LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1657, 4 January 1917, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A private message received in Palmerston indicates that our 17th Reinforcements are staying in Erigland during the Avinter. The Queen of the South with general from Wellington,* arrived at 5 o’clock this morning. She will sail again for Wellington to-night with a cargo of hemp. The usual New Year Eve pranks of lifting off gates,etc., Avere indulged in by some “young bloods” locally on Sunday night, but no serious damage was done. A party of Maoris 'from Motuiti scranaded residents late on Sunday night and early Monday morning. A verse of “Its a Long Way to Tipperary” was sung both in English and Maori, and the inmates of the dAvellings were greeted by their coloured brethren AAyith the Avish for “A Happy Ncav Year.”

It Ik reported that the Mines .Department’s prospecting operations at Charming Creek, near Seddpnville, are proving highly successful (says the Westport Times). The first shaft sunk lias disclosed a 20ft seam of coal. Samples have been sent to the Government Laboratory at Wellington for analysis. A second shaft is being sunk.

From all parts of the country (says the Oamaru Mail) there is heard a call for rain. The continued hot, dry weather has been the cause of a considerable transformation in the appearance of the country, the grass everywhere beginning to put on a burned-up appearance. This is not confined to the low country farms, but extends to the back country, and rain is absolutely necessary to arrest the process of disappearance of feed.

The Mayor of Gisborne has received the'folloAving letter from the secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department: —“In reference to your letter of the 6th instant, asking that, in the event of the daylight saving scheme being adopted in Gisborne for the summer months, the Post Office clock should be put forAvard one hour, I have the honour, by direction of the Acting-Postmas-ter-General, to inform you that the setting forward of Post Office clocks cannot be permitted until an Act is passed authorising such action.”

The Avar apparently is responsible for many changes. A slim young lady, quiet spoken and of prepossessing appearance, applied to the Auckland Land Board the other day (the Star reports) for the transfer to her of 317 acres of land at Piako. The owner of the land had been killed at the Avar, and had particularly requested, prior to his death, that the bind be transferred to the applicant. A question from the Commissioner of CroAvn Lands as to Avhether she realised the nature of the task she proposed to undertake brought the smiling .reply that she did, end was already helping to milk some 60 cows, and though she avus not exactly prepared to chop bush herself, she had the money to pay for the work, and was quite prepared and able to run the farm. The board expressed appreciation of the young lady’s pluck, and recommended the transfer subject to the necessary inquiries.

Writing to a .Dunedin paper, Dr. Macdonald gives the following in--1 cresting information regarding the growth of New Zealand Jlax in Brit-ain;—“Twenty-Jive years ago Mr James McPherson left New Zealand to settle down in his native district of Brora, Butherlaudshirc, after aniassing a small fortune on the Waitaki as shepherd and storekeeper. He carried with him some seeds of several common New Zealand plants, such as llax, cabbage tree, manuka, tussock, mountain lily, mountain daisy, etc. The Jlax and manuka grew readily, the others with difficulty, and for many years visitors from far and near came to his croft to see his New Zealand pfants, and to beg or buy specimens. Six years ago, when I visited him, lie had a number of llax tufts varying in height from sft. to 10ft., and evidently thriving quite as well as they do in their native clime. He was in the habit of using strands of the leaves for tying his oat and barley sheaves, and for the making of straw or heath ropes for roping his corn and grass stacks. His neighbours borrowed some of the leaves for making the seats for their homemade chairs, and the making of baskets. Brora is a crofter village settlement on the Duke of Sutherland's million-acre estate, in 58 N. Lat. Even this is not the furthest north at which flax grows, for on my return I sent seeds to the provosts of Wick and Thurso, and I hear that plants are thriving there also.” Wanted Known.—-Gome and see all the seasonable Fruits and Confections, and all the good things to eat, that we have secured specially for ’Xmas. —Walker and Furrie, Foxton. NjkJf'sll, i , L.i5.,., .i ...., i. 1

f : ;'§||wheat decrease to superintenol^^^^^^^^H ganui Hospital;- , following istics for TToxtoir i December: Births 4, marriage certificates Several of the district re-commenced morning, and it is /he mills will be in Monday bet! John Kinley, and the Marton OAvned by Oroua Dawns, ami M. Wright, won the hurdles, carrying n.io. ■' 1 'f.; One outward anil visible sign of the general prosperity enjoyed by the farming community in the Wairarapa district is the large number of motors used in the conveyance of milk to the factories. s :a Since the commencement of the Imperial meat import operations, the sum of £13,82|,110 has b6hh paid to suppliers, iAvhiie £917,748 has been paid for |'liccse, and £s'|‘J--024 for .scheelite. I “'V The' W'airarapav'ge states tllit so far as the harvest has proceeded in the Masterton diprict the result t < have been highly sfa.tpfactpry. ' much as 80 bushel J* le \ been obtained fr^ 111 severfij crops. • I ■ It Avill be neAvs, l L ° (s,A's\(ho tha his md ainm-, expense s and depreciation, were a-' bout £8 per week. Prom now on farmers and others, who supply stores or pr vate persons wiflh more than six-pounds, of butter a\week cannot do so in the old haphazard Avay. A regulation to the effect t»at all such persons must have their totter properly|wrappecl, and on AvhichAis printed the maker s name and adwress, and the net Aveight of buttfc Is going to he strictly enforced^ The GovernmeilU^iS^ { «e*;to. jhe overawed by the farmerTT We do not mean that sleepless in their beds beßf use a sire Avas expressed at ineeting for their German bomb; but weliobrink they are more or less bluffed y non-re- ■ presentative bodies of producers B whose souls have been cji oroformed a by tAvo seasons’ war profits. —Lyttelton Times. ‘ j The Panama Canal coaling sta- J tion at Cristobal, Canal Zone, is now J finished, and is said .to he the est if its kind in the w.osW,lt is 1,800 feet long by 400 feet Avide, ■ and covers • nearly 20 acres. The * area, set apart for the coal pile is 1,700 feet long by 307 feet wide. The offshore end is excavated to a depth of 27 feet below the Avater line for a distance of 500 feet for the wet storage of 100,000 tons of coal, and the dry storage capacity is 385,000 tons. To operate the plant to its full capacity of 2,000 tons an hour, 88 steel conveyor cars are required..Somebody dropped a cigarette or a match or, something ' in the dry, rank herbage and pine, needles at; Victoria Park on Mopflß, aiwLvtnx soon a Aviud-fonued lire was gaily iuS. progress. A train load ot people, were disembarkinf’ at the time, and there was great . amf* hurrying to and fro.' The tire st-m ' spread to some fir twins and ory , logs, and the houses at (in? south- j west end of the Pork Avere TV led. This Avas the signal for sojuie 1,1 strenuous fire-fighting, tynd : body of coatless stalwarts got to ’ work Avith green branches, and after a fierce, iiot, punting light, beat doAvu the fiames, but not before a considerable area ofground had been burned black. We think that the time is approaching when.'every driver of a motor cur, irrespective of whether he is driving.'privately or for hire, will have to be licensed. There are now so many motor hogs on the road that some steps are necessary in the interests of decent people who , drive in a rational manner and pay some attention to of the road. Race days aii'SVa good opportunity fur the motor hog to distinguish himself —and he does not miss the One*. of his favourite tricks is to drive swiftly along, keeping right in, the centre of the road, forcing all other vehicles to hug the side path whilst he scorches past at a frantic pace. We \ think all drivers should be * and then the hogs ‘M by having their them.—Eitham Some believe

Mail reporp that oil Banks’ Peninsula considerably \rhich was on record. This to the drought, which: for the past three; the Peninsula lieing very dried up. There is a kepn deE'- itaatkj for men to harvest the crop. Salt Lake City is in a panic, because wholesale attempts have been 1 made to kill prominent people. ()n , Christmas morning explosives wdre '.placed under the house of the. Gov/ Cjmor (Mr Spry). The bomb did not explode. An infernal machine was Mto Mr James Jennings, a capit Several suspects have been ted. They are' friends of JosTlillstrom, who was executed years ago for a similar outJWe. £ * cablegram has to the Gisborne Times hy a local wholesale draper. It is related to a shipment of goods, valued at £1,400 to £1,500, which had been sent forward to him by a London house. The goods arc chiefly lines which belling to the Manchester department. His principals at, 'I Home cabled that if he would return them to London they would pay all costs and allow him a premium of 25 per cent, on their value. This would seem to indicate an increasing shortage in certain lines of goods at Home. Some landowners in the Gisborne district have lately insisted on the unimproved values of their lands being increased, the object, it is stated, being to frighten away the . representatives of the State Land Purchase Board. .In such instances where the properties were fairly extensive in size their owners have got I upon receiving the not ideatheir assessments for taxa- f especially in tile case the, graduated land tax'. One such owner is reported to have declared that he now .' finds that his land taxation as a whole will swallow up the whole of his wool clip profit* 4 >r last year. In adcressing the shareholders of the Ban! of Australasia at the animal meeting in London, the chairman, after dealing with the balancesheet, referred to the war loans raised by Australia and New Zealand, and said: “1 would ask you to consider Dr a moment what our Dominions beyond the sea have done, and more particularly Australasia, for us dining the war. Here are two young self-governing colonies with a combined population of six millions. They have within the last year vounlarily and for the purpose of carrying; on and continuing this Avar alone raised, within their own borders, loans amounting to nearly XtLjOOOjOOt, and if necessary they r’\]o. 1 prepared to do still more, in ad- « 'dition to the very large numbers of high H-trained and efficient fighters llmtuiAy have put into the field.” Wanted Known. Housewives should make a point of inspecting our special ’Xmas Stocks in the Grocery Department. Full assortments of Preserved Fruits and Delicacies. —Walker and Furrie, Fox- ■ ton, ■Vif. See cheap rates, front pages Laidlaw Leeds’ Wholesale Cata- / log.