THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. Wednesday, May 4, 1910 LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 256, 4 May 1910, Page 2

THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. Wednesday, May 4, 1910 LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The following' was the rainfall at Te Kuiti for April:—4th, .03; sth, .31; 11th .21; 15th .27; 16th, .16; 17th, 0.4; 23rd, .30; 24th, .13; total, 1.45 on eight days. Maggie Papakura, the well-known Rotorua guide, has been asked to take a group of thirty Maoris to England next year. The matter is not yet settled, but will be settled this week, when the agent arrives in Auckland to discuss terms. The Kawa Drainage Board at its meeting, held at Te Awamutu on Saturday, appointed Mr J. A. Young, of Hamilton, as its assessor to the Court, which will sit in that town on Friday next, to hear the claim of the natives for eel weirs in connection with the proposed drainage scheme. The Railway Department has now made arrangements whereby thourgh tickets may be taken out from stations in the North Island to stations in the S.outh Island, and vice versa. The tickets do not embrace steamer fares. Also, passengers' luggage may now be checked right through, including carriage by steamer. The North Island Main Trunk railway, including the New Plymouth section, is more profitable already than the South Island Main Trunk railway. During the period ending March sth, 1910, 339 days, the receipts on 1064 miles of the North Island line were £1,430,002 8s lid, and the expenditure £973,490 17s sd, giving a profit of £456,511 lis 6d for the 1064 miles. While the South Island line receipts for IK3 miies "were only £1,217,537 10s sd, and the expenditure £850,499 0s Gd, giving a profit of £367,038 9s lid.

Writing of trade prospects the"New Zealand Times" says:—"ln the King Country, the slackness of work which threatened earlier in the year has been relieved by a revival in the timber industry. All the sawmills are working full time, and though the output exceeds the demand there is not much likelihood of many of the mills closing down for many months at least. Single men may be discharged so as to smooth the way for those with families dependent upon them, but as there is an enormous amount of stumping and fencing to be done in the district good bushmen will have no difficulty in getting employment." Regarding the appropriation of £IOOO by the Cabinet for the prison reform farm at Topanui, which lies between Otorohanga and Kihikihi, the Minister for Justice (Hon. Dr Findlay), in conversation with a reporter, said llrie money would be devoted to the erection of accommodation for the first batch of prisoners. As soon as the accommodation was available and the prisoners were housed there they would start the work of "breaking-in" gthe farm and preparing it for the advent of a further batch, until the farm was in full working order, when it would be capable of accommodating about 300 men. The result of the establishment of the farm, added the Minister, would be to relieve the pressure on other prisons, and enable the closing of the prisons already referred to to be carried out. On Monday evening at Kelvin House there was a goodly number of young ladies present to form a ladies hockey club. Mr G. Gresham was voted to the chair. It was decided to call the club the "Te Kuiti Ladies' Hockey Club, and the following committee was elected: Misses Boddie, King, Gratton, Bell, Herd, McDowell, Nocnan and McKenzie. Miss Boddie was appointed secretary. The subscription was fixed at 5s for playing members and 2s 6d for honorary members. It was decided to write to Mrs Ormsby re the use of her section in Rora street for playing on. Several matters were di icussed and left over till next meeting to see whether the ground applied for will be granted for the season. The only official appointed was Mr James Boddie, as president. Judging by the enthusiasm shown at the meeting there will be a bright future for the newly formed club.

Though the passenger on a Main Trunk express i 3 carried at a good thirty miles an hour, and reaches Auckland nineteen hour-! after leaving Wellington (says the "New Zealand Times") a goods package consigned at the same time meanders along, with many restful intervals, and concludes t its leisurely trip—allthings being well I with the railway—in about three days. Strong complaints have been made from Auckland regarding the deiay in delivery of goods consigned to Wellington, but inquiries of the Railway Department show that as a large traffic in perishable goods conies to Wellington from the North, the goods tfervice iu this direction is speedier than tfiat Wellington jto Auckland A continuous gervjee exists between the two cities, but there is very little northwards traffic, and small packages going jn that direction are frequently sent on by mixed passenger trains. The main goods traffic along the new inland route is from Wanganui, the enterprising merchants of that city having j long cultivated this developing district as far as Raurimu. '