Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1925. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2871, 16 April 1925, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1925. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

During the months of January and February 627 estates were certified for stamp duty, the total value of the estates being £1,602,721. For the year 1924 the number of estates was 5005 and the total value £11,054,316.

As ;i result of police visits of two No pier bowling greens on Monday, n quantity <>f‘ liquor was seized. Prosecutions £or selling liquor without a license nre following under the section of (hi* Act dealing' with uneharlered clubs. A “general post'’ of postmasters and other high jiositions in the P. and T. Department is about to take place. Over a dozen leading officers are looking for new heads as a result of-retirements on superannuation. These include Christchurch, Tinmru, Palmerston North and Wanganui. Tobacco culture may become an industry on the West Coast of the South Island, judging by the success attending .three experiments in this direction. At Itccfton Mr Williams has the plant growing to a height of sft., while Mr. F. Cook, near the Teremakau river, has also a nice little crop, and in Grcynroufh Mr W. Currie has grown a quantity successfully. A Xcw Plymouth “listeuer-in” on Sunday night heard quite plainly a conversation taking place between Sydney and Japan, also the singing of the .Japanese National Anthem, every note of which was caught. The musical and elocutionary programmes broadcasted every evening by Farmers’ in Sydney are heard by means of his receiving set.

Placing “X.Z.K.” cups on the railway platform has become a habit of travellers and through this action many are broken through others kicking them, but one irresponsible passenger on the “Limited” on Thursday evening threw his cup and saucer on the Palmerston North platform as the train was departing. A young lady near the scene received some of the contents on her dress.

The investigations of the number of orphan children in New Zealand revealed the fact that there were 405,40.1 children under the age of 16 years. In 1405 eases particulars were unspecified, but out of the remaining 401,198 there were recorded only 2237 children who had lost both parents. A number of instances where the father was dead but not the mother exceeded the reverse by 7859.

Two killing records were established at the Pukeuri Works recently, says ihe Oiiimiru Mail. In one day 3303 head were put through, which is the best daily tally for the season, and the week finished up with 17,567, the best weekly return for this year. It is anticipated that another 12,000 will be handled before the Faster closing, which will, bring the total for the season in excess of the killing for last year.

Robert Dickson Warden, who escaped from the Waikure prison camp near Waimarino, and was arrested at Palmerston North, is an habitual criminal, aged 31. He escaped from Mount Eden prison in 1.918 by sawing through the bars of ins cell and using bis blanket, as a rope. He was afterwards arrested in Christchurch, and was sentenced to Jive years’ imprisonment for burglary, with an additional year for escaping from gaol. A sentence of live years’ imprisonment for theft and receiving was later imposed in Christchurch, and in 1920 Warden was sentenced to four and a-lialf years' imprisonment for theft and receiving in Wellington.

The final monthly meeting of the sitting Council will be held on Monday night next.

Secondary schools throughout tlu. Wanganui Education Board’s district resumed work on Tuesday.

Over 100 passengers patronised the Foxton-l’a-lmerston North Tail - way service on Easter Saturday and Monday.

The Maori Inti held at Waipiro Bay, Gisborne, last week for the purpose of raising funds for a new church resulted in £I9OO being snbscribed.

Mr J. Cameron, District Traffic Manager. New Zealand Railways, is at present paying an official visit to the Palmerston North section. He visited Foxton on Tuesday morning. As a result of the re-ar-rangements of the railway districts, Mr Cameron has now charge of that area embracing Woodville, Palmerston North and Foxton, which was formerly controlled by the District Traffic Manager, Wanganui. Work at the Ivawaran Gold Mining Company's dam has now reached a very interesting stage, and progress is well on the way for the erection of the big sluice gates which are (o be fitted into concrete piers, states the Dunedin “Star.” Parts for tin gates have arrived on the site, and the first live gates are due in Dunedin this week. The final shipment, comprising five more gates and all the essential gear, is due on 30th April.

A certain amount of ability in the use of calcium carbide in bottles has led a Palmerston North lad of fourteen years into trouble. One ot the Wellington Acclimatisation Society rangers came across him when he was securing a fish from Gic waters. The ranger was somewhat impressed with the ability displayed, and inquired the manner in which the lad learnt the trick, as a result of this the man who taught him is now under suspicion.

A guest at a leading Napier hoarding house received an unpleasant surprise on discovering that a comb lying on his dressingtable had burned half away, whilst the table cover contained a large smouldering hole. The contributing agency was the ray of the afternoon sun playing on the carafe and igniting the comb. There was a I'icnzied rush bv the occupants of Ihe adjacent rooms to see if similar misfortune had overtaken them, but their fears, fortunately, were groundless.

A Maori woman, Hera Matewhit u, said to he 108 years old, died at Iluntly on Good Friday. She was generally known as “old Ngawai,” and dated her birth hack to 1817. She has thus lived in the reign of six British Sovereigns, and was horn only two years after the battle of Waterloo, states the “New Zealand Herald.” When quite a little girl. Hern Malewhitu must have been familiar with the terrible name of Hongi Hikn, the Maori Napoleon, whose swift raids uni massacres greatly reduced the Maori population in the North during the early ’twenties. She was twenty-three years old before New Zealand came under British rule with the signing of the Treaty of Wnitangi in 1840. The Waikato wars found her a middle-aged woman and living in the centre of a district where the hostilities were fiercest. Before her death Hera Matewhitu had the rare privilege of seeing her great-great-grand- , h-ildren growing up around her — the fifth generation.

Three motor cars were concerned in a smash on Papanui Road, Christchurch on Tuesday, at the intersection of Heaton Street. Two ears were proceeding north towards Papanui, and the third came out from Heaton Street, intending to go right on into limes Road. The third car was caught by the other two and a great, smash resulted. The threc-seater, which was driven by a lady, had evidently been caught between the two other ears. Its running boards were completely wrecked, both back wheels shattered, and the left front wheel and hood damaged. The body of the ear also was badly knocked about. A live-sea ter also suffered considerably. Its right front wheel was shattered and hood badly damaged. The third ear had its hood and radiator considerably damaged. All three ears finished up after the accident in a. side channel, being practically locked together. Two of the occupants were injured, but not seriously.

What with one drawback and another, the lot of many a man on ihe land in New Zealand, for some time past, has hardly been happiei than that of the Gilbertian policeman, and it is deplorable that in some instances the farmer lias been forced to give his farm rest and retire from a struggle beyond his endurance. Especially trying has been (he position of the agriculturist on the gum lands of the North. This soil won’t grow anything the farmer is accustomed to grow. But it will produce remarkably line tobacco leaf, and as the a\erage vield of a tobacco Ciop oil the Northern gum lands represents a cash value of £SO nett, there can be no question as to profit. Laige quantities of tobacco are alieady being grown, and the culture of the “weed” in certain parts of New Zealand promises to develop into a national industry. Several varieties of this tobacco are on the market, including “Riverhead Gold” aromatic, “Navy Cut” (Bulldog) medium and “Cut Plug No. 10” (Bulkhead) full. They are all in brisk demand.*

Owing to the epidemic restrictions, the meeting of the Fourth grade football team, to have been held in Mr Stevenson’s garage tonight, has been postponed. Forty English public school boys are to leave the Old Country on the Rimutaka on May 30th to come to the Dominion under the immigration scheme of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce.

Two batches of immigrants are due to arrive in New Zealand within the next few days. The Ruahino is expected at Wellington at noon to-morrow with 176 —62 men, 64 women, and 50 children.

The Municipal Electoral Roll, which closed at 5 p.m. yesterday, contains 838 names, whereas the 1623 Roll contained 790 names. The increase is due principally to the activities of the various candidates for leading mlneipal honours.

We are pleased to report that Mr. G. Westwood, whose illness has been causing a good deal of anxiety in the Palmerston North Hospital, is now out of danger and is making satisfactory progress towards recovery.

A five-roomed house in Shannon owned by Mr. R. Hayes was totally destroyed by fire on Monday morning. The building was insured for £6BO in the State Fire Office I.ut there was no insurance on the furniture. Mr Hayes is a heavy loser.

Tt took people a hundred years to discover that potatoes were good to eat. In 1723 an attempt was made to introduce potatoes into Scotland, but they were denounced from the pulpit on two contradictory counts —that they were not mentioned in the Bible, and, therefore, were not fit food for Christians, and they were the forbidden fruit, the cause of Adam’s fall. They were accused of causing leprosy and fever.

The skinning of slice]) that succumb to blood poisoning is a problem that has to he faced bv many farmers. Some prefer to bury the animals, instead of running any risk of spreading infection. During lambing, it is considered a dangerous custom to skin a ewe that has died as a result of blood poisoning, a>. in attending- to other cases, disease is likely to he transferred with fatal results. In such cases wool should lie removed with a garden rake from the pelt.

At the Magistrate’s Court, Raet• hi, the Rev. Moses Ayrton, formerly of Palmerston North, was lined £5 and costs for illtreating a horse by not providing it with sufficient food and water. The evidence went to show that the animal had been confined since hist November in a paddock of about half an acre, during which time it had had very little water or food. When the constable was taking it to the police station, the animal collapsed.

A suggestion that a tax should be imposed on bobbed and shingled hair is tin* latest to come from England. Were such a tax in operation in New Zealand, Dunedin would supply a rich harvest to the Government, as inquiries have elicited the information that over thirty women and girls have their hair bobbed or shingled each day, says the Ootngo Daily Times. There

U then to he taken into account all those of the fair sex who have had their hair shorn. The tax on mo-tor-ears would fade into insgnificar.ee if a “bobbed and shingled” tax were placed on the Statute Book.

At the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., Douglas Gordon Hollis, labourer, and William Robb, motor mechanic, were jointly charged that on or about April 13, 1924, at Mangaore, Shannon, they did steal one mail Img and contents of the appropriate total value of £l3O, the properly of the New Zealand Government. Senior-Sergeant O'Grady, who appeared for the police, applied for a further remand till 22nd hist., which was granted. In the i.-ise of the accused Robb, bail was again granted on the same terms as heretofore.

In a statement regarding warning hells for railway crossings, the Minister for Public Works says:— "The department’s engineers have in hand the preparation of a comprehensive schedule of the crossings that they consider should be protected hv hells or other similar warning devices. The order of urgency with which the work should lie undertaken will be determined as soon as the schedule is completed. As a large number of crossings throughout the Dominion are involved, and as the money available for this work is limited, the installations will require to he carried out strictly in their order of urgency.”

A Wanganui in,an was the victim of a neatly executed pocket-picking ; ;,i the Feilding races (says the Chronicle). He had just collected a windfall of £53, and with the notes safe in his trouseis pocket lie took a position among the crowd watching the totalisator board. He says he remembers two men standing beside him and he certainly distinctly remembers one of them stamping heavily on one of his feet. He naturally lurched into the other man and lie remembers now feeling the first man's hand going into His pocket. ihe pain in his toes and the man’s profuse apologies quite camouflaged the doings of the other man, who had disappeared in the crowd before the victim had collected sufficient presence of mind to try to see his face.

On Tuesday next the Athenie is due at Auckland with 30(5 immigrants —103 men, 124 women, and 70 children.

In H.M.S. Hood there is a special slnff of 49 wireless men, and five operators keep watch at the same time on five different wave lengths. Poisoning in rabbit infected areas at Pohangina is proving efficacious, both in the employment of arsenic, and phosporous on pollard (says the M.D. Times). One farmer, by laying poison on his property, brought about the extermination of 108 rabbits in one day, and 111 on another. Arsenic is almost instant in its affect on the animals, and they are always lying within a few yards of the >pot of their feast of doom.

‘‘The recent Sir Sam Fay Railway Commission gave a clean bill to all departments except the transportation, and in this thing soundly condemned the whole show” (states the April number of the New Zealand Locomotive Engineers' Journal). “The rank and tile could easily have given this decision; at least the locomotive men could have answered the question,”, declares the Journal. “For years this branch of the service has been most obsolete, and yet they continue to pick men to manage the whole railways from this side of the railway work. Their whole methods are out of date, and it is a wonder Sir Sam Fay did not insist upon a new ‘lock, stock and barrel’ for this branch of railway work, and debar any member of such branch from becoming part of the administration of the whole.”