LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Legislative Council yesterday decided to insist on the amendments made to the Shops and Offices Bill, and prepared reasons for submission to the House.

Mr. Massey stated in the House yesterday that he did not expect the session ■ would last more than ten days

The meat buyers who arc operating in the Dannevirke district are offering 5 l-8d per lb. for lambs not exceeding 421 b., and ?Ad less for weights above 421 b.

The Rangitikei Advocate is informed on good authority that in view of the improvement in the butter market, offers of Ir fid per lb. for butter-fat are being refused. The Estimates include a sum of £1175 for a cottage for the custodian of the New Plymouth Government Buildings. It |s proposed to spend £3OO on additions, and alterations to the New Plymouth Lands Office.

The total expenditure on railway construction in New Zealand to March 31, 1921, was £37.603,1'93; on roads, £12,547,989; on public buildings, £8,300,794; on telegraphs, £4,409,446; and on immigration, £2,259,743. The vote of £lOOO placed on the Estimates last year for additions to the P.O. Savings Bank at New Plymouth, and which was not spent, is again placed on the Estimates this year. For the Fitzroy post office £l9OO is voted. For the Stratford post office £lO,OOO, on account of £27,000, is voted, and an extra £l5O is voted for a postmaster’s residence.

Votes for railway works in Taranaki are included in the Estimates brought down last night. A vote of £20,000 made for the Opunake branch line. A similar amount was voted last year, and the sum expended on the line amounted to £22,287. The StratfordMain Trunk line receives a vote of £60,000.. Last year £65,000 was voted and £59,165 was spent. There is no vote this year for the Mount Egmont branch line.

The revenue from the Lake Coleridge electric scheme last year was £51,373, giving a profit of £3447, which is to be used in reduction of the deficits of the first four year’s operations. The Horahora scheme (taken over from the Waihi Gold Mining Company) earned £14,805, showing a deficit of £6282. it is expected that the revenue for the present year will show a very substantial increase.

A largo meeting of the New Plymouth branch of the A.S.R.S. yesterday passed t|ie following resolutions: This meeting strongly protests against the action of the Government in regard to reduction of wages, seeing that we were the last workers to receive additional pay in an attempt to catch up to the cost of living; further, we think the time has arrived when negotiations should be opened with the other two railway societies and civil service associations with a view to unltetUy combating the Government’s unjust proposals.

The fact that a number of improvements at the New Plymouth public hospital are pending was mentioned by the chairman of the Taranaki Hospital Board (Mr. M. Fraser) when speaking at a function held in connection with the Opunake cottage hospital'yesterday. The speaker, in touching on the question of finance, said he knew ratepayers had a heavy burden, but he hoped they would keep up the levies, as great improvements had yet to be made to the New Plymouth hospital. “We have 1 iiot a maternity ward in New Plymouth so far, and vve ought to have.” said Mr. Fraser. “We have a great deal or isolation oases, infectious, diseases coming from all parts of the we haven't the best accommodation for them. It is the intention of the Health Department to make New Plymouth the base hospital for Taranaki, and further it will be an orthaepaedic hospital equipped with all the appliances of modern medical science.” The fact that New Plymouth would he a base, hospital was stressed by the speaker in pointing out to Opunake people that while they would have a district cottage, hospital, they must not get the idea that all cases would be treated in that , hospital. Equipment such as he had mentioned could not be put in every hospital. •

It. is truly said: “Advertising is the education of the public as to who you are, what you are, and what you have to offer in the way of skill, talent, or commodity-. The only- man who should not advertise is the one who has nothing to offer in the way of service, or who cannot make good.”

There is a coal famine in Eltham. Owing to the interruption to railway traffic, due to the wash-out of the Whenuakura railway bridge, no coal is coming to hand (says the Argus). Many householders have had to procure supplies of wood, while the N.Z. Meat Packing and Bacon Company, which cannot carry on without ample coal supplies, is bringing coal from Waverley by motor lorry. At Opunake on Tuesday last, Messrs. Newton King. Ltd., in conjunction with the i New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, offered at auction Mr. Oliver Cross’ farms at «<*pua, but no sale resulted, the prices offered being much below the reserve. For sections one and 50, comprising nearly 150 acres, and on which a new house has been built, the highest bid was £25 an acre. —Times. A Palmerston resident lent a considerable sum of money to his son to enable him to enter upon farming pursuits. The son is unable to pay the interest or to repay the principle. The resident would willingly make his son a gift of the amount advanced, but, were, he to do so, he would render himself liable for the payment of the gift duty. What is he to do? Apparently the only course open to him is to write the amount oft' as a bad debt.

For a new police station at Inglewood there is a sum of £l5OO on the Estimates brought down yesterday. The amount voted last year, and unexpended, was £lOOO. For a residence for the inspector of police at New Plkmouth there is a vote of £l5OO. The proposed police station at Moturoa is also the subject of a vote of £l5OO for the purchase of a site and erection of building. A sum of £lOOO is set down for a police station at Rahotu. At the meeting of the Taranaki Land Board on Wednesday the question of illegal trafficking in' stock and chattels was discussed in connection with a letter from the Under-Secretary of Crown Lands on the subject. It was resolved to warn purchasers of stock from returned soldiers who have received advances from the department that tl|ey should first ascertain if there is a registered .bill of Sale. In some cases stock which have been bought and’ paid for have been seized by the department, and the purchasers have suffered heavy loss. -Under the provisions of the bill of sale it is incumbent upon soldiers to obtain the consent of the department before x effecting any sales. Any breach of the conditions of the bill of sale with intent to defraud the department will be dealt with under section 52 of the Chattels Transfer Act.

The Hawera Star is displeased with its local Technical Schodl over not entering for the cow-judging competition at the local show, and says: “Stratford could get their entries under much mt>re difficult circumstances than Hawera had to contend with, and the various primary schools could also send in their nominations. We hold that if the Hawera Technical School pupils had been sufficiently keen they could have entered a team. It forces one to the conclusion that either they lack that keen spirit that characterises the Stratford pupils or that the training received does not encourage them to try conclusions with their, northern friends. One regrets having to speak so plainly on matters such as these, but there are occasions when public interest demands

A meeting of the New Plymouth district repatriation committee was held yesterday afternoon. Present: Messrs. W. J. Chancy (chairman), T. Furlong, H. R. Cattley, and the secretary (Mr. A. S. Allen)*. Apologies for absence were received from Messrs. C. H. Weston and F. L. Hartnell. The secretary reported that five loans totalling £312 10s had been repaid since the last meeting. The executive’s action in granting a furniture “loan of £5O, and recommending seven others (totalling £675) for approval was confirmed. Two applications for loans for businesses one of £3OO and one of £lo6—three of £5O each for furniture and one of £35 for tents, etc., were recommended for approval. Three applications for a reduction in the amount of instalments due, and five applications for indulgence vzere granted. An apprentice to the engineering trade was granted a suosidy -for twelve months. It was unfortunate that people had the idea that there were ailments to which every child was subject at a certain age, said Mr. S. Vickers, a speaker at Opunake yesterday during the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the cottage'hospital. He disagreed with the idea that the children must gw through these diseases, and believed that it depended entirely on their environment. He recalled the fact that according to the experience of the New Plymouth- Hospital Board the country districts and children resident there had the unenviable reputation of providing more inmates than the town district. This should not be so. Speaking particularly to members of local bodies, who were now the health authorities, he urged that it was their duty to find out what was the cause of the heavy ‘sickness amongst country children. For the past seven or eight months the Taranaki Board had had something like 40 per cent, of children in the hospital, and most of them came from the country districts.

Mr. Gibson notifies elsewhere that the proposed trip to the Mokau to-morrow has been postponed until further no-

The Rev. G. H. Gavin will hold services to-morrow (Sunday), the 29th inst., at Uruti 11 a.m. (H.C.), Piko 2.30 p.m. (roads permitting, otherwise at Okoke), and Pukearuhe 7.30 p.m.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company draw attention to their Stratford sale on Tuesday, January 31, at 12.30 p.m. Full particulars on page 8. Amongst those to whom land agents' licenses were granted on Thursday last was Mr. F. E. Orbell, for many years in charge of Newton King’s land and finance department. Mr. Orbell, who is well and favorably known throughout Taranaki, is now in business on his own account as a land and estate agent, and his lengthy experience as a valuer will be at the service of all clients. Mr. Schapiro proposes to exhibit his wonderful collection, of Rothchild’s siL vc” and art treasures (old heirlooms) at New Plymouth before leaving for Petrograd. ’ Mr. Schapiro, it will be remembered, showed some old and valuable pictures and silverware at New Plymouth a year or two ago, and those who purchased them have since had reason to be pleased with their purchases. the pictures proving to be genuin-' works of the old masters, and the : s : j! m-ware of great value. Itailwav arrangements in connection with th- 'Hawera races are in this issue.