The Opotiki News Wednesday, October 4, 1939 V LOCAL AND GENERAL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 242, 4 October 1939, Page 2

The Opotiki News Wednesday, October 4, 1939 V LOCAL AND GENERAL

Shipping. The m.v. Maintain is due at Opotiki wharf to-morrow (Thursday) -at 10 a. m. and will leave Opotiki for Auckland, on Saturday at 11 a.in. Post Office Changed. Since the theft from the post office at Raukokore the post office there has been closed and reopened 'at AYaihau Bay. Transfer. Advice has been received that Mr. W. AlcCiillough. who has been a meinber of tlie staff of the -New Zealand Loan and .Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd., Opotiki, lias been transferred to the company’s branch in Te Puke. Temperatures. North Island temperatures at 9 o’clock yesterday morning were:—Cape Alarm van Diesmen 60 degrees. Auckland and Wellington 67, Gisborne 66, Taurnnga. 66. Opotiki 62', and Napier 60. Tractor Demonstrations. Attention is drawn to Horne’s Garage advertisement in which an announcement is made in connection with a well-known tractor. .V representative will be present atthe garage tomorrow and arrangements can be made for demonstrations. Sovereign in a Parsnip. A report from Port Glia liners of a parsnip in which was embedded a shilling has recalled to a Hastings resident a much more* valuable parsnip which wns dug at Frasortown, Wairoa, some years a gen. Mr. William Beckett dug on his property—the site of the old hotel—a parsnip in which was later found a sovereign. Fishing Season. In view of the suggestion recently put forward that the trout fishing season %o reduced, -the Opotiki Bod and Gun Club recently wrote to Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs, suggesting that the fishing season be not reduced, but- that the hours of fishing be reduced to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and the ‘imit of fish per rod be nine instead of i2 as formor Iv.

Aerodrome Extension. Work tia§ been commenced by the Public Works Department on the extension of the Rotorua aerodrome in a north-easterly direction, from the present boundary across Marguerite street, which will shortly he closed, to tin' main Rotorua-Whakatane highway. A new road is being constructed to the cemetery, and at the present time a" bulldozer is engaged in clearing a portion of the land taken tor the extension. of small trees and! stumps, and is doing preparatory levelling. When the extensions are completed, the runway north-east to south-west, that most commonly used, wjll be one of the longest in .New Zealand, and will lie of ample size to permit the lauding and take-off of large passenger machines. Popularity cf Tractors. During the past’few years the larrn tractor has come into its own in the Upotikj district and is fast superseding the horse for field cultivation. One of the chief advantages of flic tractor is that large areas can bo ploughed in quick time even during periods of had weather. 'I he tractors which were used in the district many years ago proved themselves to he quite unsuitable and the tractor fell into disfavour as a result of many unfortunate experiences. It was some time before the tractor again came into use, hut the later machines have proved a complete success aml it appears now that the tractor lias definitely conic to stay. One advantage of the tractor is that it never tires and when ploughing has to he done iu a limited time, use is , made of lights and the work of cultivation can go on clay and night, judications point to a decided increase in the area under crop in the district, one reason being the good prices now being received for maize. Mixed farming is becoming more popular as farms can lie worked) bv this method with fewer farm hands.