NEWS In BRIEF

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 173, 25 July 1939, Page 9

NEWS In BRIEF

Begging Letters.— The first five items on the agenda of the Onehunga Borough Council last evening were letters asking for donations to charitable objects. They were referred to the finance committee for investigation. The sixth request asked for permission to take up a street collection for orphanages, which was granted. Favourable consideration was given to the last request for the use of a room in the council chambers for a meeting of ladies. +++ ♦ • Otahuhu Loan Poll. —At the Otahuhu Borough Council meeting last evening the Mayor, Mr. C. R. Petrie, M.P., said he had received sanction from the Loans Board to place before the ratepayers a loan proposal to raise £2(5,000 for the purpose of erecting a municipal block on a site adjacent to the Borough Council chambers. The poll will take place as soon as preliminary arrangements have been completed. ♦ ♦ + + Transport Loan. —Since the Auckland Transport Board's loan of £100,000 was offered for public subscription last Thursday, £10,000 lias been subscribed, and the indications are that there will be a good response. Recently a loan of £9(i.:i00 offered by the board at 4£ per cent was fully subscribed, and it was decided to offer a further £100,000 on similar terms. The issue is for a term of 10 years. The secretary of the board, Mr. C. R. Gribble, said to-day that the largest amount in the first loan was £20,000 from a southern investor, and in the present issue two amounts, each of £1500, have been received. ♦ + ♦ ♦ £2000 For Loss of Eye.—After an. hour's retirement the Dunedin jury that heard the Supreme Court action by Ernest John Orr (19) against Cossens and Black as a sequel to an accident in that company's garage, in which he lost an eye, awarded plaintiff £2027 11/6.— P. A. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ World's Largest Gold Dredge. —The Austral-Malay gold mining dredge is approaching completion near the Lowburn ferry, not far from Cromwell, in a backwater of the Clutha River. The top hamper is being erected on the pontoon and the bucket ladder is almost completed, but the dredge will have to be turned about before it is taken aboard. When completed the dredge will be the largest of its type in the world, with a weight of 2500 tons. The buckets will have a capacity of 18 cubic feet each.— O.C. ♦ + ♦ ♦ First for Fifteen Years.— The first snowfall within the city of Palmerston North for 15 years occurred early this morning and a light dusting was still to be seen at daylight. The conditions are still very raw. The snowfall on the foothills of the ranges reached a depth of five inches, the fall being the fourth this winter.—P.A. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Old Steamer for Auckland. —A steamer which at one stage represented principal link with the outside world, the old Tangaroa (190 tons), has been sold by its owners, the Richardson Company, to Waiheke Passage Services, Ltd., Auckland, w;here she will be put into service. The Tangaroa has been lying at Xapier for several years. Captain A. T. Day is supervising the lifting out of the steamer at Xapier. She was built at Sydney 40 years ago and has served most of her time between Hawke's Bay ports. The Tangaroa is expected to leave for Auckland early next week, and will later run in the service from Auckland to Surfdale and Ostend, while the Baroona, owned by the same company, will be engaged in the run to Cowes and Ponui Island.--P.A., Hastings: + ♦ ♦ ♦ Onehunga Swimming Baths. —A plan for swimming baths at Onehunga has been prepared by the borough engineer, Mr. R. D. Baker, and approved by the parks committee. The scheme as adopted by the Borough Council last night provides for the baths to be constructed on a section over which the council has rn option, adjacent to Jellicoe Park, with a frontage to Trafalgar Street, at an estimated cost of £7000. ♦ ♦ + ♦ Sunshine Follows Snow. —Another fall of snow occurred in southern Hawke's Bay during the night and early this morning, the fall in Dannevirke varying from one to two inches. In the country the fall was heavier on the hill country. The weather to-day was sunny and a thaw set in early.:—P.A.