TRAFFIC AND UNIFORMITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 6

TRAFFIC AND UNIFORMITY.

t- i . ~! The City Council has acted wisely in J calling a conference of local bodies,of jj the province to consider the problem of Q heavy traffic. It is not only that such 0 a. conference will be useful for its conn federation of the forthcoming Motor s Vehicles Bill, but that it is desirable ■' ; that all aspects of the question of traffic ~ j taxation and control should bo studied d with the idea of getting as much cot, ! operation and uniformity as possible. >, Probably there is the greater need i- for BUch improvement in the city rr area?. Adjoining councils make a different bylaw?, so that in quite t a short run a motorist may be c subject to half a dozen different sets c of regulations. As city traffic becomes s heavy tlie need for inspection and hand- ;- ling in the suburbs, as well as the city, V increases. And what is to be the policy 1 of licensing and taxing locally vehicles s that use roads controlled by more than 1 one body? The Mayor of Auckland says c that motor buses do not contribute - enough to the upkeep of the roads they I use. A motor bus may use a concrete r . road constructed and maintained by a ■ suburlian body as well as the city. Arc 3 both these bodies to levy high license 1 fees, or should one fee be imposed and >, an adjustment made? Then there is the ; question of very heavy traffic and the ■ i limitations that should be placed on it. It. may bo doubtful whether «yen concrete roads will always stand up to loads . as heavy as some of those to be seen ! about Auckland. It i* possible, that . some day there will be a traffic board . . for the Greater Auckland district, just , as now them is a Power Board for the , larger part of it. ' J ■ ~ Tlie Maheno, which left Sydney for Wellington at 1 p.m. on Friday, has on botrd T.I bags of mail and 22 hampers of . parcels for Auckland. The steamer ia , due at Wellington on Monday. , i A mother advertises in this rs-ue for information as to the whereabouts of her daughter aged 1.5*. The girl left her home, I(>6. Queen Street. Onnhunca., on the morning of July 24. She appeared in good health, and there had not been [ any trouble in the home. The girl was seen by a friend waiting for a tram ear, and said she was going to town. She 1 was attired in a one-piece dress of navy blue. 1 ; The member* of the Chinese I'niver- ; sities' J-oceer team, which is at present ill Auckland, all speak English fairl\ fluently. Their coach, Wong, made a capital speech at the civic reception 1 yesterday, and in the evening he made another speech at the broadcasting sta- , t.ion for the benefit of the weefcly "listenerF-in," some of his remarks being addressed to Hamilton residents, whu ' were following the address. A knowledge of human nature, and its application in court proceedings, is useful to a magistrate, even should be . possess a lot of legal acumen. When cases crane before tho Court- arising out ; of a. collision between motor cars, the evidence can usually lx> summed up as "Your fault!" 'No, yours!" Then it is that, the Magistrate has to decide on the weight of evidence. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in giving decision in a case, said: "Plaintiff, a youth, driving his mother. Defendant had a young lady in his car. Most probably the youth with his mother j was driving very carefully.' , J At the dinner to the Chinese football team at Waiiganui, the action of the local Rugby Union in giving the use of the .Recreation Ground for the I match was favourably commented on, both X.Z.F.A. and Wanganui F.A. oflieials expressing their appreciation of ,the nation. The Mayor also spoke of 'the All Black team's visit to the Old Country, and said that. Soccer enthusiasts would be just as keenly interested in their doings as were Rugby people. In this connection he had given to Mr. P. Dean (manager of the team) letters of introduction to the principal officers of the Football Association at Home, and hoped the All Black team and offifials would benefit by the privileges this woukl give them "in the Old i Country. One of the things which struck mc j most forcibly during Mrs. Ilolph's and , my vacation trip to Australia and New Zealand, says Mr. James Kolph, was the high place that San Francisco occupies in the affections of peoples of other lands. This was true in every port in which we stopped. I sincerely hope that tho people of San Francisco will I foster this feeling of warm friendship, so that the bond, which knits us together with the people of the Antipodes, , may yearly become more close. "He judges his place of residence by race meetings. If you can fell him 'what won the cup he can fell you where i he was at the time,' , was tho remark; ■ passed by an official of the Xclson jHospital Board at a. recent meeting when an endeavour was being made in find out. where the man concerned had lived during recent years (states the .".Mail") in order to fix the liability for his maintenance. I The following tender for the supply and.delivery o£ ten turntables for the \ew Zealand (iovernment Railways ilmve been accepted:—Messrs. Yiekcrs j (New Zealand), Limited, Wellington; I manufacturers, the Patent Shaft and lAxletree Company (Limited). Saltley, Wednesbury. England; quantity, ten 70ft turntable?. Price: £704 10/ each, f.o.K, Liverpool. The old steamer Te Anau is to have her final resting-place at Port Wanganui, rendering service at the end of the basing wall. The vessel was towed from Port. Chalmers to Wanganui by the Kajtoke. Tl■■■ hull is to be lilled with scrapiron, elii\. and other materials of a solid nature, an.l ilien placed in position in a narrow gut now being prepared for it. There it will be sunk and made secure by piles. 11l this issue of the "Star , ' is an announcement, from the newly-formed ' Auckland Competitions Society of i their first move towards a higher musi- ' cal standard i:i Auckland—a music ' memory contr-t. This is something ( new to New Z< aland, and the fact that Auckland is taking a definite lead in popular musical education is matter for congratulation. In form the contest is a trial of knowledge and appreciation of music, and thi.s first contest is for school children only, though adults may also take part. Tlie extension of popular appreciation of good music is an ideal worthy of support, and doubtless all Ancklanders who are musically in- ( clinecl will wish to further the Society's t efforts in that direction. L

Passengers who left Mount Rex on Tuesday night per s.s. Ruawai,had an exciting and lengthy journey* before they reached Dargaville nearly 12 hours late (says the "North Auckland Times"). f Two hours after leaving the wharf the f boat struck a sand-bank, but soon came i off again. At 11.30 p.m., owing to the heavy fog the anchor was dropped until 2 a.m., when another start was made, r only to stop again at 3.40 a.m., when : all efforts to move the boat failed, and c it was 10.30 a.m. before another start i was made for Dargaville. Luck was still out, however, as at 11.30 a.m. the steering gear went wrong, and but for '■■ the prompitude of the skipper the ship 1 would have probably gone ashore. After . the steering gear had been fixed up another start was made, and the trip ' from then on was uneventful. "I don't like that bird. I'm tired if ' it," remarked a ~So\v Plymouth lady, ' referring to a thrush which for about 5 two months past had occupied the same spot in the garden at dnwn and sung steadily for a couple of hours, with ' repeat performances at intervals during ' the day. Bain or fine the thrush kept i up its rather shrill song, and often near j it sat another rather bored looking bird. presumably its mate. One theoVy is 1 that the male bird sings to please (he ■' female, but judging , from appearances • and from the habits of human males. . the bird sinirs to please himself and his partner is supposed to play the part of admiring audience. Berkeley Moynihan, the eminent ' Leeds surseon and chairman of the Army Medical Advisory Board, speaking ; at Harrogate, said they had learnt from , experience in the war that patients did better in tents than in any other accommodation. The next best was open-air huts. If lie had his way in > building a hospital it would not be a forbidding-looking building in brick and . stone, but one that could be destroyed in 30 or 40 years. The scene was a first-class smoker oti an early morning train out of Hamilton, and the conversation turned for a time from football to farming and what the farmers were making or not making, when a sarcastic individual stopped ' smoking a wee while and chipped in i with the remark that the cockies were : doing all right in the Waikato; nnyway. they were making good money, what 'with extricating motur cars from the mud roads and killing rabbits for the skins. "What do they want to worry about butter dropping in price." he said. "Just keep the roads as bad as they are at Motu.iolio and keep the rabbit boards from interfering." Then he told of two young men on the slopes of Maungakawa who are making £10 per week each killing and skinning rabbits, and of another party on Maungcitautari who made £15 in one night killing the bunnies and then classifying the skins and sending them to Wellington. The weather observer for Waihi (Mr. C. F. Sims) states that it was four years since Waihi had experienced such a frost as that of the 26th of last month (131 degrees). This season there bad been lOfrosts already. The total rainfall for the month was 3.M7 inches, being loss than half the average for July (8.5J inches). The total fall for tlie first seven months of this year was ~\:11 , inches, the annual average for this . period being 4!).0S inches. '■ A Wanganui taxi-driver who drove a i happy bridal couple to Marton recently, ; discovered on his return a bunch of keys 'in the car. As the keys were nci-pssary > for opening the various trunks and bags ; of the bridal party's lugeagc, the driver i got in tmicb with Marton, and a per- , turbed bridegroom learned of the mishap that had overtaken him. The keys . were forwarded next day. ; "Them is siijipo?rd to bo no tatting en football, but say one applied the 'all up' principle to the seventeen All Black matches at Horne —starting off with a modest 1/ —what do you think he would collect at the end of the tour/" was the question put to a scribe recently. The man of the pen declared that he was no mathematician, and was content to accept the- assurance that one would henefit, to the extent of over £3000 if no matches were lost. It is commonly rumoured that the members of the Chinese Soccer team are total abstainers. This is not correct (declares the Wanganui "Herald" i. as most of the members can enjoy a j>lass ; witll a il kick" in it as well as a Kuro- I pean.