LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1921, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Rarawa was unable to cross the Mannkau bar yesterday afternoon. It is thought she .will make an attempt to get out at ten o’clock this morning.

While defending a Mokaii liquor case at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Mr. R. H. QuiUiam said that the defendant had kept out of trouble for 4 years, and he considered this was a good record for Mokau.

At the sitting of the New Plymouth Magistrate’s Court yesterday, a first offending inebriate, aged 82 years, was convicted and discharged. It is reported that a Devon Street property, containing shops occupied by Messrs. Martin and Co. and G. Yuka has just changed hands, the purchase price being in the vicinity of £lBO per foot.

That the housing problem is still acute in New Plymouth was indicated by a statement made in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday by a man who appeared on a charge of failing to send his children to school. He stated that he, his wife and four children lived in one room without a fireplace, so that when the children got wet on the way to school it was not possible to dry their clothes.

The shareholders of the Hawera Dairy Company yesterday passed a resolution asking the Hawera County Council to link up the unmetalled portion of the Fraser Road. It was pointed out that the portion of the road in Eltham County was now being metalled and would be completed next year, but that there was half a mile in the Hawera County that required, doing. Mr. Campbell, who is a member of the Eltham County Council, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his action in the matter.

The necessity for farmers, and particularly young men just starting farming, in these days of high prices to have some indication during the season of the probable pay-out they are to receive from their factory, was stressed by some speakers at the annual meeting of the Hawera Dairy Company yesterday, and a resolution was passed that the directors should issue a progress report, say every th Me months. The chairman considered that this was a step in the right direction and promised it should be carried out.

The heavy weather experienced in New Plymouth for the last couple of days has made all tasks out of doors very unpleasant, showers of rain being accompanied by a high wind. Yesterday the elements were extremely boisterous, a gale of considerable force prevailing throughout the day. There was a big sea running and two vessels in port, which had been awaiting a break in the weather, were compelled to remain in shelter. The force of the seas breaking along the forsehore had a damaging effect at the East End Reserve, where the timber work erected in front of the pavilion last year for protective purpoees, and extending for some distance was washed away. Considerable inroad was made on the earth bank, about six feet being scoured out. This was ttifl only case of damage in the borough which had come under the notice of the engineer (Mr. W. H. Cook) up to last night.

In the course of his address to teachers yesterday on the subject of physical instruction in schools Mr. H. G. Longworth, director of physical instruction for the Dominion, mentioned that he had stood for a quarter of an hour at a time at the busiest street in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, watching the people passing by, and of the numbers he observed only 2 per cent, walked correctly. The other 98 per cent, either had stooped shoulders, slouched along, or had some other defect to a greater or lesser degree.

A meeting of women teachers will be held at the Central School, New Plymouth, to-morrow morning, when Dr. Elizabeth Gunn will give an address. Wanted to buy and sell, Machinery of every description—for workshops, mills and factories, gas, steam and oil engines. Ask for particulars. Manning Co., 5 Bedford Row, Christchurch. 8 H. J. Abram, “Shop by Post”, chemist, New Plymouth, will mail his renowned Chilblain Application, 1/6, post free.

A return just published shows that the amount raised in the Wairarapa for war purposes was £272,324. Seventy-nine divorce petitions are set dowu for hearing at the next sitting of the Supreme Court in Auckland. The Land and Estate Agents’ Association of Auckland has a membership of 198.

It was stated by Mr. W. M. Single* ton (chief dairy inspector) at the Farmers’ Conference that there were 900000 dairy cows in New Zealand, and only a comparatively small number of them have been tested.

A Christchurch syndicate, fully realising tlj* popularity of indoor bowling, has laid down a two-rink green in the heart of the city, and although it has only been open for a week, it has been well patronised, both in the afternoon and evenings. A record dairying season is predicted for Auckland this year by those in close touch with the industry (says the New Zealand Herald), and it is freely stated that in dairy produce will lie the main hope of retrieving in some measure the adverse conditions which have arisen as a result of the fall in the wool and beef markets.

A little private enterprise in the form of an experiment is said to have been taken with satisfactory results by a section of slaughtermen at the Auckland abattoirs. They bought a fat beat at Westfield, did their own slaughtering, and shared it. The result, according to one of the party concerned, was astonishing.

The secretary of the Maori faithhealer, Ratana, said at Christchurch that certain people in America had offered up to £50,000 if he would visit their country, but he had declined. He and his staff were paying all their own expenses, which amounted to £2300 on their recent tour of the North Island. None of them received any salary or remuneration whatever.

In conversation with Dr. Sims, who for many years was Government medical officer in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Samoa Times learnt that the doctor had been investigating, while in Tonga, the condition of the natives, which he thought very Satisfactory so far as lie had the opportunity to see. The birth rate now is 39 per thousand, and the death rate only 17 per thousand, a favorable figure for a tropical country Though much above the New’ Zealand rate of nine per thousand. The population of Tonga now, is well over 23,000.

A curious story is being told just now of the horrible hiatus in a beachcomber’s repertory. The B.C. was in Hawaii, that land of dusky dancers. He saw a girl dancing to a most attractive air played on the ukclele, and so taken was he with it that he was convinced all the world would like it as well. So with the dusky maiden and a ukelele nied him to Broadway, New York, where on the first night after arrival he heard a gramophone give out the very tune on which he was staking his fortune. What, he asked, is this? Why its the tune we’ve been jazzing, too, for months. Only then did he discover that the ukelele girl had caught the air from a passing liner on its way south the lihe. He returned to his beach. The concentration of population in the Australian cities is evident from returns of the latest census. The total population of New South Wales is 2,096.396, of which the Sydney metropolitan area comprises 897,640, or nearly 43 per cent., with 524,927 in the provincial urban areas. The rural population is only 664.502, or 31 per cent. In 10 years, the population of Sydney has increased by 42.60 per cent., and that of the provincial towns by 24.47 per cent., while the increase in the rural population has been 13.11 per cent. Similar conditions exist in Victoria, where of the total population of 1,530,114, no less than 765,846. or more than half, is resident in the Melbourne metropolitan areas, with only 187,516 distributed among the provincial towns. The rural population is 571,535, or 37 per cent. Melbourne has increased its population in 10 years by 30 per cent., against 4.8 per cent, in the provincial towns and 5.46 per cent, in the country districts.

A case which is evoking much interest is that of Maria KFni, a single native woman between forty and fifty years old residing at Little River. A brother stated that she had gone blind about fifteen years ago. On Sunday Ratana talked with her a while, and then placed a hat over her eyes. “Can you see anything?” he enquired. “No,” replied the woman, “all dark.” Ratana took the hat away and led her to a window, where the sun was streaming in, and asked if she could see anything. After a moment she replied, “Yes, some light.” The process was repeated several times, the woman becoming more confident in her ability to distinguish light from dark each time. Ratana sent her away rejoicing. “You will be able to see in a few days,” he told her. Many other cases of disease were treated by Ratana, with varying success. To all he is stated to have said the same thing: “It rests with you yourselves. So soon as you are ready to believe and have faith, so soon will you be healed. Some will be cured at once, but others may take some time.” In the course of an address to the Auckland Rotary Club last week, the Hon. A. M. Myers said: “One may point to the fact that the world outlook is at present more hopeful than at any time since the outbreak of the war. The terms of the German indemnity have now been definitely settled and accepted. Britain’s industrial troubles are lightening month by month. World military disturbances are gradually working themselves out to a solution; and there are even hopes, eventually, of a satisfactory, adjustment of the agelong Irish problem. Peace is assured on each of the seven seas of the world. Our victory in the Great War rendered the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea immune from menace by German, Austrian, Turkish, or Russian fleets. Anglo-American amity maintains peace in the Atlantic. And now the foreshadowed renewal of the Japanese Treaty may be looked, upon as a guarantee of continued peace in the Pacific—at any rate for some years to come. Bearing in mind all these considerations, together with the moral effect of the League of Nations, one can almost say that the peace is now I in definite process of being won! Tn 1 regard to our own Empire, it is ob- i vious that we are only at the be- ■ ginning of the development of our i potential resources. So, also, with New Zealand. Our ’ magnificent natural wealth, if handled wisely and managed with prudence, will yet be the means of rearing a great nation in this Britain of the South. To the business, community, I can only reiterate that I their part in our future is to keep the wheels of industry going. |