Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3921, 21 March 1929, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. LOCAL AND GENERAL

The next monthly meeting of the Foxton IGhamber of Commerce will be held in Ross’s rooms on Tuesday evening next iat 7.30 i pan.

A reccotaimendation from the Coxton D.H. 'School Committee that pupils of nearby schools ibe brought to Foxton for cooking and dressmaking instruction, was held over at yesterday’s meeting of the Education Board for further consideration.

'There are over 4,650 bridges on New Zealand’s roads. This to!al does not include the innumerable small bridges of less than 25 feet in length. About 4,350 of the bridges arc in the counties, cities and boroughs control 235, and the remainder arc in town and road districts.

A most enjoyable social evening was given Iby Mr. and Mrs. S. Austin at their home on Tuesday in aid of the “Citizens” Plunket candidate. Guests were present from all parts of the district. A “five hundred” 'tournament was won by Mr. J. Newton, and Mi’S. W. E. Barber. Music and dancing were alsoi much appreciated and a dainty supper followed.

A seventeen-year-old girl who collapsed in the street shortly after •midnight one day last week was charged in the Children’s (Court at Christchurch with being /idle and disorderly, and with the theft of a cardigan valued at 10/-. She pleaded guilty, and was committed to the care of the Child Welfare Department. The police saidjthat the girl’s mother could not accept responsibility for her. The Minister of Lands (Hon. G. W. Foibes) has accepted an invitation, through the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, to visit the Dargaville portion of the Kaipara electorate early in April, when he will inspect the Tangowahine settlement and any other land suitable for closer settlement. The Minister of Public Works (Hon. E. A. Ransolm) has signified his intention of visiting the district in May.

Another action has been begun at Sydney against Smith and Uhn, on this occasion by Henry Hitchcock, who is claiming £IOOO for alleged breach of contract. Hitchcock contends that it was agreed that he should assist in gathering funds for the Pacific flight, and also that he should accompany the flyers, but waived his right on the understanding that he should be paid £IOOO on completion of the flight. Smith and Ul'm deny the indebtedness. The case is proceeding.

A four-ton motor-lorry conveying two circus elephants, one of which. weighed 1 two tons and the other approximately four tone, proved too heavy for a temporary bridge at Otaim'arakaii in the Auckland district on Monday. The planking gave way and the lorry crashed through, but it was saived by being suspended by its deferential. With great difficulty and use of the elephants the lorry was removed from its precarious position. Both bridge and lorry were damaged extensively. “You know how often we have been misrepresented,” said Bishop Sadler, of Nelson, in the course of his sermon at a Masonic service in the Cathedral on Sunday. “We are told that we are a secret society, and that there is something oecult that we are ashatme'd to reveal. What is the real truth! Any trivial secrets we m'ay possess are the insignia of our ancient traditions, and have no bearing, but the big things, the great things otf our Order are open to all the world, if only they have eyes to see and ears to hear. We have embodied in our Order 'those very things that go to form the very best things in life, and our teachings are open to .all who have minds to think.”

A reminder is given of St. Patrick’s Ball to be held this evening. It will probably be six months before the road from the Bealey to Otira is again open for traffic. The profit derived by the Railway Department from 'the recent school excursion from Morrinsville to Tauranga was £l2O. There has been a very perceptible drop in the temperature lately. This morning a heavy dew was experienced.

The Presbyterian Church will conduct harvest thanksgiving services on Sunday when the annual thanks-offering will be mlade. The canvass for support in a proposed company to purchase a suitable steamer to work the local port is meeting with encouraging success. The Wanganui Education Board lvas decided to hang temperance Wall charts in the schools, showing the effects of alcohol on the human body. The scow Ivotiti which arrived in port on Tuesday with a general cargo from Wellington leaves again ithis evening for the southern port with a. cargo of hemp.

A surprise visit was paid iby Customs officials to prdiriises in Grey’s Avenue, Auckland, on Tuesday flight, and it resulted in the arrest of' four Chinese. A quantity of opium in various forms, together with smoking paraphernalia, was seized and exhibited at /Court, when the Chinese were remanded.

A Wanganui grocer was quick to take advantage of recent defects in the electric light. He had a big stock of candles Which he wanted to dispose of, so he employed a young man to go from Moor' to door selling single packets, with the result that lie cleared the whole of his stock in a surprisingly short space of time.

Brief mention of several important investigations being made by the Massey Agricultural College staff was made at yesterday’s meeting of the College council. In respect of flax, Dr. Yeates, had spent the 'Slimmer scouring flax swamps of both Islands for promising strains and had brought back with him tan immense amount of useful material and plants which had been placed in the flax experimental area for further investigations.

It was reported to the Hoi’owlienua (Pohver Board on Tuesday, by the Engineer (Mr. J. A. Smith) that an interruption on the south fine occurred at 0.20 o.m. on February 25til, and, on locating the fault on the Wlaikanae Beach line, it was found that a wild duck had flown into the line and brought the 11,000volt wires together. On being asked by mtimbers how the duck fared, Mr. Smith stated that it was singed a little. The collision occurred right in the middle of a span, in the paddocks near the Wlaikan'ae Beach.

While enjoying a run up Muriwai Beach recently, a visitor to the'motor races struck soft sand at the remote end of the beach and had to abandon his vehicle to the incoming tide (states the Auckland “Herald”). The /mishap 'occurred 16 miles up 'the beach and no assistance was available. The.car, a tourer, was left firmly embedded and the driver had a long walk down the beach. The following afternoon a party of half-a-dozen persons found the car considerably the worse for its immersion in two tides. It had apparently been rolled over by the breakers. No toWrope was available, so the salvaged ear was pushed 16 miles by the front bulinper of the finders’ vehicle. A rope was secured at the camp near the entrance to the beach and the car was tewed to Auckland.

“It is earthquake weather; look out for trouble!” is an expression frequently heard when skies are grey and the air is close and windy. Is there any truth in it? Is there any relation between a heavy distuibance of the earth and the state of the atmosphere surrounding it? Professor R. Speight, Professor of Geology at Canterbury College, thinks not. Earthquakes, he told a “Sun” reporter, do not always occur in the same kind of weather’. There have been ’quakes during storm's and in the hot sunshine. “The only possible relation would be one of barometric pressure,” lie added. “A slightly different pressure, even of only one inch, might well be the determinating factor in an earthquake if .it were spread over a wide area.” 'Such an additional pressure anight just be sufficient to precipitate the .movement of rock formations that were just about to move.

“Should women smoke?” asked a London daily recently. “Well, most of them do, anyhow. And why not? Sauce for the gander should be sauce for the goose. There’s no more hahni in smoking than there is in eating your dinner as long as the ’lbaecy is all right. The trouble is it’s so often all wrong. Those foreign brands, with their high percentage of nicotine, would tax the constitution of an ostrich if ostriches smoked. And you can’t smoke stuff fife that without paying the penalty in impaired health sooner or later. The safe way is to stick to the New Zealand tobaccos. They can’t hurt even the inveterate smoker because they contain so little nicotine. Delightful smoking, too! Full of flavour and fragrance. And they don’t “/bite.” They owe their virtues largely to the fact that the leaf is toasted. Popular brands: “Riverhead Gold” (mild aromatic),“Cavendish” (an agreeable jmedium), “Navy Cut No. 3” (a blend of choice tobaccos), and “Cut Plug No. 10” (rich, dark and full-fla-voured). They are on sale by toba c conists everywhere. —Advt.

The total outstanding city rates of Christchurch are now £131,248, and there are only three paid (without penalty. The use of steel as a binding agent in concrete roads has .become general. The expense of reinforcepnent has' been justified in the roads laid down in .New Zealand.

For the four months ending March 2nd, 63,430 sheep were consigned from the Carterton railway station, and for the same period wool totalled 3,500 bales.

As a further instalment of river improvement in connection with the YVaihou and Ohinemuri rivers the Government has authorised the expenditure of a further sum of £6,000. The average value of ears imported into New Zealand has fallen 30 per cent, in the last six years. In 1922 the average cost of cars of all origins at the ports of shipment was £202. In 1928 this fell to. £l4l. It is stated that P. Coleman is very superstitious about his jersey and has never been known to have it even washed, and (will not ride in any other colour of jersey. It was, originally light blue, bu‘t what with spills and dirty hands it is now nearly black. In a Paris shop there is a glass jug (bearing the names of those who have emptied it of beer. It holds two gallons, and the first record for draining it was Infill. 7sec. This was broken 12 times, and the •latest champion emptied it in 23 1-5 seconds.

The new parking notices for cars in Main Street aim at present being erected by the waterworks foreman (Mr. W. Neville) and are in the form of metal discs. It has been decided that ears parked in tlie main thoroughfare are to face into the kerb on an angle. The Wellington Wloollbrokers’ Association advises that for the February sale the gross proceeds were £511,519. The bales offered totalled 27,042, of which 23,851 ‘were sold and 3,191 passed in. The net weight of the wool was 8,622,761 lb. and the price averaged £2l 8s lid per bale or 14fd per lb. James Bryan, a middle-aged man, with a family of six, a railway ganger, was engaged at Tapu ne'ar Oaimaru in shifting rails on a trolley when his foot caught on the line and he was thrown. Two wheels of the trolley passed over his left arm, necessitating his removal to 'the hospital Where it was found necessary to amputate the arm at the shoulder. His condition, is serious.

The dry spell this season, following that of last year, is proving a God-send to the settlers in Taranaki’s hinterland, allowing of clearing up the second growth and fern and logging and burning. Never has the .back country' looked better than it does to-day, and the settlers who a year or two back were thinking of following in the footsteps of others and walking off their sections, after losing the fruits of their years’ labours, are now on the highway to success and prosperity, says the ■‘Taranaki Daily News.”

Bequests of £1,700 under the will of the late Miss Charlotte McLaehlan, of Auckland, have (been made to the St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, and the Leslie Presbyterian Orphanage. St. Andrew’s benefits to the extent of- £1,400, and the Orphanage and S't. Matthew’s receive £IOO each, the remlaining £IOO being for the Maori mission administered iby St. Andrew’s. Miss McLachlan had lived in Auckland since childhood, and first attended St. Andrew’s 75 ye'ars ago. For 25 years she also attended St. Matthew’s. Her brother, the late Mr John McLachlan, gave Cornwallis Park to the citizens of Auckland. In an address to the members of the Southland Education Board at Invercargill on Tuesday the Minister of Education (Hon. H. A. Atmore) stated that the unemployment problem in New Zealand was largely due to the fact that the value of the primary industries of the Dominion was not realised. The -population of New Zealand has been largely increased Iby immigration and by natural causes during recent years, but the production of wealth had not been proportionately increased. This position would become more serious until it was realised that instruction in secondary schools must be of a more practical nature. Under the present system many children who did meet with success in their studies were Massed as dull)' whereas in other branches they would be very successful. It was obvious that culture and practical work must go hand in hand since culture was only a burden unless a person was able to earn sufficient to afford its attendant luxuries.