LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 May 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Eltham Borough Council on Friday evening decided to support , the Taranaki Hydro-electric Committee’s proposal as against the Progress League’s scheme. Mr. S. Turner, the well-known mountaineer, says, in the last issue of “Stead’s” that, although he has climbed the world over, outside the Himalayas there were no more difficult mountains to conquer than the mountains of New Zealand.

A branch of the South African War Veterans’ Association has been formed at Hawera, as the result of a visit of Mr. De Launay, president of the North Island branch of the Association, who is now engaged in organising branches throughout New Zealand.

Intimation has been received by the Taranaki Agricultural Society from Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., to the effect that the Acting-Prime Minister (Sir Francis Bell) had notified a Minister will attend the forthcoming Winter Show if possible and perform the opening ceremony. The above was received in reply to a request made by the society recently.

Something extraordinary in the shape of a poll took place at Kaponga last week, there not being one vote cast against the proposed loan for the extension of the electric light and power. The work will now be proceeded with almost at once. It is hoped Riverlea and Rowan will be linked up with the little town within twelve months, says the Star’s correspondent. At a meeting of the general committee of the Taranaki Agricultural Society held on Friday last, a suggestion was received from the conference of A. and P. societies held recently, that horses in training or that have raced within six months of a show, be not allowed to compete in the hack and harness classes. The committee, however, decided not to approve of this and to make the classes absolutely open.

A meeting of the committee of the Taranaki Agricultural Society was held on Friday last, Mr. W. B. Grant presiding. A discussing arose regarding a suggestion that the society offer a number of prizes for competition among pupils of both primary and secondary schools for essays on the Winter Show, and the matter was eventually referred to a subcommittee. It was decided to engagg the Citizens’ Band to provide music for the four nights of the show.

New Plymouth .experienced its first Saturday half-holiday in fine weather, when a busy morning’s shopping was followed by the afternoon’s leisure at sport. A good number of country people were in town, and both during the afternoon and evening there were many in the business area. A comparison of tram returns makes interesting reading. On Friday —market day—the trams carried 6445 passengers, while on Saturday the total was 6168. Friday’s figures are smaller than the old Saturday returns, while Saturday’s figures exceed those formerly recorded on a Thursday. On Saturday evening Devon Street almost bore its usual Saturday night scene of activity, but when the theatres opened the town quickly emptied. Thursday will be market day this week, as Friday is the King’s Birthday, a general holiday.

A meeting of the Wanganui-Taranaki branch of the New Zealand Sanitary Inspectors’ Association will be held in New Plymouth on Friday.

The shield presented to the Taranaki Rugby Union by Mr. P. J. Flanagan is on view in the window of Mr. J. Bennett, New Plymouth. Webster Bros, notify that the sale under instructions from the Registrar of the Supreme Court has been postponed until Friday, June 24. •

Last year there were 57 breweries in New Zealand, employing 1090 hands.

The population of the Wellington metropolitan area is in the neighborhood of 110,000, against 95,235 in 1916.

It is estimated that over one thousand workers on the Auckland waterfront are at present without employ-

'll tell you gentlemen that I work 364 days out of the 365—not because I want to, but because I have to,” said a returned soldier settler at the Farmers’ Union Conference in Masterton.

A line of over one hundred fat wethers sold at the Pahiatua stock sale on Tuesday at 18s Id per head. A Waimate (South Island) builder advertises that he is prepared to erect houses of four rooms for £475-, and of five rooms for £660.

It is possible to purchase factory butter in Wanganui at present at 2s Id per pound, which is, no doubt, as cheap or cheaper than in any town in the Dominion.

A speaker at a public meeting held in Hastings on Tuesday night to consider the unemployed problem, asserted that a number of women and children were already starving. An Invercargill syndicate is having plans prepared for the erection of a commodious and up-to-date hotel at Stewart Island, which is to cost several thousand pounds, and will be able to offer tourists the comfort of modern suites with all the latest conveniences.

Mr. G. R. Sykes, M.P., mentioned at the Farmers’ Union smoke social in Masterton that the present Parliament contained forty farmers. “Surely the farmers cannot wish for any better representation than that in the House,” concluded Mr. Sykes, amid applause. One of the jurors in applying for exemption at the Supreme Court at Chirstchurch said that ,his attendance at hi*s office was urgently required, as one of the clerks had left hurriedly, and it was expected that defalcations ranging from £l5O to £2OO would be discovered. Exemption was granted by His Honor.

Galvanised iron is comparatively cheap now in New Zealand. The peak price during the war was over £lOO per ton. Good brands can now be bought at £5O. In regard to hardware generally, prices have eased somewhat, but without justification in cost. New Zealand firms, though paying as much as ever, have reduced prices to ease their big stocks. The Wanganui Chonicle of Thursday had the following paragraph:—“A local land agent says that the number of enquiries received from people anxious to buy -farms is surprising. He says it seems to be realised now that the price of land is not going to come down, although the bottom has dropped out of the market for stock, and thereefore farm buyers who have been holding off for the time when farms will be cheapest are beginning to invest again.” Kairanga dairy factory have decided for the next two months, and probably August also, to supply milk to the Wellington municipality (states the Levin Chronicle). The municipality pay 2s per gallon for the milk. This represents a return to the fanner of about 4s per lb of butter-fat, without having to submit his milk to th'e test. The return is so much more profitable to the farmer, that some are considering bringing their cows in during the winter months. It is understood that the Bainesse, Rangiotu, and Orona Downs factories have also been approached by the municipality.

A large deputation waited upon the Hokianga Hosptal Board the other day as a protest against the dismissal of Dr. Smith without making public reasons for his dismissal. The board refused to give the reasons, and the deputation thereupon resolved itself into a public meeting, representing 750 signatories to a petition praying for Dr. Smith's retention. A resolution was passed, expressing want of confidence in the Hospital Board, and requesting it to resign. It was also resolved: “That this meeting has unabated confidence in Dr. Smith, and will stand by him to the end.”

Said the chairman of directors of the Northern Steamship Co. on Wednesday: It may be instructive to know regarding income tax, that, like most other divi-dend-paying companies, the Northern Steamship Company’s shareholders have, in effect, a very important partner in the New Zealand Government, whose quota, in taxation, averages not far from as much as our shareholders receive in dividends. While established companies in New Zealand can manage to earn, say, 12 to 14 per cent, on their capital in order to pay a modest 7 per cent, to their proprietary. The effect of suchtaxation means that the Government has practically commandeered one-half of the capital of large companies, the income from which is uped for the common weal.

When a proposal was made at a public meeting at Hastings by Lieut.-Col-onel Holderness that men who were looking for work would be prepared to take low wages, the question was asked, “What about the Award?” Lieut.-Col-onel Holderness said if the union officials were going to stand in the way of people who were prepared to help to relieve acute distress, then he would say let the union officials go to the wall, and any man who would see his wife starve at the bidding of the union officials was no man, and he (the speaker) would not be prepared to assist him. But he did not believe that the officials would have the hardihood to call a man out in such circumstances. If the borough could provide work at a low’ price, let it be offered. Let the work go on, and let the officials do what they liked.

Speaking to a Manawatu Times reporter concerning the financial stringency, Mr. C. R. Beattie, of Palmerston North, said that when he was in England recently all trade concerns were' meeting with considerable difficulty, owing to the scarcity and tightness of money. The banks generally had found it absolutely necessary to curtail the accommodation which their customers had vbeen in the habit of receiving. There seemed to be a general tendency amongst all classes of shopkeepers to realise on their goods by bringing the prices down, and by conducting propaganda through the press and other mediums, urging the public to take advantage of what was stated to he a temporary drop in prices to make their purchases as speedily as possible. Every description of shop had its window placarded with announcements of reduced Tices. It was quite apparent, said Mr. Beattie, that the spending power of the people was diminishing owing to the very heavy taxation, increased cost of locomotion, and the ever-increasing rentals of dwellings. (

As stock continues to come in, the Waingawa freezing works are to be kept open for several weeks longer.

“It is 1 not the price of electricity, bijt the price of benzine and kerosene that is the deciding factor now.”—Mr. L. Birks, at Eketahuna, on Thursday.

/ *Tea stocky in New Zealand are still ample for all requirements. During the last few months importers Have made big sacrifices and actual losses, but the depletion is now telling in the form of a tendency to firmer prices and signs that the * market is getting back to normal.

Buildings that will be vie with those in Queen street are in the course of erection in several of the growing thoroughfares (says the Auckland Star). About three acres of land, or 140,000 square feet, will be covered by the new drapery establishment of George Court in Karangahape road. This will be something of a sky-scraper in the neighborhood, being six stories high in front and four in the rear. It will take two years to complete, at an estimated cost of £lOO,OOO.

The Ngaruawahia paper, in a leading article, accuses Hamilton of being unfair in trying to make its population appear larger than it really is by including as “suburbs” Horsham Downs and Horotiu, “separated by eight miles of sparsely populated swampy country from Hamilton, and as much suburbs of that centre as Auckland is of Wellington.” The Advocate concludes its article as under: —“The present Hamilton emanation of a superheated imagination should be a call to Ngaruawahia people to wake up and secure a little of their heritage before the whole Waikato as far as Mercer is annexed Hamilton borough.”

A meeting was held on Thursday evening, the first of a series to prepare for the Y.W.C.A. campaign to raise a further sum of £2OOO for the purchase of Chatsworth House as a girls’ hostel. Miss Birch, the New Zealand field organising secretary of the Y.W.C.A., acted as chairwoman, and explained some of the details of the campaign to the captain of teams of collectors. Miss Birch has drawn up a scheme of organisation whereby the collecting may be made easy and the burden not fall on the few. A campaign is to be started on June 4, lasting till June 10, when a party of 90 women and girls have undertaken to collect. A systematised effort to secure funds is to be made and a record success is anticipated.

“It seems the height of absurdity,” said Mr. AV. J. Polson at the Farmers’ Conference at Masterton the other day, “while the whole producing community is working at a heavy loss, that the slaughtermen in our freezing works should be earning in some cases as much as £l6 a week, or more than the salary of a successful bank or business manager. We cannot let this continue. Either labor must moderate its demands, or the whole structure of our producing organisation will be destroyed, ft is already in jeopardy, and its destruction will bring the whole community down with it. Let me say definitely that producers will fight to the last ditch to prevent such a catastrophe, and, if a struggle with labor is involved, we are prepared, however regretfully, to face it.”

A rather strange story is told by a Whakatane fisherman, who 'reports that the sea for several chains round Whale Island is bood red, especially in the direction of Whale Island. Much vegetation is floating round, and it is believed there has been some disturbance. Fish are extremely plentiful in the discolored water, but few outside it. Coincident with this information is news that steam is rising in fresh places on Whale Island. Hot springs have been known to exist there, but more have evidently broken out in a fresh place. Fishermen state that these strange facts were noticed about the same time as White Island was sending up a large amount of steam. 'White and Whale Islands, Awaken Hot Springs, and Rotorua are in a direct line, and it is believed they are in some way connected. Whale Island is about ten miles from Whakatane.

Attention is invited to an advertisement appearing in this issue in which Mr. M. Hickey, of Opunake, offers two dairy farms for sale. Easy terms will be offered to suitable applicants. A meeting of the Park Tennis and Croquet Club is called for this evening. As important business relative to new lawns and courts, etc., is to be discussed, it is hoped that all members will attend the meeting. v