LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

If vou start a waggon down a hill it go'es of itself, but if yon want to go up hill you must keep a pushin’ and a pullin'—it is the same way with busiriess.

Advice has been received that the first shipment of the Dannevirke Dairy Co’s, cheese —250 crates—was sold in London at 98s a cwt., which represents 2s 2d a. lb for butter fat, but of course, transport, selling and other charges have to be deduced.

The Buller Miner made its re-appear-ance a few days after a lapse of some eighteen months. It is printed, published, and edited by Mr. Frank Munson a son of the founder, who established the publication over half a century ago. The New Zealand Times says stock is not coming forward to the freezing companies freely at the present time. Feed is plentiful, and farmers are holding on to their stock, awaiting eventualities in respect to the proposed meat pool. After the local races on Monday (telegraphs the Kaikoura correspondent °6f the Press), two Christchurch “welshers” got away from Kaikoura with about £3OO, after an exciting chase across country. They travelled, throughout the night, and eventually got away to Christchurch by ear.

A tribute was paid to the work and the personality of Sir William Eraser, ex-Minister for Public Works, by the Primo Minister at Waiuku. Mr. Massey mentioned that in addition to being associated with the Cabinet, Sir William would Jill the position of Leader of the Legislative Council durino- the coming absence of Sir Francis Bell in England. Sir William Fraser is over 80 years of age.

Bathers! If you want a really good two-piece Canadian costume, buy one of the Melbourne’s pure wool cashmere in naw, with contrasting colored borders. ,These are a very 8 “ e “ , l ' a “J are u “’

The retail price of butter in New Piymouth was reduced yesterday to Is 4d per lb bulk and Is 5d pats. To-day there will be a turther reduction, the price then being Is 3d and Is 4d respectively.

A traveller who has just returned to Wanganui from a tour in the South Island states that there are hundreds of motor-cars in various garages there, being sent in for sale by those who could no longer afford to run them. He was also informed that some North Island dealers had managed to secure some good bargains in cars in the South, and had shipped them North, and sold them at a profit. “If I win the toss I’ll lose the championship,” said Dick Arnst to a Wanganui Chronicle reporter some time ago when discussing the relative merits of the inside and outside courses on the river. He added that every time he had lost the toss he had won. This statement, made jokingly, proved prophetic, for Arnst won the toss and lost the championship. In the course of a speech at Dannevirke on Friday last, Sir Thomas Mackenzie described the statement in Lord .(Esher’s book, to the effect that Earl Kitchener was mentally deficient prior to his departure for Russia, as absolutely false. Sir Thomas stated that he had had a lengthy interview with Earl Kitchener immediately prior to his departure on the ill-fated journey, and he found him in a high state of mental fitness.

When motoring home from Wanganui on Thursday evening, AD’, and Mrs. J. H. Raymond, of the Rangitikei Hotel, Bulls, and a friend, Miss Cameron, of New Plymouth, narrowly escaped serious injury as the result of their car overturning. In negotiating a bend in the road, about a mile beyond Bulls, one of the • front wheels came off. The car ■skidded for about thirty yards and overturned, throwing the occupants clear. Miss Cameron sustained a few abrasions, and had her face cut a little. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond escaped with severe shakings. The car was extensively damaged. That councillors should pay rates straight away to help along the position of the general account was the effect of a suggestion made at yesterday’s meeting of the Inglewood County Council by Cr. J. M. Hair, when members were discussing the fact that the axpenditure was mounting up towards the limit of the overdraft. “Everybody is not as wealthy as you are,” the chairman (Mr. A. Corkill) replied jokingly to his fellow councillor, fthd the meeting passed ■on to the next business. At yesterday’s meeting of the Egmont County Council, the engineer (Mr. C. R. Pease) forwarded a letter resigning his position, to takb effect in three months’ time, in accordance with the terms of his appointment. This formed the subject of some discussion, as the Council at its last meeting had decided to give the engineer two months’ notice with a view to appointing an overseer. Finally it was resolved, on the motion of Crs. Tosland and Chapman, to accept the resignation, and give the engineer three months’ leave of absence. Crs. '.Ferguson and CHBrien protested, against the latter portion of the resolution, considering it “a positive scandal that ratepayers’ money should be so wasted.”

It is the intention of the Inglewood County Council to oppose ttye AuditorGeneral’s most recent award in regard to the adjustment of accounts with the Taranaki County. ' The report of a special meeting held on January 4, which was adopted at yesterday's ordinary meeting, commented as follows on the award: —“Our proportion of the endowments for tlte Junction road had not been vested in this County, neither had the Waiwakaiho gravel reserve been valued as for dissolution of partnership, besides several other items which this County had already taken exception to. The clerk was instructed to refer the award to the county solicitors, giving them authority to act in the matter ti upsetting the ‘award and obtaining our contentious rights.”

The Egmont County Council, at a special meeting yesterday, decided tn revert to Wednesday as Wie statutory half-holiday during the coming year. The chairman, in moving the resolution, said that he favored Saturday, but in view of the fact that the Opunake Town Board, had decided to revert to Wednesday, he considered they had no other option. It was no use having one day for the town of Opunake and a different day lor the surrounding townships. Cr. Ferguson seconded the resolution. Cr. Trotter, who js also chairman of the Opunake Towri Board, stated that the Town Board had received a petition from 22 ratepayers favoring Wednesday as against 8 favoring batur. day.

Speaking at the meeting of the Egmont County Council yesterday, Ur. O’Brien said that ratepayers were complaining that some of the men were not getting 0 to work to time, and were demanding that wages should be reduce.. Personally he did not think the wages should be reduced yet, but he thought that the new foreman should be instructed to be on the work with his men at 8 o’clock and remain there till 5 p.m., and see that men not working directly under his supervision also worked their full time. By giving a good honest day’s work it might be possible to prevent any reduction in wages for some time yet. If the men were not prepared to do a full day s work they would have to reduce the wages to 9s or 10s per day. He moved as suggested. This was’ seconded by Cr. Ferguson, who remarked that unless some proper system of supervision now was adopted, the Council would soon be bankrupt. Ihq motion regarding full time was carried. Apparently some one in the Opunake district is of opinion that the district is in need of a coroner, or possibly is desirous of obtaining the appointment. At yesterday’s meeting of the Egmont County Council, Mr. O. Haw’ken. M.'P.. forwarded a letter from the Hon. E P. Lee (Minister of Justice) in Regard to representations made regarding the appointment of a coroner at Opunake, which stated that after making inquiries, he found that there was not sufficient work to jusify such an appoint ment. The present practice of holding inquests by the local Justices with juries, and, as occasion requires, by the magistrate as coroner appeared to meet the present requirements. The clerk stated that the council had not made any application for a coroner. Members of the Council expressed surprise at the receipt of the. letter, as no application had been made by the council or the town board.

Farmers, don’t lose your milk for the sake of a ha’p’worth of "Sinus.” One can of mflk rejected by the factory manager would, pay for many a bag of “Sinus,” the champion milking .machine, separator and dairy cleanser. Clean milk can be positively assured by the use of ‘"Sinus” at such a small cost as As be alawet aeglitfibla* iet

Milkmen in Palmerston North have reduced the price of milk to 4d per quart.

The meat pool scheme was approved at the Wellington conference yesterday. Full details are on page eight.

A despatch received at London from Petrograd says there is a great boom in book sales. This is not due to increased reading or to the literary hunger of the people, but to the fact that books are being burned for fuel.

A surprise party recently visited a friend’s house in the suburbs, and spent a most enjoyable time (states the Napier Telegraph). Part of the entertainment provided was a boxing match, in which a well-known Napier citizen succeeded in flooring an equally well-known professional, but it was asserted that the winner’s seconds adopted an unsportsmanlike procedure after the second round, and this accounted for the vigor of the third and last round. The Boxing Association has the matter in hand.

The cheese factories in the Morrinsville district are doing exceptionally well this season. One factory, Sunny Park, sold its output instead of consigning it as the majority did, and as a result it has been paying out an advance of Is 9d per lb for butter-fat as compared with Is Id that is being paid out by other factories. This factory was supplied with 1,273,7321bs of milk for last November as compared with 1,034,9851bs for the same month in the previous year.

The shrewdest man at the races during the holidays was Mr. W. F. Massey, Minister for Finance, says the New Zealand Herald. Note that he pulled out of the betting £45,676 in taxes. Altogether £652,480 went through the totalisator, but much of it went through several times. It would not be a wild guess to say that perhaps £lOO,OOO would cover the money actually used in these transactions, it will be seen that Mr. Massey’s winnings were little short of half that sum. He was the only man on the course who was on a certain winner.

Before the end of the war, said Lord Haig recently, the whole area behind our front line was so linked up with railways that a big offensive might have been mounted without much further construction, at almost any point. This had been accomplished in the midst of the dangers and vicissitudes of unrelenting war. There was little of the heavy excitement of battle about that work, but it was patient, steady, courageous labor under shell-fire. In 1918 alone we built or reconstructed in France 2340 miles of broad-gauge track and 1348 miles of narrow-guage railway. In six months of that year the average weekly load carried by our railway system out there amounted to 530,000 tons each week, employing 1200 locomotives and 52,600 trucks.

A gentleman of parts, purporting to be a stock dealer, put in an appearance in Blenheim a day or two ago. He did things on a large scale, hired a luxurious taxi, and engaged a man at £1 a day to assist him; but as matters transpired he borrowed £5 instead of paying his employee. The “stock dealer” rode to Renwick in the taxi, where he is alleged to have attempted to make deals in sheep, and also became possessed of a valuable sheep-dog. Eventually, after several escapades, those connected with this strange person became “fed up” and wanted to see the color of his money. Instead of repaying the loans he flashed a sixshooter, and after putting the “wind up” the crowd that had collected during the altercation he ran away across the fields. A hue and cry resulted and the cause of all the trouble was finally located high up a walnut tree. After receiving an assurance that he would not be hurt he descended and was prevailed upon to pay his just debts to the taxi proprietor and return four sums of borrowed money.

Weather permitting, the Fourth Battalion (Taranaki Rifles) Band will give a recital at the breakwater to-morrow, at 8 p.m. The New Plymouth tramwaymen desire to thank all donors of gifts to their Christmas tree.

Thei New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., wish to draw clients attention to their Alatau sale, which they are holding at their Alatau saleyards on Friday, January 13, 1922, at 1 p.m. Full particulars Of entries will be found on page 8.