LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5428, 24 May 1929, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The committee appointed by a meeting of business men last week for the purpose of further going into the question of making a feature of Paeroa’s first late Saturday shopping night met on Wednesday. An advertising scheme was decided upon, and some other matters were discussed and postponed for investigation. Flags are being flown on Government buildings to-day throughout the Dominion in celebration of Empire Day. The approximate number of poles erected by the Thames Valley Power Board on its lines up to last year was 20,175, and on services 10,950. This year the number of poles erected, excluding replacements, was 20,905 on the board’s lines and 11,556 on ser-. vices, making the total number of poles erected to date 32,461. The total number of poles replaced to date on all lines is 228, or 0.703 per cent. Ten building permits, to the value of £1350, were granted by the Hauraki Plains County Council at its meeting on Wednesday. For building a bridge on the TuruaNetherton road over the Ansford Extension drain five tenders have been received by the Hauraki Plains County Council. Mr W. J. Clare’s price of £228 9s 6d, being the lowest, was accepted. At the meeting of the Hauraki Plains County Council on Wednesday a letter was received from an agent for an American benzine firm asking for a share of the council’s business. The engineer said that the council had decided, as a matter of policy, to buy British motor spirit. Under the present arrangement the council could not buy any cheaper elsewhere, but, on the other hand, it would cost the council something for a man to check the issue of benzine to the various trucks, etc., if it installed a pump of its own. The garage supplied an accurate statement of the quantities issued, and performed a very satisfactory service. Councillors expressed pleasure at the explanation given by the engineer, and unanimously approved of the present system.

“The vagaries of politics have brought about a change of Government, so that we have to bid farewell to the late Minister of Education, the Hon. R. A. Wright,” says the annual report of the Secondary Schools Assistants’ Association. “Although the late Minister did not give us all that we asked,” the report goes on to say, “and though we did not agree with his policy in many instances, yet we must pay tribute to him to this extent : his 'yea’ was ‘yea,’ and his ‘nay’ ‘nay.’ We were never under any misapprehension as to what his opinion was, so that we always knew where we stood with him.”

An experiment with trolley buses, or trackless trams, is to be made by the Christchurch Tramways Board. The line to North Brighton beach, which has always been operated at a loss, is completely worn out, and if the board is to continue running trams over it, it must relay the lines at a cost of £24,250. Instead of facing this heavy cost, with the certainty of a loss, the board has decided upon this experiment. The trolly buses will be driven from the existing overhead gear.