General News.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19480, 29 November 1928, Page 10

General News.

There were eight notifications of cases of scarlet fever yesterday; one--fcalf of these were in the Metropolitan area. The details are: Central (City), 2; Spreydon, 1: Halswell County, 1; Waimate borough, 2; Waimate County, 1; Timaru borough, 1. When a milkman was charged at the Magistrate's Court with being on his round before 3 a.m., it was mentioned by his counsel that for a similar breach a short time ago a defendant had been fined 10s. "That was very light; I'm sure I was not on the bSnoh then," was the comment, of Mr P. K. Hunt, S.M., who was hearing the case. "One pound is my limit." After a further plea by counsel, however, Mr Hunt agreed to break his rule and make the fine 10s. The maximum load at the Lake Coleridge Power Station during the week ended the 25th inst. was 17,600 k.w (previous week 18,460 k.w.), which was recorded between 11.80 a.m. and noon on the 22nd; at the Addington substation it was 12,240 k.w. (previous week 13,260 k.w.), recorded during the same half-hour as the power station maximum. The lake level was at 1670 feet (this is the normal level), previous week 1669.2 feet; the average inflow from the Harper river was 499 cusecs, previous week, 533 cusecs.

A traveller in the Auckland Province recently came across an ex-M.P. on his farm. He extended his sympathy over his recent defeat. "Don't worry," said the ex-politician, "I have never felt happier or freer in my life. I can now attend to my own affairs instead of the public's, and call my soul my own. This political game is a dog's life, and I am pleased to be out of it. I never could have realised how sweet life can be working on one's own farm, doing what one wants to, and living a care-free life. Politics are thraldom, nothing else, and I never want to enter them again." A scholarship in dairy factory management, valued at £25, has been given to the Massey Agricultural College. On returning to Auckland this week Sir George Fowlds, chairman of the Massey Agricultural College Council, received a j6int letter from Messrs Leonard and Son, Ltd., of Auckland, and Mr Thomas Gray, of Wellington, as agents for Mr A. C. Kowson, of 35 Tooley street, London, intimating that their principal had decided to give the scholarship at the College for the dairy factory managers' course. At the meeting of the College Council in Palmerston North a letter was received from the Deputy-Public Trustee, Wellington, intimating that the late Mr W. H. Bailey, of that city, had left a third of the residue of his estate to the Massey Agricultural College. This bequest, it is believed, approximates I £SOO!J.

So far. the Christchurch Drainage Board has not publicly invited applications for debentures in its £242,500 loan, but there is a steady enquiry' for them.

As the result of three bores having been Mink by the City Council in May's road, there is an approximate flow of 2,750,000 gallons daily. The largest of the bores is 16 inches, and the official tests have yet to be made. Crushed between a motor-car and a truck just before noon yesterday, J. Frater, of 23 Rochester street, Linwood, an employee of the M.E.D., received injuries to the side and back. He was admitted to the Public Hospital.

Ysterday afternoon the Bishop of Christchurch, the Right Rev. Campbell West-Watson, at the invitation of the headmaster, visited St. Andrew's College. He gave a very interesting and eloquent address to the school on "The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson." At its conclusion his Lordship was thanked by the head prefect, J. It. Little, and was enthusiastically cheered by the boys.

The Railway Department is erecting stock loading yards and necessary pens at Spye, on the Parnassus line, and the farmers of the district are assisting by providing labour in connexion with the necessary earth works. At Glasnevin, on the north line, the farmers of the district are helping the Department to erect a public siding which will enable produce to be more easily loaded. When a charge of keeping liquor for sale in a proclaimed area was being heard in the Hamilton Supreme Court on Tuesday, counsel for accused asked his client, the proprietor of a motor business, which was the more profitable, the garage business or sly grog-selling. Accused said that the garage business was more profitable. Mr Justice Blair: That may be. I have been paying a few garage accounts lately, and can quite understand that what the witness says is correct.—Press Association. The speed with which communications can now be flashed from continent to continent was tested by Mr A. R. Verchere, wireless operator of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line steamer on her voyage from New York to Auckland. Mr Verchere heard over the aerial on November 15th the news of the sinking of the steamer Vestris, and was worried over the.fate of his brother, who was wireless operator in the vessel. He dispatched a "Marconigram" to New York asking for further news, and received an, answer via Wellington the same day, telling him that his brother was safe.

The tramway service to New Brighton yesterday morning was disorganised for an hour or so owing to the 8.10 a.m. tram from New Brighton leaving the rails at the corner of George street and Seaview road. When brought to a standstill the tram was at right angles to the rails with the bogey twisted round underneath. The tram and the trailer attached to it were filled with passengers, and a number of women were much shaken as the result of the accident, but no one was hurt and the damage to the tram was slight. While the tram was being replaced on the line the Tramway Board ran specials to take passengers through, and consequently, passengers were put to the minimum of inconvenience

, To keep the public abreast of the results of competitions at the summer show at Epsom a number of amplifiers were placed at vantage points round the ring. Other use was also found for this new method of disseminating information. For instance, a distracted mother had sought the aid of a sympathetic announcer, who responded to the request to find a straying child. "Lost, a little girl," came from hp.lf a dozen brass-throated amplifiers. "Her mother awaits her in the secretary's office." A visitor from Ohristchurch made use of the same agency to enquire whether his brother from Kaikohe was at the show.

"The Riccarton Bush continues to improve as regards its general vegetation and appearance, a result due to the careful attention of the ranger, Mr J. F. Tickell," states the annual report of the Philosophical Institute. "A number of old and unsightly exotic trees have been removed, and a scheme initiated for their replacement by the natural flora of the bush. Lawson's cypress has been planted along the S.E. boundary, and general repairs to fences executed. ' The Canterbury College School of Forestry will commence next year to make a careful plan and stock map of the bush, and to initiate a series of periodical measurements of typical trees." The balance-sheet shows a credit of £SOO 3s Bd.

"Skookum," a husky or sledge dog for the Byrd South Pole expedition, arrived in Auckland yesterday afternoon by the steamer Golden Cloud, and is to be shipped to Dunedin, "Skookum" was left behind when the expedition sailed from America, as he was taking part in the production of a film to be called "North of 68!" The husky was quite a pet with the crew on the way to Auckland, and was treated as a first-class passenger. "Skookum" is a husky who has known the trail in the Arctic, and as he is one of the best dogs in the outfit selected the members of the expedition are keenly awaiting his arrival in the south.— Press Service.

The radio equipment is one of the special features of the Byrd Antarctic expedition, whose members will be able to communicate with and receive messages from their families and friends in America while in the far south. Last week one of the radio operators in the Eleanor Boiling . received a wireless message direct from his home town in the United States announcing the birth of a son. Not only so, but two hours before the event and a few hours after, he was carrying on a radio conversation with his wife 7000 miles away through the medium of the ship's plant, which was in contact with his home' through a relay by the station in his home town. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association last night, Mr G. J. Lancaster (headmaster of the Boys' High School) deprecated the fact that business interests were not represented on the Board of Governors of Canterbury College. Unfortunately, he went on, the schools were governed from Wellington, and the function of committees seemed to be to appoint caretakers, and if possible get their wages raised. Local control would mean local rating, but such a system would result in people learning how the rates were spent, and in having some say in the spending of them. ■ He hoped the Manufacturers' Association and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce would get behind such a movement.

For Autumn Top-Dressing, the ideal equipment is the Booth-Dunn Grass Harrow to scarify the sod-bound turf—allowing the super—or other top-dress-ing—to get to the roots and put in its good work. Then distribute the fertiliser with a Booth Double Drive Top-Dresser and you mav expect to get the maximum results". Illustrated pamphlet of each machine with prices etc., on request. Booth, Macdonald and Co., Ltd. 0521