NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 140, 15 June 1936, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Runaway Motor Truck. Completing a headlong runaway career against a telephone pole in Suffolk Street last evening, a motor truck belonging to Mr. F. Williams, of Newton Road, was wrecked. There was 110 one in the vehicle, which had been left parked outside Mr. Williams' house. The vehicle moved off, out of control, and with gathering speed travelled 50yds down Newton Road across Suffolk Street, and ended its career against the post. It was fortunate there was little traffic about at tiie time. The postiwas practically undamaged. Parachute Descents. Two parachute descents were made by Mr. G. W. Sellars at Mangere aerodrome yesterday, the parachutist landing each time 011 the flying field in full view of the crowd of several thousand spectators. The first jump was frijin a height of about 1000 ft, but on the second he went up to about 3000 ft and after dropping 300 feet opened his parachute. Flight- ! Lieut. D. M. Allan, the club instructor, was pilot on both occasions, and in the interval between the jumps gave an exhibition of aerobatics. Smoking on Hockey Field. At a meeting of the management committee of the Canterbury Hockey Association last week J. Martin, of the Ilarewood Club, .for refusing to obey the umpire, was severely cautioned. The report of the umpire said that, on the resumption of play after halftime, Martin refused to put out a cigarette when, requested. He was ordered off the field, The captain of the team, Goodall, then said that if the player went off the field the whole team would go off. Rather than have such an action take place, the umpire allowed the match to continue. When the umpire made a remark later about the offence, Goodall said that the umpire would not referee another match. The committee ordered Goodall to stand down for two playing Saturdays. Operatic Club's Achievement. The final presentation of the opera "Orpheus" was given by the Workers' Educational Association Operatic Club before a decidedly appreciative audience on Saturday evening. In moving a vote of thanks and appreciation by acclamation to the producer, Mr. Ivan Whitehead, Mr. C'. J. Bishop said that when Mr. Whitehead first announced the ambitious project lie was thought by some members to be suffering from mental aberration. Mr. Whitehead, however, had shown that the presentation of "Orpheus" was not beyond the capabilities of the club, and they ail had to pay a tribute to his untiring efforts in effecting such a successful production. It is understood that the W.E.A. club is the first society in the Dominion to produce the opera. Labour Department's Work. As a result of the growth of the activities of the Labour Department at Auckland as it relates to labour problems, inspections and work under the fair rents and other legislation, the officer in charge of the Department, Mr. W. Slaughter, has been instructed to relinquish the lo.ial direction of unemployment and to devote the whole of his time, to the labour division. In future Mr. A. T. Grandison, certifying officer in Auckland, will be district employment officer. During the past six A'ears unemployment has been such a big problem that practically all the attention of the staff of the Department has been directed to it, but the improved tone in industry and the passing of new industrial legislation has necessitated the bringing of the office organisation into line with the new conditions. Mr. Slaughter, as head of. the Department locally, has performed excellent work in dealing with the unemployed in a sympathetic manner. Long before the coming into force of the Unemployment Act, 1930, lie was actually engaged 111 organising work for the unemployed, and had an unemployment bureau functioning. Many of the major schemes for the amelioration of the lot of the unemployed were initiated in Auckland, mostly as the result of the efforts of Mr. Slaughter. It is not generally known that this official was the first to inaugurate the 40-liour week on certain of the relief undertakings, and was also the firs£ to arrange for the distribution of boots and blankets to the unemployed. What Price Traffic Jam?

Of course, it would happen at 12 o'clock iloon on a Saturday. There is a perversity about things like that! and more than the fact of the time and the day, it happened just at the busiest intersection in the city, Customs Street and Queen Street, when the traffic man had enough to do waving his hands at orthodox vehicles. There was a crash, and the vehicle, heavily overloaded, spilled its contents everywhere, with careless abandon. It was not so much the noise it made as the confusion it creatrd. The traffic man looked as though he had lost control of his arms. Arms shot suddenly out of motor vehicles at all four points of the intersection. There was a screech of quieklv-applied brakes. There was a sort of mill of traffic which had been just ill the act of crossing the streets. Heads peered out of the line of traffic, backing up the road. Pedestrians stopped on tV pavement (where it was safe) to enjoy the fun. In the middle of the whole tiling the owner of the cause of the trouble was doing his small best to collect his load. '1 he traffic man unbent to give him a hand. 'Ihe vehicle, however, had apparently broken every by-law ever made about overloading, so that the load refused to bo put back. Tilings were getting awkward for everybody concerned, but on the owner embarrassment sat lightly. He looked slightly annoyed with the traffic. He had never heard of overloading. You see, the vehicle was a trolley, and its owner a barefoot lad. had only chosen the busiest time of the busiest day to drag it piled mountainhigh with boxwood into the middle of the road.' The rest you know.

Fisheries Conservation. The recent case in Auckland where a heavy line was imposed on a fisherman for fishing within the prohibited area has giwn a good deal of satisfaction to those who think areas prohibiting fishing with Danish seine nets should be carefully protected, writes a correspondent. Fishermen with wide experience of other countries now living in Auckland are emphatic that inshore grounds are invaluable, not only as a means of livelihood for line fishers from the small bays around the coast, but as breeding grounds for all classes of fish, which frequent shoal waters for that purpose. Russia" is trying to prohibit trawling up to a 12-mile limit, so as not to deplete the inshore grounds. Xorwav, a great fishing country, whose grounds have been sadly depleted, is also seeking to impose a 10 or 12mile limit, especially near the valuable cod fisheries. Iceland and Denmark are all trying to do the. same thing. Holland, Belgium and France arc also moving in the matter. It has been argued by these countries that if the boundaries are not extended and the present destructive systems of fishing arc carried on much longer, there will be no fish for anyone. Some go the length of saying that 50 miles would not be too great, because not only will fish soon be unobtainable, but the hardy race of fishermen will have died out because their calling is gone, and it would be almost impossible to breed another race of fishermen. In Great Britain already small fishing communities have been depopulated, and in some cases fishing villages are a 'thing of the past. That the fishing grounds around Auckland are being fished out is only too apparent to all those who study the subject. Our breeding grounds .need more than ordinary protection because they are so limited, a fact well known to experts and Government inspectors.

Ball of Brass. A ball of brass, 1-iin in diameter, wa picked up by a spectator at the footbal matches at Carl aw Park on Saturday after noon. Weighing just on half a pound am . much corroded, it is difficult to determine jus ! what the ball has been used for. It is though it was once a ball fired from a small cannon or the ball used in a fairly large suctioi j pump. [ Aged Folk Entertained. 1 The inmates of the infirmary at Epson were provided with a treat of unusual nature on Saturday afternoon in the shape of ai entertainment on the lawn, which includec exhibitions of wrestling and Highland danc ing, community singing and musical items 01 the piano-accordion. This entertainment was voted the most enjoyable of a number organised by Uncle Jim for the benefit of the aged folk. . Service Indeed. The Maori love of the spectacular was evinced on the Taihape football ground on Saturday afternoon, when the native team Huia was due to commence its match against Mangaweka. A jersey of one of the members was missing. Could another one be procured in time? A& tlie team were about to file out on the playing area, the drone of an aeroplane was heard, and all necks were craned. With increasing xoar, the 'plane swpoped down over the field, and a brown paper parcel descended in front of the grandstand. Amid roars of laughter from the spectators, the übiquitous small boy retrieved and unwrapped the missing jersey. Light Rainfall Yesterday. < With the light rain that fell in Auckland at intervals yesterday the • continuity of the unusually, long period of sunny weather that has marked the winter so far was broken for the second time within a week. The rain was welcomed by owners of gardens and pastures, but it may not have been sufficient to relieve appreciably the -water • shortage in outlying districts. The total rainfall for the 24 hours ended at midnight was but ,14in. There were no frosts in Auckland yesterday and to-day. The barometer reading yesterday afternoon was below 30in. The mild weather yesterday and the occasional bright sunshine attracted many people out of doors. Switzerland Calling. An unusual telephone conversation took placc on Saturday evening between Mr. C. A. Biland, of Cambridge, and his mother in Switzerland. The call is believed to be the first radio-telephone connection to have been made between New Zealand and Switzerland. Mr. Biland advised the post office at Cambridge in the morning that he wished to put the call through, and gave his mother's address 'and telephone number. No prior arrangements had been made with his mother either by letter or cablegram. Mr. Biland was notified about. 0 p.m. that the connection had been established, and he commenced to speak immediately to his mother. Mr. Biland has not seen his mother for six years. The audibility was fairly good, and Mr. Biland readily recognised his mother's voice. Several sentences, however, had to be repeated, and, although the conversation actually lasted for 32 minutes, the charge was only for five minutes. This amounted to £f). Mr. Biland was thoroughly satisfied with the talk, which had given great pleasure bbth to himself and his mother. 4 Old Rifle Range Unearthed. Relief workers excavating in the Ngamotu Domain have unearthed scores of old bullets which had remained embedded in. the clay of the hillside for over half a century. At first it was thought the domain was possibly the site of a battle with the Maoris, but then the memory of the foreman in charge of the work, Mr. J. B. Simpson, was stirred. He recalled that over 50 years ago the hill-J side at the domain was the scene of an old i rifle butts, where the young men of New Plymouth were taught the use of the rifle to defend their families and their homes against the menace of hostile Maoris. He himself had fired many rounds into the hillside from ranges up' to 800 yds. Mr. Simpson recalled that a big red (lag was always flown from the top of the hill when shooting was in progress. Three iron targets were used, and painted after each bullet had made its mark. The markers sheltered in trenches in front of each target. When each shot was fired the marker would climb on to the embankment and signal the result. On one occasion, Mr. Simpson said, a rifleman fired a shot a'.tor the marker had climbed on to the bank, the bullet ploughing up the ground between the marker's legs. For his carelessness the rifleman was drummed out of the Taranaki Rifles Company, Improvements in the Domain. An improvement which has added considerably to (he appearance of the smaller of the two ponds in the Domain was recently completed. The heavy rustic fence alongside the footpath encircling the pond has been removed, and the rough undergrowth on the sloping banks has been cleared. The work has been carried out with due regard to preserving the tree ferns and characteristic native shrubs, and these now show up very attractively, while the clearing of the banks allows the v. 'tc- (o be seen right up to the edge, and the ;:nnd looks much larger than it ined to do. It is interesting to recall that this was the city's first water supply. There is still to be seen, in Lower Grafton Road, one of the old stand pipes from which the fathers and mothers of the present generation drew their water. It was supplied from the spring which still bubbles up in the larger of the Domain ponds, keeping the water level up in the hottest and drvest seasons. Another Domain improvement is the levelling of the footpath which leads from the ponds corner down to Stanley Street. The surface was originally asphalted, but it has been eaten into holes and gullies by the rains of ninny "wintois, and permanent repairing is needed.

Parnell's Expansion. Parnell perhaps more than any other suburb still retains the village community atmosphere it had in the early days of colonisation —in fact facetious newcomers have been known to advocate that a symbolic village pump should be erected on the green outside the Parncll Library. Changes business, in property, or In family history are noted in Parncll with a warmth of personal interest perhaps unequalled in Greater Auckland. Never before, save perhaps in the first year of the war, have there been so many changes in a short time to chronicle. Several of the oldest businesses in the Parnell Road have recently changed hands, and in the neighbourhood of St. Stephen's Avenue there has .been a general "moving up" tendency—businesses vacating shops for sites nearer the intersection and tram stop, headed by the removal of Messrs. Marriotts, Ltd., store to a double-fronted shop opposite the top of St. Stephen's Avenue. Changes in house property in this area await the commencement of for the projected Anglican Cathedral 011 the site now occupied by several large houses and the tennis courts. In lower Parnell two modern 1 bungalows have been erected on a section, long vacant, next to the police station. A block of brick flats is in course of erection on the corner of Bradfi%l and Duke Streets; several shops half a*century and more old have been demolished td make way for modern fireproof shops with dwellings. On the waterfront side a number of delightful and artistically modern homes have recently been built 011 most of the vacant sites Glanville , Terrace and Awatca Road. Two large houses have just been completed in Canterbury Placc, while at the corner of this new, road and .Gladstone Road a large section is being' cleared and old trees felled in readiness for the erection of a large block of modern Hats, j