LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 123, 29 August 1913, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The ga!dens aoout Pukekohe, wherever there a-e fruit trees, are just now a blaze of blossoming beauty. Tho93 crossings over King street, which were to be sciaped regularly, are not now being kept in order. The idea was found to be impracticable in the present stat3 of the ro:d. The Loyal Pukekohe lodge, Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, are to hold their seventh annual dinner at the Pukekohe hotel on Friday, September sth. Dinner will be served at 6.45 pm. The tickets are 3s, and as these functions are always successful an enjoyable evening is assured.

The Borough Council meeting on Weimsday nighc lapsed for want of a quorum. The Mayor, Crs Comrie, Hamilton, and Pollock were present at the appointed time of meeting, and after waiting thre;quarters of an hour without any other Councillor . appearing the Mayor d:c!arrd (he meeting to have lapsed. The Finance Committes met and pa33ed wages and urgent accounts. Mr Bayliss, of the Agricultural Department, in writing to the provincial office of the Ne<v Zealand Farmers' Union, say that the Papakura, Pukekohe, Morrinsville, Waimana, Mauku, Bombay, Matamaia, Rama Rama, Hunua, aad Matahura branches have each appointed email committees of active memben to. sup;rase the experimental plots undertaken by individual farmers, or 0:1 tehalf of the ra'pective branches, and these are "getting to work." So far, he says, none of ihe branches which have instituted experiments have placed before themselves the problem oi solving what are the best grasses for the formation of permanent psstures i.i their districts, and have not intimated their intention of de voting certain areas to rotation crops, with a view to ascertaining the most profitable method of increasing the fertility of the land by a process of rotation cropping. Mr Bayliss suggests that such experiments would t;k3 a series of seasons to mature, but under active and competent committees much good should result to tha districts undertaking them. When it was proposed to the Franklin County Council and the Pukekohe Borough Cou.icil thai those bcclies should make contributions.towards a South Auckland Court at the forthcoming exhibition in Auckland, it was stated that the payments would be legalised. Up north, the Whangarei Borough Council recently agr;ed to contribute £146 to the combined fund to provide a North Auckland Ccurt at the approaching exhibition, and made an initial payment of £l2 to the North Auckland Court executive. This payment was disallowed by the Auditor-General when the Council's annual balanc .-sheet wai reviewed. It was urged by the Council that such payments were legalised by the Exhibitions Act of 1910, but the Auditor-General replied that the Act only applies to cases where the work is performed by a local authority itself, an J the Act does not authoris2 the handing over of moneys for expenditure by other people. The matter was discussed at a meeting of the Borough Council. It was pointed out that, according to the Auaitor-General's interpretation of the Act referred to, the members of the Council could be personally liable for the balance of the £146 rate, if it were handed over to the North Auckland Court executive, and further, that members of all the other northern local bodies would be in a similar predicament. The Council decided not to take any action, pending further developments, For Sale.— One 1), uue [■>, and cue 13 gallon Seinuufi'i' ; best make ; almost new ; half-nRu. K. Perkins & Co. Universal Providers, Pukekohe. #