LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2537, 1 February 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The vital statistics for Foxton for last month were: Births 3, marriages 2, deaths 3. The primary schools throughout this district will re-open on Monday next.

There is still a strong run out in the Maiuiwatu river hut the Hood waters are subsiding.

This week the lirst consignment of poles are due for the llorowhenua Electro Power Board.

Pain fell locally last month on thirteen days, the maximum fall .78 inches on the 14th. 'The total for the month was 5.23.

Mr Darcy Ball, a local sprinter, will lie a competitor in the 120 yards Sheffield Handicap of £IOO at'failinpe on March 17th. Harold Lennon, aged six years, a son of Mr (Jordon J. Lennon, of Remuera, was drowned while tishing at Orakei yesterday.

A one-legged man, suffering from shell shock, threatened their Majesties at St. Pancras station this week with a crutch. He was removed to an infirmary. The recent wet weather has had a compensating effect on potato crops in this district owing to the light soil and good crops are reported.

Mr Wiliam Murray, a Presbyterian missionary, aged (50 years, belonging to Normanby, has been lost on Mount Egmont since yesterday. Search parties are out. Apropos of the weather: Jones; “Hello, Brown, just back 1 ? How long were you away?” Brown: “A fortnight.” Jones: “Any rain?” Brown: “Only two showers.” Jones: “What!” Brown: “Yes —one lasted seven days and the other live.”

Mr W. H. Coles pianoforte tuner, is in Foxton. Messages left, at this office will receive immediate attention. The ITorowhenua A. and P. Show was opened in fine weather yesterday and will be continued to-day. The attendance is large and the show well up to previous standards. J. W. Wall, a single man, railway porter, was killed at Newmarket station (Auckland) yesterday. He was struck by a train while oiling points on the line. At the Auckland Police Court, William Henry Sheffield, charged that he sold literature calculated to encourage violence and lawlessness, viz., “The A.B.C. of Communism,” was fined £25 and costs, in default three months in gaol.

In connection with the Wilberforcc River drowning fatality, both bodies have been recovered. The mine of the man who was drowned was George Good, not Charles .Jessep. Good was 22 years of age and belonged to Ashburton.

The little son of Mr and Mrs Richard Easton (not Mr “Ken” Easton as previously stated) who walk! ton on the face by a. dog on Sunday, is progressing as favourably as possible under the circumstances. The effect of the injury to the eye is not yet known.

Messrs Henry Burr and Edward A. Fuller have been appointed pupil teachers at the local State school and will take up their duties on Monday next. Both young men arc ex-pupils of the school and since leaving have prosecuted their studies at the Palmerston North High School.

Daniel Richard Cooper with his wife, Martha Elizabeth Cooper, again appeared in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday to answer charges connected with what is known as the Newlands sensation, where, it is alleged, the accused have been conducting a baby farm. A murder charge is to be preferred against the accused. The case is proceeding.

There was very keen competition at the wool sales which opened at Dunedin yesterday. A feature of the sale was the remarkable keenness of competition practically every lot being disposed of under the hammer. The record price was 29Jd which was obtained for two bales of greasy Merino from the Gladbrook Estate, Otago Central. This figure, it is understood, constitutes a record price for New Zealand for the current season and probably the highest figure obtained at, auction in the Dominion.

A Carterton family had a startling experience with a motor car recently. The husband, wife and three children were in the car coming up a hill, the wife driving. The engine stalled and the ear stopped. The husband jumped out to restart it, and was astonished to see the car running away from him down hill. It swerved off the road and fell over the side of the hill, turning a. somersault. The wife was considerably bruised and suffering from shock, but the children were not hurt at all.

At the Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday Leonard Walter Makin, William Holland Makin and Percy Dowling Hawkins with eighteen charges against them of drawing false cheques on the Bank of New Zealand were heard. The amounts of the cheques averaged between £6OO and £7OO, and the total of the amounts named in the charges was £11,739 9s. All the accused pleaded guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.

The membership of the Levin Chamber of Commerce has dropped from l>2 financial members last year to 32 this year and is faced with a financial deficit. The secretary was authoritsed to wait on retailers with a view to them liquidating the amount due and the president and secretary agreed to interview members whose subscription was unpaid. The Levin Chamber has done splendid work in the commercial and civic welfare of the town and district and is deserving of more support financially.

The .Foxton Harbour Board held eleven meetings during last year, six at Palmerston and five at Paxton. The average attendance of members was greater at Palmerston than at Poxton. The chairman was present at all meetings and the attendance of other members was as follows: Messrs Chrystall 10, W. E. Barber !), Holben 7, Clapham 7, J. A. Nash 4, J, W. Rinuner 6, W. Signal 4 (attended all meeting since elected in September). Members total travelling expenses during the year £l9 10s. The meetings for the current year are to be held alternately at Poxton and Palmerston.

An Otakeho youth of 17 has been causing the police, relatives and friends, considerable anxiety as to the mystery of his whereabouts since January 13, when he left a message: “I am off to the beach to drown myself.” The boy, it appears, had been keeping company with a girl 17 years of age. On Saturday of January 13, the mother of the girl spoke to Aitken, objecting to his keeping company with her daughter as neither of them was old enough to think of getting married. She promised that if he kept away till he was older*, he could then come back and keep company with the girl, but, in the meantime, he must keep away. The boy seems to have taken this to heart. Hence the message and the anxiety. The lad, however, evidently changed his mind, and the Manaia Witness now records the fact that he has been located on a farm.