LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A recital given by the 4th Battalion Band at the Breakwater yesterday afternoon was attended by a large crowd. An appropriate programme was rendered by the band, under the conductorship of Mr. Lowe. The collection in aid of the band funds amounted to £l3 10s.

“It was a sorry day for me that I was induced by the statements made by the authorities in England to bring my family to New Zealand.” So stated the father of a family to a Times reporter. "I have been in New Zealand seven months, and have secured two days’ work. I am leaving by the first boat for England again.” A round-table conference was held on Monday between representatives of the Dannevirke Farmers’ Union and representatives of the local Labour party to discuss matters of mutual interest. This arrangement was the outcome of a discussion at the last meeting of the Farmers’ Union, arising out of a remit from the North Canterbury branch, which suggested that occasional conferences between the farming community as represented by the Farmers’ Union and members of the local Labour party would prove useful in eliminating much misunderstanding between these two branches of the community.

The death of an infant child, which occurred in the New Plymouth Hospital on Saturday after a brief illness, was the subject of an inquest held last night bv the Coroner (Mr. A. M. Mowlem, SX). The child was the ten-months-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Heron, of Smart Road. The evidence of the father was to the effect that the child suddenly became ill about 10.30 on Friday morning. As his condition became worse in the early hours of Saturday morning the parents, acting on medical advice, removed the child to the hospital, at 7 a.m. Death occurred about one o’clock in the afternoon. After hearing the evidence of Drs. Wade and McCleland, the Coroner’s finding was that death was due to meningitis, following influenza. Mails which left Wellington on 11th April per R.MjS- Tahiti via Francisco arrived at London on May li.

The proclamation constituting the Taranaki Electric Power District appears in last week’s supplementary Gazette.

The Minister of Education informed a Dominion reporter on Friday that the Department intended to establish junior high schools outside the centres at some of the large provincial technical schools, and prooably the Wanganui Technical College would be the first utilised.

Messrs. L. A. Nolan and Co. submitted for sale by public auction at their mart, New Plymouth, on Friday, two freehold on behalf of the Government as mortgagor. A farm consisting of 389 acres was bought in by the mortgagor at £lO6O and a section comprising 20.5 perches with substantial dwelling thereon situated in Buller Street, New Plymouth, was bought in at £855. An indication of the hardships endured by back-block school teachers was given at the Auckland Education Board meeting when the teacher at Ngataki, a Far North settlement, asekd that he be allowed to sleep in the porch of the school and supplied with a stove. He was not able to secure accommodation anywhere else. The board decided that some form of shelter be erected for the teacher, the chairman to make definite arranges ents.

Further reductions in the price of coal were forecasted by the chairman of directors of Taupiri Coalmines, Ltd., the Hon. E. W. Alison, M.L.C., at the annual meeting of the company last week. Air. Alison said there were indications that a period of great competition was at hand in the coal mining industry, which would result in reduced prices for coal. The first decrease in price had already been made as a result of the reduction in the cost-of-living bonus. Other reductions would follow.

A rare discovery was made recently by two Cromwell residents in the unearthing of a complete leg of a moa, says a Southern paper. The find was made in a gully on the east side of the Clutha River. Walking casually up the creek their curiosity was aroused by an unusually large bone projecting from the debris accumulated in the creek, as it presented an uncommon appearance. With the aid o; a pocket-knife they investigated and were rewarded by unearthing a complete leg, toes and all included. Gizzard stones and egg shell were also dug out, and more will probably be obtained when the search is completed. It was in a remarakbkle state of preservation, with hardly a sign of decay.

The date for the opening of the Matiere branch railway line has been definitely fixed for to-morrow (Tuesday). The Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister for Public Works, will be present at the opening function. The Public Works Department is pushing the work ahead on the line. Temporary bridges have all been completed and permanent work is being steadily proceeded with. Ballasting is completed over more than half the line, but the remaining portion will lake some time yet to complete. A temporary station has been erected at Matiere and this should suit local requirements until the Railway Department takes over the line.

An interested spectator at the Cardiff sports on Thursday afternoon was Mr. W. E. Porter, of the Ohura, and late of Stratford, who is at present on a holiday in otratford. Mr. Porter was one of the pioneers of the Cardiff district, and relates with much relish his experiences on his arrival at Cardiff in 18S4. He was the first settler on the Stratford side of the Waingongoro. “It was very different in those days,” he remarked to a Stratford Post reporter. “I waded the river with my baby boy on my back, and laid him in the fern while I returned, and carried my wife over in a similar fashion. That night we had a queer sort of bed, as portions of the bedding had been lost on the road. You know we had three capsizes on the way!” Cases of theft were dealt with in the Juvenile Court at New Plymouth on Saturday, when two boys, aged nine and ten years respectively, appeared before Mr. A. M. Mowlem, S.M., on charges of breaking and entering the workshops of the Harbour Board at Moturoa and the seaside cottages of Mr. R. T. ‘M'Quade and Mr. S. L. Wickham, at Ngamotu, about April 30. It appeareed that nothing was taken from the Harbour Board’s premises or from Mr. Wickham’s cottage, though there were evidences of things having been disturbed, but from Mr. M’Quade’s place a gold ring and a waist belt were missed. The boys admitted the offences, and the Magistrate, after warning them, adjourned the matter for six months, during which time the boys are required to report weekly to the headmaster of the West End school. Tn the event of the schoolmaster’s report being unfavourable they will be dealt with on these charges. The parents of the children were ordered to make good tlie damage done at the places they had visited.

The necessity for vehicles to carry lights was brought before the Stratford County Council at Saturday’s meeting. Mr C. D. Sole, ActingCoroner, wrote stating that at a recent inquest on a young man who had been killed while riding a motor cycle without a light he had suggested, and the jury had agreed, that the Council should ask its toll-gate keepers to take the name of every person passing through the i gates in vehicles without lights. Mr. Sole thought this would assist in stopping the menace to life on the roads. If the Council agreed he suggested they should send a copy or write to adjoining counties asking them to do the same. Mr. Were said it was very necessary that something drastic should be done. He said the danger was particularly evident at Tko, and he would like the inspector to pay a visit there. Air. Pitt said he did not think the toll-gate keeper could act-in this capacity, as he would }>e continually taken away from his duties as a witness. It was decided to info J-in Mr. Sole that the inspector had been instructed to enforce the by-laws regarding lighting, of At the fortnightly meeting of the New Plymbuth Victoria League to-night the Rev. O. Blundell will give a talk on the Islands of the Hauraki Gulf, where he recently spent his holidays. Musical items will be given by Mrs. Arthur Avery, Miss Leitch, and Mr. T. E. Gooder.

Paritculars of a winter word-building competition, for which £240 in cash prizes is offered, will be found in our advertising columns.

On Friday next, Messrs. Webster Bros, will submit to auction, without reserve, ladies, gents’, and girls’ bicycles, tyres, tubes, pumps, saddles, mudguards, etc. The goods will be on view on the morning of the sale. “I am 62 and your remedy has made a new woman of me.” Send for Booklet, free. Dominion Rheumatic Cure Pty., HeUaby’s Bldgs., Auckland. U

The matter of unemployment and a paragraph attributed to the Hon. J. G. Coates regarding Wanganui and Taranaki was referred to at the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce by thj president (Air. W. Brown). The president said lie had not attached much importance to the statement. He did not think it was a fact that there was lack of employment on this coast any more than anywhere else, but he thought there had been so much work here, and in the dairying districts, that it had drawn many men from all parts of New Zealand in the hope of getting work.

A well-known Napier tailoring firm recently received the following letter from a Alaori client:—“l have received a parcel from you with my riding breeches in it, which I ordered you. Thanking you very much, for it had got in safely to me. The breeches fit me well, and I likes it, too. Aly friends talk to me that it was very good, they likes it. And I think I must always order a riding breeches for myself there. I think also riding suit and sack suits too. There was a letter in the parcel and I read it well. Excuse me I was sick in time, so I didn’t answer it so quickly. I wonder if you can manage to send me some samples for all suits. Riding suits, a coat, waistcoat, and riding "breeches, or whatever you may call it. Forget-me-not.” One of the objections against the introduction of small secondary schools raised by Miss N. F. Coad, M.A., in her address to the Women Teachers’ Association on Saturday evening was that too much would be required of the teachers. Besides taking all the academic subjects, they would be expected to instruct in shorthand and other special subjects. Cases had occurred of women taking dairy science, and men home science. That is the sort of thing small secondary schools could lead to. The teachers, overwhelmed with so many subjects, would be like the famous physiology teacher, who just managed to keep “a bone ahead of the class.”

The latest competitor of the railways is a regular car service between Wanganui and Palmerston North. This is only one of the many/ services which is seriously reducing the Railway Department’s revenue. The Levin Dairy Company is forwarding its butter to Wellington by motor lorry, with the result that the butter is in cool store at 2 p.m. on the day of shipment, instead of being in the railway trucks all night. Vegetables and eggs are also being taken down. On the return trip the lorries carry chifly benzine. Shannon is also receiving and sending a good deal of goods by road.

A difference between the old and the new systems of'instructing “tiny tots” was remarked upon by the Alinister for Education at the opening of the new infant school at Henderson on Saturday. In the old days, as he well remembered, said Mr. Parr, the infants were required to sit stiff and rigid. This strict discipline, so contrary to the nature of the little scholars, was being replaced by the principles of the Montessori system. This system, he added, aimed at developing the mind of the young child in the most natural manner and the result was that while he was apparently playing he was really learning.

When the first settlers of Nelson got ashore, they found they had brought with them from England some articles which were not entirely useful. Mr. T. A. H. Field, addressing the Nelson Philosophical Society, said that belltoppers and white shirts were among the things that were discarded. These, however, were joyfully accepted by the Maori men. The natives were rigid Sabbatarians, and it was a great sight to see a Maori going to church on Sunday morning, a bell topper on his head, and the tail of a white shirt fluttering about his stalwart legs, his attendant family 'lost in admiration at his European articles of apparel.