NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Income Tax Payment. An important date for taxpayers is Wednesday, February S. A "Gazette" notice states that income tax is then due, and a penalty will be leviable if payment be not made on or before March 1. Farm Jobs Scarce. "We have more boys now than we can place," said the secretary of the Auckland Boys' Employment Committee to-day, when discussing the boy unemployment situation. He said that a few months ago there were far more jobs than there were boys willing to fill them. The scarcity of jobs was due to the farmers not requiring farm labour lit this time of the year, as the result of the low price of butterfat, and the fact that the season had been so dry. Women Gold-diggers. Two young women, who left Auckland on Wednesday, are included in a gold-prospecting party which is proceeding to the South Island. One is an Aucklander, and the other a recent arrival from England. One member of the party is a farmer residing near Auckland who has had prospecting experience in America, Australia and Xew Zealand. The destination of the party is a former well-known gold-bearing area in Westland. Tether as a Snare. Seventy feet was the length of the tether on a horse left, in Green Streef, Lower Hutt, Wellington, 011 a recent night, according to a statement made bv Sergeant J. W. McHolin in the Magistrate's Court when prosecuting GlO- - Menclii for tethering a horse in Green Street. The sergeant said that the horse had wandered across the road, and that a cyclist had fallen over the tether at 12.45 a.m., _ slightly hurting himself and damaging his machine. After Thirty-eight Years. To have a medal w' ich he had lost restored after a lapse'of 38 years was the good fortune which befell Mr. F. Hitchcock, of Matamata, a few days ago. Mr. Hitchcock won the medal while a member of the Ponsonby Club, and lost it within a few months. Recently his brother entered a chemist's shop in Auckland, and 011 giving his name the chemist mentioned _he possessed a medal with the name Hitchcock inscribed theron. The trophy was identified and restored to its owner. Vanished in Smoke. The long dry grass that had gathered into heaps was burned under the watchful eye of a member of the station staff at Patea last week. After seeing that all was safe, the man resumed his other duties. His satisfaction was short lived, however, when a party of irate Maoris wanted to know what had become of their belongings that had been temporarily cached beneath the grass while they sought the luscious pipi.

Fencing Competition. The sport of military fencing is little known, or practised, in this country nowadays. Consequently quite a number of people will be interested in a fencing competition which will be held between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to-day at the* Mission to Seamen's Institute, near the wharf, as part of a sports programme which has been arranged for members of the Royal the cadet ship Cornwall. Four entrants will represent the naval units and the cadet ship, and they will compete in three classes of fencing —with foil, epee and sabre. Electric Light Failure. A fault in one of the three transmission lines from Arapuni caused a stoppage of electric power in parts of the city and suburbs shortly before 8 o'clock last evening. The area affected was that on direct current, only a momentary break occurring in districts served by alternating current. Tram services, running on direct j current, were held up for six minutes. Although the cause of the fault could not be traced, the load was carried for the remainder of the evening on the other two transmission lines. Houses in suburbs' served by direct current were in darkness, but just when householders were beginning to think of candles the light came on again. Evidence of Coin-shaving. A number of Hastings shopkeepers lately have unwittingly accepted from customers coins, mostly half-crowns, from which large pieces have been cut. One shopkeeper commented recently that when, checking over her cash at the end of the day's business she had noticed quite a number of silver coins which had been eo cut. One half-crown had been cut in< four or five places, and the depth and breadth of the nicks suggested that whoever had defaced the coins had sought to collect the silver cut from it. The law provides for a substantial penalty in cases of this nature. The circulation of spurious coins in unusually large numbers since the week before Christmas is also reported by a Hastings bank official. The greater part of the coins have been shillings, but the official was handed" a florin as part of a deposit, which was of such poor stuff that it broke merely by pressure with the fingers. Muriwai and Speed Record. Following a visit of inspection, Mr. S. F. Edge, one of England's pioneer motorists, is \of the opinion that Muriwai Beach is quite suitable for an attempt on the world's land speed record. So confident is Mr. Edge of the suitability of the beach that he intends to recommend it to Sir Malcolm Campbell as soon as he arrives back in England in March. Mr. Ed?e, who knows Daytona well, considers that Muriwai provides a first-class track for speed racing. On his visit yesterday he drove 15 miles along the beach, and did not see a bump or anything else that would constitute a danger to speed racing. The sand, it seemed to him, was slightly harder and more tightly packed than at Daytona, and therefore should offer less resistance to the wheels of a car. Muriwai, said Mr. had ail advantage over Daytona, in that it did not compel a motorist to drive near the edge of the water in .order to travel on hard sand. He added that if the Ninety-Mile Beach was even better than Muriwai, as he had heard, it must be a perfect surface. Mr. Edge, who sails for Sydney by the Mararaa to-day, said that he was certain Sir Malcolm Campbell would like to establish the record on British territory if that was possible.

Heat Lightning. .With the thermometer registering as high as 82 degrees in the shade, yesterday was the hottest day we have had in Auckland this summer, though the breeze blowing tempered the heat to the panting citizen, and many people did not find the day so stifling as -last Sunday. After such a day a prolonged display of sheet lightning in the eastern sky seemed a fitting attempt of the atmosphere to rid itself of some of its surcharged heat. From dark until midnight there was a continuous series of flashes, mostly ranging between E.X.E. and X.E., and, as that part of the sky was very packed with clouds, the effect of the dazzling burets of flame playing along the edges of the clouds was magnificent. The peculiarity of the lightning was that it was "dumb"! there was not as much as a single detonation. This phenomenon i»3 far from common in this part of the world, a lightning storm being usually accompanied by much thunder. In certain parts, however, silent lightning is a familiar feature. In the Carribean Sea, for, instance, some of the hurricanes that cause such devastation are preceded by remarkable lightning storms, in which the sea right round the horizon is lit up incessantly as though millions of electric lights were being flashed on and off. The display over the Coromandel Ranges last night was all the more dramatic because there were such immense banks ot clouds about, the lightning darting about them as though it was playing hide and seek.