LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Pio Pio Telephone Party Line Association elicited the co-operation and support of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on Monday evening in an endeavor to obtain better telephonic facilities between towns situated between Hamilton and Taumarunui and New Plymouth after 8 p.m. The association mentioned that at present telephonic communication to New Plymouth after 8 p.m. had to go via Auckland, whereas if the Pio Pio office was plugged through direct to New Plymouth after 8 p.m. a continuous through service could be maintained. The Hamilton Chamber decided to give the movement its hearty support.

The Inglewood Borough Council has received, advice from the Post and Telegraph Department that the petitions with regard to a continuous telephone service for Inglewood did not have the necessary number of signatures thereto, and could not be acceded to. The department has, however, met the subscribers in the following way: The exchange is to be open on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., and on holidays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 7 to 8 p.m. This extended system is to come into operation on the 24th inst.

“Tooth-brush drill continues to be taken daily, and is, I am sure, proving beneficial to the health of the children,” stated Mr. O. Johnson (headmaster of the Fitzroy School) at last nights breaking-up ceremony. “Some parents have been unnecessarily alarmed by the rumoi that the fruit acid wash in use is proving harmful in some cases. I shave been assured by the officer responsible, and by other authorities, that these fears are groundless. However, I have allowed those scholars whose parents wish them to do so, to use their tooth paste, or ever clean water. The chief aim is to teach the children to use their tooth-brush regularly, and in the proper way.”

A model country school is to be established at Stratford by the 'Taranaki Education Board. The object of the school us to provide facilities for training teachers in the work they would be called on to perform in one-room country schools, consequently the new model school, which is to be established in a room in the Technical School, will comprise scholars from the primer classes right through to standard 6. Reports from the districts where such schools have been established' indicate that the teachers who have attended the model schools have acquired great benefit from the instruction and experience they have received, while the experience of the Wanganui model school has been that parents are anxious to send their children there, and that the pupils make much more rapid progress than in the ordinary schools. The board s decision to establish the school at Stratford was guided by the fact that that place was the only centre in the district where a suitable room was available in a town where accommodation could be obtained for the teachers undergoing the courses of instruction.

The third of the weekly social evenings in connection with the New Plymouth Ladies’ Life-Saving Club was held last night, When Mrs. T. M. Avery was in the chair. Apologies were received from Mrs. Stuart Russell and Miss Dowling. The idea of these gatherings ir? for the purpose of attending to the social side of the club. Mrs. Russell has charge of a class for Shakespearean reading (“As you like it”), and this it is intended to reproduce. Master A. Brodie gave two violin solos, which were much appreciated. Mrs. T. M. Avery gave a piece from “The Sentimental Bloke,” which was splendidly rendered. Two air-guns were used, and the girls are becoming very proficient in shooting. Ping-pong has been revived, and the competitors enter into the game very keenly. Mrs. T. M. Avery is to be congratulated on the very fine programme and games submitted, and a vote of thanks to Mrs. Avery marked the close of a very successful evening’s entertainment. The next social evening will take place on January 9.

-An accident occurred yesterday at the dangerous corner at the intersection of Dawson and Powderham -Streets, a collision taking place between a cyclist and a motor cyclist, which might have resulted in serious consequences had not the motor cyclist been proceeding with extreme caution at a. slow speed. Both riders received minor injuries, and the front wheel of the bicycle was hopeles’sly buckled.

The Ngaere Gardens are looking at their best now, and this popular pleasure resort promises to prove even more attractive than in! the past. Messrs. Lester, the proprietors, with characteristic enterprise, are catering for their patrons this season in a manner that must add further to the reputation of the charming spot as a picnic resoit. Among other attractions recently installed may be mentioned the magnavox. whilst the water-chute will be n l operation throughout the season. In menagerie will, as usual, prove irre sistible to the young folk.

The daily auction sales now going on at Webster Bros, are again referred o in °" r sfoek to h be disposed of Ind Saturday should see every line cleared. The season for gifts is ’>««• Bennett jewelleri &t°'aml New Year The Xhes, bangles and 'to be given with each purXTatiottshU New Plymouth and Inglewood.