LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Whakatane Press states that about 75 swaggers were counted on the road between Gisborne and Whakatane recently.

We are in a position (says the Wairarapa Daily Times) to state that during the last few days, fat sheep have sold at a price in the vicinity of £l. It is confidently expected that Darcy Hadfield, of Auckland, will issue a challenge to the winner of the Arnst-Hanan race for the world’s sculling championship. Most of Hadfield’s’ backers’ will be found in the Wanganui district, and he will probably do most of his training on the Wanganlii River. The annual meeting of the Wairarapa Returned SolcTiers* Association passed a remit to the Dominion conference urging the Government to enforce the compulsory clauses of the Finance Act in order to provide money to complete the settlement of soldiers on the land.— Press Association.

The quarterly meeting of the Dominion executive of the Farmers’ Union will be held at the Dominion Farmers’ Institute Buildings, Wellington, on Thursday, April 21. The meeting will, among other things, discuss the general situation with Regard to the marketing of the Dominion’s produce, and also fix a date for the holding of the annual conference.

The Rarawa, which usually runs a biweekly service between New Plymouth and Onehunga, has not made the trip since last Friday, rough weather on the Manukau bar preventing the vessel from leaving the Onehunga harbor. An attempt was to be made to cross the bar at 2 o’clock this- morning and if the vessel succeeds in crossing she should arrive here this evening. It is not yet definitely known when the vessel will sail on the return trip to Onehunga. London is laughing over Sir Harry Lauder’s new poster, with the inscription: “Scotland gave to the world—,” over pictures of himself, Burns and Scott. But Lauder is irrepressible. During his last week in Glasgow, his share of the profits—he always works on sharing terms now, dividing the cost of running the theatre and the hire of the rest of the company with the management, and then dividing the net profits —was £214'8.

The average man does not regard Taranaki’s road ■success as wholly and solely the result of toll-gates. (The best evidence is that he would, be quite mistaken if he did) AH that he feels is that in Taranaki toll-gates have been partly a means of “getting things done”; and, in despair of getting anything done under the present local government system (which the Government does not dare to alter) or by the Government itself, he is half-inclined, as- a policy of desperation, to consider tollgates. So the main force behind this toll-gate talk is political inertia.— Evening Post. “There are instances of real hardship and suffering among the more poorlypaid ministers,” said the Rev. J. Pattison, at the meeting of the Auckland Presbytery this week. “I had a talk with one minister’s wife the other day, and her family is not even getting some of the necessaries of life. I believe this is not uncommon at manses where the minister’s salary is not much more than £2OO a year.” The Rev. C. J. Tocker said he kbew of a minister who had had to draw on private means to the extent of £159 during'the last 18 months. How, therefore, could those poorly-paid ministers, who had no private means, be faring?

In order to enable Wellington-Blen-heim-Nelson and Christchurch-Blenheim-Nelson to have inter-communication by telephone, the Postmaster^eneral recently approved of certain .Morse wires being used foi' telephonic purposes during the hours they are not required for telegraph work. The necessary regulations have now been prepared, and the services will commence on May 1. Christchurch, Blenheim and Nelson will be enabled to inter-communicate between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. on week days and all day on Sundays. The services' with Wellington will necessarily be confined to the period from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. on week days and to Sundays: This is the best telephone service that can be given between Wellington and the South Island stations until a telephone cable is provided across Cook Strait.

The extent to which the poultrykeeping industry has developed in the Auckland province has struck the members of the Kauri Gum Industry Commission from the evidence given to them in two districts alone. At Coromandel they were informed that the revenue from poultry is the main support of the town,* and that the aveiage shipment of eggs to Auckland amounts to 1009 dozen per day. Again, at Waiharara, it was learned that one poultry-grower alone sends to the city about 300 dozen eggs a week, and that 18 or 20 other persons engaged in the industry ship nearly the same quantity. The annual flight of the curlew, or godwit, from the shores of New Zealand has taken place within the last few days, and only casual flocks of stragglers now femain on the coast (says the Kaitaia correspondent of the Auckland Herald). Settlers in the vicinity of Spirits Bay, in the extreme north, which is always the point of departure for the visitants, discredit the theory that the birds leave, in one great contingent. On the contrary, they have been observed to set out in several strong divisions at intervals of many hours, and sometimes days. Mr. J. M. Bowman, manager of the Midhirst Dairy Company, has received word from the Government Grader that he has gained the highest average grade at Moturoa Works for the season ending March 31, with an average of 93.91 points. This is the second season running that Mr. Bowman has secured first place at Moturoa Works with his butter, last year’s average being 94,73. At the monthly meeting of the Hawcra branch of the Labor Party last night, delegates from the New Plymouth branch being present, it was decided to engage the services of Mr. Louis Mcllvride as organiser for the Labor Party in Taranaki. Meetings will be addressed by Mr. Mcllvride at New Plymouth on Sunday night, and at Okato on Monday night. Webster Bros, advertise in this issue notice of the first sale of fresh meat, by auction. This takes place on Saturday morning at 10 o’clock and will be continued each Wednesday and Saturday. Buyers are notified to bring their own receptacles for taking delivery as no wrapping up will be done on the prem-

ln our advertising columns it is notified that the Waratah Dining Rooms will be conducted in new premises—over Webster Bros’ mart —as from Monday next, 18th inst.

At a meeting of delegates of the South Island Potato-growers’ Association, a proposal was made to form a small limited liability company, with about £5OOO nominal capital, 25 per cent, being called up, to assist the distributing agents in handling tlje crop for this season, and to act as an ad-, junct to the present machinery. The. proposal has been referred to branches for approval, and will be submitted to distributors later. The objects of the proposed company are to assist in marketing the crops of weak holders who, it is alleged, by having to sell, are largely the cause of the low prices obtaining.

The sight of a tall and well-dressed bridegroom,. carrying his bride’s suitcase, and running at top speed, in an effort to overtake a taxi-cab, which was whirling his bride out of sight, enlivened the residents of a Christchurch suburban street a couffle of days ago (says an exchange). After the wedding, the bride and bridegroom had retired to a friend’s house to shake the rice out of their clothes. The bridegroom had told the tax'i-driver not to waste any time in leaving the house afterwards. But the friends of the pair were alive to the ruse. They surrounded the hquse, and gave the newly-wedded pair more showers o-f rice as they emerged. In the bustle, the taxi drove off without the bridegroom. After the bridegroom had chased the taxi for some distance, the driver awakened to the fact that he was without one of his fares, and then waited for the perspiring and panting man to overtake him.

The serious effect of the backwardness of revaluations >of land in New Zea. land upon the financed of local bodies, and the consequent escape of land speculators from taxation upon enhanced values, has been emphasised in the course of the inquiries of the Kauri Gum Commission. It was stated at Mangonui that no valuation of the county had taken place for 12 years, and that land in Kaitaia still assessed at the old-time prairie value of 10s an acre had been sold at as high as £3 per foot. Mr. Rodney Coates, a member of the Commission, mentioned that in the Otamatea County there were gum lands rated on a basis of 10s an acre, from which the owners had taken gum to the value of £2OO and £3OO an acre. -N.Z. Herald.

Further light was upon the question of the earnings of gum-diggers in the course of the inquiry by the Kauri Gum Commission at Mangonui (says a northern exchange). Mr. R. T. Wrathall, representative of the Mangonui Riding on the County Council, said that it was a general thing for the most skilled diggers to earn £lO, £l2, £l4, and even £2O a week. This, however, would bo confined to the summer months. In winter, when the deep diggings could not be worked, the earnings would be much smaller, and the average for the whole year would probably not exceed £3 or £4,a week.

The possibility of establishing trade connections between New Zeaalnd and India was discussed by Mr. P. D. Lam, a retired merchant from Bombay, in the course of an interview with a New Zealand Herald reporter. He stated that if shipping facilities were available, India could take wool, butter cheese, and other commodities that were produced here. Large extensions in the wool industry were contemplated in India, and there should be an increasing demand for the raw material henceforth. In return India could export cotton goods equal to those manufactured in England. The prices of the India goods were lower than English prices, while a considerable saving should be effected in freight and insurance charges. As instancing the magnitude of the cotton industry in India, Mr. Lam said that in Bombay there were 75 cotton mills. Of these two dozen were huge concerns, employing from 500 to 600 hands each.

‘‘One of the most lamentable sights in Sydney,” said Mr. J. R. Palmer, Town Clerk of Wellington, who has just returned from Australia, “is the number of maimed, returned soldiers in khaki who are allowed to beg in the streets. One cannot go down any of the principal streets without being accosted by armless or legless men, who rattle their boxes under everyone’s nose. There is also a brass band of returned soldiers who play round the streets, whilst others beg contributions from the passersby. In offering a coin, I asked one man whether this sort of thing was going to last. He, said that the Government did not allow them enough to live on. I suggested that the Government readily supplied artificial limbs, but he replied that he, for one, was not going to wear them; and I shrewdly suspect that they do so well by begging that they do not really want to do anything else. Still, it is a painful flight to visitors, and one that should not be permitted.”

A Christiania dispatch to the London Times says:—“The newspapers here publish detailed accounts of the demonstration given at Sandefjord of an important improvement in telegraphy invented by Hermod Petersen, chief manager of the radio department of the telegraph service. “This invention, in the opinion of experts, will revolutionise telegraph. It is the result of four years’ work, and consists of a new- system based on the alternating current, instead of F the continuous current system hitherto used. One of the many benefits which this invention is expected to bring is a big reduction in the number of operators needed. It is estimated that work which now requires 117 of the best operators in Norway could be done by 16. The new system eliminates errors of any kind and reproduces with photographic accuracy at practically unlimited distances all sorts of handwriting, type, drawings, and photographs. One expert says that by using Petersen’s system, the New York Times would be able to produce a column from the London Times within ten minutes.”

Buy your blankets at the Melbourne while we have them. Good all wool New Zealand-made blankets are still scarce, and buyers will be well advised to lose no time in making their purchases. Price 49/6 a pair for double bed size.

Mothers blessed with a baby will be pleased to hear of some white nursery flannelette, thick, soft and easily washed, was 1/11, now 1/6 a yard, post free. Get it at Rennie’s, Waitara.

Owing to the high cost of new suits, costumes, dresses, etc., thousands of people are now having their garments renovated, thereby saving the cost of new ones. The firm of J. K. Hawkins and Co., dry cleaners and steam dyers, have one of the most up-to-date plants in New Zealand for doing this class of work, and they receive goo is to renovate from all parts of the country. *At the cost of a few shillings soiled and faded garments can be made equal to new. Now is the time to economise—so have a look oyer your wardrobe.