair was “ knocked down.” The bidder returned it l®r re-sale, and £3O was obtained from a purchaser who stated that he wished to retain it and take it to America. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding occurred regarding the fiVst sale, which was void. The second' buyer was afterwards persuaded to sell the chair for £3l to another buyer, who has returned it to be auctioned again' on the understanding that the American buyer shall have tihe right to bid for it again.

The Ngatca Swimming Club’s gala, which was to have been held last Saturday, was. postponed, as the rain on Friday and on Saturday morning had made the riverbank very slippery ani otherwise interfered with the preparations. 'When the, afternoon, turned out tine some forty-odd swimmers were noticed in the river.

The opinion was expressed by Mr E. E. Nalder, chairman of the maniagement committee of the Auckland Cricket Council, that during his 35 years’, active association with cricket in New Zealand and Australia he had never' seen a finer or cleverer exhibition of, wicket-keeping that that given by Mr R. W. Rowntree at the Paeroa. Domain on Wednesday.