The Lebin Chronicle. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1918.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 11 May 1918, Page 2

The Lebin Chronicle. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1918.

The Manawatu Times puts the case for a smaller Hospital Board for the Palmerston ciMrict as follows:

The. Minister of Public iHealtli lias suggested that -the local 'Hospital Board Should be reduced in numbers. The Hospital Board, at tile instigation of •Mr J. A. Nasli, has rejected the suggestion. And yet nobody knows better than Mr Nash that the pres-eni Boardl lis absolutely uhwieldy. There' are fifteen members on the Boaird now, and when the Horowheroua members are elected 1 there will be' eighteen or nineteen—a miniature Parliament. The Hospital Board, as it stands at present 'lifts earned the reputation that it is the inot-t unwieldy and wory'; eondiucted local body in the Manawatu district, if not in New Zealand. Yester- - dfiy's proceedings of the 'Board were quite chaotic. THey always are. The meeting got ouiu of (hand oyer and over again, and the reporters who tried to follow its proceedings were driven to distraction. The trouble is that the management or mismanagement of' the Board's affairs rests in ttie hands of a few persons. The country members find it extremely difficult to ikeep in touch with the ramifications of the administration. There as no proper order of procedure and no leadership. Questions are being continually shelved and deferred! and lost sight of and inconveniently resurrected to block progress. I 'The result is that resolutions passed at one meeting aer rescinded at the next, j and hours a/re wasted upon futile discussions in regard to procedure. Mem'beres wrangle and jangle and get no- ! w<liere. WMi a smaller Board at might i be possible to get dlown to «. business I basis. With a larger Board .confusion ! must necessarily be worse confounded. , Under the present regime the hand of the string-puller is ooming m»;e and more into evidence, and, unfortunately •a spirit of town versus country lils developing. The fact that the chairman is an absentee, and suffers from the infirmity of deafness, and finds it impossible to give to the affairs of the Boardi the close attention wihich is demanded at ttois important stage of hospital development adds to the general dilemma. It is part of tlio code of democracy .that representation should- accompany contribution, M * ease in which in the unsellors there % chaos. The fact is thai'; in New Zealand, as far as local ■bodies are concerned, « are governed to distraction. It is « ostein Ji process With a. general men-ger oi foctl control there would be loss waste and more efficiency. There arc altogether too many local lioA.es. The abuse* of tilro ■ present system are epitomised in the monthl yproceedings of the local Hospital Board. Yet when a Minister of tho Crown potato out a wav to reform, his suggestion as aeieefced with contumely by tho ve/ry people who <«» best in a position to realise how nndf futile the prepent dispensation is.

Rev. Hedlcy White, of Otaki, will condiuct tllie Methodic Church .services

at the Century Hall to-morrow morning anci evening.

Tiie Government lias refused to give the price as'kecl (,£4O) per aero for the Wood ostai:o at Shannon and tlio property is to ho out up for private saile.

Cr Monk, chairman of the Horowlienua Comity Council, was nimble owing to .mlisposiUon to preside at the meetwig /;o-dav, and 111 his absence Cr Murray occupied the chair.

Mr Hiniman preaches in the Gospel Hall to-morrow night at 7 o'clock. Tin's is understood to he tile lai-t service ol the present mission, so no drin'bt there will be a very 'ar-ge attendance.

The Borough. Engineer at Palmerston has computed the cost of working a one-horse dray and attendant driver and finds ':liat the. total amounted to £4 16s per week. This includes the following charges: Horscfeed, shoeing, wages, interest on coi-t of horse and dray, depreciation of horse and cjray repairs and renewal of harness and repairs to dray.

Returns submitted to the Horowhenna County Council ait its meeting .today by the British Trade Commissioner showed that 6679 motor cars and, 2514 motor cycles were registered in the Dominion during 1917. Most of the ears were American, 4122 coming from the United States and 1976 from Canada, while only 415 were of British make.

At the Horowlienua County Council meeting to-diay it was decided on the mfn'/xm of' Cr Broadbelt, seconded by Or Murray, "That the Council agree to the subdivision of the McDonald estate as shown on the plan presented to the Council." It is understood Ithat a portion of tlie estate will be placed on t'he market at an early date.

A novel weight-guessing competition has been arranged in connection worth the lied Jersey Appeal to be made 'by ohe Red, Cross: Shop on Saturday next, i'lfe subject being the live weight of Maister Gordon Vickers' well-known pony Paddy. Judges of horseflesh wffl'i no doubt keep a critical eye on the familiar little horse during the coming week.

"You need not do all this ploughing," saiid Mr Perry to an appellant at Palmemton who had, advanced the ploughing as a reason for liie further 'exemption from military service. "Of ooiu-'e yon would , not make as anuoh money if you did not." It as not a question of money. It is a question of feeding tlic soldiers," replied' the appellant. "Oh, you needn't worry* about that" said Mr Perry, 'Y;hey are not feeding soldiers on fat lambs."

Mr A. Varney, National Secretary for the Y.M.C.A., writes as follows to Mr C. S. Iveedwell, hon. seoretaJy of the Levin lied Triangle Fund: "Please accept our sincerost congratulations on the splendid results of your effort. Your total expenses, so far as I can see must constitute a, record for a money raising effort of this kind. It is truly wonderful tliaii you should have onlly expended 30s in raising close on £1000. I wish that all our centres could! show such a wonderful record. We are deeply grateful to the "Levin Chronicle" for -its f-plcndid puhl/teaty work in connection with the effort.."

Messrs Sawtoll and Franklin, m<V:or and. general engineers, announce todiny that they have commenced .business in Levin in the premises lately occupied by Mr Peter Young in Queen st near the railway line. They have both had wide experience,. Mr Sawtoll having been for a- number of years linotype engineer at the Now Zealand Times printing works, and Mr Franklin having held a responsible position with Meslrs J. J. Niven and Co. They are prepared to undertake all classes of engineering and electrical work, and are agents for the Dodge and "Grant Six" cars as well as the Wizard light.

Amongst the remits to be considered at the Provincial Conference of .the Farmers' Union to be held at Masterton on Hay 28 and 29, is the following to be moved by tile 'Levin delegates: That this conference, on beh v alf of the farmers of tlhfe Dominion, applauds the .intent-ion of the National Government, as expressed by Ipie Miniver of Finance, to limit to 6 per cent the rate of interest for mortgaged, and tenders its hearty support to the proposals, and thot practical steps be immecljiately taken to provide, through the various State lending departments, sufficient funds to satisfy the legitimate ncecli- of borrowing farmers ait 5J per cent. The Shannon branch will move: That the Proviaical Executive should) co-operate with the jvarious Chambers of Commerce and local bodies in urging upon the Government the necessity of an early start with the Mangaliao livdro-electric scheme.

At io-day's meeting of the Horowhenua County Council a request was received from the Levin Borough Council that the county ranger be allowed to act in a similar capacity for the he. vin Borough. Or Oat ley ; said there was room for. a great': <fen!l of improvement in the ranging i» the Te Horo riding, but he had no objection to the ranger accepting the appointment to the Borough, provided the County work was done srfiisfactorily. Cr Broadbelt considered tlie ranger could do the Borough work without much increased effort because in going to the County roac>- he had to traverse, most of the Borough . roadls. The Engineer «ud the additional work would rather help than hinder the ranger because he would lie better able to .meet the cost ot benzine, wliich would allow him toIS© of toner to the Te Horo rid.n,g. Cr Kyder said ho was only agreoablo to the appointment on condition that th ® T "" aev attended to his data* in a better manner, and on his motion, seconded T, v Or. Catley, the I*™— was Ranted during the pleasure of the Counc'll the ranger to be asked to gl full attention to tlio County roads, especially Te Horo.

The Miranui mill has clo6ed for tlvvee weeks. In spite of the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of 'cases of apples in cold store in Nelson unable to get shipment, a keen demand exists . for locally grown supplier--. Mi - IX. i Smart, secretary of the Horowlienua Fru i.:.-gro wer>i' Association, reports that all consignments coming forward are being rapidly placed and that several largo ord(ei,s for particular lines will probably 'have to go unfiled. A special interest attaches to the sei'vjices in the local Presbyterian Church to-morrow. A,'; the morning service a tablet in memory of the late .Mrs J. Smellie will be uiweiled by till© Rev. J. White, and an address suitable to the occasion will be given by the minister. Rev. Rawd.cn Hams. Special singing by the choir has been arranged for. In the evening the address will be erl'iitled, "Looking Forward, a word for the tames." The annual general meeting of Che Levin Building Society was held on Tuclday evening. A proposal to convert tlio Society into 'a terminating one was discussed at considerable 'length. hut it was deoided that 'the time was inopportune to make the change j in viiew of tlho , 'iilnsettled conditions, [ the cost of build'iug and the GovernI rncnt restrictions on the formation of ! companies. The matter wa/< therefore deferred for the present. The ■ unsatisfied demand for houses ' becomes daily 'move ,acute in Levin, I and the scarcity causes a great deal of inconvenience, especially when a newcomer purchases a house and turns the occupier out. In one case recently four shifts resulted from such a change of ownership and the "odd man out" eventually found a resting place for his goods and chattels in a neighbouring township. No lews than eight sales of house jiroperty aire reported within the past' - , fortnight and at the present time there are three or four families who harve no idea, where they will obtain residences. If they buy it simply means that someone else goes househunting. In the other crimes (the occupiers have bought tlie property in order to insure themselves against eviction by' another purchaser—a wise pre- \ cauticjn in the present, circtfmstances. The demand for three to fcen-a>cre blocks is especially keen and two of the recent sales come within tfhis category. Enquiries come from all parte of of the country for these small fawns, testifying to tfhe .'reputation of Levin land for such purposes' as poultry-farm ing, .fruit-culture andl vegetable growing. A building boom is predicted 1 as , soon as the price of ma|'x?rial falls to a reasonable figure.