LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At a meeting of the executive of tlio Taranaki Employers' Association held yesterday it was decided to hold the annual meeting on Friday. August 20, the gathering to take the form of a dinner and social evening. The' Government will extend an inv tation to the overseas journalists who will be attending the World's Press Congress at Sydney to visit New Zealand, and will grant free passes over the railways and steamer to the South Island. ' According to a statement which appeared in the Gisborne papers a company there has offered to supply electricity at one penny per unit from the proposed Waikohu. hydro-electric scheme. - "Three cases in which Chinamen with' their Chinese wives ■ have purchased houses' and are seeking the eviction of white families have been brought under our notice within the past week," states the Wellington Rentpayers' Protection League in a letter written to the Prime Minister upon the housing question. During the hearing of the civil action for the recovery of a bet which was wagered on the result of the election for the Stratford seat last year, the police were much in evidence taking notices of the various bets which were mentioned. It is therefore probable that cbarges v c» illegal betting will be brought as a result of the hearing. The chief postmaster at New Plymouth advises a new scale of charges for toll communications. It has now been decided that for communications from teleplwne exchange subscribers speaking from their own telephones, half rates will he charged up to 20 instead of 10 miles. The accommodation at the Stratford' Courthouse was taxed to Its utmost all day yesterday during the hearing of the "election betting case," and the Court resembled, its crowded condition at .the time of the hearing of the election petition. Great interest was manifested in the case by the crowd of spectators, some of whom were doubtless disappointed at so few names being mentioned of parsons who had staked money on the result of the election contest between Mr. Hine and Mr. Masters. The effect of the legislation enacted during the past few,, years for the protection of tenants was the subject of a few remarks made by the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) in the Supreme Court in Wellington on Saturday. His Honour believed that while legislation represented well-meant efforts to ensure that poor people should have houses to live in, it possibly had a contrary effect, inasmuch as landlords would not build or people invest money in houses if they could not get possession of the places when they desired. It might have been advisable, His Honour thought, not to have gone beyond the law saying that the rent should be fixed by a magistrate, as a guaranteed return of S per cent. Might still have induced people to build. "Are you always going to get 2a for butter-fat?" asked a delegate of Mr 0. K. Wilson (Te Kuiti) at Tuesday's sitting of the Farmers' Union conference. "Yes," replied Mr Wilson. "I "believe it will go up to 35." "What will you do when it comes down to Is?" asked another delegate. "It never will," was the interjection from another part of the room. .Mr Wilson was emphasising that, in his opinion, there was nothing in the way of a land boom at the present time. He contended that the lands of New Zealand were so rich that it was impossible to say to what level prices would rise in the future. At any rate, if there was a land boom, or the possibility of a break in prices, no such suggestion in that direction should come from farmers. This is from an American Chatauqua programme:—"Mr. Papakura is wellknown in his home country as one of the finest tenor soloists the native race has produced. He comes from the Ngapuhi Tribe of ithe North Island, and is a grandson of the famous Rotorua Thermal Region Guide, Sophia, known to world travellers. Mrs. Papakura is a. representative of the Ngaitahu Tribe of the South Island. Miss Reupaua is from the Whangaiiui, an island tribe. Miss Touri, leader of the folk dances and special vocalist, is from the peaceful Whanganui and Tuwhareloa Tribes. Mr. 0. Tahupotiki Haddon is a descendant of Titokowaru, of the West Coast, the great fighting chief of the Ngfttiruanui Tribe. In company with the Maoris on the last evening comes Leila M. Blomfield, New Zealand writer and lecturer wifli a beautiful illustrated lecture on the Island Dominion of the South Seas. Her lecture is of intense, interest, and packed full of information that is new ; to the people of this country."