FASTER EXPRESSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 283, 28 November 1924, Page 4

FASTER EXPRESSES.

The new express service lictween Auckland and Wellington that the Uepartment is considering seems to have everything, or nearly everything, to recommend it. The idea of a "limited' train is an excellent one. For many years the service between Melbourne and Sydney has been run with two expresses each way, a "limited" and an ordinary, and it has answered all requirements. 7f, as is proposed, the "limited" leaves, Auckland in the evenimg, and gets to Wellington fourteen and a-half hours later, it will reduce the present and wearisome journey by three and a-half hours, confine nearly all the travelling to night-time, and give business men a full day in Wellington. A second train is under consideration that would leave Auckland in the morning and get to Wellington about sixteen hours later, which time, we may note, is substantially shorter than that taken by the present express. The drawback to this will be arriving in Wellington at midnight; on the other hand, travelling by daylight through the centre of the island will be a considerable attraction. The traffic between the two cities should be large enough for two expresses a day, each way, and the reduction in travelling time is in a line with progressive railway policy throughout the world. Travellers between Aueklnnd and Wellington are not the only people who would benefit. At present the connection with the Rotorua lino at. Frankton is very inconvenient. Passengers from the South for Rotorua get off the express at 3.30 a.m. and catch a slow train at 7.10. This train is supposed to arrive at Rotorua at one in the afternoon, but we are informed that it is often behind time, and that it has arrived as late at 2 o'clock. If the change in the Main Trunk time-table is made this train should be speeded up, so as to cover 87 miles in less than six hours, and to get travellers to Rotorua in good time for lunch. "They are all in bad health when the matter of maintenance is discussed." remarked Mr. F. W. Schramm in the Magistrate's Court to-day during the ncaring of a case in which a husband applied for reduction of the £3 per week order that his wife had obtained against him. "Yes," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.. "the only woman who has over admitted in this Court that she was in good health had just come out of hospital after her fourth operation." Settlers in the Waitcmata County bad many requests to make to the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. J. G. Coates, when he was at Waimauku yesterday. There were deputations representing Kumeu, Huapai, Woodhill, Taupaki, Waikoukou, and Greenhithe. New bridges, improved roads, better railway services, new stations, changes in the postal and telephone bureau communications, more metal, were among the matters that the Minister was asked to remedy. A wayside poods store at Huapai station was authorised, several other requests were noted for later consideration and the others were refused. * A proposal from the Sydney University Extension Board to invite Sir Ernest Rutherford to give a series of lecijiires i/ Australia and New Zealand next year, has been approved by the Board of Governors of Canterbury College. It was decided at a meeting of the board that Canterbury College "should contribute a sum not exceeding £.10 towards the expenses of the New Zealand tour, provided that the three other University colleges in New Zealand were prepared to co-operate in the matter. In connection with tha proposed acquisition by the City Council of the Kauri Timber Company's kauri forest at the Cascades, Waitakpre. the Mayor (Sir James Gunson) last, night reported ttiat the proposed terms wt>re that the Government, by way of royalties to the Mmber company, should p-ovMe 50 per cent of the purchase sum. and that the council should provide 50 per cent, on terms to be agreed on Willi the vendors of the property. The council decided to take steps to acquire the forest, which is said to contain many splendid specimens of the kauri, and to at once urge that the bleeding of the trees for gum be discontinued. It is intended to make the forest a public reserve, vested in the City Council. Mr. Ray Purcell, licensee of the Masonic Hotel. Opotiki. met with a serious accident yesterday morning. He fell from the roof of the front verandah of the hotel on to the footpath, a distance of about 25 feet, and sustained a fractured shoulder and other severe injuries. Mr. Purcell, who took part in the rowing club's opening ceremony in the afternoon retired as-usual for the night. He remembers dreaming of stepping from a launch on to a dino-hy, and suddenly finding himself lying on the hard ground, dazed and injured. Ho had actually stepped over the rail of the verandah after getting up from his bed in his sleep, and fell to the ground. His cries for help were answered by Mrs. Purcell, and Dr. Budd attended to' his injuries. Two youths arc to be charged a' the Onehunga Court with illegally shooting snipe on the flats in the Manukau Harbour.

A prisoner from JMount Eden had a visit to the Magistrate's Court to-day, when an affiliation order was made against him, payments to begin a fortnight after January 20. It was stated that he was a married man with four children, and that his sentence had been imposed upon him for failure to obey a maintenance order in favour of his wife and family. He admitted the paternity of the child. After the ordinary meeting of the City Council on December 11 and the special meeting required to , be held on December 18 to confirm a by-law, no further meetings of the council will be held until January 22. In regard to staff holidays, the City Council offices will be closed from Christmas Day to January 3. S» "I don't think there is the slightest fear of over-production," said Mr. C. E. -McMillan, .M.l', for Tauranga, at Waimauku yesterday, when speaking of the prospects of the dairy industry. "If we can only induce the American people to eat one more pound of' butter each every year they can eat the whole of the New Zealand output. We can only persuade them to do that by better quality. Farmers must not leave it to the factory managers, but must supply first-class cream." Mr. McMillan thought this point most important. If farmers supplied inferior cream they put a lot of work on the manager and did not get the results. "It is like a lady making a skirt," he explained. "A new skirt is all right, but it is not as good as one that is turned." And before he had an opportunity to reconstruct his simile there was a hearty outburst from the ladies. A dispute regarding a radiator came before Mr. YV. R. McKean, JS.JI., at the Magistrate's Court, in which David Martin and Lavinia Vernon (Mr. Hogg) sued Gillctt Motors, Ltd. (Mr. Ward) to recover £22 10/, the price of a radiator supplied, which they alleged to be defective. The defence was that the radiator when supplied was in good order and condition. Mr. McKean said the radiator was ordered in February, and no complaint was made till May, by which time anything might have happened. He held that plaintiffs had not proved that the radiator core was not of merchantable quality when received. As a matter of fact, it was shown the radiator was a new one. Judgment would be for the defendant, with costs £6 0/6. "Persian girls are married at the age of seven, probably to men old enough to be their grandfathers. I could tell you some harrowing tales of the lives of Persian women." This was part of the address given by Mr. C. E. G. Tisdall, who for twenty-three years was secretary of the Britieh and Foreign Bible Society in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Singapore, at the meeting of the Auckland branch last evening. Mr. Tisdall said that the Bible was the only influence that would uplift the unfortunate women. Not a hundred miles from Wanganui a married railway clerk has solved the housing problem. At present he and his wife are living in a one-roomed hut, 12ft. x 6ft.. adjacent to the railway line in a railway yard. The other morning, while the wife was washing up the breakfast dishes, her nerves were very much phaken by a. large crane which lias been working on a bridge in the vicinity of the yards. It was in the act of turning, when it came in contact with the hut, raising it about three feet from its foundations. The only damage sustained was a broken and ■wrenched off window. Needless to say there was a groat commotion inside the hut. In answer to a request by the goods agent of the New Zealand railways that Quay Street, near the railway goods sheds, should be watered in dry weather to prevent dust, the City Engineer has reported that owing to restrictions on the use of fresh water, extensive watering of Quay Street is not possible. The heavy cartage to the eastern reclamation and also to the goods sheds, he says, creates a considerable quantity of dust, and he adds that provision for the paving of this thoroughfare has been made in the proposed loan schedule, and that when the work is carried out the present disability will disappear. The Waitemata County Council has requested the City Council to advise it whether it is prepared to contribute, and if so, in what proportion, to the cost of constructing a concrete road to Titirangi from the New Lynn district boundary to the junction of Exhibition Drive, the estimated cost of which was £14,000. The matter has been referred to the works committee of the City Council. The preparation of rolls of those persons entitled to vote under the Fruit Control and Honey Control Acts, is now nearly completed. The polls necessary to determine the question of bringing the Acts into force will be taken on December 16. A commencement will be made on the issue of the voting papers on December 1. A request from a committee of Titirangi residents asking that the council form bowling greens and tennis courts at Atkinson Park. Titirangi, has been refused by the City Council on the ground that there are no funds available for such work. During concreting operations Dominibn Road will be closed to traffic over the railway bridge for six weeks. Vehicles can. however, pass to Eden Terrace through Brentwood Avenue ana over the level railway crossing at Porter's Avenue. It is recognised that Dominion Road is a very busy thoroughfare, but no other alternative was possible, and the closing has been made as brief as possible. A grant of £450 is to be made by the City Council towards the cost of metalling the unmetalled portion of Christians Road, Waitakere, a length of 88 chains, provisional on the WaitemaU Council metalling the piece of road from the Tea Kiosk to Titirangi Break. A tender of £0305, for the installation of an atmospheric steam-heating system for the whole of the Canterbury College buildings, has been accepted by the Board of Governors. The Ponsonhv Boy's Brass Band is to be allowed by the municipal authorities to hold a scries of four street carnivals on alternate Friday and Saturday nights in the main business centre of Ponsonby, from the Three Lamps to Pompalier Terrace, on both sides of the thoroughfare, providing that there is no resultant interference with traffic. At the Taumarunui Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. F. N. Platts, .S.M., William Anderson, on a charge of keeping intoxicating liquor for sale, was fined £40. Mr. O. B. Hoddinott and sixteen others, who requested that the Waiatarua Road be repaired during the coming season, have been informed by the City Engineer that £187 had been spent on maintenance work on the road, and that all that can be done is to effect urgent repairs until money is available from the proposed street works loan.