Shannon News WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1923.

Shannon News, 24 October 1923, Page 2

Shannon News WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1923.

An election of five trustees on the BucKly Drainage Board will be held at fcuannon oil . Monday, Nov. sth. Nominations will be received by Mr. J. T. Bo vis,' Returning Oiiicer, until noon on Saturday, October ;27th.

The work of. layinig down the four new tennis courts ior the local Tennis Club is now nearing completion. The contractor hopes to, finish at the eirid of i:his week and the counts will therelore be ready" to play on about the first week in December.

The Shannon Labour Party held a [ most enjoyable dance in the Druids j Hall on, Monday night, there being a good attendance. The duties of M.C. in the hands of Mr. J. Crowther were most capably carried out Mrs Butler supplied, the music and was ably assisted by Mr. H. Hook, while extras were played by Miss E. Davis and Mr. J. Olsen. An excellent supper was provided,'and done full justice to. Dancing was kept up until a'late hour and everyone present had <a good time At the last meeting of ithe U.A.O.D. Lodge in the Parish Hall, there were about 35 visiting Druids present, members of the Lind Lodge, Tokomiaru and the Oroua Lodge, Palmerston North. Lodpre matters of vital' interest to Druidism were discussed and the outicomei will be of great • benefit to the local Lodge iand possibly Shannon will see a great revival in membership. Afterwards «he visitors were entertained to supper , a nd the evening concluded, with cards and I music. ' -

Before Messrs Murdoch and Gunning, Js.P., yesterday morning a middle-aged women named Jennie. Powell, who was arrested on Monday evening was charged with drunkenness and also with being an. idle and disorderly person and having no visabie ■means of support. She was in a pretty bad way and had to: receive medical attendance after being arrested. She pleaded guilty and was convicted and fined It)/- or 24 hours imprisonment for being drunk, and on the second charge she was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, She was also ordered to pay 10/6 medical expenses.

"1 have now been three whole days dealing with cases arising out of motor collisions," said Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., at the Hawera Court on Thursday. "They seem to be remarkably frequent in Taranaki." Counsel agreed that' this was the case, 'in fact, he believed quite half the reported collision cases in the New Zea. land law reports were of Taranaki origin. This was due, he thought), to the temptation to travel fast on tile miles. of excellent tarred roads in the province.

On .page one the programme of the gymnastic display and concert to begiven in, laicl of Sports Queen, on Friday, October '26th, in the Maoriland Picture Theatre, is advertised. Besides the gymnastic display the concert items will be a treat in themselves. The "Shannon Sports" are putting on a short' sketch.- also. The concert, is timed to start sharp at 8 o'clock.

The demand for cattle for the Melbourne market is by no means exhausted, and it is understood that a buyer is still operating in the Dominion. Outside competition for beef is still as strong as ever. • A cable to-day announces the death ■ of 'the Duke of Somerset, aged 77. Ha '. was the fifteenth (holder of the dukedom and owned about 25,400 acres in England, with a house in Grosvenor Square and country seats at Maiden Bradley, Bath; Burton Hall, Loughborough; and Berry Pomeroy, Totues, ( Devon.. \ Last year it is estimated that nearly ; 40,000 calves were inoculated in the I Taranaki district of which less than ■ 100 were steer calves. The obvious re- |

suit has been a shortage .of steer cattlej, a shortage which will become more acute as time goes on. The dairy farmer finds it more profitable' to produce pork in the vicinity of 6£d { per lb than to give his milk to siteer > calves. Some amusement was caused ait a meeting of the Newmarket Borougth Council by the receipt of a letter complaining' about stray dogs in the borough. One of the councillors suggested that a man be employed to "clean up" the dogs. K was then suggested that, a dog inspector be appointed, and that he be paid at the rate of so much a dozen for disposing of the homeless animals. Considerable interest is being dis- ' played amongst the settlers of the Koputaroa district in the proposal to extend the Waitarere road so as to provide direct access from Koputaroa and locality, /to the sea- A movement is on foot to assist with the work, by voluntary contributions, of cash and' labour, an offer of £5 in this direction

Waving been ireoeived from Mr G. H. Hood, of Koputaroa, provided the work is put in hand. Several further offers have come in and a committee will be set up to go fully into the matter. There has been a mild feud existing between the. Wanganui Trotting Club and Foxton Racing Club over an arrangement made to hold the meetings of both olubs on January 22, the date of Wellington's anniversary. A conference between representatives of the clubs, presided over by the Hon. R. F. Bollard, Minister of Internal Affairs, wa s held at Parliamentary Buildings, last week. The views of each cluh having been fully ventilated, an agreement .amicable to both clubs was come to, which means that both the Wanganui and Foxton Glubs should hold their meetings on the same date, viz., 22nd January, subject to a readjustment of dates if necessary in

the following year. The Arbitration Court has made the last of its series of investigations, into the effecit. on wages of /movements, in the cost of-living. It finds that the increased cost.of living during the past six months, is equivalent to ,ain increase of- Is per week in iiie male adult wage, but in. view of the faet that there was a decrease in the previous

half-year which was not followed by a reduction of wages, it 'has decided not, to alter the existing minimum nates- This is don© in pursuance of the policy of avoiding unnecessary fluctuations of wages at short intervals. A New Yo.rk cable: yesterday says that in the international horserace, 1$ miles, Zev (America.) def elated Papyrus (England) by four, lengths. Tiha lima moi 9min 9_Fiofl;P.o Th-fl

American horse overtopped the Britisher by several inches. Both horses carried 1261b5. The mud appears to have proved Papyrus's undoing. Observers declared that it clung to his heels and seemed to hold him down, disrupting all Donoghue's plans and strategy. The. horse's unfamiliarity with the dirt track, coupled with the fact that the dirt had been turned into a mire as thick and sticky as molasses*, led to his defeat by such a large margin. The system- adopted in connection with the broadcasting of press items to ships in the Southern Pacific by wireless is for all New Zealand news to be despatched from Sydney. The news is sent under arrangement with the Australian Press Association, and no New Zealand news is sent direct from the Dominion. The result is that somjetimes mistakes *are liable to occur to the disadvantage of New Zealand. For instance, when the Tahiti, with the Prime Minister of New Zealand aboard left Wellington., the Wellington papers that day had commented on the fact that the influenza epidemic was dying out, but after .two days at sea (on August 31st) an item, appearing to the uninitiated as coming from Wellington, was published in the ship's wireless news as fojllows: "Wellington.—Pneumonic influenza cases last week numbered sixty, and deaths twenty-eight." The ; source of information was reported I to ibe the Sydney Morning Herald. I

A very large proportion, of (New Zealand pastures are on hill country that once carried forest. In many cases very crude methods hayle been adopted in converting these forest lands into grass country, and this fact is the cause of so much country deteriorating. Mr E. A. Bruce Levy, of the Biological Laboratory, in. a mosC informative article in the current number of the Journal of Agriculture, says':—Millions of acres of forest have, been felled and grassed more or less, haphazardly. Those areas Which, could be stumped and ploughed are iamongst the richest of our grass, nearly 4;000,000 acres have reable forest lands, out of 11,000,000 acres felled and surface sown with grass, nearly 4,000,00 acres have reverted to scrub and fern and this j state of reversion is by no means stationary, 500,000 acres having been added to the total, according to official statistics, during Ihe! past four j years. When it is. thus remembered j that eviery year during the past four years some 125,000 acres of hill country have gone back to secondary growlfh. it will be realised that money i spent on research work on that ooun- j try is amply justified. Every acre of such country that reverts to secondary growth means an average expenditure of fully £2. per acre to clean up and resow,'making for each year an expenditure by the hill, country far-' mers of, say, £250,000 if the deterioration is to be saved.

The counting of the votes cast at the postal ballot taken to decide whether the Dairy Produce Export Control Act, passed last session, is to be put into force, or not, has been completed, and is as under: For 11,284, against 8,255; majority for 13,029; A Gisborne telegram says that through the capsize of a motor car over a steep bank while endeavouring to extricate it from a bog hole on the Arakihi road, John Penny had three ribs and his shoulder blade fractured. Fortunately the passenger had alighted. "Fruit trees bear proliflcally in California, and I know of one fouracre farm there where 4000 props were required to support the heavily lnden trees." Mr R. Tanner of Lone--

# burn, who.made this statement to a ' "Standard" reporter, added that during his recent visit to America he had learned that £4OO per acre was j sometimes paid for an orchard com--1 ing into hearing. Orchardists were - coming from all over the world to take advantage of the great opportunities for. success which were to be found in this part of America.—Palmerston Standard. It was mentioned at .tJhe meeting of the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce on Monday night that the amount to be paid out, by the Railway Department in Wanganui as refunds for sorting charges which the Privy Council had he-Id were not was in the vicinity of £IB,OOO. Some speak-, ers commented upon the fact that the department had not yet paid out, and considered that pressure should be brought to bear on the authorities with this object. It was decided to" , write to the department and request immediate payment. liie orislimaoK manner of posting

letters and packets no dou.bt becomes somewhat monotonous in its regularity. A demonstration as. regards introducing a, little variety in respect oi disposing Willi the second-mentioned articles was given by an office; boy in tiie Wellington Post Office vestibule the other day, wihen he approached the apperture from the far end of the lobby and performed a neat, "dropkick" at the hole with his firm's.parcel. He missed the first time, but the article was substantial enough to stand a second attempt, and this time he "scored." The only questionable drawback is "WJbat would the manager say?" Throughout New Zealand to-mor-row will be celebrated in every Presbyterian, Ghiurch as Young People's Day. The General Assembly's Youth ,of the Church Committee has prepared a special Ordter of service which

will beused simultaneouly. Hymns, responsive readings, etc., will thus be issued to all worshippers. From the -order of service it will be seen that there are -781 Presbyterian Sunday Schools, 4,341 Sunday School teachers, and 41,413 scholars, of whom 21,853 are girls; and 19,560 boys. Details of Bible classes reveal "a membership of 11,423. During the past year the Sunday Schools have contributed £8702 and the Bible classes £3951. In accordance' with the General Assembly's scheme Young People's Day will be held in St. Andrew's - Church to-morrow with special service® in the jphurch ati 11 a.m., 2.45 p.m. and 7 p.im. As the celebration this year synchronises with'Trafalgar Day the church will be decorated with the Union Jack, the New Zealand and otlher flags.

The North Otago Times .says : "An attein.pt is being made by a section of the workers in Canterbury to victimise Mr Steve Boreham because he had the. courage to state last week through, the. columns ]pf the North Otago Times that he bad no sympathy with the go-slow policy oi the West Coast miners, and believed tha.t the A'rbitratioa Court was the best thing that had ever been devised lor the protection of the interests of the working classes. The Workers' Union is being asked to suspend Mr Boreham, .and to remove him from his position .as organising secretary if it .Da proved that be used the words I assigned to him. It is to be hoped ['that Mr Boreham will not'allow himself to be intimidated by the threats of a handful of extremists. He has i rendered a conspicuous service l to his fellow-workers by denouncing the pernicious system of 'go slow,' and l>y supporting the Arbitration Court, and he can rest satisfied that public sentiment will strongly resent any attempt to penalise him for having had the courage of his convictions. The 'go-slow' policy is an abomination, and no man. who supports ii can be regarded as a true friend of the proletariat."

I During the war vast progress was made in the art of hying and in uie > construction oi machines, hut the conditions of military flying are so different from those prevailing in civn life that it has taken some time to readjust the ideas of constructors to the new requirements. In war time speed and the power of rising rapidly to a great height are essential. Money is not considered and human life is cheap. These conditions produced very powerful engines .and machines which could stand the strain of being pushed through the air at enormous- speed, but ; toey did not develop aeroplanes which could be run economically, fly with perfect safety and land &t speeds which did not demand large levieF aireas. - Gradually these requisites, which are of vital importance in civil flying, are securing greater consideration and things are again beginning to move in the. direction of making the aeroplane little less popular than, the motor. The first step was the use of gliders, machines without engines, to decide on the best form of wing surface. The objection to these was that they had to be dragged to the top of a hill and let go" in the face of a. wind. Once launched they could remain up for hours by taking advantage of every contrary wind to rise and then planing down when the wind dropped or came from the rear. It was, however, rather dull work, needing the keenest attention to every breath of

wind. Now interest has been added by the installation of small engines up to 7£ horse-power, which enable the machines to rise! anywhere, and to stay in the air even when! the wind fails temporarily, •