NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1928, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Concentration bt Administrators. Mention of a proposal that steps may be taken te have the Mount Roskill Road Board district constituted a borough draws attention to the recent election. It has been mentioned that eight el the nine members elected live within a quarter ? f °* e a " other at Greenwood's Corner, and three livfe in the same street. Refofth. I don t think that many people have seen a treadmill at work," stated Archbishop Averill At a meeting of the Howard Penal Reform League last evening. He said that he Was in an English prison 50 yfcars ago, and the treadmill made such ah impression oh his Wind that from that time J 1 ® t°o k a keen interest in pHsbn reform, A ,^ a<l et V learned from America, and, Whereas in the old days the treatment was punitive, it was how reformative. Lost Opportunity A mere was laid at the feet of the Rev. iJafii Aitken, Moderator of the General Assembly, he recently visited a Maori pa in the Taupo •if j ail<i inadvertently the Moderator COtftnutted a breach of Maori etiquette. He merely bowed and looked pleased. It was explained to Sit that he should have grabbed the mere, chased the wat-ridf Who had laid it down, and fitt the latter ovfer thfe bead with it. that is, pto= vided he could catch him. Lost and found. Women are notoriously careless," said a hardened Aucklaiider this mOrning, who pro* ceeded to relate an incident which occurred in one of the insurance offices yesterday. Ahead of hitn in the queue at the couhter was a lady who leceived a cheque for £195, the savings of a lifetime. Yoii don't want to lose it," said the fJf r , k j,handed the slip over. "I'll look after that, replied the lady emphatically, and, folding the cheque, she dropped it into her handbag before making for the door, Just two minutes later another lady handed in the cheque to the clerk. I picked it up from the floor near the door," she said. Children of a Vanished Race. The Rev, James Aitken, Moderator of the General Assembly, stated at St. Andrew's Hall Oh Monday night that when ne was in the Tuhoe country recently amongst the Maoris he saW two strange children. They were neither Maori, pakeha, nor half-castes, They had ashen-grey skins, and flaxen hair. He was told that they descendants Of the ancient Morioris, and that, through generations, certain characteristics iiad been maintained and not absorbed by a doitiinatit race. He thought thai inquiries might leveal interesting facts about the ancient inhabitants of Tahoe land, who lived there long before the Maoris came to New Zealand. Suburban Railway Traffic. Heavy traffic on the northern suburban railway line was reported to the New Lynn Town Board last evening by a member Of the board. Ihe member stated that many {)&&seiig£i l s Wefrß unable to obtain seats, and the carriage platforms were dangerously overcrowded. Especially did this apply to the train that left Auckland at 543 p.m. It was suggested that the Railway Department be approached with a view to an extra train being put on. The board adopted the suggestion, and the department will be written to asking for an improvement in the present conditions, to include an extra train leaving Auckland at 5.30 p.fh. Menace of Goats. The Mount Egmont National Park Board ha 9 decided to ask the Government for an ahnua) frant ef £300 for Ave yearß for the purpose of ealing with the goat menace (states an exchange) , It Was stated at the last meeting of the board that the existence of the forest was menaced by the ahifnuls, which on the ranges and ort the northern slopes of the mountain were eating the yoUiig growth and barking the trees. This must result in time in the destruction of the bush. It was agreed that the Work of dealing With the goats, to be effective, must extend over several years, as men had to be trained, and suitable dogs bred for the purpose. Unappreciated Entertainment. The fact that courses of lectures and entertainments, arranged and held at the Epsom, Grafton, Grey Lynn, Parnell and Remuera public libraries, were not a success during the past year is commented upon in the annual feport issued la eohrieotlon with the Auckland public libraries, which says that the patronage was again disappointing, and it was doubtful if tjtie results justified continuance of that particular phase of activity. The report says that the lectures, With one or two exceptions) were not popular, and that in some Cases it was only the good nature of the lecturer which made certain lectures possible, as the attendance did not warrant the lecture being given. Even the concerts and entertainments in the majority of cases could not be described as wanted, the attendance being small. Financially a deficit of £91 resulted. Not in Demand. "There is no demand for tram time-tables irt Auckland," said Mr. A. E. Ford, tramways manager, under cross-exatnihation at the Transport Commission yesterday. He added that they were hardly worth printing, which was very different from the case of bus time-tables. The lack of demand in the one instance, and the persistent and continuous demand In the Other, he considered was accounted for by the close headways for trams and the relatively sparse headways for buses. Mr, Meredith said to the witness that Mr. Northcroft had made application at the tramways office for a fcfam time-table, and had failed to get one. "If you want a bus timetable u we can give you heaps of them," observed Mr. Ford. He explained that the tramways department had a series of small time-tables, and an effort Was being made to produce a comprehensive One agaih. Developing the North. The Main Trunk line north of Auckland has been pushed oil, and the gap ptl the StratfordOtijiaruhe line must now be filled up (said the Prime Minister in the course of a recent interview), Take the country north of Auckland —ijt is going to open Up and develop like the bush parts of T&rahaki and the Ninety-Mile Bush in the 'nineties. Another five years and old-timers won't recognise the north. '•Hydro-electricity alfeo must proceed steadily and systematically. It is a thing which you have to take over a period of years to sea the results. The results are going to be good. Look at ArapUttl. In 1921 we had to ask for a guarantee from the Auckland Power Board of 15,000 kilowatts. Auckland alone will now take 21,000 kilowatts. The whole scheme will absorb 30,000 kilowatts, which will pay all interest on the capital, and 1 per cent on the sinking fund. That is all right in spite of what the croakers say about it," t^t-gf&diiate Gourde for Nurses. "The institution of the post-graduate course for nurses at the Wellington Hospital marks a big advance in nursing education in New Zealand," Says "£ai T'aki," the nurses' journal. "11l a recent communication froth England a nursing leader congratulated the New Zealand nurses on their ooUrSe, planned to bring together the institution and the public health nurse, thus introducing a Wider aspect of nursing as a whole. Many comments have been made at to the course including so much Which is relative to public health, but this has been done Intentionally to bring about this object Of correlating the preventive with the curative work In tht hospital. This means that in future all nurses leaving will have a wider Understanding of medicine iftd the social conditions Of the people, so making thfltt more efficient and understanding. The course for some time will be limited to twenty students, and applications have already been received for the 1929 session."