LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2707, 13 March 1924, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Evidence of the favourable weather conditions that have prevailed in the Manawatu district during the past three months is to he found at Ashhui'st, where apple trees are flowering fox- the second time this season.

Mr P. L. Hollings, ex-magistrate and now solicitor, of Eoxton, intends shortly to tour the Manawatu and the Waii’arapa districts. It is stated that Mr Hollings will contest the Manawatu seat at the next election in (lie Liberal-Labour interests.

II was stated by a delegate to (he Mouth Island Motor Union meeting in Oamaru that he knew of a car owner whom it had cost £175 to ship his car from Australia to Wellington. This car was left on the wharf for a fortnight owing to the owner not accompanying it on the trip, and flic authorities refused to allow aiivone to remove if.

II is reported that an alleged slygrog selling ease which will come before, the Court at Te Kuiti next week, has to go back a matter of 24 years for the starting point. 1711011 matters were in train for the service of the summons in 1900, the essential parties could not he found. The limb of the law is a very long one, and it was only recently that eventualities framed themselves with the result that the hearing can proceed.

“There is one thing about education from the farmer’s point, of view and it is this: The farming community of this Dominion contributes the great hulk of the wealth of this country, and T think that the question of agricultural instruction in schools should lie taken up more than il is at the present time. Tt i> a most important aspect of education from (he farmer’s point of view.”—Mr .1. Linklater, M.P., when speaking at Rongotea on Tuesday on the occasion of the visit- of the Minister of Education, Hon. C. J. Parr.

la referring to rivers a< disseminators of weeds, in the course of his address to the Palmerston North Lunch Club on Tuesday, Mr P. 0. Baldwin stated that goat’s rue was the growth that occasioned farmers in the surrounding country most trouble, and was so thick in some places that it presented an impenetrable mass, cattle not even being able to break through it. “This weed was introduced by some genius in the Government for the purpose of protecting the Ngawapurua bridge,” he remarked. — fim-

Tlie Chiswick Coroner investigated a curious ease in which he had to decide whether a baby had ever lived. The father said that the infant made cooing noises and its grandmother stated that it cried. A nurse gave evidence that it cried while being bathed. The doctor, however, pronounced it still-born. A post mortem examination confirmed that the child had never breathed, and that the noise mistaken for riving was produced by localised artificial respiration. Such noises and movements of the legs and arms did not prove that the child was alive, said the doctor.

At Monday’s meeting of the Ma-nawatu-Oroua Power Board, the chairman (Mr J. A. Nash, M.P.) stated that he had been asked at a previous meeting when electric power could he expected locally from Mangahao, and he had stated June, lie now regretted to advise them that it was unlikely that power would be available until August or September. There had been various unforeseen difficulties and it was fully expected that a further delay would arise in the matter of pipes. The hoard members decided to make a trip to (lie Mangahao works on Wednesday, 2(ith inst.

“We may liave to go to London i'or another loan shortly, but wo have enough to carry on in the meantime,” stated the Premier to the Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association at Wellington this week. After reviewing the loans raised by other countries and comparing them with the very much better terms on which New Zealand raised its loan last May the Premier said New Zealand might not be able to get the money on the same interest as in May, bat he hoped to he able to get it at a lower rate of interest than had been secured by other countries recently.

The Siemens Company. Berlin, has offered to harness the River Shannon to supply light, heating and power throughout the Free State of Ireland. The Government has accepted the offer.

Advice that the foxglove, noxious weed, was spreading in the Pobangina County, was forwarded to the meeting of the Council on Saturday by the Department of Agriculture, and the plant declared a noxious weed under the Noxious Weeds Act. The Council complied with the request.

Preparations are now in hand for the quinquennial classification of the Civil Service. The Public Service Commissioner (Mr P. Vei'schaffelt) Ims just completed a tour of the South Island in connection with the matter, and he will leave shortly on a similar visit to the various districts in the North Island. It is expected that the Classification List will be available in April or May. Mr Martin, of the Avenue Road, called upon us yesterday and complained about the danger from trees growing opposite his property in the locality He said blight had affected the trees and caused the limbs to fall on the roadway, which menaced the safety of pedestrians and others using the road. He informed us that one large limb nine inches in circumference and 15 feet long was blown down on the roadway on Tuesday. He is of the opinion that- the trees should be cut down.

A visitor who once borrowed a trombone fronx the Manaia band, appi'ovcs of the band’s determination to renew its instrumental outfit when funds are available. He thinks that if the trombone in question is a fair sample of the hand’s instruments one of (he Dominion museums might offer a suitable price for the lot. Ths is not reported for the sake of “putting it over” on the hand. That worthy body of local musicians deserve more praise than they get for the way they make some of the stammering instrument speak at all. True, the whole of the said instruments are not bad, but. it would be useless to patch up what is decaying in parts with new material. Some means might lie devised by which the town could present our players with an entirely new set. —Witness.

Mr E. R. Booth, who has commenced business in Eoxton as a mechanical engineer, is a nephew of the managing director of the well-known firm of Messrs Booth McDonald and Co., with which firm he served his apprenticeship and subsequently visited all parts of the Dominion on the firm’s behalf, and also visited England. Since leaving the firm lie has devoted most of Ihe time to motor car work. Mr Booth informs us that should ]<><•;■ 1 business warrant it he xrill extend the scope of his Eoxton business in the nature of milking machines. gas and oil engines, etc... in which he has expei't knowledge. Mr Booth lias taken over the garage in Whyte Rt., lately occupied by Mr Aiteheson.

| -Blackberries tire all right in llioir place, hut they certainly are Ant of place in a wooden box.” The statement was made emphatically by a perspiring railway employee at the Christchurch station the other afler-aa.il. sh..rtly after the express from I lie Wesi Coast pulled in. A closer glance proved hat his complaint was well founded as his hands and dollies were liberally besmeared with blackberry juice. Potential jam and jelly abounded in ihc baggage van, but the consignors had shown varying degrees of discrimination when packing ihe berries for which the Coast is famed. Kerosene iins. tea lins, and other tins kept the fruit intact, but wooden boxes had proved unequal to Ihe task of confining the juice on the long journev from West to East.

“When a man assaults the police while In* is under the influence of liquor he is up against law and order and it must be put down for the sake of -moiety,” remarked Mr C. R. Orr-Walker. S.M.. at Wellington, when dealing with a young man named John O’Brien, who appeared for sentence on the charge of assaulting Constable Shirley. The Magistrate said that he usually imposed a term of imprisonment when a man assaulted the police, and it was with reluctance that he would in tlie present ease impose a tine. O’Brien would be convicted and fined £lO in default 14 days’ imprisonment, “This will help to remind you of the seriousness of attacking the police while iii (he execution of their duty,” the Bench added to the accused.

It lias been said that the man who causes two blades of grass to grow where only one grow before, is a public bcnefactoi 1 . If that be true — and true it assuredly is—what is to ho said of those who established a successful local industry, which finds employment for many hands, develops the latent resources of this Dominion and keeps the money in the country? Look at what the poor gum lands of the north and the barren clays of Nelson, at one time considered worthless for agricultural purposes are now producing. They furnish the manufacturers with the raw material for our local brands, And so excellent is this product that- no smoker should fail to give it a trial. ,lle is in fort quite a new type, a toasted tobacco, more fragrant, less nicotine, and therefore healthier. A wonderful improvement compared with the non-toast-ed tobacco. There are three grades. Riverhead Gold, very mild; Toasted Navy Cut (Bulldog) of medium strength, and those who prefer a full body will appreciate Cut Plug No. 10, the Bullhead’Brand.*

Mrs J. Stevenson, of Hastings, |);iid a brief visit to Foxton friends ve.sterda v.

A special meeting of the borough council will be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. Registered companies in England at the end of 1922 numbered 79,000 with a combined nominal capital of nearly £121.000,000. A barber in a London suburb is astonished at the number of young men among his customers who are cither completely bald or almost are Most of them, lie says, are ex-ser-vice men of about 27 or 28, and their baldness has developed since the war. “I do not think,” he said, “there is any doubt that it is the rositl of the strain of war. or of illness caused by the war. It is probable, of course, that they are men who originally had a tendency to baldness, which has developed prematurely owing to abnormal conditions. Many of them feel acutely the loss of their hair because it was of that tine silky texture that looks so nice, but comes off so easily. I too, feel their loss acutely. It means so many less haircuts to me.”