King Country Chronicle Wednesday, Feb. 8, 1911. LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 335, 8 February 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, Feb. 8, 1911. LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

- - .-♦ ----- I Settlers in the Mapara district are | busy burning. They report good, I clean burns. | There was a sharp snap of frost at j Pio Pio on Monday morning. A con- j siderable amount of damage was done j to the maize and melon crops. _ Simi- | iar damage was done in Te Kuiti. ; Mr Graham inserts a preliminary ; notice of a sale of unredeemed pledges j on account of Mr Terrill. This should J give buyers an opportunity of picking up bargains that is seldom offered ' outside the city centres. Particulars : are advertised. Next Saturday Mr j Graham will be offering horse?, fruit, j vehicles, fowls, produce, furniture, \ etc. Entries are received up till 12 J o'clock on day of sale. j

The next Auckland wool sale will take place on Tuesday. When a settler holds land next a native reserve he cannot compel the Government to fence as he could a private neighbour. The Fencing Act excludes the Crown. The Waikato river has not been so low for a number of years as at present. Owing to the shallowness of the river the punt (the only means of communication between Huntiy or Eastside and the thickly populated land on the west side) has had to cease operations. This is causing very great inconvenience to settlers and tradespeople who have vehicular traffic to cross. Steady progress is being made with metalling work on the Kawhia-Mahoe- ! nui road at the Kawhia end, and the I fine weather is favouring these operai The various contracts of widen- : ing, straightening and preparing the I road for metal have provided employi ment for a large number of men, and ! the road from Kinohaku to the junc- | tion presents quite a busy scene, ! while the road shows the rapid pro- | gress of the work. Last Saturday Mr J. J. Craig, of ; Auckland, was in the district with a : view of obtaining information with j regard to the Awaroa coal deposits. ; He visited Awaroa and ascertained a I large amount of details bearing on ; the position. It will ba remembered | that some time ago an expert visited j the locality with the same object, | and both he and Mr Craig appear to j be greatly impressed with the possi- | bilities of the place. i Dr Zobel begs to notify the public j that he does not attend at Mr Lissa- : man's pharmacy any longer.*

The sheep fair to be held at Pio Pio on Monday next promises to be a great success. It is expected that the number of sheep yarded will be from 8000 to 10,000. Owing to the illness of the writer, ; "Patricia's" ladies' 'letter did not j reach us this week. It will duly ; appear next Saturday. I A poll of the Frankton town district I re rating on unimproved values has j carried the proposal by 70 to 14. ; At the Police Court yesterday morn- ! ing, a Maori named Kati was ar- | raigned on a charge of horse stealing. I Major Lusk and Mr J. Tammadge, i J.P's., presided. Accused reserved | his defence and was committed for j trial to the Supreme Court at Hamil- | ton, on the 28th inst. ! A short time ago the Public Works j Department asked the Mackenize ! County Council to undetake the ex- ! penditure of a vote of £IOOO for a : bridge over the Hooker *at the end of j the Mount Cook Range, on the way to ! the Ball Hut and Tasn'an Glacier. i The Council declined to undertake the work on the ground that its engi- , neer had enough to do. The other I day the Council received a letter

! stating that in consequence of that I refusal the vote had been cancelled. A poll taken at Gisborne on Thurs- ! day last resulted in the proposal to rate on unimproved values being car- ! ried by 474 votes to 279. A representative meeting of sett- ; lers resident along the Waited road was held at Mr Sims' boarding house I on Saturday, when various road mat- ! ters were discussed. Mr F. H. Sims j presided. It was decided not to apply j for a loan for metalling purposes this I summer. Messrs Berry, Ennis and ■ the chairman were appointed as a ! deputation to wait upon the County : Council in regard to road matters geni erally. : About 2.30 on Monday morning Dr ; Henderson's fine new residence at Te I Awamutu with the furniture was to- | tally destroyed by iire, the occup_ants : escaping in their night attire, it is j thought that the fire was caused by ! a heap of ashes outside. The build- , ing was insured for £7OO in the New I Zealand office, and the furniture for ■ £3OO in the South British. Dr Heni derson will be a very heavy loser, as j besides all his furniture the whole of | his instruments were destroyed. The Rev. Father Smiers, who has j been in our midst for twelve weeks j relieving Father Molloy, will leave i early next week for Auckland, having been appointed as chaplain to the I Sacred Heart College, Ponsonby. Next Sunday he will celebrate Mass : at Kakahi and Manunui. ! It is uderstood that the marriage I of Mrs Katherine Pearce with Mr C. IJ. Ryan, J.P., will take place at an ; early date. Mrs Pearce is a niece of Mr E. W. Simmons, and has already, : during her occasional visits to Taumai runui, won a host of friends. Of Mr ; Ryan it is quite unnecessary for us to ; speak. He is one of the best known : men in the King Country. Mr and ! (the future) Mrs Ryan will reside in I Taumarunui. | Last Thursday, representatives of the Clifton County Council and | Whangamomona settlers met in coni ference in Waitara respecting an ! alteration of the County boundary, so j that a smali portion of Clifton should ibe included in Whangamomona. An ! understanding was arrived at without trouble. It is stated on good authoirty that three male teachers under the Wanganui Education Board intend leaving the service this year in order to follow farming pursuits. The reason assigned is that the demands of present syllabus have now become so great, that the teaching profession has no longer any attraction for them. To get drunk, it seems (says the Timaru "Post") is but one way of obtaining work. A well-to-do farmer waited outside the court the other day to see if any of the "drunks" before the magistrate were likely harvesters. There were three of them, and none had money to pay his fine. The farmer inspected the men through the watch-holes in the cell doors and sorted out one man, paid his line, and arranged for his train fare to the farm. The face of one prisoner he did not like, and as the other did not want work the farmer motored away in search of others.