DISTRICT NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1915, Page 8

DISTRICT NEWS.

\ Crtom; Our Own Correspondents.) NORMANBY. ■ The Postal Department has arranged for a delivery of letters in the town district every morning. In the past a great deal of inconvenience was experienced by having to wait at the postal counter for letters when the officials were engaged in railway duties. The system of a morning delivery is not quite satisfactory, however, for there is no delivery over the counter during the day, and in consequence letters that arrive in Nbrmanby by the afternoon trains are not delivered until the next morning. Mr. F. Stringer has opened a fish shop, with supper rooms, and, being in a central position, this will be a great convenience to the townspeople. As showing the desire for land in this district, it is interesting to note that at the sale of Mr. -John Holmes' property recently the price obtained for town sections, some distance from the centre of the town, was £2OO per acre, the highest price for many years. There was Tceen competition, which shows that people have faith in the future progress of our township. The members of the Town Board who are In favor of merging with the Hawera County Council are energetically pushing their petition. The general feeling of the ratepayers, however, is against this, for it is surely a step backward, and would much lower the status of the town, without any material advantage being gained. If the members of the board had been as energetic in seeing that the rates were collected in past years, there would be no cry for merging. The war is taking a heavy toll of the young men who left this district. During the past week news of the death of Trooper Charles Hayward, youngest son of the late Mr. John Hayward, and Privates Eric and Gordon Surr, sons of Mr. Patrick Burr, of Hastings, and late of Nbrmanby' came to hand. Great I sympathy is felt for the relatives of the deceased soldiers, and especially for Mr. ' and Mrs. Burr, who have lost their two I sons on Gallipoli Peninsula. The Rev. J. W. Butler, who volunteered to tend the sick soldiers at Trentham during the epidemic of sickne?y. ha's returned to his church work. URTJTI. The committee appointed to take up the matter of collection of funds in aid of the wounded soldiers and their dependents are getting busy, and no doubt their efforts will meet with success. Mr. H. Richardson lias received during the last week a letter from his son Dick, who says that there is plenty of room for the "slacker",at the Dardanelles. In the list of those who purchased the Huirangi cake at the meeting a fortnight ago the name of Mr. A. R. Alpe was inadvertently omitted. The country is beginning to put on its spring coat now, and feed is getting more plentiful. There Bhould be a good season for dairying.