LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The retail price of butter in Auckland has been increased a. penny, and is now 1/11. —Press Association.

The police report that the conduct of the race crowd in New Plymouth during the week-end was good and gave no cause for complaint. A gorse fire in Devon Line (near the residence of Mr. Charters, Senr.) was responsible for a call being given to the Fire Brigade at 5.50 last evening. No damage was caused, the blaze being smartly extinguished by the brigade.

The Taranaki football team played the last match of their southern tour on Saturday, when they were beaten by Canterbury at Christchurch by 17 points to 13. The Taranaki men arrived in Wellington yesterday morning, and return home by the mail train tonight. “While the diplomats were dancing round each other, the generals made peace in the field,” quoted Mr. Justice Chapman at the Supreme Court at New Plymouth on Saturday morning when it was intimated that there was a chance of the parties to the dispute before the Court arriving at a settlement.

The totalisatQr at the North Taranaki Hunt Club’s steeplechase meeting at New Plymouth on Saturday handled £13,678 10s, as compared with £18,137 10s last year, a decrease of £4459. The gate takings showed the attendance to be about 40 p'er cent, greater than at last year’s meeting, and the drop was doubtless due to the general tightness of finance. At the Hawera meeting a week earlier £9950 was put through the machine as compared with £14,233 the previous year, the decrease being £4283, the total decrease on the two meetings being £8741.

“Absolutely ridiculous” was the terse comment from a Palmerston North councillor at a meeting of the Borough Council when a letter was read from Mr. Maughan Barnett, intimating that the Auckland Municipal Choir proposes to undertake a tour of the Dominion during September, and stating that the estimated cost, of the visit to Palmerston North would be approximately £5OO, and asking if the council would be prepared to guarantee the said amount. The council decided to reply to Mr. Barnett regretting that it was unable to arrange the guarantee.

A compromise was reached at the Supreme Court. New Plymouth, on Saturday morning in the action brought by David Moir and George Barrock against Stanley Read and others for £702 lie 6d for* the purchase of stock. Defendants counter-claimed for £2OO, reduction of purchase money and interest, and the case was adjourned pending the execution of certain documents, on the completion of which application will 'be made to discontinue the action. This morning the Court will resume at ter. o’clock, when the re-hearing of the action brought by Leslie Samuel Dutton against Henry Herbert Upson for £BOO as damages for alleged misrepresentation in the sale of a farm will be commenced. It will be remembered that the action was heard earlier in the session, when the jury were unable to reach an

According to the Waipa Post there is a person in the Raglan district who will become heir to anything approaching half a million of money, which is now lying in Chancery in England. An article in the “Weekly News.” London, under date March 28, 1888, gives a remarkable story dealing with Robert Robson, the reputed heir to a quarter of a million pounds. After the lapse of years a Raglan boatbuilder, John Charlton, is asserting a claim to the estate. John Charleton, who is now in the sixties, is the son of the late George and Ann Charleton. His mother, whose maiden name was Ann Robson, was the sister of Robert Robson. She married George Charleton. After their marriage the parents of John Charleton left England about the latter end of 183.3 in the ship Clyde, under Captain Ireland, and eventually settled at Kawhia. George Charleton was a well known figure in the early days of the Kawhia settlement, where he arrived about 1836, and purchased the land , on which Kawhia township stands to-day. He was engaged as captain in the trade for several years between Onehunga and Kawhia, and lost his life when the schooner Thistle went down off the Kawhia bar in 1863. Negotiations have been going on in England , for the past eighteen months, and the developments are naturally being followed I with keen interest by those concerned. Nazol never fails in giving immediate relief in Bronchial troubles, *

The New 'Plymouth Tourist and Expansion League and the Mountain House Committee have for some time past been endeavoring to arrange with the Government tourist office to send a representative to visit and inspect the various Taranaki tourist resources and attractions, which, it was felt, were being somewhat neglected by the Government office. Word has now been received that the chief tourist officer (Mr. L. FI. Bayfield) will spend the present week-end in New Plymouth and on Tuesday will visit South Taranaki.

The first monthly meeting of the Taranaki Electric Power Board will be held at Eltham to-day, when a number of important matters will come up for discussion, including the appointment of a permanent secretary, and the advisability of appointing an engineer. It is understood that the outline of still another scheme for developing power in Taranaki will be placed before the board. In the afternoon the board will meet a delegation from the New Plymouth Borough Council to discuss the terms on which power will be supplied by that body to the power district.—Argus.

A good deal of new work in connection with telephonic connections is being carried out in the WanganuiTaranaki district. Cabling gangs are at work at Raetihi and Hawera, and after work at the latter place has been completed similar work will be carried out at 'Eltham and Stratford. Two new exchanges have been completed, one at Pihama opened with forty subscribers, and the other at Rahotu will open with seventy. The reconstruction of the New Plymouth-Opunake line will be completed in about a couple of months, and then similar work on the line to Manaia will be taken in hand and will be completed before the end of the year. The local telegraph engineer has just received word of the approval of estimates for the construction of a line from Tahora to Te Tau, which will give, when completed, communication between Taranaki and the King Country. The line is much similar to the long awaited Wanganui-Raetilri link. The Taranaki work will be put in hand during the summer.

The Hawera Star reprints the following paragraph appearing in a recent issue of the News: A Pukearuhe farmer took 17,400 lb. of butter-fat last season from 68 cows on 109 acres. A friend of hie, who gave the News this information, asks: Can South Taranaki beat this? The Star replies: “A fortnight ago we published particulars of eight dairy farms in South Taranaki, varying from 29 to 86 cows, and of these three average over 300 lb. per cow. while the others were just under that figure. One of these had a total of 19,671 lb. from 65 cows on 116 acres., Perhaps North Taranaki will try again.” Yes, it will be pleased to. The News published on Saturday particulars of the operations of Mr. H. Purdie, of Waitara Road, who carries a herd of 71 Jerseys on 91 acres, or a cow to 1.14 acres. The total amount of butter-fat was not given, but as one cow, Flower, did 773 lb. under semi-official test, and the cows being of the best pedigree milking strains, the total production of the herd must be well over 20,000 lb. Try again, South!

How many of us have the slightest conception of how many pounds weight of food we eat in a year? And how many would be astonished to realise we had consumed n’early a ton and a-half? Yet it is quite possible that may be so, for people the world over must eat somewhere about the same quantity per person, and according to the United States Department of Labour Statistics, the average American eats 2664 pounds of food a year, which is nearly a ton and. a-quarter. It seems a terrible amount for one person to get through in a year, and it makes one realise what a 'big part eating plays in one’s life, for the actual food represents, when we stop to think about it the work and time of millions of human beings employed in the production of the ingredients used, and the time and work of millions more in preparing it for consumption. It certainly docs play a big part in life; few probably realise how big a part.

Gifts running into millions were presented to various educational institutions in America and in Europe by the Rockefeller foundation during 1921, states the “Springfield Republican,” A million dollars was granted for a combined medical school and hospital to be built by Columbia University and the Presbyterian Hospital at New York. The University of Brussels, Belgium, was given 3,500,000 dollars for rebuilding the hospital of St. Pierre and the Cavell-De- Page memorial nurses’ home. Apparatus and supplies given to five other hospitals in Central Europe cost 50.000 dollars. In Canada, Dalhousie University was given 50,000 dollars; M*Gill University medical school received 25,000 dollars: and the University of Alberta 25,000 dollars. The money, including the funds supporting the 140 research students under the foundation all came from the 5,000,000 dollars set aside in 1920 for such work.

The deer is becoming an unmitigated nuisance throughout the Rotorua, Wairarapa, Central, Wellington, Nelson. Otago. Southland and Westland regions, and its rapid increase is causing considerable alarm and concern in many parts of the country, so reads an extract from the Forestry Service annual report. It explains that as well as causing serious damage to cereal and root crops, very substantial destruction of natural tree regrowth, plantations, and reproduction has already resulted through the districts in question. The annual national loss from this source is estimated at £lOO,000. Tn some regions it is satisfactory to note that a conference has been called by certain Acclimatisation Societies to consider this question, and already steps have been taken to keep the herds in check. The Forestry Service has undertaken a comprehensive survey of the animal, its depredations, its possible economic usefulness, and means of control.

Professor Grossman, in an address at Hamilton on Saturday, gave some interesting figures concerning the internal wealth of Germany. Two years before the war her universal wealth amounted to £250,000,000,000. Her coal fields were estimated to produce £2000.000.000,000 and potash salts £27,000,000,000.

The early season prevailing makes the fn’iowi’e bargains very opportune at the Melbourne’s Sensational Sale: —Ladies’ large cotton singlets. 2/9; white cotton bloomers, 3/11; lovely 40in. English voile, 2/6 and 3/3; fine cashmere hose, all wool, 2/11; silk ankle hose. 4/11; spring blouses in embroidered voile, 7/11 to 15/6; cashmerette, 7/11; crepe de chine blouses, *22/6; 29in. Fuji silk, 5/6 yard.

Ladies, you must buy “Fairy Wonder” dry soap if you wish to lighten your labor on wash-day and at the same time get satisfactory results. All grocers stock it. Give it a trial.

The Wellington City Council has installed “silent policemen” at two of the busy corners in the city. During August 20 bankruptcy meetings were held at Hamilton, before Mr. V. H. Sanson, deputy official assignee, as compared with three in the same month last year.

The lad stood on the table, wielded the conductor’s baton with precision and vim, made the singers take the lines in turn, and presently succeeded in working the whole chorus up to a fine climax of enthusiasm, which ended in an outburst of applause for the diminutive conductor. A new twofold advantage of carrying the harbour loan has been evolved by a local business man (says .the Gisborne Herald), who stated: “We want a harbour here so that those we want may come to Gisborne, and so that those we don’t ‘want may get out.” “I bought it for £2O; I spent £4O in repairing it—and then, it would not go. It had to be towed everywhere—in fact, it was not a car at all, and was not worth registering,” explained a defendant at the Magistrate’s Court at Palmerston North, when charged with failing to notify change of ownership of a car. No trace has yet been found of Alfred Henrjl Pook, a fisherman, who left Whakarane on July 26th in a 12foot open boat for White Island. All search possible has been made. At the time it was surmised that the boat capsized in a squally westerly wind. Mr. Pook, whose wife and three children are at Whs»katai‘.e, was formerly tug master at Kaipara and was a resident of Helenville for thirteen years. Many safety-razor blades now coming to Britain from Germany were afloat during the war in the shape of armourplated British warships. Recently war vessels have been purchased by Germans to be broken up, and the manufacture of these blades is one of the uses to ’ which the metal is being put. “As there is nickel in plates they can be suitably converted to this new use,” a London shipbreaker told a Daily Mail reporter.

Writing fro&i London, a New Zealand lady sajsp;. “Talk about the changeable New Zealand* climate, it is nothing to this. April shoWers were the L most sudden downpours imaginable, and I soon learijt that an umbrella was as necessary as rf pair of gloves. No one goes out without one, no matter how bright the day may seem. Last week there were two extraordinarily hot days, when I used the umbrella as a sunshade, and now we are back to chilly east winds again.”

To find work for the unemployed, Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., has brought before the Government the necessity of reading the Katere Settlement, on the Smart Road, asking if it would be possible, to anticipate the loan and put the work of roading in hand as early as possible. The Minister of Lands has replied that authority cannot be issued in anticipation, but an application is now being made for the necessary loan to be raised, and as soon as this has been approved the Public Works Department will authorised to proceed with the work.

The little daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Miller wandered to the edge of Lyall Creek, at Kaikoura last Saturday, and (states the Star) fell into the water. Miss Violet Ogden, nine years of age, happened to witness the difficulties the little one was in, and immediately went into the creek and rescued the child. On returning to the bank theswans attacked the children, and Mr. F. H. Flower, who was passing by, had to rush to the scene to avert what might have proved a serious onslaught on the children.

“No wonder some of you men go bankrupt trying to farm on land valued at £lOO an acre, and, involving a rental of £5 per acre,” said the Official Assignee at Hamilton recently, at the first meeting of creditors 'in the bankrupt estate of a dairy farmer. To the unsecured creditors £440 was owing. There was no real estate, and the only asset was £l2O, a butterfat bonus due to the bankrupt. A sympathetic creditor said he himself at the present time was paying £6 an acre for land. Mr. Fisher: Oh, but that is different. You are out at Mangere, quite near the city, and bankrupt was away in the Thames Valley.’

At a presentation to Mr. T. Forsyth in Wellington last week, the chairman, Mr. F. T. Page, said that at the last drapers’ conference in Christchurch a remit was passed on the question of the representation of business men in Parliament, “that the federation consider the advisability of taking steps, in connection with kindred associations, in an endeavor to gain adequate representation of business men in Parliament at the next general election.” The conference unanimously decided that the time had arrived when the trade should make strenuous efforts to induce someone with a knowledge of their requirements to represent them and the commercial community generally in Parliament. There was a possibility of this being achieved if Mr. Forsyth would consent to stand, as the opportunity now presented itself. During his speech in acknowledgment of the presentation, Mr. Forsyth said the hope bad been expressed that he would represent them in Parliament. He thanked them for the invitation, and while he could say nothing definite at present, there were possibilities.

The Auckland Herald thus reports the latest “community sing” of that city:— The programme consisted of a number of old favourites, in which the singers were ably led by the Rev. Jasper CalderUnder his persuasive eloquence they sang with expression and a greater regard for piano and fortissimo than is usually achieved in community singing, and the effect was very fine. One can usually rely upon this versatile song-leader to introduce some entertaining feature into a programme, and this was supplied yesterday in his introduction of his young son as assistant song-leader. With the utmost assurance and self-possession this boy of seven years volunteered to teach the singers a new song, consisting of two lines, which greatly took the fancy of all present: “Where’s my home? Auckland town. “Wouldn’t live in Wellington for half a crown!”

A Southland farmer recently had a narrow escape from sudden death. He was crossing over the railway line from one of his paddocks to another and pulled. His car up on the line whilst his companion was opening the second gate. A train unexpectedly came along, and the farmer just saw it in time to get out of the car and scurry off the line. There was little left of the car after the impact. Evidence that the climate at Auckland must 'be conducive to longevity, is to be seen in the obituary advertisements on a recent Saturday, of nine deceased persons. whose ages combined reach 705 years, says the “Star.’ The youngest of the nine was 74 years, while the ages of three are 8J- and. respectively