NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2257, 31 March 1921, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

Speaking of' the outlook tor the v,inter with regard to unemployment. Mr !!. •). Jacobs (president 01. the R.S.A.) -miid at a meeting of that body at Palmerston on Tuesday night, that the future was not; bright, and it had been suggested i> that the ITS.A. should open an onijl iiloyment bureau, in eoimnon with i other assoeiations in New Zealand, i for the benefit of soldiers wlfo were seeking work. 'The secretary (Mr ( - W. G. Hutherfurd) said that the President had done excellent work v in this direction unofficially, and in t his.opinion had found more men emj ployment in Palmerston North than t the Repatriation Department. The i Secretary expressed his willingness to establish a bureau, which he ) mentioned lie had advocated last year. The meeting unanimously adI opted the president’s suggestion, t ! which Mr Hutherfurd will carry in;j : to effect. ( I "It. is impossible to he pessimistic after seeing the country as I saw it

. recently” said the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives on Thursday. “There might he difficulties now, hut they had a splendid country and an industrious population, and they would get over all the trouble. He was plcysed to see that some people still had coirfidence in the country, and he quoted as proof of this the report of a , Sil le of land in Auckland, when (he prices were from £7 to £204 an acre. “But, if anybody wants to see good land ” Mr Masters: '■‘Go to Taranaki.” Mr Ngata: “What about Poverty Bay?” The Prime Minister: “I was going to say go up to the top of Pukekohe Hill and you would sec land off which three crops a year can he taken. Two crops a year are quite common'.” Mr M’Callum: “We get four crops of lucerne in Marlborough.” No one attempted to go one better than this. As the result of an assault at a dance in the King Country, Samuel Gaston, a Presbyterian minister, sued Alexander Annan for £520 damages. Gaston, who is now farming at Kio Kio, had not been attached to a church for twelve years. ! He admitted a “deadly hatred” for

the Annans, and objected to Alexander Annan's attention to his daughter. On one ocasion she had slaved at Annan's farm for three days, and when lie went for tier lie was greeted with a shower of missiles contributed by ihe whole of the Annan family. At .the dance a set of Lancers bad .jusi been -formed, in which Annan and Gaston's daughter would he swinging corners, Mini Gaston walked across the hall towards them, bi.it Annan caught him a swinging blow on the jaw, and Gaston was carried out. The •Bulge warned the not to be influenced by plaintiffs clerical garb nor defendant's returned soldier’s badge, and after a brief retirement 'they returned with a verdict of CuO damages for Gaston. Some details of one ol the latest hydro-electric schemes in America to be put into operation are contained in tlie January issue of Popular Mechanics. The water Mas admitted to the 45,000 Ji.p. turbines of the Kercliolf power plant, located 'on the San Jonquir River, California, on August 15th. This project was put through in record time, excavation having been started on .June 20th, 1010. The conducting channel is 18 feet in diameter, and Hi,875 ft. in length, and Mas driven through solid grey granite. At one point it passes under a' mountain peak al a depth of .1,000 feet. The dam, containing 24,500 cubic feel of concrete, is 570 ft. long, 125 ft. high, and impounds 348,480,000 cubic feet of Mater, half of which is available for power purposes. The power is generated by 3 threephase, 00 cycle, 0,600-volt direct connected generators, driven at a speed of 300 r.p.m. Auxiliary dir-ect-current generators are used for held excitation and .plant control. When the fall output of power is utilised, millions of gallons of fuel oil, now being burned for power purposes throughout the section served, will be released. The successful completion of the undertaking .marks another great advance in hydro-electrical development.