CITY AND SUBURBAN

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 32, 1 November 1929, Page 13

CITY AND SUBURBAN

HAPPENINGS IN AND ABOUT TOWN

Application is to be made to the Local Government Loans Board for its sanction to the borrowing of £21,090 for the purpose of additions to the Ewart Hospital for consumptives and the Nurses’ Home (Ewart), under the Wellington Hospital Board.

Miss S. Hull has written to the Wellington Hospital Board offering a quantity of toys, etc., for the children’s hospital on behalf of the Seatoun Presbyterian Sunday School. The offer has been accepted with thanks.

’The tender of the Fletcher Construction Co. for £657 for plastering, etc., of the massage department at 'Wellington Hospital has been accepted by the Hospital Board.

At the meeting of the Wellington College Board of Governors yesterday it was stated that there were only 59 boarders in residence at Firth House at present, whereas about ninety had once been quartered in the building, which had cost £50,000.

J. R. Brown, employee of John Dickinson and Co., Frederick Street, injured his left arm when moving a case yesterday afternoon, and was taken to hospital by the Wellington Free Ambulance. He resides in Makerua Street, Ngaio.

Changing building conditions were responsible for the first-class “bull” which a speaker made to the Wellington College Board of Governors yesterday afternoon. He said: “I know everything about building, from the felling of the tree to the last brick.”

Just after 9 o’clock last night, while the Fire Brigade reunion was in progress the fire alarm bell sounded. In a few seconds the men on duty were out of the hall and on the way to the scene of the outbreak. The call was to premises at 15 Courtenay Place, and subsequently Superintendent Creeke announced that it was only a small rubbish fire. Ten minutes later the brigade was back again.

- The danger of motorists parking their cars too near a corner was exemplified in Clyde Quay yesterday afternoon. Someone had parked a car on a line with the white footpath lines, which lead across from Courtenay Place to Majoribanks Street, when another car, favoured by the green light ahead, rounded the right-angle corner close to the side-walk, and succeeded in missing the parked car (which was backed into the side channel) by two inches. There is a by-law at present in force prohibiting cars from being parked right on the corner. Incidentally the white lines on roads outlined as pedestrian crossings cannot be considered to be any safeguard until motorists take notice of their existence, which has not always been the case up to the present.

“It is to be regretted that provision for tepid baths was not made in the recent loan proposals, the Loans Board turning down the council’s application on a technical point,” states the annual report of the Wellington Swimming Association. “Recently the city engineer submitted plans to the council, and it is to be hoped that action, which is now years overdue, will be taken.” A lecture on “The Development of Pedemental Decoration Amongst the Greeks” was delivered by Professor Rankine Brown to the New Zealand Institute of Architects last night in the Accountants’ Chambers. He traced the development of the decorative art of the early Grecian temples through the centuries, until the decline of the empire. Some excellent lantern slides depicting the earlv statuary and architecture were shown, which added greatly to the interest of the lecture. At the conclusion, a hearty vote of thanks to Professor Rankine Brown for his instructive address was carried unanimously.

Alterations are to be made to the basement of the old out-patients de- . partment for use as a film store at Wellington Hospital. The cost will be £155. Representatives of the local contributing bodies of the Wellington Hospital district have been invited to meet the board and inspect the hospital some time in November. The District Nursing Guild of St. John has written thanking the Wellington Hospital Board for its grant of £l5O. Speaking about a leaky outhouse in a report to the Wellington College Board of Governors yesterday, the headmaster of Rongotai College (Mr. F. M. Renner) said, “The roof is like an inverted colander.” Mr. J. Baine, of Eastbourne, when delivering a lantern lecture on Wednesday evening entitled “Love of the Out-of-doors,” said he believed many thousand New Zealanders would support his opinion that the hostel, just recently completed at Tongariro National Park, should be given some appropriate New Zealand Maori name in | preference to “The Chateau.” An Order-in-Council in the Gazette consents to'the Wellington City Council raising a loan of £38,000 for the purpose of affording drainage to parts of Seatoun, Kilbirnie, and Island Bay, and sewerage works for Island Bay. The term of the loan is for ten years, and the. rate of interest is restricted to 54 per cent., with a sinking fund of not less than 1 per cent. The chairman of the Wellington Hospital Board, Mr. C. M. Luke, drew the attention of the board yesterday to the six new panels which had been put in the ceiling in the board room for the purpose of improving the acoustic properties. While this had been achieved he hoped it would not be an inducement to members to make long speeches. Following the recent deputation of Wellington Women’s Societies to the Minister of Justice with regard to consumption of liquor in cabarets or halls used for dancing, the leaders of the deputation, Miss Mary McLean, Mrs. C. D. Morpeth and Mrs. H. D. Bennett, held a conference with the Minister ou the subject yesterday morning. The meeting was not open to the Press. “Indignant” writes from Karori as follows: “Enthusiasts in horticulture are warned to beware of the sneakthief, who is making his presence felt in various parts of the suburbs. The thief is apparently observant of what a choice plant is like and makes his selection during the hours of daylight. He again pays a visit in the quiet hours of the evening, and maliciously removes from the gardens of the residences a shrub or plant that is highly valued.” People of imperfect hearing from now on will be able to use the telephone as easily as those whose hearing is perfect. An Order-in-Council in yesterday's Gazette amends the Electric Line Regulations to provide that special amplifying telephones and apparatus for use by persons of imperfect hearing may be provided subject to special payment. The statement of accounts of the cafeteria at Wellington Hospital, run by the Red Cross Society, shows a credit balance of £52. This sum is to go towards the cost of installing wireless equipment in the Victoria Hospital, the estimated cost for completing this work being £l5O. A garden fete is to be held in the hospital grounds in February in order to obtain the £lOO required. The board and the Red Cross Society express willingness to co-operate in carrying out the arrangements.