LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. R. Masters '(Stratford) has given notice to ask the Minister in charge of the Public Trust Office when, in view of the increasing 'business of the Public Trust in Stratford, he will provide a building suitable to the dignity of the town and the office. There has been a very good response to the appeal of the Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) for contributions for the relief of distress. A meeting of ladies is called for at 3.30 p.m. to-day by the Mayoress to consider what further steps can be taken in the matter, whilst the committee appointed by the meeting on Thursday night will meet at 4.30 p.m. Both meetings are to be held at the Soldiers’ Club. Speaking in the House' on Friday night Mr. R. Masters (Stratford) urged that the Government was not doing the right thing in bringing immigrants to New Zealand at the present lime. A meeting held in New Plymouth on the precluding evening had revealed the existence of a- substantial amount of unemployment, and. there could be. ;no doubt' that the trouble was being accentuated by the immigration policy. Saturday’s monthly meeting of the Eltham County Council probably constituted a record for brevity. The business was completed in 55 minutes, while the usual practice among the counties of Taranaki is to sit almost throughout the whole day. The dispatch with which the Eltham Council handles its business is largely accounted for by the fact that for some years it has followed a progressive road-making policy, thus minimising complaints from ratepayers, and leading to a smoothly running state of affairs generally.

A man named Harry Newell appeared before Mr. A. M. Mowlem, S.M., in the New Plymouth Magistrate's Court on Saturday on a charge of having committed a breach of the terms of probation upon which he was released Jor two years by the Supreme Court at Wellington. Newell was recently before the New Plymouth Court on a charge of ob-

taining money on June 3 by means of false pretences, when he was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment. The magistrate said the proper thing was for the Judge, who knew all tltu circumstances of the case, and the reason for granting probation, to say whether or not his breach of that probation merited further punishment. A remand to Wellington was accordingly ordered.

At the Victoria League rooms tonight Dr. J. R- Purdy, of Wellington, is living an elocutionary recital. Tt will include Newbolt's ‘Highwaymen,” the Forum Scene from Julius Caesar,

“Port Look-out” (Bartimaeus). Cyril Maude’s “Telephone Reconciliation,” besides other well-known pieces. A large attendance is, anticipated. Proceeds of the collection will be in aid of the unemployment fund.

The Severest Cold on the Chest is overcome by the proper use of Nazol> 9

It is estimated that there are 200 men out of work in Hastings and Napier. At Hawera on Wednesday the fish restaurants charged 2s 6d for a plate of groper and some bread and butter and a cup of tea. Four cases of diphtheria have been notified to the medical officer of health for the Auckland district. Two were reported from the city, one from Mount Eden, and one from Hamilton. A case of suspected typhoid was also reported in the city. “I have made more by selling firewood than I have off 30 cows for the season,” said a small fanner at a meeting at Dargaville of motor-lorry drivers in connection with the restriction of heavy traffic on the country roads.

It is interesting to learn the number of pensioners in New Zealand. There are 20,574 old age, 3340 widows’, 72(5 Maori war, 28,800 war, 513 miners’ and 653 epidemic. The annual value of these pensions is £2/5'83,434, and the monthly payments average £159,440. “Every centre in our district but one is to be congratulated upon the result of the £600,000 loan poll last Wednesday,” said the chairman of the Auckland Power Board, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, at Auckland. “The exception was a place where there was only one vote recorded, and it cost us £7 to get; it was against the proposal.”

Another large block of business premises is to be erected in New Plymouth. The State Fire Department proposes building a block of offices in Egmont Street, occupying part of tho vacant section between the A. M. P. buildings and the Northern Steamship Coy., and Mr, T. H. Bates has been instructed to prepare plans.

A number of silver and other coins, all British, have been found lately in crevices at the base of the Cave Rock, Sumner. The coins (states the Christchurch Press) were very much blackened and otherwise discolored, evidence of having been submerged in the sea for some prolonged period ; and as they were all of Early Victorian issue it is surmised that they were lost during casualties on the bar in the first few years of the Canterbury settlement, when a considerable sea-borne traffic passed over.

“I have a boy four years of age, a regular live young Yankee,” said Mr. D. F. Wilbur, American Consul-General, at the opening of the Auckland Winter Show, “and the other morning he left his bed early and tried to waken his mother. She led him to believe she was still asleep, and after all other attempts to rouse her had failed, he said, ‘Mother, I’m going to sing “God Save the King.” Stand up!’ (Laughter.) Now, there is a great deal of significance in that. I come over here, a full-bred Yankee, with a Yankee child, and just see what environment will do in a year and three months.” Loud applause greeted Mr. Wilbur’s remarks. The fourth korero'of the New Plymouth Savage Club was held on Saturday night, when there was a. large gathering of members. Savage C. H. Weston was installed as rangatira and he kept matters moving with a splendid spirit. An excellent programme of musical items was provided by various members, including much appreciated items by the orchestra, while a visitor from the Wellington tribe (Dr. J. R. Purdy) entertained with several very fine elocutionary items. During the evening two calls were made on the savages to help the unemployed fund and by shilling donations a good sum was collected.

Speaking on the Address-in-Reply Mr. R. -Masters (Stratford) condemned thp extravagance of the Government’s policy of land purchase for soldier settlement. In 1918, for instance, he said the Balfour estate bad been purchased for £25,714, and another estate, both in the Motueka district, for £40,060 —or at a total cost, practically, of £66,000. And in the whole of the three to four years that had followed, not a single application had been received for any of the sections on these states. That, he contended, showed that the land was quite unfitted for the purpose for which it had been purchased, and meant a loss of £3300 a year for the last three or four years in interest.

Te Kuiti is to have a war memorial at last. The project, which has been advocated in the local press for some time, was first set in motion by the Wajtomo County Council, which donated £lO towards the preliminary expenses. The Borough Council followed suit, and a committee was set up to decide on the form and site of the memorial. This committee has now decided that the memorial shall take the form of a cenotaph.

A Wanganui draper, when discussing the fur trade last week, stated that there bad been a very substantial reduction in the prices of furs compared with two years ago, although prices were, still well above normal. Asked regarding the collapse of the rabbit skin market, he replied that it was difficult to account for these sudden, fluctuations, and it looked very like a case of buyers on the other side of the globe putting their heads together and rigging the market.

It was stated at the Auckland Advertising Chib’s annual meeting last week that the recent Better Business' Campaign had borne fruit. Several instances of improved business were cited, and one speaker mentioned that a good sign of the changed times was the fact that a building in the city that had been vacant for 18 months had attracted two offers for purchase. One was accepted on Thursday. Several firms last month enjoyed better returns than they had experienced previously since the beginning of the economic slump. The Farmers’ Co-op. will hold a clearing sale to-morrow at Kaupokonui, on behalf of Mr. J. A. Parkes. Particulars ar? advertised on page 8. The whole of the freehold land together with all boring material,, machinery. Pte., lately in use ;by the Taranaki (N.Z.) Oil Wells, Ltd., will be sold by auction on the property, Moturoa, New Plymouth, on August 30. An announcement appears in the auction columns of this paper.

The attention of dairymen desirous of replenishing their herds with good heifers for the coming season is directed to springing heifer fairs to be held at Stony River and Rahotu on the 11th and 12th inst. Full particulars of both sales arc advertised in the auction columns.

Pounds can be saved by having your old or soiled garments renovated by J. K. Hawkins and Co., dry cleaners and steam dyers, Devon Street, New Plymouth. We have the most up-to-date plant'in Taranaki for doing this class of work. Tt does not matter how soiled or faded your garments are, we cn« renovate them like new. Our ’phone genuine—insist if you have to—and be number is GB5. Get busy.

At the first sign of the “Flu” use Nazol very freely. 3

Tn the course of an address at the Dominion Farmer*’ Institute in Wellington last week, Major E. A. Belcher, commissioner for the Empire Exhibition, 192!A, stated that from what he had seen on his present trip the British motor manufacturers had to wake up. In Australia there were about 120,600 cars registered, and of these about 10 per cent, were British, and nearly the whole of the rest American. He assumed it was much the same' in New Zealand. He would have to tell the manufacturers that if they wanted the trade of those countries they would have to study the requirements of the overseas markets and, further, they would have to study the prices the people here were prepared to pay.

Mr. R. Masters (Stratford) condemned in Parliament on Friday the hard and harsh attitude of the Taranaki Land Board, and at least some other Land Boards, in issuing orders taking practically the whole of soldiers’ milk cheques leaving nothing for them, their wives and families to live on. The Taranaki Commissioner of Crown Lands, he stated, had sent out such an order for a soldier to sign. Mr. T. M. Wilford (Leader of the Opposition) : Taking 160 per cent, of his cheque? Mr. Masters: Yes, 100 per cent. But the soldier, he added, wrote across the order, “I will sign nothing of this sort, to starve myself, wife, and family.” This soldier had been forced to go on the roads to earn a living for himself and his family.

Wholesale* drapery and clothing houses in England have experienced a remarkable spurt in trade since Easter. This is partly due to the lateness of that holiday and the cold weather having delayed the usual seasonal demand. There is a much freer movement of warehouse stocks, and business is showing more “life” than for a long time past. Nearly a.ll branches are sharing in th? revival, and wholesale figures for the first half this month will make some amends for the comparatively poor totals recorded by many houses earlier in the year. Full time is being worked in many factories, additional labor has been taken on, and in not a few cases overtime working has had to be resorted to in order to try and cope with the demand. Water and mineral divining, long regarded by sceptics are merely a fake, has been amply demonstrated of late years in variotis quarters of the globe, as evidence of man’s “sixth sense.” Gn Mr. A. Fisher s property, Kelvin Grove, such a demonstration was given, before a number of Palmerston North business men and press representatives by Mr. H. C. Terry. Gold, silver, copper, iron, bitiuminous coal and lignite were placed at intervals on the property, and the results (states the Daily Times) were such as to justify a further exposition of Mr'. Terry’s powers before a larger number of citizens in the near future. The results, if they are as successful as the promoters believe they wilt be, will very shortly make Palmerston North the cynosure of all speculative eyes in the Dominion.

A rather unusual case, and one of much interest to the travelling public was heard at the Magistrate’s Court, Hamilton (states the Waikato Times), when Lewis Charles Denis, Palmerston North, Was charged with refusing to remove himself from a reserved seat on the express to Wellington from Frankton Junction. Defendant, in a letter to the court, said that there was nothing on .the seat to show that it was reserved. A railway official who was in attendance stated that the second-class seats i’eserved from Frankton Junction were not marked at Auckland, as were the first-class ones, but tickets for them were distributed to the rightful owners at Frankton. The reason for the secondclass seats not being marked was that a special car was attached to the express for Frankton and Mercer passengers. Defendant had refused to get out for both the guard and a policeman. Denis was fined £4, being also ordered to pay costs, totalling £1 16s.

The attention of Rahotu residents is directed to a sale of furniture to be held on Wednesday next. See advertisement.