CITY AND SUBURBAN

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 139, 8 March 1929, Page 13

CITY AND SUBURBAN

HAPPENINGS IN AND ABOUT TOWN

An Order-in-Council gazetted last night directs the revision on March 31 of the Wellington city district valuation roll.

As tlie result of bumping his head on an iron girder yesterday morning. B. Rawle. a plasterer’s labourer, residing at 18 Turnbull Street, received a punctured wound on the scalp, and suffered from concussion. He was attended to by the Free Ambulance, and taken to the hospital.

An Order-in-Council issued last night prescribes twenty-six years as the term for which the 'Wellington City Council may borrow £30.000 in respect: of its Tramways. Paving, and Town Hall Loan 1904 Repayinent Loan, 1929.

Authority was gazetted last night for the raising of the Lower Hutt Borough Council of a loan of £7260 for sanitary works. The council is authorised also to raise £2OOO for completing the construction of the Hutt River bridge.

Authority is gazetted for the Wellington City Council to raise its waterworks. destructor, and lighting loan 1904 repayment loan, 1929, at £134,300, on the instalment-repayment system, extending over a period of twenty-six years.

At the ceremony in connection with the turning on of the gas supply for Johnsonville and Makara yesterday, the chairman of directors of the Wellington Gas Company (Sir Harold Beauchamp) handed to Mr. F, Moore (chairman of the Town Board), a cheque for £lO 10s. towards the fund for the election of a fence around the children’s play area at Johnsonville.

Repeated references have been made in this column to the apparent disinclination of the Works Committee of the City Council to replace the bitumen ripped up from footpaths for the laying of service mains. The latest pavement to suffer is the northern footpath in Pirie Street. Singularly enough, though, the strip of roadway at the intersection with Brougham Street affected by the relaying operations has had its ripped-up surface carefully replaced!

The Mayor (Mr. _G. A. Troup) has convened a meeting of the executive and other committees in connection with the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum fund at the Council Chamber, Town Hall, on Monday afternoon next. The statement of accounts in connection with last year’s carnival and the art union will be presented, and the matter of competitive designs for the art gallery and museum will be considered. The Mayor is desirous that the meeting should be a large and representative gathering, as the best means of raising the balance of the fund required will be discussed.

At an early hour yesterday morning Mr. A. S. Curtis, a Wellington resident, was driving his car into the city when, in an endeavour to avoid a collision with a train at the Gear Company’s siding across the Hutt Road, he collided with a lamp-post. The car was badly damaged, but the driver and the passengers suffered from minor injuries only.

Before Mr. T. B. McNeil, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Albert Bell Shelbourne was fined £2 and costs for driving a motor lorry in a negligent manner. The Magistrate remarked that he did not look on the case as a very serious one, for it appeared that the offence was due mainly to defendant’s defective eyesight.

A public meeting will be held in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall to-night to form a New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign. The speakers will include the Prime Minister (Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward), Mr. Sampson Handley (the eminent English authority on cancer), and Dr. J. S. Elliott (president of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association). The meeting has been convened by the Mayor of Wellington «• (Mr. G. A. Troup), Dr. J. S. Elliott, and Mr. C. M. Luke (chairman of the Wellington Hospital Board).

That the wet weather now being experienced has its inconveniences particularly for the fair sex, was illustrated by the number of mud-bespattered sila stockings seen in many of the streets yesterday. The sloppy nature of the footpaths and street crossings, of course, was largely responsible, but defective flagstones also played their part. Many were the imprecations muttered against the City Corporation, for as one trod on a movable flagstone a fountain of dirty water rose with a squelch and spoiled the appearance of many a hitherto clean stocking.

At the arbitration proceedings in Wellington between the South Taranaki Power Board and the Hawera County Electric Company the examination of Mr. W. Lamb, manager of the company, was concluded. He said the “without prejudice” offer of the company of £145,000 was made in June in reply to the Power Board’s offer. In July the board announced its decision to proceed to arbitration. Mr. N. G. McLeod, engineer to the Thames Valley Power Board, gave evidence as to the value of the company’s assets in the way of machinery, wires, meters, and other plant, and said he had no doubt as to the ability of the plant to carry the present load. Evidence as to the affairs of the company will be given by accountants to-day.

The Executive Council of the Wellington Competitions Society on Wednesday evening resolved that the items for church and firms’ choirs, also all children’s choruses, be own choice, instead of test items. In response to a request it was decided to include a class for a prepared speech in the syllabus, subject to be selected by the committee. An offer to. donate a gold medal for this class was made by a member of the executive, and accepted with thanks. The Railway Department wrote stating that competitors, etc., would be entitled to travel at excursion rates from any station in the Dominion. The appointment of Madam Baird (Auckland) and Mr. Thomas Harris (Auckland), adjudicators in the dancing and elocutionary sections respectively, was confirmed. It was resolved that separate judges be appointed for vocal and instrumental music, and Mr, W. 11. Dixon, late of Suffolk (England), was appointed for the vocal section, and Mr. Robert Parker (Wellington) for the piano section. Mr. 11. Hatch was requested to act as the society’s representative on the Musical and Dramatic Committee for the Radio Broadcasting Company at 2YA.

The Orpheus Musical Society will bold a special general meeting on Monday next, at 8 p.m., in the Terrace Congregational Church Hall. An invitation is extended to the public generally, to be present at this gathering.

Abrasions to the right leg, and injuries to the right foot were suffered by W. O. Gilson, a waterside worker, i esiding at 32 Hankey Street, who was injured by a falling case of iron when he was working in Shed 45, on the Thorndon 'Wharf, yesterday morning. He was taken by the Free Ambulance to a doctor, and taken to his home.

As a result of the appearance of a paragraph in this column in reference to the lift gates at the Publicity Office, in Lambton Quay, adjustments have been made to the gates, by which the risk of trapping one’s fingers has been eliminated.

Injuries; to his face and legs, and shock, were suffered by J. D. Slade, a cadet on the Hororata, who fell from the poop to the main deck, at 4 p.m. yesterday. He was attended to by the Free Ambulance, and removed to the Hospital.

While working on the Kapiti, at the Queen’s Wharf yesterday morning, A. Farey, who resides at the King’s Private Hotel, had the toes of his left foot crushed by a bundle of iron falling on them. The Free Ambulance took him to a doctor for attention.

The New Zealand Amateur Arts and Literature Association appears to be a progressive body. The lecture delivered by Mr. Douglas Tayler on music this week, was under the association’s auspices, and the opening evening of the drama section of the society will be held in the lecture room of the Y.W.C.A., on Thursday next. Miss M. Hardinge-Maltby will read “Juno and the Peacock,’ by the Irish playwright, Sean O’Casey. All those in sympathy with the association’s ideals will be welcomed.

The recent heavy rain has rendered the footpath in Rakau Road, Hataitai, practically useless from a pedestrian’s point of view. At several places soft?, mulloch has come down from the hillside and at least one culvert is blocked. Had workmen attended to the matter yesterday, many residents would have been saved the inconvenience and annoyance of walking every alternate ten yards on a road in very little better condition than the slippery, clay-coated footpath.

Some night workers who were going home in the pouring rain at 3 o’clock yesterday morning were astonished to see a man clad only in a singlet walking along Ghuznee Street. Obviously something was wrong. After watching the man for a while they decided to escort him to the nearest police station, where he was handed over to the officer in charge.

By the New Zealand Shipping Company’s steamer Rimutaka which arrived yesterday morning from London and Southampton, there came 79 valuable Angora rabbits, consigned to Port Chalmers. The shipment originally numbered 80, but one animal died during the voyage. The ship also brought some pedigree poultry, including five fowls, three cocks and two hens, from a Blackpool breeder for Mr. W. Parker, of Bell Block, Taranaki, and one drake and two ducks, consigned to Port Chalmers.

At the corner of Calabar Road, Miramar Broadway, is a sump which behaves well in good weather, but in weather such as experienced in the last few days does not act up to expectations. Possibly due to the silt carried down Rongotai Terrace, the surface water fails to get away, and the pavement becomes ■ flooded, and during the last day or two children going to school have had to walk out on to the tramline to avoid going over their boot tops in water. This is not an isolated instance at this particular spot, and there is quite a number in various parts of the suburbs.

Special reference was made to the benevolent work of the Honorary Justices’ Association in the report presented at the annual meeting of the association last night. ' “Assistance has been given to prisoners’ wives and families, and also to the men after discharge,” stated the report. “At Christmas time a great number of Justices attended the Mount Crawford prison ’'and entertained the men with refresh-. ments. A splendid musical programme was presented by the men themselves. The women at the Borstal institution at Point Halswell were similarly entertained.”

“Suburbanite” comes forward with an old growl against the tramways department with regard to which the majority of users will agree that something should be done. “In the pouring rain on Wednesday afternoon and evening, cars coming into the city and proceeding to Lambton all had the near side seats running wet. On changing over to the other line at Lambton the blinds on that side were raised, and in a few seconds the seats there were as wet as the others. Was any attempt made to keep them dry, or to see that the wet seats were wiped down before starting on the return journey? Not a bit of it. A car arriving in the heart of the city about 7 p.m. had every seat running Wet with the exception of one, and a passenger wearing an overcoat bad just vacated it, taking the water with him. Is this the service the public have a right to expect from the tramways department? A cleanug staff is kept at the car sheds. Would it be any hardship, or any great expense for that matter, for a cleaner to be at the terminus to wipe the seats down in bad weather? Even the conductors could do something by seeing that only the end blinds were kept up. The small expense involved under this heading would not be begrudged by anyone, and the service would assuredly be appreciated,”-

Some valuable pictures have recently been presented to the Permanent Gallery of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Mr. W. S. Moorhouse, acting for the executors of . the late Mrs. S A. Rhodes, has presented a large oil painting by John Gibb. The picture, which was painted in ISSC, is of a ship under full canvas, in tow, at Port Nicholson Heads. It is regarded as one of the best examples of the artist’s work. A further addition to the Gallery is a painting by P. C. Jones, entitled “Early Spring.” presented 'by Mr. W. B. Lees, who recently left Wellington to take up his residence at Kawau Island. Auckland. The picture was an interesting feature of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1900 as having been painted by a police constable, who was permanently injured when assisting to quell the Hull Dock Strike in 1893, and afterwards took up painting as an occupation.