Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1928. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3876, 27 November 1928, Page 2

Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1928. LOCAL AND GENERAL

An outbreak of fire-bliglit is reported to have occurred in two orchards in Masterton. It is estimated that the area of native forest in New Zealand today is about one-third of what it was in 1840. It is predicted that the price of fat lamb in South Canterbury this season will open at about lOd per lb. The Town Hjill balcony is at present undergoing repairs for a leak and is being treated to a topdressing of asphalt. • While attending a fire at the back of the rubbish tip during the week, a member of the Central Eire Brigade in Wanganui discovered a quail’s nest containing 18' eggs. Every owner of bees is required to be in possession of a, certificate of registration, allowing that he has applied for the registration of his apiary. The defeat at the general election of four Ministers of The Crown is believed to have no precedent at any former general election in New Zealand. The Horowhenua Electric Power Board allows a concession for heat and light to seaside dwelling, 'churches, and schools. A. fiat rate of £2 per annum is charged in these cases. There are 35,751 boys and 32,178 girls in the primary schools in:the Auckland education district, and the average attendance is 31)858 boys and 28,428 girls. Schools in the district numbered 762, including 56 half-time schools. The sun’s surface is at present very much disturbed and many spots are visible through a telescope. There are three spotted areas altogether, one being quite near to the centre, and the others well off.

The skipper of a steamer trading to the West Coast has good reason to remember favourably the present whitebait season. Being a man with an eye to business, he purchased no fewer than 194 tins of whitebait at an average price of 15/- per ton. At Wellington he found a ready market for his whitebait, disposing of the whole consignment at a price averaging approximately £4 per tin.

The annual report of the New Zealand Oilfields Ltd. says: Tho directors hope and believe that decisive tests of the Morere and Maugaone domes will be accomplished and “their confidence in the ultimate successful outcome of the search for oil in the Dominion, subject only to persistent effort ou well-ordered lines, remains unshaken, and is, indeed strengthened by the result of the attention given by the drilling records of the technical staff.”

Mr. McWilliams, wireless operator of the Southern Cross, who spent the week-end before last in Eeilding as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Eliott, returns to Sydney by the Ulimaroa at the end of the month to join Kingsford Smith and Ulm and then prepare for the flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. The Union Steamship Company has granted Mr. McWilliams extended leave as long as necessary.

The trans-Tasman flight pales before the vivid imagination of a gentleman who lias helped to clear the streams in the Pahiatua district of eels. To date he has actually caught 300 eels in the Makuri, and lie and six others do considerable execution nightly with “hobs.” For some time lie had been angling with stout hook 'and line for a particularly large eel, and at last he hooked it. He could not hold it, and rather than lose line and all, followed it down the ripple into the next; pool, where he managed to get it out on to the shingle. “He told mo,” said Mr C. I. QDasent, the secretary of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, to the meeting, “that if he had had his spurs on he would have ridden it across the Tasman rather than lose it, but without the ‘hooks’ he could not stay on, and it got away.” The winner of the eel competition this year is a lad named Morgan, who has taken out 184. The biggest eel caught there was taken by Mr J. Foote. It weighed 28Mbs,

Requests for permission to introduce the Nelson system of Bible reading in the Howick and Pirongia (Te Awamutu) schools were granted by the Auckland Education Board.

Work on the new bridge across the Turakina river is proceeding apace and it is expected that the new structure will be available for .use by travellers on the Main •South road before Christmas.

The Rimu Gold Dredging Co. at South Hokitika secured about 500 ounces of gold last week, indicating that excellent deposits of the precious metal are still to be secured in the Rimu locality.

So far as the city drapers, clothiers, and boot retailers are concerned the late night in Christmas week will be on Monday, December 24 (Christmas Eve), and in the following week on New Year’s Eve.

Lord Jellieoe, who is already a member of the London board of directors of the Bank of New Zealand, according to a cablegram received last week has been elected a director of the Midland Bank, one of the “Big Five,” and the biggest bank in the world. The Tongariro National Park Board is authorised by Order-in-Council published in the Gazette last night to borrow £40,000 for the purpose of erection of the new hostel. The loan is to be repayable by instalments over a period of 36J years.

The preservation of Native birds and other game is matter in which the Wellington Acclimatisation Society is keenly interested. It has just decided to spend.£2so yearly for three years on the destruction of vermin in the forests in its districts. It would mean that less would be spent in other directions, but it was thought that all birds would so increase that there would be no more game. The society’s revenue would admit of the expenditure.

Deputy Returning Officers at elections often have amusing experiences. At the recent election, when a voter was handed his ballot papers, he said in a most surprised tone: “Is this all I get?” “Yes, that’s the lot,” replied the Deputy. “But aren’t there three issues on the licensing question? I’ve only got one paper for that.” The Deputy was completely taken aback, but recovered sufficiently to explain the position. The voter was pacified, but still seemed to have lingering suspicion that he was being done out of something.

New Zealand superfine halfbrod wools are in keen demand in Scotland, according to Mr. C. 11. Roberts, formerly of Dunedin, who has returned to New Zealand on holiday, after an absence of 26 years'. Mr. Roberts is now interested in a woollen manufacture (business in Scotland. Scottish woollen manufactures frequently contained a larger percentage of New Zealand than of Scottish fleece, Mr. Roberts said, the Scottish manufacturer being convinced that New Zealand wool could not be elsewhere equalled Tor general purposes.

A singular coincidence is reported by a party of Tauranga fishing enthusiastic.? (says the New Zealand Herald). On October 28 a party was fishing between Mount Maunganui and Motiti Island, when a large fish was responsible for the snapping of a line with two hooks attached. Another party was fishing in the same locality last Sunday and its catches included a particularly fine hnpuku, from which was recovered the missing piece of line and the two hooks. Mr E. G. Williams, who had lost the hooks, said he had a special method of attaching hooks to lines which enabled him to identify the line recovered ns the piece lost

At Helensville on Friday, soon after 7 p.m., a Maori was drowned in the river, after leaping from tho wharf. He had been sitting on the wharf for some time, and a constable approached him, with a view to establishing his identity. As soon as the constable got near, the Maori leaped off the wharf, and started to swim across the river. The. constable quickly obtained a boat, and set off in pursuit of the swimmer, but before he could get near, the Maori sank out of sight. It is surmised that the Maori caught his clothes on a snag in the river, and/was pulled down into the current. . Some days ago, it was reported that an elderly Maori had wandered away from the Avondale Mental Hospital. Deceased’s body was recovered on Sunday.

A total ellipse of the moon will occur during’ the early part of lliis evening and, if the conditions are favourable, it should be visible throughout New Zealand. At 6.25 p.m. the moon will enter the earth’s penumbra, but the eclipse will not commence, so far as the ordinary observer is concerned, until 7.24 p.m., or 14 minutes after moonrise. At that time the earth’s shadow will make its first appearance on the moon’s disc. By 8.15 p.m. only a small crescent of the moon will remain unobscured. At 8.33 p.m. the shadow will entirely cover the moon and totality will have commenced. 'The total jfhase will continue until 9.29 p.m. and during the 56 minutes be visible as a dul? red globe. In any year the greatest number of eclipses possible is seven. The present eclipse is the last of the. five visible this year, of which two were solar and three lunar. Next year there will be only two eclipses, both of the sun. This is the smallest number possible in any one year.