CITY AND SUBURBAN

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 109, 1 February 1929, Page 13

CITY AND SUBURBAN

HAPPENINGS IN AND ABOUT TOWN

A sitting of the Arbitration Court will be held this mdrning, when fixtures will be made.

AU unclaimed property in the hands of the police w’ill be sold by public auction if the owners do not take possession of it before February 28.

In response to a deputation from the Lower Hutt Progress League, Sir Alexander Roberts has agreed to accept nomination for the Lower Hutt Mayoralty, which has been rendered vacant by. the retirement of Mr. W. T. Strand.

Judging by certain posters in the city which still invite the public to visit So-and-So’s store for the purpose of meeting Santa Claus, that venerable old gentleman must find Wellington’s climate conducive to an extended stay.

Bartholomew Mahoney, aged 59, appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, and was fined 10s., in default 48 hours’ imprisonment, for a second offence of drunkenness.

Applications have been called for the position of a whole-time orthopaedic specialist at the Wellington Hospital, at a commencing salary of £9OO. rising by two annual increments of £5O to a maximum of £lOOO. The position has been advertised in the four centres, and also in English and Australian medical journals.

It is not a pleasant experience when motoring for the car to ‘exhaust the last drop of petrol when on a city tram track. This occurred in Manners Street on Wednesday, with a tramcar within 30 yards. Fortunately the motorman was on the alert and pulled up six yards away from the stationary motor-car.'With the assistance of half a dozen bystanders the car was pushed into Herbert Street, to the great amusement of the spectators.

Hearty thanks was accorded by the Hospital Board yesterday to the many generous donors of cheques, gifts, goods and toys during Christmas, and to the chairman of the board, matron, medical and nursing staffs, and others, who contributed towards the great success of the annual festivities. Donations received for the Christmas Fund amounted to £221 4s, 2d., including £5O from the Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen’s Association.

Harry Van, aged 77, who resides at 54 Owen Street, was knocked down by a bicycle at the intersection of Rintoul and Riddiford Streets shortly after 11 a.m. yesterday. He was to by the Free Ambulance, and removed to the hospital, it being found that he was suffering from a fractured, skull, and from concussion. His condition last night was still considered serious. -

Those in charge of the Red Cross Cafeteria, which was established in the Wellington Hospital, reported, to the board yesterday that a net profit of £9 4s. 3d. had been made since the cafeteria opened, made possible by the donation of commodities by various firms. The cafeteria was closed for Christmas and the New Year, but has now been reopened.

Adversity, it would appear, is no respecter of persons. Amongst the 182 unfortunates who had to seek the protection of the Bankruptcy Courf in the Wellington district last year were two gentlemen, a brewer, and an inventor.

Thirteen rooms at the Nurses’ Home, at the Wellington Hospital, are to be repainted and decorated under contract. Unlucky number! The minutes recorded the number as 12 rooms and one sittingroom. Perhaps that will break the spell.

In appreciation of the widening operations which are being effected at the corner of Upland Road and Glasgow Street, Kelburn, motorists are negotiating the corner at such a speed that there is every possibility of an accident occurring there.

There was a general chorus of good wishes extended to the Rev. H. Van Staveren upon reaching his 80th birthday, when he entered the Board Room at Wellington Hospital yesterday. “We are glad to see him still going strong,” said Mr. G. Petherick, an expression that was generally endorsed.

On these bright summer days, the beach at Petone, where the first “official” settler landed, is a pleasant place. Yesterday this two miles of fine beach was fairly alive with young people, paddling and swimming, in all the .colours of the rainbow. •

The directors of the Boys’ Institute have called the attention of the Hospital Board to the condition of the asphalting in the play area in front of the hospital, in Riddiford Street. The matter is engaging the attention of the committee.

While there are always some people ready to find fault with the administration or attention given in Wellington Hospital, it is pleasing to find that there are those who appreciate the care and attention bestowed on them by medical and nursing staff alike. There is generally one such letter received at the board meetings, but yesterday five patients or parents of patients wrote, thanking the board for the attention which had been given in the institution.

Cross-planked bridges are the bete noir of motorists. Underneath a well-laden car the planks rumble and groan, creak, and wobble, and it is always a pleasure when they are left behind. One of the worst local offenders is the bridge over the Korokoro Stream, on the Hutt Road, opposite the Wellington Woollen Company's mill at Petone. It is, therefore, satisfying to see this bridge being planked lengthwise, or in the same direction as the road. As it is being done in halfsections, motorists have only half the breadth of the bridge at their disposal, which calls for caution in approaching or leaving Petone.

Scores of umbrellas, newspapers, books, parcels of recent purchases, tubes of toothpaste, soap, braces, ladies’ boudoir razors —these are a few of the articles left daily by cureless folk in post offices all over New Zealand. A ‘’Dominion’ representative who called at the Dead Letter Office at Wellington, which is also a clearing house for the articles described, was shown piles of such goods which are still unclaimed. At once noticeable among the exhibits were several huge bakers’ baskets, which had been left behind in some post office as carelessly as a packet of pins.

“The painting of the skylights in the main kitchen has done much to improve conditions, also the filling in of the spaces between the tiles and wooden skirting is helping to keen down the numbers of cockroaches; these, however, are still finding their way info the kitchens, and constant spraying is apparently the only effectual means of destroying them. — This report was made to the Hospital Board vesterdav by the dietary department. 'Mr. Castle said the steward had done his best to get rid of the pests. He thought it was imnrobable that any cockroaches got into the food. —An oldfashioned but effective remedy for this nest is to snray the floor and skirting boards with a strong solution of alum.

When the council-of the Chamber of Commerce met this week a letter was before it from , the local representative of the Department of Overseas Trade inquiring for the names of any members who might be in England in February during the currency of the British Industries Fair. The British Government, in its desire to give every facility for trade between the Home Country and the Dominions, will accord courtesies to members of overseas chambers of commerce who wish to attend this fair, which is now a most important one. Members of the Wellington chamber proceeding abroad are. upon application, furnished with letters of introduction which gain for I hem many courtesies and facilities in the countries they are visiting.

The vogue of the walking stick and vanity cane is rapidly passing in Wellington. Five years ago it was a regular sight on a Sunday afternoon to see hundreds of adherents to this fashion, but to-day a man who carries a cane does so with an air almost of apology.

When a motion was carried recording thanks for gifts and toys by the Wellington Hospital Board yesterday, Mr. J. H. Helliwell said be noticed when a lot of toys were given out that quite a number of them were made in Germany. He thought the board should do everything to encourage the purchase of British manufactures, and hoped some action would be taken in that direction. The secretary was desired to note the objection for a future occasion.

One benefit the new traffic lines and regulations have conferred upon pedestrians at the busy Courtenay Place junction, is to create a safety zone 30ft. square in the centre of the open space in front of the De Luxe Theatre. Before these lines were laid down there was no sanctuary of the kind, but now any motorist intruding on this area is quite out of order.

What has come over the pedestrian population of late? They have taken to wandering aimlessly along the streets and with an utter disregard of any “keep to the left” rule.. Perhaps the traffic officers could be induced to keep their eagle eyes off motor-cars for a few days and for a change keep the pedestrians up to the mark., . x

Business men in the vicinity of Lower Taranaki and Wakefield Streets, while fully appreciating the need for the application of modern methods, are anything but appreciative of the pneumatic rivetter, a tool which, except for meal intervals, is operating the whole day long in an adjoining foundry. The continuous penetrating noise is such to be driving some of them to distraction and greatly interferes with the conduct of business. One stated yesterday that hardly a day went by but what he had to get out-of the office for a while to quieten his nerves.

The Reserves and Beaches Committee of the City Council very quickly responded to the request of the Roseneath Municipal Electors’ Association for the renovation of the diving board at Ballena Bay. It had been washed away, helped no doubt by the tying up of. yachts and boats. There is every indication that this will happen again, because, in spite of a notice requesting owners not to "tie their boats to the board, it is still being done, and it is thought that the life of the new board will be a short one if the practice is persisted in.

Wellington is well known for its sunsets. Last evening the delicate tinting of the hills surrounding the harbour Contrasted with the opalescent and placid water made a beautiful picture, with the charm enhanced by the’animation of steamers, rowing boats, launches, and yachts in motion. The Orongorongq range appeared warmly pink on the near side, and the distant Rimutakas merged from purple and blue to dark grey. Over all was a variously-tinted sky, with a few fleecy clouds afloat.

It is a curious commentary on the electrical change-over which is now occasioning citizens heavy cost that whilst Wellington is changing from the 110 to 230 voltage some towns in the United States are reverting from 230 to 110 voltage—on account of the danger of the former voltage in domestic use. How the changeover was ever brought about is somewhat of a mystery. When originally consulted, Mr. Evan Parry is said to have been against the proposal; Mr. M; Cable was only for it as far as the'business and industrial area of the city was concerned (where he was on sound ground); and Mr. G. Lauchlan was against it. What, then, asks one of those interested, were the influences at work for the ehange-over?

Since last October employees of the City Council have been engaged in putting up a transformer station and tramway waiting shed on the site of the old fire station at Roseneath. Four months have gone by and the work is still unfinished, and those in the vicinity who pay rates are wondering what the cost will be by the time the two jobs are finished. The local association has drawn attention to the subject, and considers that the city would save a considerable sum if such works as these were done by contract instead of' by the corporation departments.

“Housewife” writes complaining of tlie “perfectly wretched and dangerous state of the footpath in Hapua Road, Hataitai, which is particularly dangerous for women residents as it is so steep. It has not received attention for years (she declares), the old asphalt has been torn up in many places for the laying of service pipes, and also when the electric light, poles were changed, and not a thing has been done to restore the footpath to something like decent order. The upper end of the path is a mass, of weeds almost as dense as bush, and is a disgrace to the department responsible for it. When the paving inen put down the bitumen surface on the footpath in Rakau Road why did not they continue the good work' down Hapua Road, which was more necessary still?” , ;

Residents of Rongotai Terrace and Calabar Road at Kilbirnie South are agitated about an Bft. drainage reserve which separates their backyards and have called on the Works Committee of the City Council to intercede in the differenced which have arisen between them as to the use of the strip. It seems that subject to certain restrictions and conditions some of the residents were given the right to make use of land, but when the land was fenced in and planted other residents protested against this alienation of corporation property. The Works Committee are to visit the spot, in view of a settlement, of the matter, one way or the other-; —either to confirm the position of those in possession or to cancel it and allow the strip to remain simply a drainage area —without a drain.

The ancient wooden structure which has left a blank space between Harcourt and Co.’s building and the T. and G. Insurance Company’s block on Lambton Quay was not devoid of a certain amount of interest half a centurv ago. The Chamber of Commerce was housed there for some time in the days when sailing vessels used to lie off the foreshore, and were warpec} in to tlie old Queen’s Wharf. Next door on the T. and G. site was the old Oddfellows’ Hall, at that time one of the chief places of amusement. This was erected on land reclaimed from the beach, the members of the lodge, conveying the spoil from the bank where the Kelburn tramway now enters the hill. One room in the old building was also the assembling place of the Wellington Town Hall before it attained the dignity of a borough. At that time Harcourt’s corner was the printing house of the late Mr. James Hughes, whom old residents will well remember.

“Comfort” writes in reference to the paragraph published in this column on the subject of covered-in double-decker buses. “They would be very popular,-no doubt,” he says, “but if it is correct that the Tramways Department is determined not to bus traffic, it is waste of time to talk of them. Perhaps the manager of the Department, who is, I believe, keen on maintaining' the successful administration of. the tram service, will think over a suggestion concerning them. There are some double-decked tramcars, but not one is covered in. Practically all London trams have covered tops and snaing windows, which can he opened or dosed, necording to the weather. Why not put roofs and windows on v ellington s two-decked ears, and enable the people using them to obtain shelter in the rain? We have a new tramway workship, and the men engaged there could be employed in really useful work in making these additions, which would be greatly appreciated by those travelling to and from the city daily, as I do.”