LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Though Palmerston North carried Wednesday half-holiday, several of the large business firms propose to close on Saturday, states a local paper.

A revision of the figures of the halfholiday poll at Gisborne gives Saturday a majority of six. The official count kgs yet to be made. —Press Association.

The new church which was opened’ at Kaimata on Anzac Day is the gift of Mr. Burweß,. of that district, as a memorial to his late wife.

The Inspector of Factories states that in a town where Saturday has been observed as the half-holiday, even for a brief period, and then a poll has changed the holiday to any other day,’Saturday must remain the day until the Minister fixes the date for the change.

The Port Hacking, which will arrive 'this morning, will take away the last of the Imperial purchases'of butter (some 20,000 boxes) from New Plymouth. The Port Pirie in October last lifted the last of the Imperial purchases of meat from Taranaki.

Saturday will he observed in New Plymouth in June. A meeting of the Ratepayers’ Association and the Tradesmen’s Association is to be held next week with a view to taking measures to make Friday the shopping day, instead of Saturday.

No fewer than 42 Hindu immigrants arrived in Auckland yesterday by the Atua from Suva —the largest number brought by any boat for a long time past. All were successful in passing the education test. One was lost overboard. —Press Association.

A laugh was caused in the Waverley Court on Wednesday, when a native was riving evidence in an assault case. “What happened at Waitotara?” asked His Worship. “I don’t know; I was drunk,” was the candid reply from the witness.

The Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association is inauguratisg a movement to establish a permanent cenotaph near Parliament Buildings. The cost of erecting a monument 30 feet high in white marble is estimated at £2OOO. An endeavor is being made to get. school children interested in the project, and it is hoped the cenotaph will be in existence next Anzac Day.—Press Association.

Sixty-nine applications for assistance under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act were dealt with by the Tara? naki Land Board this week. Ten applications for building grants were recommended and 3 deferred; 3 applications for houses in course of erection were recommended; 7 applications for building grants were recommended and one refused; one application for a small farm was recoinmended; one application for a section was refused; 28 applications for stock, etc., were recommended, 4 refused and 4 deferred; 3 applications to transfer were recommended, one refused and 2 deferred; and one appliation to subdivide and transfer was recommended.

Considerable quantities of flour, bran, and pollard are' being shipped from Dunedin to Auckland, where of late the stocks of these goods have run down. During his life, Mr. J. D. Rockfeller, of America, is said to have made £375,000,000. This would just about purchase the whole of New Zealand.

In answer to a question put to him at Auckland, Mr. D. G. Clark, Commissioner of Taxes, stated that a prize from Tattersall’s was not taxable income.

Mr. William Johnston, of Melbourne, startled an audience of 2500 people at Auckland on Sunday by telling them that the end of the world may come any day now. A circular from the headquarters of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association was read at last night’s meeting of the New Plymouth R.S.A. advising that the New Plymouth branch, with 413 financial members, was seventeenth on the list of sixty-three associations in New Zealand. The total number of members for the Dominion was 35,703. The Racing Commission will arrive in Hawera on Monday night, and will receive deputations at 9.30 o’clock on Tuesday morning. The Commission will arrive in .Stratford on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning they will visit the Stratford racecourse, where evidence is to be taken unless other arrangements are made in the meantime. The Commission will arrive in New Plymouth on Wednesday night and will receive deputations on Thursday.

As showing the force of the seas at the Mokau bar when the launch Turanga was wrecked early yesterday morning, it may be mentioned that the mast, about a foot through, was smashed as if it were a carrot, and inch bolts wrenched off. Indeed the boat was absolutely pulverised by the force of the seas, and it is a marvel that anyone was saved at all.

Figures given to a Mariawatu Daily Times reporter by Mr. Jas. Wallace on returning from a trip to America, show that New Zealanders do not know what a high cost of living means. Roast beef in Toronto cost 29 cents a pound, and in London 3s fkl a pound; lamb, 40 cents, as against 3s; eggs in Montreal, 69 cents a dozen, as against 6s a dozen (reduced in March to ss) sugar, 18 cents a pound in Montreal, and lOd a pound in London (reduced to 8d in March).

A certain lady (says an English paper) who made herself notorious in Paris during the war, and whose acquaintance not a few officers of high rank had occasion to regret, contemplates writing her experiences and giving the names of her admirers under flimsy disguise. For the moment several English and colonial men of reputation are shaking. The Hawera Acclimatisation Society is on a satisfactory footing, the excess of assets over liabilities being £BBB 3s 3d. The revenue received from the fishing licenses shows a marked increase, and the shooting licenses also show an increase over last year. The society has expended a considerable amount on birds (pheasants), which have been liberated in its sanctuaries. The cash at the bank is £l9B 16s 9d, against £142 17 s 8d at the beginning of the .year. “The people of Australia may be divided into two divisions—those who live in Sydney and those who would like to -live in Sydney,” remarked Dr. Hertz, Chief Rabbi, in an address in that city. The Millions Club sought to entertain him, but finally it was Dr. Hertz who entertained the Millions Club. With much tact he said that he did not intend to turn the Millions Club into a pulpit, but yet it was with a cleverly camouflaged sermon that he entertained his hearers.

The members of the Stratford Returned Soldiers’ Association, at the annual meeting on Thursday nigSt, entered a protest against the non-observance of Anzac Day by certain people in Stratford. A resolution was passed to the effect that the association regretted to observe that certain businesses were carried on on Anzac Day and that the association’s delegate to the District Conference at Palmerston North be instructed to support the introduction of further legislation making Anzac Day a close holiday similar to Good Friday and Christinas Day. 4 Mr. F. D. Gaffaney, in introducing the matter, said that he had noticed the shops of alien fruiterers open on Anzac Day, and he thought that as the European population had to observe a holiday the aliens certainly should be compelled to do so as well. A member interjected that the billiard saloon was also open on Anzac Day. A meeting of the New Plymouth Repatriation Committee was held yesterd'ay afternoon. Present: Messrs. C. H. Weston (chairman). H. R. Cattley, W. J. Chaney, T Furlong, G. E. Roper and the secretary (Mr. A. S. Allen). The chairman formally welcomed to the board Mr. G. E. Roper who represents the Returned Soldiers’ Association during Mr. F. Hartnell’s absence in England. The secretary reported that three loans for furniture had been repaid and that generally speaking repayments were being made punctually at due date. Six loans of £75 each and one of £4*l for the purchase of furniture, authorised by the executive, were confirmed. The executive’s action in granting a loan of £5O to start a new business and in granting a training subsidy to a disabled soldier was also confirmed. A furniture loan of £75 was granted. Fry and yearling® have been liberated or sold by the Hawera Acclimatisation Society as follows: Brown fry—Skeet Road 64,000, Mangatoki (Hastings Road) 20,000, Eltham. Road 32,000, Tristram’s dam 10,000, Law’s dam 4000, Smith Road 30,000, Eltham 8000, factory race (.Eltham) 4000, stock 20,000, sold 95,000. Rainbow fry: Kaupokonui (Stratford Road) .28,000. Waverley Lakes 10,000, Mangatoki (Eltham Road) 16,000, Qoodson’s dam 5000, stock 10,000, sold 47,000. Brown yearlings: Kaupokonui (Glenn Road) 3000, Kapuni (South Road) 1000, Waingongoro 2587, Inaha (Skeet Road) 200, Waingongoro (Eltham) 4064, stock 450, sold 2500, Kaponga (Kaupokonui) 520. Rainbow fry: Robertson’s lakes 5146, stock 50. Two-year brown trout: Waingongoro 135; two-year rainbow trout, Robertson’s lakes 40. The president stated at the meeting that within the next week or two 14,000 brown trout yearlings would be liberated.

Asked what his impression was about the effects of prohibition in America, Mr. James Wallace of Palmerston said that during the whole time he was in New York he did not see a single drunken man amongst the swarming mallions of population. Business people were very pleased with the experiment and its effect upon trade and the general well-being. Directly he reached Southampton (England) he was impressed by the difference, because the first thing he noticed was the number of intoxicated men who came reeling out of the public houses at 10 o’clock at night.

The honorarium of the Mayor of Wellington has been raised to £5OO pel year.

The average rate of pay of motormen and conductors on the Wellington tramways has increased from £3 8s in 1914 to £6 4s lOd in 1921.

The Hutt County Council has approved the principle of establishing tollgates for the collection of revenue for the maintenance of country roads.

In the North Island of New Zealand there are 1269 miles, of railway, and in the South 1727 miles. •

A sign of the times: During last week several informal meetings of creditors were held in Napier. The Auckland Star states that the whole of the maize crops in the Ruatoki district have been destroyed by frosts. A greater part of the crops was owned by the natives, but few Europeans are also heavy losers. Auckland has had a record year in the matter of activity in the building trade, and a noticeable feature of the municipal .statistics is that out of 270 buildings erected in the city 228 were dwelling houses. Hamilton in the same period built 400 houses. A New Plymouth business man who advertises in the Daily News states that during the few months his advertisement has appeared, his business has increased by over one hundred per cent. The business traceame to the publicity came from as far away as the Mokau and Waverley.

An article in the World’s Work. (London) on New Zealand, by Mr. Maurice Hurst, gives a very striking account of the Dominion’s productivity. Many other journals are quoting it appreciatively, and, while noting that the United Kingdom at present gets 90 per cent, of the Dominion’s foodstuffs, attention is called to the possibilities of the Canal and the new markets for New Zealand it opens up on the Atlantic seaboard of the States.

Fathers Herring and Son-teimer, of the Marist Order, open a fortnightly Mission in St. Joseph’s Church tomorrow.

A girl simply must have one of the new knitted wool jumpers this season or be “out of it.” On page 4, Rennie’s offer you some of the smartest and most becoming jumpers you ever saw. Come and try them on.