LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 275, 9 July 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Miss Pine's new quarter for music, painting and infant school commences on July 11th.* The annual ball of the local Oddfellows' Lodge will' be held in the Town Hall, Te Kuiti, on Thursday next. Full particulars in our advertising columns. There are strong rumours in the lobbies that Mr W. T. Jennings, M.P., is to be raised to-Cabinet rank, occupying an honorary Ministerial pos.ition without salary. Including senior cadets, rifle clubs and territorials, there is a totaj enrolment of 22,700 in the New Zealand de-" fence forces, an increase of about 2000 for the year. Mr J.- R. Graham, of the Exchange sale rooms, ib establishing a special horse, vehicle, an 9 implement sale in ; the yard behind the mart on the first and third Saturday of every month, the first sale to be on Saturday, July 16th. These sales should be a convenience to our settlers, and no doubt will be well supported. See special advertisement. As showing the progress of land settlement in the Auckland district, it is worthy of note that at the last monthly meeting of the Land Board 76 selectors of 14,836 acres were approved of and admitted to possession, all the holdings being small. Last month's figures in the same connection were 146 selectors of 20,629 acres, these likewise being Bmalt in area. A good percentage of the selectors continue to hail from southern parts of the Dominion, showing that the trend of settlement is still northward. On June 27th the Board offered 35 sections, comprising a total area of 10,829 acres, generally in moderate areas, and all but two sections of 995 acres have been covered by 232 applications. Under the Amendment Act, 1907, the Land Board is empowered to give preference in ballot to persons who are landless, and this power the Board is exercising rigidly in view of the great demand for the lands opened.