CITY AND SUBURBAN

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 140, 9 March 1929, Page 11

CITY AND SUBURBAN

HAPPENINGS IN AND ABOUT TOWN

Heard in the Magistrate’s Court: — Counsel: “I have six witnesses, sir.” Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: “How many of them are women?” Counsel: “Three of them.” Mr. Hunt: “Oh I”

A trophy with an unusual but wise stipulation attached to it has been offered to the Hutt Rugby Club by Mr. L. T. Watkins. It is for the best back in the team —but he must have attended 80 per cent, of the practices.

One of the items on the order paper for the Fife Board meeting yesterday was discussion on the fire in the Produce Market. The ordinary business occupied till nearly 1 p.m., so it was decided to hold a special meeting on Thursday next at 7.30 p.m. to discuss the whole matter.

“We are weak mortals outside the Press,” said a delegate at the conference yesterday between the North and South Island Motor Unions, when moving that the meeting be open to the Press.

Through falling against a chute from the s.s. Cornwall while working on the Glasgow Wharf at 9.5 last night, Martin Kennedy, a watersider, broke a rib. He was taken to a doctor by the Free Ambulance and then home.

Mrs. Ethel Hardie’s entertainers and collegian orchestra gave a very enjoyable entertainment in the men’s Victoria Ward at Wellington Hospital on Thursday night. In addition to selections by the orchestra, songs, instrumental and other items were contributed by Misses Zeta Hardie, Ila and Hazel Wright, Stace, Mrs. Metcalfe, Mrs. Hardie) Messrs. Wilkinson, C. Bennett, L. Bevan, N. Edlin, A. Atkinson, V. Wilkie, and Turner. There were several recalls.

A lady was stepping on to a tram at the corner of Willis and Mercer Streets yesterday afternoon about 4.30 o’clock, when the car began to move, dragging her for about 10 yards, when she fell. Two gentlemen from the path assisted her to her feet, to be reassured by her smiling remark that she had come to no harm. Some conductors have a tendency to get off the mark rather quickly—sometimes disconcertingly so for elderly people, who are not always given time to get seated.

At the arbitration proceedings yesterday at Wellington between the Hawera County Electric Company and the South Taranaki Power Board, Mr. R. A. Glenn, accountant, of Messrs. Rowley, Gill, and Hobbs, gave evidence as to the value of th.e goodwill of the company, which he placed at £116,000. This witness went into the box at 4 p.m. on Thursday, and his examination in chief continued all yesterday.

When the question of plans for the new fire station for Northland came before the Fire Board yesterday, Mr. M. Marks said he hoped they would not make the same mistake as was the case at Brooklyn and Miramar. The station rooms there were so small that they had to have special furniture made, for they could not even get a sideboard in the diningroom. The cause, said Mr. Marks, was the very great difference in the cost, the estimates for the original plans being £16,000, but finally they got the figure down to £7OOO. It is understood that the station at Northland will be on a larger scale than those at Brooklyn and Miramar, and will provide more accommodation.

The notice of the Wellington Fire Board meeting yesterday announced the time as 11 o’clock, the first business on the order paper being the election of chairman. When the pressmen arrived just before the hour stated it was found that the board had met at 10.30, had elected Mr. M. W. Nelson chairman. and conducted other business, Including estimates for the year, which the Press representatives were Informed had been done in committee. Mr. W. A- Parton and Mr. S. S. Dean, the other representatives of the Insurance companies, were present. Councillor M. Luckle was the only absentee, returning yesterday from the Municipal Conference at Wanganui.

One of the shocks a motorist is likely to receive in touring the Wairarapa occurs in crossing the Mangatainoka River. After speeding blithely along a sealed-surface road one suddenly finds oneself upon a bridge, with one half of a railway track between one’s wheels, a hundred yards of bridge ahead, and, as likely as not, an engine in the distance. The uninformed motorist naturally hesitates as to what to do—whether to back off or go forward and take a chance. As it is not an inviting thing to reverse sideways over a steel rail that stands six inches in height from the floor of the bridge, the decision is usually to go forward, and with no little trepidation, and with a wary eye on the puffing engine in the distance the crossing is essayed with perfect success. Later one learns that the gates on either side of the bridge are closed some time before each train is due. If this sort of thing can be done at Mangatainoka, why not at Paremata, and so cut off six miles of roadway en route from the city to Plimmerton?

The High Commissioner for New Zealand in London has advised the Minister of Defence that Captain P. C. Pirani, of the New Zealand Travel Bureau in London, has asked him to forward to the Dominion a silver cup for presentation to the Brooklyn senior cadets. The donor, who has left the selection of an object for competition to the discretion of the Brooklyn School Committee, stipulates that the cup shall be for annual competition, that it shall be held by an individual cadet, and that it cannot be won outright. He prefers that the cup should not be a shooting trophy, but that it should be awarded for some competition in which disciplinary ability would be a feature. The cup is being forwarded to Wellington.

“Rongotai,” a Bridge Street resident, writes to this column: —“Any Rotorua (or similar thermal region) resident who may be holidaying in Wellington and suffering at all from nostalgia would be well advised to spend portion of his time in Bridge Street, Rongotai, Believe me, all feelings of homesickness would banish immediately. From 6.30 a.m. daily up till as late as 9 p.m., earth tremors are felt every few minutes that are enough to rattle crockery off shelves and set every housewife’s nerves completely on edge. What would it matter to our visitor if it were lorries that caused them! He would get the thrills just the same. Bridge Street, which three years ago was one of the best surfaced roads in the district, is a glorious example of what fast-driven heavy lorry traffic can do in the way of destruction. It is at least time that the council put a 10 m.p.h. speed limit on all lorries which tear through (and up, mostly up) this street”

“Constable Morrison collects £lOOO a. year from motorists on the Hutt Road alone,” remarked a delegate at the conference yesterday between the North and South Island Motor Unions.

Two passengers by the Ulimaroa for Sydney yesterday, had to sail away without the bulk of their luggage. This should have arrived from Auckland by the Limited express in the morning, but by some mischance it was placed on the second express, which did not reach Wellington until half an hour after the Ulimaroa had left. One of the travellers, who is on his way to England, will be lucky if his baggage overtakes him before he leaves Australia.

Clark McConachy, the New Zealand billiards champion, who has experienced a good deal of illness of late, has now recovered, and expects to leave for Australia shortly for another series of games with Walter Llndrum, and one or two leading English professionals who are paying a visit “down under,” including, it is hoped, Willie Smith, Prior to leaving, McConachy will play a few exhibition games.

A foundation of heavy boulders is being laid on the ground comprised, in the new extensions of the width of Lower Taranaki Street. When these are in position blue metal will be spread over the top and the whole consolidated with steam rollers.

A charge of distributing leaflets to passers-by in Manners Street was preferred against Allan Eaglesham, who appeared before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Evidence showed that defendant distributed the leaflets to people coming out of the Opera House, most of whom immediately threw them down bn the ground, thus littering up the street. A fine of ss. and costs was imposed.

Tenders are to be called for repairs to the roof of the Central Fire Station. The question of treating the roof with waterproofing material was gone into, but the Fire Board was not satisfied that this would effectively stop the leaking, and Mr. M. Marks was of the opinion that the work should be properly done, even if it cost £2OO to £3OO. It was stated that the City Council had disclaimed liability for these repairs.

At the Fire Board yesterday Superintendent J. Creeke reported that during February there had been 19 property fires and 44 gorse and rubbish fires. There were 22 proper alarms given and 13 malicious ones. For the eleven months of the financial year there had been 397 fires (215 property, 62 chimneys, 120 gorse and rubbish), against 460 for the corresponding period the previous year, a decrease of 63. The decrease in property fires was only four, the principal decrease being in gorse and chimney fires.

In another column will be found a special article on a visit to Zane Grey’s headquarters at Mercury Bay, and a reference to a giant turtle seen in those waters. Mr. Grey estimates that it is three to four feet across the back, and that it must be a “regular Methuselah.” Smaller turtles were also seen in the same waters, so it would appear that they are in their natural habitat. The fact that turtles are native to the New Zealand coast is something quite new.

A firm manufacturing celluloid ware at Goppingen (Germany) is nothing if not enterprising. It says in a letter to a local advertising firm—“ ‘J’ allow me to draw some attention on the fact that ‘J’ manufacture since a long time already advertising articles.” The meaning is made abundantly clear if the phraseology be complex, but it would be interesting to know why the capital “J” is used for the capital “I” throughout the letter.

A Wellington traveller was doing the journey to Napier by service car, and in the stage midway from Palmerston North the driver turned to him—he was the only passenger then—and said, “Do you mind if I open out a bit? I want to shake that little beggar off.” Th little beggar was a “baby” car that had hung on behind for several miles. The traveller agreed, and the big car accelerated and ran on a few miles, but the “baby” was still there. Approaching a small township, the road widened out at a bend, and to the astonishment of the service car driver the “baby” slipped by him. Until within a few miles of Napier the “baby” kept the lead, and the traveller enjoyed the fun immensely. At the forked roads the “baby” went one way, the service car the other, and arrived in Napier in due course. A few minutes later the “baby” turned up in Napier also. He had taken the wrong road at the forks, or he would have been there first.

“Monro Street, Seatoun, runs from Marine Drive to Pinnacle Street, and contains four blocks,” writes “Boydon.” “The block from Marine Drive to the first intersection has a footpath formed on one side, and is channelled, but bitumen has not been laid down. On the other side no attempt has been macle to even form a path and the land is in its wild state. The next block has a footpath on both sides, and those paths have been bituminised. The road is also quite good. The third block has a formed path on one side, butu no channelling, and in some places is below the level of the road, and water collects in great pools. On the other side there is no necessity for a path as the council has laid down a garden plot. The last block is in an awful condition. Foundations for paths were put down, but they are now almost covered with sand. Grass and lupins flourish. The road here is full of holes, and we consider this*to be one of the best examples of bad workmanship on the part of the council.”

“The motorists in New Zealand are the best-natured people I have ever met,” declared a New Zealander yesterday, who is revisiting his native land after a 20-years’ sojourn in Australia. “It is simply amazing,” he said, “to watch the happy-go-lucky manner in which your pedestrians wander about your streets. Your motorists appear to say, ‘Will you please get out of the road; I want to proceed?’ If a Sydney or Melbourne motorist were to visit your New Zealand towns he would kill a hundred or so of your jay-walkers each day. Traffic has become so congested in the larger Australian centres that motor-cars are not allowed to dawdle along the roads; they must keep going at a fair bat, and it would not be healthy for a pedestrian to indulge in star-gazing in the centre of the highways as they appear to do in the Dominion. When a motor-car comes along at twenty miles an hour, there is only one word for the pedestrian, and that Is ‘skedaddle.’ Your pedestrians will really have to give over their fondness for keeping to the middle of the road.”