King Country Chronicle Wednesday, March 22, 1911. LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 347, 22 March 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, March 22, 1911. LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

4 The new Kaitieke County has been included in the Waikato Hospital district. Mr Graham will sell fruit, produce, fowls, turkeys and geese, furniture and many other lines at his Saturday Mart sale. A special meeting of the Boy Scouts committee will be held to-morrow night (Thursday) at the "Chronicle" office at 7.30 o'clock. Inspector Plumner has been authorised by the chairman of the Education Board to make a tour of the outlying districts and ascertain the needs of settlers. The total ratable values of Taumarunui is £119,712, the unimproved value being £63,167. This leaves £56,545 the value of the improvements, exclusive of Government property in the town. The work of taking the census in Te Kuiti Borough and riding was commenced yesterday morning by Constable Capp. On Monday morning Constable Mathew started on the work in the country districts. The following items were accidentally omitted in our report of the Pio Pio welcome social concert last Saturday:—Song, "Down in the Deep," Mr Ward; comic song, "When I was a boy at school," Mr Mitchell. A littlo girl of nine, named Alice Geary, living at Te Kuiti, met with an accident on Monday morning. She was climbing a fruit tree, and fell, fracturing her right arm. Dr Fullerton was called, set the fracture, and the little patient is now doing well.

A resolution by the Kawhia County levying a special rate of 32d in the £ on the unimproved value of all rateable property within the Pirongia West special rating area for providing a loan of £2OOO cor metalling and widening roads, is gazetted. Mr John Garr has established a joinery factory in the premises lately occupied by Messrs Larritt and Young, in King street. Ke is putting in machinery and intends to produce good machine work made to compete with any produced elsewhere. A letter has been received from Mr G. Eiliott, secretary of the Pio Pio school committee, by the Taumarunui school committee, re the formation of a King Country education district. A long discussion took place, and finally it was decided to write expressing sympathy with the movement. Bush fires have vanished, but we are suffering severely from the abnormal drought. Rain, several times threatening, has failed to materialise in and aroun'd Te Kuiti, but at Arapae a heavy fall was reported on Sunday. Locally, tanks are fast drying up, and the outlook is really serious. The work of constructing the Ongarue bridge will be proceeded with immediately. Messrs McLean and Son are the contractors. Mr Gardiner, who represents the firm, has been staying at Taumarunui and anticipates having the bridge up in three months, j although the contract time is nine | months. j The attention of the local authori- | ties in Waitomo County should be | drawn to the large number of vehicles | which travel between Te Kuiti and I Pio Pio without lights. On Saturday j last fully half a dozen heavy five- | horse drays, fully loaded, were on the roaj lightless, and the consequences should a collision occur on a dark night, would be disastrous. Interviewed by a "Chronicle" representative on Monday, Mr C. J. Parr, chairman of the Auckland Education ; Board, said he was glad he had visited | the various districts in the King ! Country as he felt it had done much | good. He recognised these new and | rising districts needed more | attention, and he proposed to make I periodica] visits, say, every three I months.

i Metalling is still steadily progressi ing on the Pio Pio road. The work I really represents much more than ; covering the read with limestone, i Two big deviations have been cut ; through, which will give the road a : better grade and a straighter course, i and much re-grading has had to be i done. The metal has now reached I the nine-mile peg, and beyond that : has been, and is being, laid in patches and blinded.