THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1929. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5373, 11 January 1929, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1929. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Municipal elections throughout New Zealand will be held on May 1 next. An informal meeting was held i ast night and the matter of forming a progressive association or some; such body was, dis.cussed. It was decided) tv endeavour to have a public meeting called in about a fortnight’s time.

Returns of traffic on the .Bay of Plenty section of the East Coast Main Trunk railway for. four weeks ended December 8 show total earnings £10,782, compared with £10,686 for the previous four-weekly period. The number, of' outward passengers was 6608. The cattle, calves, sehep, aiid pigs carried totalled 10,648.

A motor lorry, owned by .Mr H. K. Petersen, of Kerepeeni, while carrying pigs from Mr W. G. Haywar,d”s farm at Ngatea on Thursday afternoon, broke the roadside drain bridge. One back wheel went through- and 17 heavy pigs wer.e thrown, into the drain.

The thirty-seventh issue of the New Zealand Official Year-book has just bepn published and is to hand. The present number is on the same lines as its immediate predecessors, with considerable additions to existing sections. A special article from the Department of Agriculture contains information collected as a result of a statistical investigation by a special method into the question of lilve-stock production.

Despite the increased competition of. motor traction, the iholidhy returns, of the passenger traffic from the Frankton Railway Station showed an increase ovepr last year’s figures. Excursions to all parts were run from December 14 until January 5. Dur.ing that period 4592 ordinary tickets, returning £1444, were sold- and 3465 excursion tickets producing £2B2L Compared with the Christmas excursion period last year, the revenue from ordinary sales was apprximately the same, but there has been an increase in the excursion revenue of about £4OO.

“Give that girl another year at school if you can, even if you have to put off that motor car,” was the plea made to parents by Bishop West-; Watson, speaking at the prize-giving of the Christchurch Gitals’ High School (says the Press). It was remarkable, staid the Birhop, what a lot the boy or girl learned dur.ing their last years at school. They should not be taken away just because there was a job for them.

The various race meetings, throughout. the North Island are well featured in the current iss;ue of the “N.Z. Sporting and Dramatic Review; 1 ’ photographs at the Auckland, Marton, Manawatu, Wairarapa, Stratford, and Taranaki race meetings providing an excellent selection. The double centre pages depict exciting incidents from overseas, outboard motor boat racing, Oxford University sports, girl athletes, etc. A page of snapshots of the King and Queen and scenes round Buckingham Palace during the King’s illness will be of particular interest to, the loyal subject's, A coloured supplement of Norma Tajmadge is of high artistic and a well-chosen assortment of stage and screen photographs have their own particular nic.he. Snappy seaside scenes pro M vide a charming series, and the New Zealand .tennis championships at Auckland are well portrayed.

The number of unemployed in Britain on December. 31 was 1,520,700. This was 249,578 more than on December 17. Compared with a year ago the increase was 184,397.

Several cases of women and girls disappearing have been reported to the Sydney police of late. Two occurred o,n Wednesday, bringing the total of these ease,s since November 4 to 17.

At the Greymouth trotting meeting held on Saturday last two horses named after successful airmen air» nexed the firs,t two races, —Lindberg winning the first event and Hinkler the second.

Wellington’s rainfall for 1928 was 55.21 inches, the heaviest for, twenty years. Howe;ver, sunshine recorded was 98.8 hours above the average.

The Minister of Public Works informed Mr F. Lye, M.P., that ar-, nangemeyits have been made .to ask Cabinet to approve of the issue of authority for. £2640' from the public Works fund, road vote, for the metalling of the Patetonga through' road. The money will be available shortly to qnable the work to be proceeded with immediately. This should be satisfactory to those concerned, particularly to the Patetonga residents.

At the meeting of the Church Asembly in London, on November 14> the Bishop of Londbn presented the report of the Church of England Council of Empire Settlement, and commended Empire; settlement as an aid in relieving, unemployment and overcrowding. Canada, Australia and New Zealand had room for millions more people. Last yepr the Church of England Council of Empire Settlement .sent out 3000' emigrants, and out of 900 boys only three had been failures.

The owner of. the fowls co,uld hardly believe his eyes when he returned home at the dinner hour (reports the Taranaki Herald). What .was in the morning a pen full of healthy chicks looked like a fowl hospital, for most of ,t;he birds lay on their backs with their feet pointing skywards. One or. two, hardly strong enough to stand, staggered weakly about before subsiding again to the ground. Fearing the chicks had been smitten by some fell disease, the owner made anxious inquiries. He eventually discovered that his wife had mixed the morning bran and pollard with the moist resi-, due from «ome home-made; wine which her husband had latelyl manufactured.

“We’i;e doin’ a. freeze —the only difference is that there’s no snow about,” was, the lament of one sideshowman at the Southland A. and P. Show, who was bemoaning the fact that no one would come to his stall, despite vigorous outpourings that something could' be got for nothing (says the Sosthland Times). Tues,day’s; “crowd” was indeed a poor, one for the showmen. Long faces, as long as the row of side-sho,ws, in evidence practically along the line, probably the only smilers being the “dart kings” and the commissionaire who bellowed through an improvised megapho,ne that “Toto Umptene,” the African pigmy, was “the slight of a lifetime.” They c.er.tai'nly did some “business.”