LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 253, 6 September 1928, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The South Taranaki Timber Company have very generously donated 1200 feet of timber to the Putaruru Rugby Union for the new training shed. A pleasing feature of this year’s farming operations is the large area which local Maoris are putting into crops of various kinds. One native near Kawhia has no less than five acres of potatoes planted, while others have areas varying from one to two acres.—Settler. Messrs. J. W. Simpson, P. Hawke and W. McNab are candidates for the seat on the Hinuera Co-operative Dairy-Company Ltd.’s board of directors rendered vacant by the retirement of Mr. J. P. Harris. However proud of their offspring young fathers might be, there are few who would go the length of taking those offspring to the Plunket rooms (says the Ashburton Guardian). One such father, his face wreathed in smiles, paid a call at the rooms the other morning, carrying a baby in his arms. He was a Chinese. “ Do you think that the country can carry the load of a five day week and £5 a week as the Labour Party advocated some time ago?” asked the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, in addressing a meeting at Waitoa on Monday. “It can’t bear what it is carrying now,” interjected Captain Colbeck, amid laughter. A special businessmen’s touring train will visit Putaruru on a Sunday towards the end of October during a tour of the province. An inspection of Arapuni will be made by the visitors, and while the train is standing on the siding telephonic communication with Auckland, via Matamata, will be maintained for the convenience of those undertaking the trip.

A visitor to Putaruru during the week-end was Mr. J. Priestley, the Dominion secretary of the Sudan United Mission. Mr. Priestley is giving a series of illustrated screen lectures throughout the Dominion on behalf of the mission and has, at the special request of a number of farmers, arranged a return visit. He has a wonderful collection of photographs for the screen of the village life of the tribes of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

A neat joke was played on Mr. Brabyn last Friday evening at a sawmilling district not a hundred miles from Putaruru. He left his car outside the hall and preached at a good congregation on “ lost things ” —lost coins, lost cattle, lost ships, lost people, etc. After the service it was discovered that the car was “ lost.” Boy Scouts searched the roads and surrounding country, and some of the congregation urged Mr. Brabyn to ring up the police, but eventually the car was found safe and sound in a garage just a few yards from the hall.