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New Mexico State Items The Eastern New Mexico Press Association meets at Clovis, Feb. 18. The Carlsbad board of education has decided to have plans drawn for a new school building. The present buildings are overcrowded. Walter R. Pomerenk, 19 years old, was found dead on the floor of the Highland filling station in Albuquerque with a bullet through his heart. Secretary Work recently approved the transfer of 3,007 acres of public lands to New Mexico to replace school lands lost to the state because of their mineral deposits. The annual recreation report for the Santa Fe national forest has been completed and the compilation shows that 13,745 persons visited the forest during 1923. The new $40,000 high school building and grade school at Mills which was started a few months ago is rapidly nearing completion and will probably be ready for occupancy by the school about the middle of February. The First National Bank of Fort Sumner, N. M., closed recently following a run. The bank has a capital of $25,000 and a surplus of $7,000. The deposits are $14,000. It is said an attempt will be made to reorganize the bank. Deming's new Rotary Club has received its charter from G. A. Martin of El Paso, governor of the eighth district of Rotary international. The club has 24 charter members. A. W. Pollard is president, C. J. Kelly is vice-president, and C. F. Sage is secretary and treasurer. The sergeant at arms is C. C. Bassett. The Albuquerque chamber of commerce has been reorganized and Allen Bruce, insurance man, elected temporary president. A temporary board of directors, also elected, consists of Erna Ferguson, W. D. Hand, Robert McClughan and Ira Sprecher. The board, with the president, will function two months. John R. Gaunt, cashier of the now closed Reserve State Bank of Reserve, N. M., who was indicted on nine charges by the Catron county grand jury recently, has been granted a change of venue to Valencia county by Judge Harry P. Owen of the seventh judicial district. Trial has been set for Jan. 29, at Los Lunas. Rigs and camp houses are being built on the Table Mesa and Tocito leases on the Navajo reservation, both sold by former Gov. H. J. Hagerman, commissioner to the Navajo tribe, at the auction in Santa Fe on Oct. 15. The Gypsy Oil Co., which got the Tocito, will do its own drilling. It is reported to be the intention of this company to put down no less than five wells. The Santa Fe was one the three big railroad systems of the United States to emerge from the year 1923 without the loss of a single passenger while riding on any of its trains. Furthermore, the Santa Fe has operated for the past year and a half during which time it has carried 16,000,000 passengers and not one has been killed. The average distance ridden by the 16,000,000 passengers was 152 miles. The Student Air Fund of the N. M. N. V. at Las Vegas originated some years ago under the Roberts' administration has made a report of its present standing to the student body and faculty. The total amount of the fund is $3,000. Of this $500 is now available for student aid loans. The rest is out on notes, many of which will be paid before the opening of the 1924 fall term so that more funds will be available at that time. The Boys' and Girls' Club of De Baca county was awarded the first honors in the stock judging contest of the eighteenth annual National Western Stock Show in Denver. A maintenance budget for next year, carrying a total of $396,600, was approved by the state highway commission at its recent meeting, according to State Highway Engineer James A. French. While the budget is primarily for the up-keep of 3,000 miles of roads, mostly on the federal aid system, it also contains provision for betterment and the purchase of additional equipment to be used on the roads. Men, armed with sawed off shotguns and rifles, stood by while American Express Company agents unloaded huge sums of currency and silver for the three banking houses at Clovis. Following the closing of the First National Bank, other banking houses began preparations for any demands of money which might have been made on them and heavy shipments of currency, gold and silver were ordered from their banking connections in the east. The petition in voluntary bankruptcy of Frihoff P. Nielson, cattleman of Bluewater, Valencia county, was filed in the U. S. district clerk's office at Albuquerque last week by his attorneys, Wilson and Wilson, of Albuquerque, giving liabilities of $9,388.22 and assets of $375. The Railway Ice Company in Clovis iced 34,363 refrigerator cars for the Santa Fe Railway Co., there in 1923, this being the largest year's business in the history of the company's operations in Clovis. These cars averaged about 1,200 pounds to the car.
