NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Electric Power Reaches Ktdkohe.

Motorist Hits Bee Swarm.

Post Office Wanted. Steps are to be taken by Brown's Bay residents to secure better postal facilities. The intention is to secure a central site in Clyde Road there, and. erect a suitable building for the Post and Telegraph Department to rent. Destruction of Vermin. In launching a campaign for the destruction of vermin, the Auckland Acclimatisation Society has drawn attention to the fact that trapping is the most effective method for dealing with stoats, and that the best kind of trap- is the jawed rabbit trap of the type which snaps when trodden on. The stoat happens to be both curious and methodical, and usob the same runs constantly. The practice is to set (lie trap on one of the runs, and then light I;- >vcr it with earth or grass. Gateway for Golf Links. A striking design for a gateway at the main entrance to the municipal golf links at Chamberlain Park, prepared by the city onjrinf-or, Mr. .T. Tyler, has been approved by the Auckland City Council, and the *vork is likely to be started at once. The design is for a covered gateway with a transverse gable. and at the ends a partly-enclosed shelter built of stone. The structure will be roofed and tiled. Sudisidiary gateways will be provided on either side. The gateways will be on the site of the old Stone •T building, which was a notable landmark in the locality for many years. Danger Spot for Motorists. Many Auckland motorists are of the opinion that there are too many nails and other sharp-pointed instruments lying about the roads, u constant danger to their tyres and their safety. Whether this is correct or not. is a moot point., but drivers turning into Symonds Street from Wakefield Street this morning had good cause to complain. The -mashed debris of what appeared to he two or three bottles wan spread over several -qua re feet on the intersection, and it is likidy that many motorists who passed that way this morning will find their tyres punctured by the glass when they go to drive home later in the day. Subsidy Schemes Surveyed. During the past week Labour Department officials have made a survey of the work carried out by schools and sporting and religious organisations on money paid by the Government from the Employment Promotion Fund. The economic value at the moment of each job was considered, and as the result of decision that some of the works hare reached their full usefulness a number of men, less than 100, have been withdrawn. ft is proposed to find these men other work. The survey of economic value will be applied to local body works being carried out under tho subsidy scheme, and the men affected will be drafted to other work. Social Security Preparations. Applications close on Tuesday with the Public Service Commissioner for 100 administrative positions to be created under the social security scheme. On the same day the medical side of the scheme will be discussed in Wellington at a conference of representatives of the British Medical Association with the II en. P. Fraser and the Hon. W. Xash, nfter the Ministers have conferred with sub-committees appointed to consider health insurance matters under the scheme. On the general executive side it is anticipated that the hundred officers appointed will be from Government Departments, and that at different centres these officers will assemble staffs, probably through the Pensions and Employment Divisions of the Labour Department. Officers will have to be provided at each centre. In Auckland the headquarters will probably be in Nathan's Buildings, High Street, where several floors partly in occupation by the employment division were reconstructed on a comprehensive scale.

The erection of the first power pole in connection with the Bay of Islands ElectricPower Board was made the occasion of a ceremony at Kaikohe yesterday. There was a large gathering to witness the planting of the first pole just off Kaikohe's main street. Speeches were made by Mr. A. E. Bissett, chairman of the Power Board, Mr. W. Shaw, chairman of the Kaikolie Town Board, and Mr. L. Mandeno, the consulting engineer. The hole for the pole was dug by an American machine, the first of its kind to be tised for the purpose in the Dominion. The machine can bore hole*? up to 24in in diameter to any required depth very rapidly, saving a large amount of labour. The district is now being convassed for consumers with gratifying success. The completion of the Bay of Telandw system will practically mean the complete covering of the Xorth Island with an electric power network. At present the Hokianga and Whangaroa counties are standing out of the, scheme, but there is every probability that they will link up with the board in the near future.

Clothing Manufactures—Four Million.

Replies to two points raised by firms interested in imports and manufacturing in New Zealand were issued by the Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Nash, in Wellington. The Minister said that during the manufacturing year ended March 31, 1938, the cost of all materials used by clothing manufacturers was £1,899,310, the value of products being £3,962,056. During the same period 130,463 dozen pairs of full length silk hose were produced in the factories of the Dominion, the declared value being £207,397.

Make Way, Please. Two shamefaced men stepped hurriedly off the narrow footpath in Swanson Street this morning. Two friends who had not seen- each other for some time apparently stopped in the centre of the footpath for a chat, seemingly unaware that they took up all the available loom. For a while people (stepped off the ji&th on to the. road to pass them. Then, however, their Waterloo, in the shape of an elderly lady, appeared. After an indignant glare at the offending two she asked in caustic tones, clearly audible to passers-by: "Excuse me, but would you mind if I used your footpath for just a moment?" Adrift in Leaky Pant. Carried seawards in a leaky punt, Barry Milne, aged five, who is holidaying at Ostend, Waiheke Island, had an unenviable experience yesterday afternoon. The tide was running out and there was a strong northwesterly wind. The boy was carried to the other end of the bay, and was about 200 yards from the shore when his plight was noticed by some quarry workers on the top of a cliff beyond the bay. Mr. C. S. Butler, a resident, ran along the shore until parallel with the punt, then swam out to it and pushed it- bark to the shore. The boy was frightened, but otherwise none the worse for his experience. Old Dominion Museum Building. "With the demolition of the old Dominion Museum building behind Parliament Building, to create a si* for the proposed Broadcasting House, will pass one of the first monuments to the beginning of scientific achievement, in New Zealand," said the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Pemple. "The first portion of the building was erected nearly 74 years ago. "The building, one of Wellington's oldest landmarks, is a link between the present and the very early days, and is inseparably associated with the development of the museum, known until 1907 as the Colonial Museum, and thenceforth, when the colony received its new and more important status, as the Dominion Museum," said the Minister. "The main hall of the museum was built in 1865 and opened to the public in November of that year in connection with the Xew Zealand geological survey. In 1874 the front t—o-storeved portion of the museum building was added, but no important additions were made afterwards. The building was open continuously to the public for over 70 years, the first director of the institution being Dr. (afterwards Sir) .Tames Hector." Growing Tourist Traffic. "Almost without exception travel figures as returned by the various Government tourist bureaux are up this season," reports the Minister in charge of the Tourist and Tublicity Department, the Hon. P. Lang*tone. "In many instances the revenue of hostels and hotels has increased by 25 per cent, although the seasonal returns are not yet complete. Visitors from overseas continue to increase in numbers and the additional cruise ships which have visited New Zealand, together with the fact that there i 6 but little vacant accommodation in them, pay trbute alike to the popularity of our scenic attractions and to the efficiency of the Tourist and Publicity Department in handling the overland portion of the trips. Improvements both in accommodation and service are continually being made in the Department's own hotels and the large increase in revenue received from these shows that the public appreciates the Department's efforts, judicious advertising having made the improvements known."

A motorist travelling into Christchurch along the Marshland road had an unenviable experience. Just as his speedometer needle was swinging toward the 50-miles-an-hour mark he ran into a swarm of bees. With a noise as of hailstones on a window-pane, a good part of the swarm struck the windscreen and fell, dead or maimed, on the bonnet, the running board and the wings. Another part of the swarm, also of goodly size, was drawn through the open windows of the car to finish, in varying condition, on the back seat or the ledge below the rear-vision window. Snatching a duster from a compartment beside the steering wheel, the driver laid lustily about his head until he was able to bring his car to a standstill and beat a hasty retreat. When the bees that still could fly had flown and the others had been scraped out on to the road, the driver had the difficult task of removing honey from the windscreen, bonnet, lamps, wind's, radiator grill and the back seat. The car had to be thoroughly washed to clean it.