NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 124, 28 May 1929, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Undefended Divorces. Petitions for divorce and the restitution of conjugal rights will be heard at the Supreme Court to-morrow. About 60 undefended cases will bo dealt with, and Mr. Justice Herdman and Mr. Justice Kennedy will be engaged for the greater part of the day. The cases on the divorce list thus session total over 90, compared with 80 last session. '■ Home! After Holidays. Here was heavy traffic on the railways last I evening as the result of the resumption of school after two weeks' holiday. It was evident that a largjs number of parents took the opportunity of having a week or so in the city. The accommodation on the two Wellington expresses was . fully taxed, and two extra carriages had to be added to the second express. '. Friesian Breeders' Protest. ! It was stated at a meeting of the New Zea- ■ land Friesian Breeders 5 Association that the . Auckland Winter Show Association had decided not to include a dairy cattle section in the Winter Sltow, and it was resolved to protest to the Auckland A. and P. Association against this ' action on the part of the Winter Show Associa- ■ tiou, particularly as the dairy cattle section had been of special interest to the dairy farmers and to large numbers of townspeople. Flooding Our Universities. The flooding of our universities with students 1 was referred to as a possible danger by Dr. Lawson, of Otago University, speaking at the graduation ceremony at Canterbury College. We ; were in somewhat the same position, he said, as was Germany, where there was a tendency to "schoolify" the whole of .life. It had been said , that ono-lialf of the nation was occupied in teaching the other half. This was a bad state of affairs. ; I'jPinee. : About 100 acres of pinus insignis trees in the plantation of Mr. James Smith's well-known homestead in the Clutha, Otago, are being cut up at a sawmill established on the plantation, telegraphs our correspondent. The trees, which were planted Go years ago, have grown to a great height and girth, and it is expected it will take eight to ten years to cut out the plantation. Some of the trees are yielding up to 2000 ft of timber, which gives some idea of their size. Eels and Ducks. A Wan.sranui sportsman states that eels are a real nuisajice on some of the lakes in the district this season. The other day he lost several ducks whieli he had shot and had fallen into the water, tho birds being grasped by the legs and dragged under. One big eel rose to the surface , to get a duck that had been shot, and got a | bullet through its head. The same sportsman said he saw eels trying to pull a decoy duck ! under the water, believing it to be a real bird. Cost of an Error. An ambiguous figure played a vital part in a Supreme Court decision yesterday. For over an hour Mr. Justice Herdman was engaged in hearing legal argument on the question whether a judgment given by Mr. Justice Blair iu April should be sot aside because of a "0" in the date of the hearing—April 10 —appearing like an "8." The ambiguity was traced to faulty typing, the "0" being struck twice and thus giving the impression that the date intended was April IS. At the conclusion of yesterday's hearing his Honor granted a motion to set aside the judgment. The original case was one in which the plaintiff claimed £325 commission. Awkward Eel Trap. On the -eastern side of Wellington Harbour the residents still have to put up with makeshifts in some of their domestic arrangements. One of them could not get the water tap to run the other morning. His supply comes from a stream in the lulls at the back of the house, and in order to find out what was wrong he traced the pipe back from the house to the creek. At length he found it blocked at the stop-cock, and after unscrewing it he found an eel about 2ft long blocking up the pipe. Before the visitor could be got out, the pipe had to be chopped in half—chopped because the Easterner had no suitable tools to deal with the situation iu a plumber-like manner. Undischarged Bankrupts. A stranger to the Dominion chancing upon a supplement to the "New Zealand Gazette," which, contains a list of undischarged bankrupts, might be pardoned for concluding that New Zealand is a country of many business failures. The document sets forth the name, occupation and date of adjudication of every person who has been adjudicated bankrupt since March, 1927, and who on the last day of March, 1929, had not obtained an order of discharge, or whose order for discharge was in suspension. No less than 17 full foolscap folio pages are filled with particulars of bankruptcies, the total number of which runs to approximately 1200. The districts concerned extend from Southland to North Auckland. State Motor Services. An interesting item in the traffic returns of the Railway Department for the year ended / March 31, 1929, as published in the "New Zealand Gazette," is the comparison which is given between the years 1929 and 192S in respect of road motor services operated by the Department. In the North Island the number of passengers carried during the year just ended was 202,277, as against 109,782 in 1928. The revenue provided in the former case was £8429 4/8, as compared with £5800 !!>/ in 1928. Iu the South Island the volume of traffic was smaller, a total of 6972 being carried in 1929, as against 3136 in 1925. The revenue in 1929 was £591, as compared with £192 in the previous year. Goods for Canada. In December last a paragraph appeared with regard to the alteration in invoices covering shipments of goods to Canada under the British preferential tariff or under the Australian trade agreement, intimating that at least one-half of the cost of production of each article must be produced through the industry of countries whose goods are entitled to entry under one or other of these headings. The Canadian Department of National Revenue have up to the present accepted the old certificate where the words "onefourth" had been corrected to read "one-half, such correction being initialled by the exporter. The Canadian Trade Commissioner in Auckland has now received advice to the effect that_ the certificates with this initialled correction will be accepted only until June 30, 1920, after which date printed'certificates in tie new form will be required by the Customs division of the Canadian Department of National Revenue. Two Tanes. When the Minister in charge of Afforestation (the Hon, W. B. Taverner) was in the North, a visit was paid to the Waipoua State Forest, the party penetrating as far as "The Big Tree," a giant kauri, in the Jteart of the bush, with a circumference near the base of 43ft. The Maoris knew tliia fine tree as Tane-inallilta. Close to the roadway which winds through the forest, the bijr tree ia an object of great interest to visitors. During the Ministers visit a decision was made to place a'fence around it, this for the reason that there is a clanger of the undergrowth being trampled down, and the roots of the tree semi-exposed. The largest kauri in the Waipoua Forest has a circumference near the base of 48ft, but it is in rather an inaccessible spot, and a long journey by bush tracks is necessary to reach it. It has the rather imi posing name of Wao-nui-o-tane. Tune, by the I way, "is the god of the forests. Every effort is being made to protect the big trees. Tn the Tvonnson Kauri Park, near Kaihu. some vandal ! cut his name on the largest kauri tree, ff he j had added his address, he would have heard I more of it.