LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1920, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The New %mouth Borough Council last evening passed a formal motion confirming the resolution authorising the raising of a loan of £IO,OOO in connection with the erection of workers' dwellings. No other business was transacted.

• The vital statistics for the past month for Hawera were: Births 25, deaths 4 and marriages 11. For the correspond,ing month of last year there were 29 births, 13 deaths, and 12 marriages. There are no less than 88 divorce case* set down for hearing at the Auckland Supreme Court sessions, which commenced yesterday. A circular from the Minis!// of Publie Health was read at the meeting of the Taranaki Cdirnty Council yesterday asking for the co-operation of local bodies in framing an Act which will remove most of the existing difficulties and anomalies in. public health administration, and for any suggestion the Council had to make on the matter. The matter was left over for further consideration.

The Ohristelrawh City Council last night decided to instruct the successful architect in the' competition for designs for homes under the municipal housing scheme t.| proceed with the specifications and call tenders for the erection of eight houses, each to cost, including land, £IOOO. The Council also decided, notwithstanding a protest of the Labor wing, to join the Canterbury Employers' Association. —Press Association.

To-mDrrow at 2 o'clock Webster Bros. are selling a big consignment of Nelson,, fruit, and prices promise to be very reasonable.

Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, Is Vi And 2* 9&

The Momona estate of iTirau was divided into thirteen sections ranging from 80 to 186 acres, and offered for sale. For the first two sections £42 per acre was offered, but the sections were passed in. None of the other sections offered reached the upset price.

A sale of town sections was held at Patea on Wednesday, seven sections, somo with buildings thereon, being offered. All but one were passed in, the one sold realising £9O. In the majority of eases no bids were received.

Word has been received that there are no further obstacles in the way of harbor works authorisation for Opnnake, and it is expected that the necessary authority will be granted immediately. —Times. As an indication of the times and the altered trade conditions now existing, it is interesting to note that certain Scottish manufacturers are seeking, through the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, to appoint agents in all towns for their textile manufactures.

The Wanganui tramways are still held up and a partial service is being run with a "Puffing Billy" and some motor'buses. A gas engine bought in Napier has been on the railway for a week, and. has not yet been availed of, says a local paper. The other day "Puffing Billy" took fire, and the passengers, as soon as the engine stopped, scrambled out with more speed than decorum, fearing an explosion. The annual report of the Stratford Co-op., Building Society shows that during the year a further sum of £1390 was distributed among the subscribers to the first group, the accrued profits being £7 3s Gd per share. The merger of the second group in the third group of the Hawera Building Society was now practically complete, the accrued profits in that group being £156.

About a thousand books and magazines were collected in New Plymouth by the Boy Scouts on Saturday last for distribution in the backbloeks. These, books have been sorted out by members of the Victoria League, and will be despatched to the backbloeks as soon as possible. The League desires to thank ihe public for giving so freely, and the Boy Scouts for #heir energetic work in collecting.

At the meeting of the Taranaki County Council yesterday a letter was read from the Public Trust Office, Wellington, informing the Council that the In» vestnient Board had agreed to, an application from the Councl for a loan-of £2OOO for workers' dweltngs at 5} per cent, plus 1 per cent sinking fund for a term of 30J years. It was decided to authorise the raising of the loan of £2OOO, the money to be utilised .for erecting houses for 1 Foreman Seainark and Jury. One of tile most interesting diseus ; sions that will come "before the House this session is that as to whether Bel : lamy'a is to go dry or continue to be wet. By a provision in the Legislature Act the vote, is to be taken on a specified day, which, with this Parliament, is to-day, and the decision is to be come to by open voting of the House and the Council. As it happens, the Council will not be sitting to-day, so this provision cannot be strictly fulfilled. The general idea is that the popular in-1 stitution will not go dry this year

The question of making a Saturday half-holiday compulsory, was before the Taranaki County Council yesterday. The Palmeraton North Borough Council wrote stating that it had made representations to the Government asking that consideration should be given to the advisability of making the Saturday halfholiday general throughout the Dominion, and asked the Taranaki Council to also make representations to the Government on the matter. It was decided that while the Taranaki County Council was favorable to a Saturday half-holi-day, it did not wish to see it made compulsory. His Majesty's Trade Commissioner has received information to the effect that it is proposed in the near'future to exhibit in New Zealand a number of films of industrial pictures illustrating manufacturing conditions in important works in the United Kingdom. Tlieao films are being taken round the world by an organisation which lias the support of some of the largest manufaiturers in the United Kingdom. As at present arranged, t'he pictures will arrive in New Zealand- in December of the present year, and will remain here .for some two months, being shown at all the more important centres.

A man tfltb recently bought a. house in Barrett Street went proudly up to take possession of his new home, but to his intense astonishment he was refused entry by a tenant who had occupied the house for some months. The would-be owner wh6, by the way, had not yet completed the purchase, was so determined to take possession that he forced an entry and installed himself in his new lodgings, whereupon the tenant yesterday called in the police for protection and eviction of the intruder. When the police made it quite plain to -the purchaser that not only was he unwelcome, but also- liable to twelve months' imprisonment for forcing an entry, he decided to allow the tenant undisturbed possession. It is well to know in these extreme times of house famine that ownership does not necessarily mean occupation.

All ladies interested in ' assisting the supper at the forthcoming K.S.A. ball are asked to meet Mrs. N. K. MeDairmid at the Soldiers' Club to-morrow (Wednesday), at 3 p.m. Mrs. Clarke (the Mayoress) has intimated to Mrs. C. H. Burgess that on the Saturday of the park carnival week the flower stall, which is cond.ioted each week for the Girls' Hostnl, will he run for the park effort, so that there will be no conflict of apoeals on that day, and the public and all workers will be able ( to concentrate on the one effoit. >

Newton King, Ltd., is conducting ft clearing sale at Waitoitoi on Thursday next on account of Mr. 0. P. Grainger. A herd of 52 cows, besides other stock, is to be disposed of. Particulars of sale appear in this issue.

Most ladies in Waitara have decided to postpone washing day till later in the week, as Bonnie's big Winter Sale has brought down the price of drapery, and every woman wants her share of the bargains.

An announcement of interest is made elsewhere in this issue by the Scoullar Co., Ltd., of Wellington. They have decided to send a representative to this district with a full range of Axminster and Indian carpets and Rugs, which will, be on, view from Monday, Aug. 0. The location will be announced in this paper on the Saturday previous to opening. The Scoullar Co Ltd. Head office: Lambton Quay, Wellington; branches «t Masterton and Has-tinM.-'Advt

| The Otago Daily Times states that all sanitary inspectors at present employed '. by local authorities are to be taken met by the Government. An elderly Native who was arrested in New Plymouth by Constable Wroblenskl on Saturday afternoon on a charge of drunkenness, was convicted and fined fig, at the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning. The case of Wisnewski and O'Shannessey v. I\ J. Qreenaway, which was partly heard last Monday, wae again called on at New Plymouth Court yesterday, when counsel for the parties announced that a settlement had been arrived at, each party to pay iU own costs. ; '

The hunt ball held in Manaia on Wednesday night was without doubt the largest and most gorgeous function held in Taran'aki (says the Star). Over 200 couples were present, including visitors* from all over Taranaki and Wellington provinces.

A comereial traveller gives a terrible account of the intense cold in Swfden: "In Haparanda, the day before I left, I attended a performance at the titeatre. It was a tragedy. Everybody weptj but it was so «old that the tears of the spectators in the gallery fell like hailstone* among the Occupants of the staHs," A cynic points out that this Is not likely to happen in what is generally regarded, as the future abode of commercial travellers. ,

Christchnrch boot retailers,. discussing a reported fall in leather prices in 'Australia, stated that, though the position was not satisfactory, they had received fno news of a decrease. . A recent consignment of footwear received from* Melbourne had not contained a single pair showing the slightest decline in cost. Some lines had advanced. Suedejs, for instance, were higher than evtlti all round. In addition, the latest cabled price lists from England showed that 1920 quotations were all well above the quotations of 1919. One shopkeeper said that it would take a stiff decline in Talue to make up for increased wages' now paid to repairers ahd gasmen. The only remedy that he could think of was to place more workers in the Hew' Zealand factories, and that could not be done unless the housing problem were settled. A wreath of arum lilies and New Zealand foliage is to be frozen and sent to London for placing on the Nelson Memorial, Trafalgar Square, as tt»j. tribute of. the. Wellington branch of the sayy League to the memory pf "the greatest sailor since the world began," It Will .take more than two weeks jto freexe clearly. The block of ice, measuring nearly 2 feet each way, will be shipped in its zinc-lined case about, the middle of August. ',

"The loss involved through the fraudulent disappearance of cargo," tKjt. a circular issued by'the Wellington Harbor Boafd, "has now reached such ; serious dimensions that in the interest* of all concerned I have thought it advisable, on the board's behalf, to approach the Wellington importers, and Wlieit their co-operation in a serious effort to combat this growing evil. The circular is signed by Captain Hale Munro, traffic manager and chief wharfinger. It la proposed to issue triplicate receipt* t«* cargo. Adoption of a standard method of checking cargo is suggested for the. importing firms, independently- of the Harbor Board's check. It is further fittfioA ed that the board should be coußttfmtly advised of missing or pillaged' carfp, so. that importers, shipping companies, the board, and others concerned may be able to "frustrate the efforts of those- concerned in the fraudulent transactions, and, if possible, to locate the plae*. of j disappearance."