LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5393, 27 February 1929, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

TJic City of Auckland has 230 miles of streets, and of this length 22% miles are laid down in concrete and 142 miles in bitumen, tar, or wood paving.

The Education Department has suggested that, the minimum time for needlework instruction in schools below grade 3, where only a male teacher is employed, shoiuld not be less than sixty hours a year.

At the conference of the New Zealand Trained Massuers’ Association on Saturday, it was decided to take action against all those practising massage who are not registered.

In another, column'the Railway Department advertises the issue of holiday excursion tickets in connection with the Waikato Trotting Club’s meeting, at Claudelands oln 2nd March, also the train arrangements in connection therewith.

The scow “Rover,” which sank in the Piako River below Ngatea; on Sunday, February 16, was refloated at Towtide yesterday and placed etn the riverbank. a 4in pump was borrowed from the Lands Drainage Department and put into operation, as the pump on the tug Purau could not be used'.

Rain is greatly needed on the Hauraki Plains, for pastures are" drying up and milk production is falling rapidly. in the spring and early summer it. was anticipated that the strong growth of feed would carry through to the autumn, but these expectations have not. materialised, and there is now a shortage of feed necessitating heavy demands on supplementary crops. Water is also short in these districts that have not a supply scheme in operation, and the carting of water has commenced.

A spark from the forge set lire to a stack of coal in the blacksmith’s shop of Mr McTaggart, Ngatea, on Friday last, and at about 9.30 p.m. an employee of the; Thames Valley Electric Power Board, Mr M'anhire, noticed smoke issuing frMm the btiild'ing. The stack of coal was then wel/ alight, and Part of the wooiep wall was burning. The fire was extinguished before much damage was done, there being water, in a 'veil close by.

The .metalling of the Ngatea-.KaL here road has been completed as far as. the top of the Puhanga canal, and the first, course of metal lias been laid on about six chains off the sec.tion along the riverbank to the Kaihere landing, Good pr,ogress is being made with the gravelling of the western section of Torehape Road, and a start has been made with the gravelling of the western end of Kaihere Read. A very thin coating of. gravel is being; laid on Lower Patetonga Road.

Major Sandford, who was staying in Waihi last week, expressed surprise at the growth of dairy farming thereabouts. He considered there was a big future in front of the district as a dairying, centre, and would disabuse an impression in the minds of his farmer friends in Taranaki that land around Waihi was too poor, for farming. Mr Sandford, wjio was for some years associated with the staff of Lincoln Agricultural College, Canterbury, said he would have the information gathered by him broadcasted throughout Taranaki per medium of the Press.

Though some Rugby clubs in New Zealand are preparing to' give the 3-2-3 scrum formation a try-out during the coming season, it is improbable that there will be anything like a general change-over from the traditional 2-3-2 scrum of New Zealand. This is the opinion of Mr S. S. Dean, whose association with Rugby government in New Zealand is too wellknown to need: recapitulation. Mr Dean told a pressman. ,at Gisborne that Mar,k Nicholls’ club, Petoncj intends to adopt the formation which proved so effective against.. the All Blacks in the land eif the Springbok, and other clubs might try the innovation, but there was bound to be a strong and general objection to any official change. It would take a. long time to shake New Zealand’s faith in the scrum which has been associated with so many of the Dominion’s football triumphs.