General News.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20365, 12 October 1931, Page 8

General News.

Authority to raise a loan of £3500 to carry out drainage and sewerage works, including the connexion of Cashmere with the ChristQhurch Drainage Board's system, is given the Heatheote County Council in the latest issue ot the New Zealand Gazette, There were nearly 1000 visitors to "Otahuna." the property of Sir It. Heaton Rhodes, on Saturday. They included several hundred from the Canterbury Horticultural Society and over 100 from the Justices of the Peace Association. The damage done by the fire in the Kennedy's Bush area on Friday night proves to be less serious than was at first reported. Daylight showed tliat the extent of the fire damage was not eo great as was generally feared. Kennedy's Bush ia practically intact, the fire having reached only the fringe of it. flir William E. Morris, the motor-car manufacturer, has given £25,000 to the British Empire Cancer Campaign for the establishment of a research fellowship in radiology at the Mount Yernon Hospital, near Northwood, Middlesex. This brings the total of Sir William's donations to medical charities in recent year# to more than £500,000. Appreciation of his 'work ia connexion with the conducting of the community singing at the Civic Theatre ia expressed in a letter received by Mr W. H. Dixon from a correspondent who "fnars that her composition is too ♦rusty' to stand the light of newspaper criticism." The writer's praise is for the "vim and inspiration" of community singing, compared with ''the lifelessness of the words and music of the singing at Sunday services and over the air." During last week the Salvation Army Men's Home' at Aldington experienced an epidemic of a mild type of influenza. There were 47 cases during that period, Twenty have now fully recovered. A dormitory had to be turned into a hospital ward and the staff had a very busy time waiting on the sufferers. The men received regular medical attention. Staff Captain G. Dry, in charge of the home, stated that it was a very big task looking after the men. During the week the home had eupplied 3486 meals and 1070 beds. Acceptance of tenders for several important works by the Public Works Department is notified in the latest issue of the New Zealand Gazette. Ishei, cod, Bellam, and Company's tender of £8966 has been passed for the three-ooat sc ling of the Kilmog Section of the Christchurch-Dunedin main highway. A tender by W. Clark (£467) has been accepted for alterations to the Ashburton High School. Goodfellow and Gooch (£7258) are the successful tenderers for the No. 2 Villa of the Hokitika Mental Hospital. • Following a reduction of grants for the relief of unemployment, Christchurch local bodies will be able to give work onlr to a smaller number of men this week. The City Council's allocation has been reduced from £I7BO to £I2BO, and only 1350 men will now be employed, compared with 1450 last week. Grants to the Heatheote County Council have fallen to £220 and to the/ Christchurch Drainage Board to £ll7 (compared with £242 last week). In each case the local bodies will have either to reduce the number of men or to make other adjustments. The Canterbury Aero Club is interesting itself in the possoibility of air mails being established in Canterbury in the course of the next four or five years. The matter was referred to by Mr W. H. Williamson at a recent meeting of the committee of the club, and ho suggested that, if necessary, provision should be made in new mail contracts for the possibility of air services supplementing the ordinary mail services. Mr Williamson expressed the opinion that the time was not far distant when the public and the postal authorities would have to look to air services for the quick transport of mails. The secretary, Mr P. B. Climie. undertook to discuss the matter with the Postmaster-General when the jw«eeatad itoalf*

An application for permission to hold an inquest lias been made to the At-torney-General by the Taumarunui police (says the "New Zealand Herald"). This is believed to be the first application of the kind under the Coroners Amendment Act, 1930. The case concerns the death of Mr Donald Alfred Halcrow, of Frankton Junction, who was drowned in the Wanganui river on May 31st. His body has not been recovered. The Act provides for the holding of inquests in such eases.

From his home in Hataitai, Wellington, Mr A. van Rooijen spoke to Amsterdam by telephone last Thursday evening. Tlio call came through at 7.15 p.m., and the conversation lasted 15 minutes, but as fading occurred now and again, causing tho speech to be repeated, the call was regarded as eight minutes of effectivo conversation. A connexion on the previous evening ha« been unsuccessful. Mr van liooijen's call was tho first commercial call between Wellington and Amsterdam, and tho farthest commercial call yet made from New Zealand.

The Wellington City Council has approved the suggestion of tho Wellington branch of the Town Planning Institute of New Zealand for picture theatre proprietors to be requested to encourage the use of all. theatre exits by showing on tho screen at the interval notices drawing patrons' attention to the various exits, and also a plan of the theatre divided into blocks, with exits lettered corresponding to letters on the blocks, and for such exits to bo more prominently marked and lighted inside and outside, and that car parking be prohibited within 20 feet on either side of an exit.

People are now so accustomed to the coming and going of official Eununertimo that tho alteration of clocks is no lunger the perplexing business- that it was in the iirst two years of the Act. Summer-time for 1931-32 began at 54 a.m. yesterday morning and will extend until the same hour on the morning of March 20th, 1932. In general, tho alteration was made this year without any inconvenience or trouble. A few people arrived at church yesterday morning half an hour late, but the majority had taken the precaution of advancing their clocks before they retired on Saturday night.

Twelve primary schools are participating in ilie afforestation scheme' arranged by the afforestation sub-commit-tce of the Canterbury Education Board, which completed arrangements at a conference between the committee and representatives of the School Committees' Association. The area of land for planting is at North Brighton and will, for purposes of the scheme, be divided into 15 blocks. The first twelve of these have been drawn as follows: Block 1, FewMton; 2, Shirley; 3, Addington ; 4, Ehnvvood ; 5, Linwood avenue ; (j, St. Albans; 7, Christchurch East; 8, Opawa, 9, Wainiairi; 10, Woolston; 11, Wharenui; 12, Waltham. Blocks 13 to 19 have not yet been taken up.

On Saturday afternoon the whole of the Lake Coleridge power supply failed for 18 minutes as the rosult of a breakdovvn at the power-house at the lake. This failure caused a great deal of disorganisation. The town clock, which is electrically controlled, stopped and did not start again until a long time after the power supply was restored. Theatres had to wait _ for a considerable interval. A train was just emerging from Lyttelton tunnel oh its way to Lyttelton at the time of the breakdown, but it had sufficient momentum to reach the station. Shunting engines were called into use and one trip was made each way with them before the power was again available. The whole of the tramway operations were suspended. All parts of Canterbury supplied by Lake Coleridge were affected.

"When the cessation of hostilities was announced in 1918. many people wondered why the Allied armies did not puslr right on into Germany," ' remarked Sir George Richardson, speaking at a luncheon of the British Manufacturers' Association in Auckland last week, "but the fact of the matter was that they could not have, in any case, for the Allies had advanced so fast that they had outrun supplies. It would have been months before base camps could have been established, railways organised, and adequate food and ammunition supplies arranged for." Sir George drew a parallel between that series of circumstances and the facts of the economic situation to-day. In the same way, ho said, economic supplies had been overrun, and disorganisation had ensued, and it was now necessary to wait untu economic base camps could be established. When that occurred, then a great deal would have been done towards the righting of the position.

As a result: of a recent meeting of Poxton fishermen, which was attended by Mr J. Linklater, M.P., the latter was asked to make representations to tlie Minister for Marino for the prohibition of trawling off the Manawatu Heads as it was considered detrimental to the fishing industry carried on in the Manawatu river. In a general discussion on matters relating to fishing it was suggested that tuo size of the mesh of flounder nets be reduced to four-inch, and Mr Linklater was requested to ask the Marine Department to take this matter tip also as a means of conserving the flounder supply in tho Manawatu which it has been found has been seriously depleted of late years. Mr Linklater has now received a letter from tho secretary of the Marine Department stating that regulations have now been issued providing that on and after October, 1932, tho size of the mesh of every seive or drag net used for taking flounders shall measure the same as flounder set nets.'

One hundred years ago yesterday the first European wedding celebrated in New Zealand took place at Pailiia, Bay of Islands. The bridegroom was Mr William Gilbert Puckey, a well-known missionary amongst the Maoris, and tho bride Miss Matilda Davis, daughter of the Anglican minister at Waimate. The anniversary of the event was celebrated on Saturday at Castor Bay, near Milford, when tlie guests at a social gathering of residents and friends included Mr R. H. Martin Puckey, aged 81, son of tlie pioneer missionary, Mrs Puckey, and members of two later generations of the same family. It is recalled that, on that far-off wedding day in 1831, the bride was carried on a bridal chair by the Maoris from Waimate to Paihia. The couple settled at Kaitaia, where a number of their descendants still reside. Mr Puckey compiled a comprehensive diary and record of those early times, which, had it been preserved, would have been greatly prized by students of the early history of pakeha association with the Maoris. Unfortunately, this diary was lost in a fire which destroyed the Puckey home at Kaitaia.

Sanatorium visitors note that you can get a Gold Band Taxi at the tram terminus for Is each person up tho hill, and 6d each down on Sundays, so save your money. In fact it is cheaper to phone for a Gold Band Taxi to take you from your home than to pay both tram and taxi fares, so think it over, ns our fares are always the lowest. Thank vou. —6

P. and D. Duncan, lie your unproved chilled cast iron shares, I congratulate you on your recent production.—Eyre ton, Juno 1931. I have used your 92 shares for the past two vears. Ihey nra the best I have ever used and I have tried all makes ot shares. I :1 you are on the right lines with you - shares, as it only means once used always used.—Levels, June, 1931. PI and D. Duncan, Limited, 196 Tuam street (Box 124), Cbristchurch, amd at