The Kaipara & Waitemata ECHO With which is incorporated "The Kaipara Advertiser & Waitemata Chronicle" Helensville, Thursday, Dec. 16th LOCAL AND GENERAL

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 December 1920, Page 2

The Kaipara & Waitemata ECHO With which is incorporated "The Kaipara Advertiser & Waitemata Chronicle" Helensville, Thursday, Dec. 16th LOCAL AND GENERAL

The adjourned monthly meeting of the Heiensville Town Board will be held this evening.

A meeting of the Heiensville Regatta Club will be held in the Public Library this evening.

Reminder is given of the clearing sale by the N. Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. at Kaukapakapa to-morrow (Friday) morning, on account of Mr R. Fewell.

A meeting ot local orchardists, in connection with the fire blight disease, is convened for next Tuesday evening, at the library.

A social will be held by the Church of England Ladies' Guild in the Agricultural Hall this evening. Proceeds will be devoted to the Sunday school picnic fund.

At the evening service of the Presbyterian Church at Parakai on Sunday next, Mr Norries will sing " Nearer My God to Thee" and " The Holy Shrine."

The Department of Education has intimated to the Auckland Education Board that a District High School for Heiensville will not be approved at present.

During Christmas week, the Town Board employees will probably be given the job of clearing the main streets of the luxuriant growths of grass, weeds and thistles that at present cover the water tables and border the footpaths.

At the electric light meeting on Thursday evening last, one speaker alleged a" lack of harmony among those present and deplored the fact that the town and country were not working in harmony. Aconcilatory spirit should bo adopted, but'some of those present were scarcely prepared to do that. Another speaker stated that the Town Board were rather inclined to "holdup the big stick" to the farmers.

In common with the rest of their brethren, the Maoris around this dis- | trict are much interested in the Maori " miracle man" of the Wanganui district. One native put it something like this : "My word, what you think of the tohunga. He's making the pakeha sit up. You know, there's plenty of things the Maori knows about that, but if he tells everyone might he be put in gaol. But I went one night to the Spiritualist lit the Town Hall—well, by jove, those fellows should be putin gaol for taking money for telling you all those dam lies. What you think, ehoa?" One Maori from Helensville who has been laid up with an injured back, intends to "give it a go" after Christmas to see the " miracle man." The price received by the local fishermen for flounder and mullet ranges from Is 6d to 2s per dozen, the rate paid by the Auckland Municipal Markets. A representative of the fishermen went to the city a few days ago, for the express purpose of buying some of this fish over the counter at the Municipal fish shop For two mullet, cleaned, of course, he was charged eighteenpence each, which works outa 118s. If this is not a case of outrageous profiteering, then profiteering is just in its infancy so far as this country is concerned. The local fishermen have, during this we«k, received an order for a thousand dozen flounder and mullet, but taking into consideration th« prices paid them, compared vrith those received by the municipal people, they are more inclined to dump the fish overboard than send them to the city. In Wanganui there is a nocturnal visitor who, in the early hours of the morning, arouses householders from their slumber* and solicits whisky, brandy, or some other spirit for an alleged sick husband. The rat-tat of a door knocker or the persistent ringing of a bell at 2 o'clock in the morning has occasioned timid females not a little alarm, while the sterner sex do not lelish having to answer calls at unearthly hours. The visitor is sometimes seen in slippers, without any stockings, and with an ulster, and the glib manner in which •he deceives the unwary has resulted in more than one innocent parting with a flask in his kindly desires to help a neighbour in distress. As many as half a dozen calls are evidently paid in the morning, and whether the sick husband monopolises the garnered spirits is a matter for conjecture.