General News

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30041, 28 January 1963, Page 8

General News

Loan Supported A Hatewell County Council proposal to raise a highpressure water supply loan of £62,000 was approved by. an overwhelming majority in a ratepayers* poll on Saturday. Tte provisional figures wen 70S for tte proposal and 67 against. About 680 ratepayers were eligible to take part, many of them with plural votes, but tte number who voted was not known yesterday by the county clerk (Mrs R. Ballintine). Tte chairman (Mr J. Y. Pethig) said he was “very satisfied” with tte result Book For Waitangi A book by the Duke of Edinburgh—“ Birds of Britannia”—will be autographed by the Duke at Waitangi next month an<J later installed in a showcase in the Treaty House. After being signed, tie book will be returned to its English publishers to be suitably bound. Then it will go into its showcase. The book was published last year after the Duke’s southern temisphere trip. House Passed In A. house on 1 rood 8.8 perches at 8 Grehan Valley road, Akaroa, was passed in at £1835 at public auction on Saturday. Bidding started at £lOOO. There were five bids of £lOO, four of £5O, five pf £25, and one of £lO. The auctioneer was Mr A. E. Barrell. The house, which is of weatherboard with a corrugated iron roof, comprises two bedrooms, two sunrooms, lounge, living-room, kitchen, bathroom, and washhouse. The rates are £l9 12s 9d. Blackout In Booth An epilepsy sufferer was able to dial the emergency 111 number and give the operator his location before lapsing into unconsciousness ’a a Napier telephone box last week. An ambulance driver. Mr N. Angrove. found the man jammed against the door of the telephone booth and had some difficulty in getting him out. Crowbar Fishing A man caught a 421 b kingfish with a crowbar at Mount Maunganui. Mr R. Robinson, a waterside worker at The Mount, noticed the fish swimming around the wharf. He grabbed a sft Bin crowbar used for moving cargo, tied a length of rope to it, and plunged it at the fish like a harpoon. The crowbar pierced the kingfish and it was hauled to the wharf. A passing holi-day-maker photographed Mr Robinson and his haul to keep the record straight. Mysterious Fire A slender five-inch length of tree branch found smouldering fiercely in the middle of State highway 7, where it passes through the Balmoral State Forest, was probably dropped from a car exhaust, says the chief fire-control officer of the New Zealand Forest Service (Mr C. O. Bridgeman). The wood was found by Mr P. Williams, station clerk at the forest There was no picnic ground nearby, no wind to carry the wood from a distance, and no evidence of a wayside fire, said Mr Bridgeman. He could only assume that when some motorist had backed into a heap of driftwood, a piece had been broken off in the exhaust pipe. "It shows from what improbable circumstances a major fire could arise,” he commented.