Local body on the path to success

Whangaroa Harbour, North Auckland.- Otago Witness, 15.1.1913 Copies of picture available from ODT front office, Lower Stuart St, or www.otagoimages.co.nz

It is not often that a local body receives special praise for its labours on behalf of the ratepayers, the latter being rather prone to complain about matters which they deem to require the council's attention.

An exception to the rule occurred at the meeting of the West Harbour Council on Tuesday evening, when the Mayor read a letter from a resident at Burkes thanking the council for the excellent manner in which the borough staff had formed the footpaths in that ward, for which the ladies were specially grateful. The letter caused smiles to encircle the council table, and the Mayor remarked jocularly that owing to the rarity of such epistles the one referred to ought to be framed and hung on the walls of the council chamber.

• Some misconception seems to have arisen to the manufacture and sale of matches in this dominion. ''The Phosphorus Matches Act, 1910.'' prohibited the use of yellow or white phosphorus in the match-manufacturing business after January 1, 1912. Merchants and retailers were allowed 12 months grace in which to get rid of existing stocks.

To meet the provisions of the Act, Messrs Bryant and May, Bell and Co., the well-known New Zealand manufacturers, immediately brought out a special non-poisonous wax vesta, which has been, and is now, procurable throughout New Zealand. The new vesta is said to be most suitable for household and smokers' use. The manufacturers claim that it is not only the equal of the previous article in every respect, but that it is made from perfectly harmless materials. The improved vesta is absolutely non-poisonous.

• The story of a bride who was ''waiting at the church'' for a bridegroom who did not appear was told during the hearing of a case in the Magistrate's Court at Christchurch on Wednesday (says the Press). Arrangements had been made for the wedding which was to take place at a church not far from Christchurch, and at the hour fixed for the ceremony the bride was there and the church was filled with many friends, but there was no appearance of the bridegroom.

After some delay, the bridegroom, following the example of the bridegroom in a popular pantomime song, sent along a note to say that he could not attend the ceremony that day. He left the district, and although he again corresponded with the young lady, matters have not been advanced sufficiently to bring the parties to the church.

• The crested dogtail grass seed harvest which entered so largely into the calculations of Manawatu growers of late years is being almost entirely neglected this season, remarked a Sandon grower to a New Zealand Times reporter. Last year's harvest showed particularly good returns, both in yield and prices, an as every farmer had a paddock or two laid up for seed the market became overstocked.

The same grower, in comparing his dogstail with perennial rye, finds that the crested dogstail has carried just on a sheep more to the acre during the winter. Nearly twice as many lambs have gone away fat off the dogstail, while the ewes have done splendidly. Both paddocks were sown solely for seed-saving purposes and contained no other mixtures. For feeding and fattening purposes, the farmer considers that crested dogstail is much underestimated, and the addition of a little white clover would make it still more valuable. - ODT, 17.1.1913.