NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Destruction at Station. Tiunaki railway station lias suffere severely by the destructive proclivities (. children, or perhaps of elder vandals. Som time during the past few days every pane c glass in the station building was smasliet even the glass panels in the interior doors. Toy Stops Power Supply. Reporting to the Thames Valley Powe Board, the engineer stated that an interru] tion in the supply of power was caused o February 9, due to a boy letting go a to which lie was flinging round. The toy wa held by a piece of wire, which, when it slippe from hie hand, flew over some tall trees an landed on the 11 k.v. line on the other sid< burning through one of the live wires. Hi father notified the accident immediately, an steps were taken at once to isolate the fauli Spoiled Crops Saved. Considering the season, yields of whea and oats are turning out well in South Cai terburv. A good many crops which looke as if they were not fit to harvest have bee gathered in, and have threshed above expecta tions. It has also been noticed that a goo< many crops which were flattened by tlie rai and wind in Decamber and January hav filled nicely. In some cases, crops havi threshed at 60 bushels to the acre. Althougl the crops are turning out fairly well, tin market shows very little sign of life. Thrush and Pipi. As the result of an unusual misadventur a thrush was prevented for the time bein; from continuing its song at eve at St. Helier' on Sunday last. A resident who had uee gathering pipis at West Tamaki left the sui plus supply on his lawn. Some time late his child drew his attention to the peculia antics of a bird. The inquisitive thrush, i; the act of sampling a pipi, had apparentl, been surprised by the sudden closing of th bivalve, so that its beak was liekl fast. Th> resident had no difficulty in catching th bird, which was released and given its free doin. A Visitor from Antarctica. Stanley Bay residents were very mucl intrigued yesterday by the appearance of i small penguin, which took up its temporar; residence at the end of the wharf. This litth visitor from the Antarctic apparently thor ouglily enjoyed the attention he received. H< stood on one of the wharf laterals which wa« just awash, and preened his plumage to hi* own intense satisfaction and the amusenum of the beholders. Then came a swimming anc diving exhibition, which demonstrated tin amazing speed and skill of the voyager from southern latitudes. Finally lie swam awaj down the harbour in quest of further adventures in the Waitemata, before returning to the frozen south. Fines Inflicted. The picking of blooms from sonic of the shrubs and trees while on their visit to Mount Egmont recently was the cause of quite a number of Rotarians being fined. District Governor T C. List, who is also chairman of the Egmont / National Park Board, observed that many of the Botarians and also their wives wore wearing these sprigs of blooms, and, intimating J that it was an offence to pluck flowers in the - park, he promptly imposed fines of 2/0 upon I all offenders, and, as the Rotarians had also , to pay for their wives' offences, tlic "sunshine box" received a heavy contribution, which was ' added to when the district governor coin- ■ niitted the breach of referring to the RotaL rians as "gentlemen." ! Waxing Cheese. "Cutting off the nose to spite the face" is how Air. W. lorns, chairman of the Dairy Produce Board, in the course of a talk with Dannevirke dairymen, describes the practice of waxing cheese (reports the Dannevirke r "Times"). Waxing the cheese results in a reduction in the loss of weight through drying to the extent of about 1* per cent, but the result of waxing on the appearance of the cheese when the wax is removed at Home is very detrimental, he said. It made the cheese soft and slimy, and was greatly objected to by the merchants, but eo long as it was not utterly prohibited some factories would persist in the practice owing to the small saving In weight. To Relieve Camp Life Monotony. Consideration is to be given by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. J. Bitcliener, to the suggestion by Mr. W. E. Barnard, M.P., that once a fortnight Public Works lorries should take men from each of the single men's! cam]*, in Hawke's Bay to nearby towns, so relieving the monotony of camp life. Mr. Barnard said he recently had first-hand experience of life at the county camp at Te Politic, where many of the workers were townsmen, whose pay did not permit of their paying for a ride to town, which meant they rarely saw their friends. Some of them had not seen the town for 12 months, and lie thought that an occasional week-end away from the camp would have a good moral effect in tlfe majority of cases. The Minister promised to go into the question, since it might prove a way of easing the life of the men. The Lure of Economics. Tlio general interest in schemes which propose the amendment of the present social system was exemplified last week, when Major Douglas addressed a public meeting in Hamilton. A party of currency reformers at Okoroire, over 40 miles away, speeded up the afternoon milking in order to attend the lecture, and duly listened to the exposition. After the meeting the homeward journey began. Fortified by supper at Cambridge, they began the long trek over the Tirau hills, to be overtaken by disaster at midnight in the shape of a punctured tyre. This quite ordinary mishap was made serious by the fact that they had omitted to include in their tool equipment the key spanner for the spare tyre, and that they were miles away from! the nearest garage. They finally limped home , at 2.30 a.m., and, as they had to l>e up again' at four o'clock to "start on the cows," their | time for slumber was very brief. However,! they "made it," and though somewhat dreamy the next day, they were unanimous in declaring that "it was well worth it!" Troublesome Water Meters. The patience of the Mount Albert Borough Council with regard to one of its perennial afflictions is becoming noticeably shorter. Many comments from nearly every councillor at last night's meeting revealed a universal desire to be rid of the nuisance of complaints about incorrect readings. Instances! were quoted of serious overcharging from' "galloping meters." It all arose from Mr. J. I O. N. Hoole's motion to test about 30 meters selected at random, but having regard to age, in order to discover whether any general discrepancy prevailed throughout the district.' Other speakers urged that this would not provide the remedy for Mount Albert's long-j standing water meter woes, and eventually it! was decided to secure information from the' past 30 or 40 meter readings taken as a result of complaints. It was stated that a general test had been made in the borough some years ago by a different council, and that the percentage of error on the whole was found : to be small. To take another test along thelines of Mr. Hoole's suggestion would cost,! ! the town clerk estimated, about £25, which could ill bo afforded. The motion was shelved for the time being, but the council, is determined to end the water meter trouble, in spite ' of Mr. C'oyle's declaration, "While we have the meters, we will always have trouble." i

" Not Quite So Important." While Mr. W. E. Barnard, M.P. fc Napier, was tendering cordial greetings to tli Minister of I'ub-lic Works, the Hon. J. Bi chener, wlio on Saturday night paid a flyin ( f visit to Xupier, lie said he was glad to be abl e to welcome the Minister, though "of court- * you are not quite so important to us as t!i , ! Minister who holds the bag. As a matter c 'i fact, we're waiting for him—" but the res was lost in the accompanying laughter. Good Friday Pictures. }r p. Strong protests on the part of at lea.in two councillors were over-ridden last evenim ,yj when the Mount Albert Borough Council eh lri cieletl to permit the screening of pictures a id two theatres in the district on Good Friday ,(l the proc-eeels not being for charity. With tli proviso that programmes be submitted ft is the Mayor's approval, the request wa granted, Messrs. <J. H. Langley and J. 0. > Iloole opposing the application. Wanted to Buy Brandy. tt One of Wanganui's prepossessing youn gentlemen, off to the pictures on Saturda ([ niglit, was stopped by a "lady" who wante n to know how she could get some brand; . Obligingly the young man explained that a (I it was after six o'clock the task would A difficult, but 110 doubt if she wanted the liqui for medicinal purposes it could be obtaine e easily enough. He was in the midst of e? h plaining just how to go about the matte 0 when he was rudely interrupted: "Never min all that. It's not where I can get the stu I want to know, but 'how.' It's the mone I want, not direction." The young man lei hurriedly. e S Mars on the Marne. s 11 Complying with a request from Right c r . nine residents, the Mount Albert Borough 5r Council decided last evening to change tli r name of Marne Avenue to Marne Road, i i, order to avoid the confusion which has arise v with .Mars Avenue, Sandringham. The counci "e agreed with Mr. Martin that the wish of tli e residents should always be regarded. Th lC Mayor, Mr. It. Ferner, asked that furthe .. requests for changes in street names b brought forward immediately in the interest of economy. A request from the Marne Roa< residents also that the street be planted wit j native trees was deferred pending informatioi | with regard to the ultimate level of the roa< 1 surface. y e Urban Farm Lands Rating. e Several aspects of the application of tin s Urban Farm Lands Rating Act were explainee s at a sitting of the Assessment Court ii t Xorthcote by the presiding magistrate, Mr :1 Wyvern Wilson, S.M. He said that as far a< e the Court was concerned the only factor wa< 1 that of rates paid. Some of the objector; r mentioned hardships being accentuated bj - rents paid by them to their landlords. Thai ) could not concern the Court. The object ol the Act, he said, was to give advantage and relief to holders of farm lands. Xor was he concerned with the charge of interest foi B mortgage. The true basis of assessment, lit " said, was what a farm produced and the cost of that production. What a farmer paid for 1 financial accommodation could not concern the " Court.

• Rabbiters and Relief. Advice was received by the Marlboroug ' Inspector of Stock-, Mr. D. S. A. Weir, la* ■ week from the Unemployment Board to tli 1 effect that 110 more single men arc to be en I j ployed 011 the Xo. 11 (rabbiting) relic I I scheme. It is understood that Marlboroug > farmers arc requiring the services immediate! • of some 70 men to undertake rabbiting, an • as a result of the Unemployment Board decision considerable difficulty may bo er countered in getting sufficient suitable mei A wcl-known farmer stated that the board' action would prove strongly adverse to th rabbiting scheme, as so many single men wer j expert rabbiters and were suitable for bac j country work, whilst the married men wer I, often not experienced and were not ready t j take on employment on the back countr; i stations. I , | Transport in Taranaki. | The restrictions imposed by the transpor j regulations had seriously interfered with th i passenger, mails and parcels services of th 1 Mokau district, as well as having falloi heavily upon some carriers of the district win , had been conducting definitely utilitariai businesses, said Mr. A. D. Carr, Okau, at • meeting of the North Taranaki executive o the Farmers' Union at Stratford. There was lie said, to be a mass meeting of those affectee to meet the Comniisioner of Transport, ii order to obtain, if possible, a reinstatemen of the old services in a part of the countrj not fed by rail, and the support of the Far mers' Union in the move whs asked for. J. motion supporting the reinstatement of tin old .services was carried enthusiastically, ; delegate remarking that the case was one it which farmers could help each other. Law Practitioners. Tlie total number of practitioners on the roll of the Auckland District Law Society it 495, an against 50!) for the preceding year states the report of the society's council foi the year 1933-34. Miss M. van Hollwuy war admitted as a barrister and solicitor, the first lady to be admitted as barrister ill the Auckland district. "The question of ainendinenl and consolidation of the Law Practitioner* Act has been the subject of a good deal ol discussion," continues the report, "and at the present moment a draft bill prepared by Mr Cousins, of Wellington, and a report dealing with the constitution of the society, are about to be placed before a special meeting of the Xew Zealand Law Society in Wellington for consideration. It is hoped that the bill will come before Parliament during the ensuing sessions, and that the important amendment*: ji contains will become law." Auckland Law Library. .. "The council has been active this year in to convince the Government of tittftlpolute necessity for further library *figwmMiodatioii, and, as members will have ' roin references in the Press to this fimftfer, the Government seems to be fully persuaded that a new building is required," states tiic annual report of the Auckland District Law Society. "The council is very hopeful that in the ensuing twelve months the efforts of the society will bear fruit, and that a start will be made with the new building. Xo very great additions were matle to the library during the year, principally because there is no accommodation for further books, but within the past few weeks a set of Dominion Law Reports, Canada, has been acquired, and these should, prove extremely useful." Suggested Tax on Sport. "I consider a special tax should be iniposeel 011 all sports to cover hospital expenses," remarked Mrs. Stanley Fletcher at the bimonthly meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board, when a letter was received from the Dannevirke Hospital Board acL'vising' of the admission of a racing motor cyclist, of Masterton, to the Dannevirke Hospital following 011 an accident, at a motor cycle sports meeting 011 Xew Year's Day. Mr. W. B. Martin was not in favour with the suggestion. He thought people should be induced to play sports of a healthy nature. Considering that what was wanted was a strong, healthy race, Mr. J. F. Thompson said the only way to obtain such a position was by fostering an interest in sports. It was pointed out that in Australia footballers had to pay a fee of 2d each for a similar purpose to that suggested by Mrs. Fletcher. Mrs. Fletcher: "A tax could be put ou the gate money here."