BLOCKING WATER RACES.

Shannon News, 25 January 1924, Page 3

BLOCKING WATER RACES.

CATTLE DEPRIVED OF WATER IN TE HORO. COUNTY.

“A-good deal of trouble and annoyancc'has been caused. lately with the water, races throughout the County, owing to some person or persons interfering with the diverting boxes, and the (humping of the races, also the blocking o£ pipes,” stated the engineer to the H.orowhenua County Council in his report to the meeting on Saturday. “A few days ago the main Horowhcnua race was dammed with boulders and timber, thus causing more than half the district to be without water.. In the . Waikawa-Kuku races part of the bottom of a flaming was knocked out and boulders jammed into the pipes. As it is very hard to trace persons who interfere with the races I would suggest that the Council offer a reward for the eoiivic.tion of any person or persons responsible for such interference. ’ ’ . 'Whenthe report came up for consideration tlte engineer remarked: — “During the last fortnight I have been spending half my time .running about, after water. The race was blocked with logs and boulders, It is a very serious offence.’’ The -chairman: The man who would go and smash thb race and cut the water off from hundreds of head of cattle is a criminal and nothing else. It must surely be the work, of youths of children, and I'can’t think that a grown man who "had reached years of discretion would have done it.'

A Councillor: He would if his pock'cts were concerned.

The.-engineer: We had to smash the ■pipes) to get some of the boulders out. They had been pushed right, down tlio pipes. : Through water being, cut off from, a long piece of fluming it has been opened up in the sun. The’rcport was adopted, it being left in the hand of the engineer to advertise a suitable reward.

Maoris working on farms in the neighbourhood are making good money, and the Eltham Argus was informed that some of them are getting up, to £l6 per acre for thinning mangolds. At this figure mangolds are going to be expensive winter feed for some of the farmers this year.

The new season’s lambs are :11 in good condition in Central Otago, and there should be some heavy stock for the freezing works for the opening of the season. - This year, although a dry one, conditions have been much better for fattening purposes than last season.

On Thursday a stock train, consisting of 67 trucks, left Masterton, northards. It is stated that this is the largest consignment of stock that has ever left Masterton by train.

Taranaki with its bitumen roads, is the home of the motor service, practically all townships being linked with the railway by this modern method of transport. On the Opunake-Ncw Plymouth run, the last word in motor ’buses has just been installed consisting of an Auckland-built saloon car seated for 28 passengers. Being fully glassed, curtains are unnecessary.

A girls'’ camping party of the Anglican “Active Service Cadets” of this diocese broke up last week, after a three week’s enjoyable camping at Otaki beach. It is hoped that next year a very large girls’ camp of these Active Service Cadets will bie held in the same place. This organisation has beer largely initiated by Canon Fielden Taylor to help the social work of this diocese. -

■ When a witness was .giving evidence in the Auckland Police Court he happened to remark that he had been “away in France fighting the Germans.” Mr. Allan Moody, who appeared for a young man charged with using obscenb language, replied, “Oh, don’t come the war stunt, we are sick of it here, you know.” “Oh, you use it yourself,” said Mr. Poynton, S.M. “No, I do not, Your Worship, I know what the Court thinks of it,” said Mr. Moody.

The Government has decided to extend the guarantee of one penny per lb not return on all shipment of apples made from New Zealand during the 1924 export season, thie guarantee being restricted to a maximum of 250,000 cases. Last year close on 150,000 cases of fruit were exported.