LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 45, 19 September 1911, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ohakune ratepayers last week carried a loan proposal involving £650 for municipal offices,library, and lire brigade.

It is stated that a farmer at Waikare recently had to skin 1200 sheep which died of starvation owing to lack of feed in the district.

The garden party in connection with St. John's Church of England Ladies' Guild, is advertised to take place at the residence of Mr E. I. Miller on Wednesday September 2/th at 2 p.m.

The supplementary valuation rolls of the Waipa County Council for the period commencing on the Ist of April are now to hand. The total value of rateable property of the county is £1,615,764, an increase of 36,393 since 1909.

On Friday evening, the fortnightly bridge tournament in connection with the Bridge Club,

was held in the Town Hall

There was a good attendance, and the play was of a very fine order. The prizes went to Mrs Henderson and Mr B. F. Chester, who were the respective winners of the ladies' and gentlemen's sections.

We give a reminder of the visit of the Cambridge Comedy Company, who appear in the local Town Hall on Saturday evening, when the farce "The Pickpocket " will be staged. The proceeds of this entertainment are to be expended upon stage decorations at the hall, and this alone should induce the support of all residents. The box plan is open at Le Sueur's, tobacconist. Full details appear in our advertising columns.

The following instructions have been issued to all postmasters : —When any postmaster has reason to believe that an old age pensioner has become possessed of property or income in excess of the amount allowed by law in respect of the amount of pension granted, or is in receipt of regular employment, or mis-spends his pension in drink, he shall at once report confidentially to the Commissioner at Wellington and will refrain from paying further instalments until otherwise instructed.

A Taranaki , correspondent writes that farmers in " the butter province " arc looking forward with confidence to the coming dairying season, which is opening well from the dairyman's point of view. The butter market at Home seems to be fairly clear, and Danish butter is selling at :40s, whereas at this time hist year it was quoted at EI/s to Ilßs. Australian butter quotations on the Home market are from 10s to I2s ahead of the prices quoted at this time last year. Cheese is quoted at 60s at Home just now, or 8s 6d per cwt ahead of the price quoted, at the opening of last season, and 5s 6d ahead of the 1909 quotation.

We are in receipt of a copy of the official statistics for the Dominion for the year 1010. The return shows that there were 6,662 births, 2,536 deaths and 2,251 marriages during the year in the Auckland province. The figures for Te Awamutu for the same period read, 94 births, 23 deaths and 25 marriages.

ft. woman's "editorial association" had a dinner in Topeka recently,and one of the toasts ran : " Woman ! without her, man is a brute." But the compositor, cynical and married, no doubt, set this up as : " Woman, without her man, is a brute." The story reminds the " Edinburgh Evening Dispatch" of the way -in which the old Wick perecentor read out a certain intimation for prayer which had been handed to him. The intimation ran : '■ Captain So-and-So having gone to sea, his wife desires the prayers of the congregation." But the bold, bad perecentor put the comma after wife and so read: " Captain So-and-So having gone to see his wife, desires the prayers of the congregation."

The movement to establish a croquet club at Te Awamutu is now assuming a more definite form. In another column notification is given of a meeting of those interested to be held in the Public Library at 3 p.m. to-mor-row afternoon. It is hoped that there will be a full attendance in order that the Club may be formed right away, and due preparation made for the forthcoming season. The new club will find itself in the happy position of having a first-class green at its disposal, which, thanks to the Puniu Domain Board, has been formed at the Victoria Park. This alone will give the Club a most encouraging start, and no doubt all interested will fully avail themselves of the opportunity of making the other necessary preparations for the forthcoming season. \

One has only to notice the immense strides which dairying has made in the Aucklaad province to realise what great opportunities still exist for future expansion. Just live years ago the total value of butter exported from Auckland was £258,720, whilst the value of cheese of £654. Ten years ago the total value of the dairy produce exported from Auckland was only £84,392. Last season Auckland exported close on £700,000 worth of butter and cheese, and had it not been for the serious drought which curtailed milk supplies would have largely exceeded this amount. Besides the amount of dairy produce exported, the consumption of butter, cheese and milk in the proviace is estimated to 'reach a total of nearly £500,000.