Manawatu Herald SATURDAY 27th, SEPTEMB. 1924 LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2790, 27 September 1924, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY 27th, SEPTEMB. 1924 LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr Massey hopes to wipe out all I lie amusement taxes next year. Tlie early potato season has started at Pukekohe and at present two trucks per day are leaving that centre. It is reported that one farmer in a district not 20 miles from Oaniaru took potatoes valued at £B,OOO from an area of about 120 acres last season. “There is the same complaint all through the South Island as we have here,” Mr F. A. Laws, manager of the southern touring team, told the Wellington Rugby Union. “There is no interest being taken in Rugby.” Your attention is drawn to an inset with this issue from Kingbeer’s Gramaphone Depot, Levin. If yu are interested in music you will appreciate this inset.

A carriage reserved for women and children will be attached to the New Plymouth mail train in future, the innovation commencing this week. The car will bo placed immediately in front of the guard’s van. “What is the effect of discoloured water from the dyeworks entering the Heatheolc river'/” inquired a member of the Christchurch Drainage Board. “I hear that blue whitebait near the Opawa Bridge were caught on Sunday,” replied the chairman with amusing gravity.

The Oamaru woollen mills are very slack at present, the falling off in trade being attributed to the imported article being preferred to that made in New Zealand. Jn one department of the Oamaru mills, it is reported that only nineteen weavers are working where thirty-five were previously employed. Other departments are said to be working short time.

At yesterday’s meeting of the Foxton Fire Brigade the chairman (Mr F. C. Cray) referred to Mr Geo. Coley’s gift of a. billiard tournament shield for competition between members of the Feilding, Palmerston N., Foxton and Levin brigades. He expressed the Board’s thanks and appreciation of Mr Coley’s interest in the social welfare of brigades men and hoped that other citizens would follow so good an example. MV Cray also moved a vote of sympathy with Mr Coley (who is member of the Board) in his illness and expressed the hope that lie would soon be restored to health.

A very successful and enjoyable cabaret evening, under the auspices of the local Fire Brigade, was held in the Town Hall on Thursday.

Miss M. Healey has been appointed organiser for the coming Band Carnival. The executive desire to thank Mr P. L. Bollings for placing his front office at the disposal of the organiser during the Carnival period.

'flie road in Thymic St. at present can tint lie described as a quagmire. Despite petitions to I lie Council from residents for footpaths in this heavily rated residential area the requests have been turned down and the grading of the street has made matters worse.

At Thursday’s meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce, it was decided to draw the Manawatu County Council’s attention to the bad state of the Beach Road, and to ask that it be jiut in order before the summer tratlie to the seaside commenced.

It was suggested at Thurrday night’s Chamber of (,'nniTbursday night's Chamber of Commerce meeting that all meetings should be open to members, instead of the quarterly meetings. It was decided to consider an amendment in the rules to bring (bis about.

The small coastal steamer WnkaIn, which went ashore near the nmul h of I be ('larenee river on t be morning of September filli, lias been sold for £225, the highest tender received for her purchase, by Messrs Levin and Co. Mr James Johnson, of Kaikoura, is the now owner, and it is understood that he may make attempts to refloat the vessel. Engines and all accessories were sold with the Wakntu as she stood. Captain Wills, a former commander of the Wakatu, who lias been in charge of the vessel handed her over to the new owner and has returned to Welling! on.

The work of excavating a canal 11. rough a nalural barrier across the course of the Wairau river a 1 Ruatangala, which is the principal cause of the Hooding of the extensive ilikitrangi (swamp, has progressed kilely more quickly than previously. The steam shovels have been engaged in excavating a. canal 27 chains in length from a lagoon to a point at a lower level than the natural lied of the river where it traverses llie route of the canal. Easier spoil has been met with and the officials of the Lands and Survey Department consider that the river will be reached bv I Ik> end of the year.

Robert Louis Stevenson once declared, according to one of bis biographers: “No woman should marry n man who doesn't, smoke,” and Stevenson, it must tie admitted, knew human nature. Another famous man of letters, Buhver-Lytton. wrote (see bis novel. “What will lie do with it?") “He who doth not smoke hath either known no greater grief, or refuseth himself the softest consolation next to that which comes from heaven.” As to the lnirmfulncss of the habit much

—very much —depends upon the tobacco. Brands heavily charged with nicotine are best avoided. In that respect and in other respects our own New Zealand grown tobaccos hold pride of place because they contain comparatively little nicotine and may therefore he indulged in ad. lib., without affecting nerves or heart. Doubtless that is why they are (hiding favour with so many smokers. They are on sale everywhere, and are adapted to all lastes. “Riverhcad Gold” is mild aromatic, “Toasted Navy Cut (Bulldog) a delightful medium and “Cut Plug No. 10” (Bull's Head label) a line lull,-flavoured tobacco. 24

A saving to Taranaki of approximately £150,000 litis been effected by direct importation through the port of New Plymouth during the past live years, according to a statement made at the last meeting of the New Plymouth Harbour Board. Mr C. E. Bellringer said that he had gone closely into the trade figures with the secretary, as a result of an inquiry whether he was satisfied that the Board’s financial proposals with regard to the proposed £(100,000 loan could he carried out without the necessity of striking a rate. He had also gone into the details with the Finance Committee, and lie could now say Hull, as far as could he humanly foreseen, (here was not the slightest chance of a rate not being levied. Tf the progress in the trade in the next few years was anything like that of the live years since- the £300,000 loan was authorised, there would lie ample revenue from wharfages, etc., to meet all calls for interest and sinking fund.

About ten years ago a big demand set in lor wh.it was called apple lands, in the Nelson province, and most people who bought them and planted their section in fruit trees had visions of “big money” easily and quickly made. Now that many of these orchards have reached maturity (says the Timaru Herald) (heir owners are in a position to know how they stand financially with them. Unfortunately the sanguine anticipations which were entertained originally have not been realised; on the contrary, orchardisls, who have never lived mi their sections have made heavy losses, and at least some of them have given orders that many acres of seven and eight-year-old trees be eujl down, as, if I hey do nol do this, I bey will be compelled by law to keep these trees sprayed, and they are so disappointed with the- undertaking that they are not prepared to spend any more money on it. Ail orchard of L I Lie. was offered tor sale privately in Timaru the other day for £2OO, but it did not find a buyer.

TlTe West, although more progressue than the East, apparently, lias several things to learn from the oldest civilisation in the world. Lecturing at the Lyceum Club, Miss Root (old Auckland women that she had travelled in many countries, hut nowhere had she- found children with such beautiful manners as those of the children of China. During ;i year’s stay in that country she had never seen one child strike another, nor did parents behave roughly to their children. Throughout I lie country there prevailed a gentleness and culture unknown to the rest of the world. Every child was required to learn from end to end (be Confucian Book of Etiquette, ii book of morals and manners, whose influence bad swayed the nation for more than a thousand years.

The careful measures necessary iu prevent the escape of injurious waves from the X-ray plant were explained hv the chairman of the ~nd Hospital Board, Mr W. Wallace, in describing the equipment ■if the new building on the occasion of the laying of the foundation ■ lone. He mentioned that there were hice rooms for the application of X-rays and it had been found ne•essarv lo completely encase these ooins with lead, li had at first been-though! plaster would he stiffi- ■ ient to prevent the escape of the , ays, hat experiments had shown i hat the rays not only penetrated 34 nches nf this plaster, hut also found tlu-ir way through the brick walls. Tt had therefore been decided, in order to safeguard the staff and others, in adjoining parts of Ibe building, to line the walls, floors .•ml ceilings of these special rooms with heavy lead at an extra cost of £1,200.