DISTRICT NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1920, Page 2

DISTRICT NEWS.

PUNGAREHU. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) Local residents were well represented at Opunake on Thursday evening last, when a concert and dance to augment the funds of the Opunako candidate took place. The usual success attended that committee's efforts. Sportsmen will b© pleased to hear that shooting licenses for imported and native game can now be obtained. It will bci sorry news for the smokers to hear that a further rise in tobacco and cigarette.* Is probable. The increases are expected to take place at an early date, but as to exactly what they will be, has not yet been determined. The burden of increasing cost of living continues to be a matter of absorbing dismay to many thousands of wage and salary earners, and It must be admitted that tli© outlook affords no ground for optimism regarding the immediate future. The question Is complicated by the operations of the land speculator, who does incalculable harm out. of sight, and who increases the cost of living, and confuses the real issues, without himself being In any sense a producer, The cutting up of land and its resale at greatly advanced prices, Is creating a body of honest would-be producers, who legitimately require the prices of a profiteer In order to scratch a living. Speaking generally, It may be impossible to reduce the price of goods produced outside New Zealand, but It is certainly not impossible to control the profit on such goods after they arrive here.. The principle of considering the cost of goods as equal to the cost of re- , placement without taking Into account what was actually paid for them, is also open to some criticism. Something altogether unique, and quite unprecedented in the history of Pungarehu, Is, pt/rhaps, the best description of what is i likely to happen in connection with the fancy i dress ball to be'held In the local hall at lan early date. A great feature of the ball | will be the competitive element of rarious ■ dress designs. | Many are the complaints now to be heard about the disgraceful state of the thoroughfare at the bottom end of the Cape Road. J Metalling was expected by a few sanguine people to be going to be completed over this | part of the road this autumn, but, so far, i nothing has been done. WitJi the carting , of boulders from the beach to the crusher | this particular part of the road hr.s become ■ practically impassable, and it is only a matj ter of time until an accident occurs, the »mud ,In parts being feet deep No doubt. In more 1 ways than eyio an Improvement could be made, but the thing that is wanted Is metal, and until it is metalled the road will remain a danger to vehicles. Influenza of a mlid type is still prevalent along the coast, particularly amongst the young.