NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 288, 5 December 1929, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Post and Telegraph Service.

Mr. J. H. McKenzie, general secretary of the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association, arrived in Auckland to-day on business connected with the association. He will address a special meeting of local P. and T. officers on Monday evening, -when service grievances and working conditions will he discussed. Rawlings Scholarships. Entries for the Rawlings Scholarship examination this year constitute a record. There are 103 candidates, as against 85 last year. Twentyeight schools in the Auckland Province are represented. Three scholarships are offered this year, lhe Rev. F. W. Young has been appointed examiner, and the examination will be held in the Wellesley Street School on December 23 and 24. Gift for Motor Ship. A bell made of burnished copper and a little Taranaki ironsand will be presented by the public of Taranaki to the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company's motor vessel of the same name during its coming visit to New Plymouth. It was not possible to use any great quantity of ironsand in the making of the bell, or its tone would be impaired. The Taranaki is expected to arrive at New Plymouth from Wellington on Wednesday. Parking in Newmarket. That parking should be prohibited in front of the Newmarket Post Office was a request from the Chief Postmaster, Mr. H. P. Donald, which was considered at a meeting of the Newmarket BoFough Council last evening. The borough inspector said that, as the van called only twice a day, with probably an increased number of calls before Christmas, he thought that the request was liable to be excessive. Unless a by-law was made, it would be impossible to enforce the suggestion. The matter was referred back to the inspector. When Speed Beat Sound. Mr. T. H. McWilliam, the Southern Cross radio operator, was in England for the Schneider Cup race, and although he had an invitation to see it, he preferred to listen to the broadcast description. The race was well described, and he believed he got a better impression of it than if he had been at the scene of the race, where the spectators saw little because the machines went so fast that they beat their own sounds. Mr. McWilliam saw the English airship RlOl over London on the occasion of its first flight, it being the last day he was there before sailing for Australia. The airship was flying quite low, and he had a wonderful view of it. Good News for Ratepayers. "I would like to say something, Mr. Mayor," said Mr. Cassels-Brown at the Devonport Borough Council meeting last evening, when'general matters were being discussed. "I wish to publicly commend the extremely satisfactory methods of our tarring and sanding gang. I had the opportunityof watching their operations the other day for quite a considerable time, and they displayed a systematic and businesslike efficiency that was very pleasing. I am certain from my practical knowledge that the ratepayers arc getting twenty shillings' worth for every pound spent in labour and inatcrial in this department." "That's good news for the ratepayers," said the Mayor, "with which I heartily agree." Other councillors concurred, regret being expressed only in the direction that financial considerations would prevent complete extension of the work throughout the borough. Third Harbour Boring.

Eighty feet of piping had to be lowered before solid material was struck in the third test bore of preliminary harbour bridge investigations yesterday. When the bore -was hauled back, it was found that papa rock had been met. The work was completed just before 5 p.m., and the task had not been nearly so long nor so difficult as the second bore, which was finished at 1.30 a.m. yesterday, after being started on Tuesday morning. At least 10 further bores are to be made, and it is expected that the -work will be completed before Christmas. It will be some time before the deductions made from the specimens that are being brought up will be known. According to an official, the data gained -will be sufficiently accurate for preliminary work, in giving an indication of the foundations on three of the lines suggested, but it will not bo nearly full enough to make an estimate of costs or even for the consideration of the bridge design. A Word for the "Waster." A good word was said for "the waster" by Mr. d'A. S. L. Grut, of Waimate, before the Rehabilitation Commission at Christchurch. "This man," ho said, "gets little sympathy, and often less help, and yet in many cases he is nothing but a partially disabled man in another sense. Is it any wonder that, of the thousands who left New Zealand, receiving their years of training to officially kill, and unofficial sanction to thieve when necessity dictated, living in the squalor and degrading" condition of the front liue trench, there should be some who fail to readjust their mentality to the requirements of civilisation? Many of these 'wasters' would yet make good soldiers were war again declared, but no effort has been put forward to train them again to be. good citizens. The handling of cash is in many cases the worst that can be done to meet their cases. Community settlements for partially disabled men seems to be the one and only solution." "Mose3 in the Bulrushes." There was a merry moment at the Devonport Borough Council meeting last evening, when the question of cleaning up Mount Victoria was discussed. The Mayor had explained the difficulty of financing any such work, as the mountain was Crown land, and not a borough domain. Some years ago the Government used to make an annual grant of £100 for the purpose, but that had been discontinued, and the- borough had no authority to expend its revenue on the job. Mr. G. Falla then enlarged upon the desirability of getting something done to at least make the track accessible. "Why," he said, "I had my photograph taken on the path the other day, and all you can see is the top of my upstretched arms." He then produced the photographic prints, which showed phenomenal growth of hemlock and fennel as mentioned, with two little extremities which indicated the whereabouts of Mr. Falla. "The fallacy of Falla," commented the Mayor. "Moses in the bulrushes," chuckled Mr. Hislop, to the general merriment of the council. It was finally decided to approach the Commissioner of Crowoi Lands for possible assistance in the way of the improvement of this borough beauty spot. Viewpoint of Youth. ji New angles of thought in connection with the harbour bridge project are suggested by a debate held at the Auckland Grammar School this year. The motion was: "That the time is

ripe for a harbour bridge project," and the viewpoint of youth, for and against, was ably championed. Eight speakers took part, and the standard of the debating may be judged from the chairman's decision in favour of the affirmative by a margin of only two points. Auckland's development was inevitably in the direction of "twin cities," the affirmative contended, and the only relevant question was whether the city and North Shore districts could undertake a scheme now or wait a while. They had no doubts as to the suitability of the time, and claimed that posterity* would endorse their opinion; and, in further support of their case, they produced the analogy with Vancouver, and drew a glowing picture of an arch bridge, or, at any rate, a structure similar to the Tower Bridge, London. The attractiveness of the vision did not appeal to the opposing team, whose first point was for the ■ preservation of the "beautiful Waitemata." North Shore was not adaptable to the twin city idea, they said, and, as far as the analogy with Vancouver Avent, they raised a very practical objection on the point of finance. Playing on the financial string, they lamented the prospect of a community struggling under an impossible burden of capital and maintenance costs, and were not at ajl impressed bj; the duty to posterity^.