LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 367, 7 June 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS

New Zealand is the modern Canaan —a land flowing with milk and honey —sometimes! At the present time, Te Kuiti is paying Is 4d a pound for its butter, and it cannot get a drop of milk delivered for love or money. The only milk vendor stopped delivery on Monday.

Several complaints have been made of some objectionable ruffian molesting ladies in the streets after dark. Te Kuiti has not suffered in this respect to any extent hitherto, but this does not mean it will calmly stand such practices. If that individual is caught there is a warm time ahead for him.

Work on the new bridge crossing the Ongarue river at Taumarunui is going steadily forward. A big concrete base has been put in, and some of the heavy timber is in process of erection. The bridge when completed will form a vital connecting link between southern Ohura and Taumarunui.

It is stated in Ongarue that some of the Public Works staff have already been given notice to commence on the branch railway works as soon as they have finished their present engagements. The speech of the Minister for Public Works, in which he definitely announced that work would be commenced from the Ongarue end within about a year has been received with enthusiasm at that sawmilling centre, and some considerable transactions in land have taken place as a result, town sections changing hands at enhanced values.

The afternoon goods train between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui on Monday nearly ran into a number of sheep which had strayed on the line near to Taumarunui. The train had to slow down several times while the animalß ran ahead on the track. Ultimately they were fetched up at a bridge and diverted down the embankment. The railway fence thereabouts apparently needs repairing.

Up to the present time, from June last year, 87 building permits have been granted in the borough of' Te Kuiti, of which 75 were for dwellings and the balance for additions and alterations and business premises. The total value of this building industry is about £30,000, and a further expenditure of £4OOO or £SOOO is expected in the near immediate future.

Freehold sections are scarce in Te Kuiti, and the auction sale of such eligible reisdential sites as are being offered on Saturday next at Graham's auction mart on behalf of Mr R. H. Travers, who is leaving the district, should command the attention of buyers. Messrs Mackay and Jones, Sheridan street, are the agents.

Five sections in Totura Survey District will be offered on renewable lease on June 19th, and nine sections in other districts. For details see advertisement.

Mr Harold Jennings, son of Mr W. T. Jennings, M.P., who has been in the Old Country for the last twelve months, has secured a position in the London office of the Bank of New Zealand. In a letter to his father he refers to the terrible privations of young Colonials stranded in London, and states that while attached to the New Zealand court at the White City Exhibition, he came into contact with many New Zealaiulers who were having a hard and bitter struggle. One young Aucklander had tried for nearly eleven months, without success, to get work of any kind at all. Mr Moss Davis, formerly of Auckland, and now residing in London, adds Mr Jennings, had done a great work in assisting atranded Maori landers.

Last Thursday evening, the friends of Mr H. P. Seinmens, of the Union Bank, gathered together to express their gratification at his recovery from the injury sustained by him some months ago, the result of an accident. As a tokan of appreciation, Mr Semmens was presented with a purse of sovereigns. In making the presentation, Mr Finlay referred to the high esteems in which Mr Semmens is held by his friends, and their gladness at his restoration to good healh. Mr Hugh R. McDonald proposed the health of the guest of the evening, to which Mr Semmens feelingly responded.

The rainfall for May, 1911, at Paemako, was: —10th. "50in ; 11th, .Otiin; 17th, .70in; 18th, .35 in ; 25th, ,23in; 2(ith, 2.4-lin; 27th, .41in; 2Sth, .03in; 30th, .05in; 31st, .25 Total, s.o2jinche3 on ten days.- Ine record taken at Mangaotaki was: 11th, ,40in; 18th, .30in; 19th, .50in ; 26th, .26in; 27th, 2.99 in; 28th, .60in; 30th, 4.in; 31st, -Oin. Total, 5.19 inches on eight days.