CITY AND SUBURBAN

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 110, 3 February 1930, Page 12

CITY AND SUBURBAN

HAPPENINGS IN AND ABOUT TOWN

Quite a number of people could be seen fishing off the wharves yesterday. The biggest catch was that of a man who, after playing with a bite for twenty minutes, brought up a jam-tln which was caught under the piles and which now and then, swaying about with the tide, gave the angler the impression he was getting a good haul.

A resident of the Hutt Valley who travels home from the city by bus says he always goes to sleep as soon as the vehicle leaves Lambton station but invariably wakes up at the same place. “YC>u see,” he said, “there’s nothing wonderful about it. I don’t have to concentrate or do anything like that. Whenever the bus bangs and sways and almost throws one out of the seat, I say, ‘Jackson Street, Petone. This is where I get out.’ I simply ring ihe bell, the bus stops, and there you are.”

“It’s great' to see the young people bathing here without fearing the sharks,” said a visitor from Sydney as he viewed a crowd swimming at Evans Bay yesterday. “If this was in Sydney yoti would not see anyone in at all. Onde the people didn’t mind, but now it is Just a question whether a shark will gßt you or not when you dive in the water. The only place you can go for a swim in Sydney now with any degree of safety is Coogee, because it has got a shark-proof net. The other beacibes will, of course, follow suit in times.”

Almost at the top of the Church Street steps near the Terrace is a seat that is no longei! usable. It is certainly annoying after climbing up this big zig-zag flight »f steps to find that the seat, which freaks the journey, is no longer capable of providing accommodation. “Ijired Climber,” who draws attention to this fact, says: “If one of our city councillors lived on the Terrace and walked up those steps twice a day, or even once for that matter, the seat would' be fixed post haste.’’ “I only wi/Ji,” he adds, “that the whole of the council lived in that vicinity and walked that way. Perhaps then there would be a seat on every step, or better Still, a lift or an escalator might be introduced to the locality.”

Last month saw the issue of a bigger and a better telephone directory. The new issue is an inch deeper and an inch and a half wider than the old directory, so tha.t demands on the desk space are a little greater than hitherto, but, notwithstanding that th<> dimensions make the new directory a pleasant volume to handle, as whqn opened it flattens out more readily. The type used for the names is the game as before, but there are two columns on each page instead of one, arid the number of subscribers is placed at the end of the line instead of at the beginning. A bolder block letter Us used at the head of the pages to .mark the alphabetical sections. Tho handy numerical index is retained :ut the end of the directory. The increase in the size of the pages has resulted in a reduction of the thickness of the volume by about half, and the effect is less bulk and greater handiness.

Consternation was caused ii» a bus the other afternoon by the member of a little girl overhearing a young lady say that her child was dirty. The young lady whispered this indiscreet remark to her young male companion, but the alert ears of the mother picked it up immediately. ‘“H’m,” she said, eyeing the couple, “dirty is she. Well, Miss, when you ’ava kids of your own see if you can ’ave them as clean. The cheek of you, you impertinent high-heeled made-up gneasepaint hussy.” The bus went on 'and so did the tongue of the mother. She kept up a running fire of conversation, and like the brook seemed like g<jing on forever. People got out of «the bus and at last the woman and her child and the other two were the only occupants, besides the driver. The bus pulled up at a stopping place with a jerk, and the woman, after poking her tongue out at the other of her sex, alighted to find her husband waiting for her. “Good heavens,” said he, angrily, as he lifted the child out “Don’t you ever keep this kid clean* It’s a disgrace, that’s what it is the way you take the kid about.” “There," said the girl, who by this time had regained her'composure, “didn’t I tell you. Wasn’t I right.”

“Careful” writes: “Cannot the police or the traffic authorities do something to put down the motor-cycle curse in this city? The way these riders turn • and speed and sport in Willis Street, of all streets, is a disgrace, and will one of these days cause a serious ac- ' cident. Life and limb is constantly endangered by youths who, with open exhausts, fly around corners and do a turn of speed as if they were on the dirt track at Kilbirnie. It seems that they are practising for the speedway though why they should be allowed to do so in the city is beyond me. The motorist is constantly hampered by the law but the motorcyclist, it seqjns, can ride to the danger of other lives without punishment. On Saturday afternoon I was almost knocked down by one of these pests doing a good forty miles per hour in Willis Street with a girl on the pillion and a big kewpie doll on the front of his machine, and did not even sound his horn. It is time the authorities called a halt to this sort of thing. Had I been killed it would probably have been stated by the motor-cyclist that he sounded his horn and was doing only ten miles per hour.”

A start was made on Saturday with the laying in of the concrete foundar tions of lower Tory Street extension, which is to connect Cable and Wakefield Streets.

Crowds took advantage of tho sunshine yesterday to flock to the bays. Light clothes were the order, but even some men who sported white trousers and blazers carried their coats because the weather has behaved so badly of late it cannot be trusted.

A visitor to Wellington from Sydney told a representative of “The Dominion” before he returned by the Marama on Friday that he was glad to be going back because in Sydney he could get a rest “I was told,” he said, “that Wellington was the quietest place in the world. In my opinion its wild—much wilder than Sydney. The life is here if you know where to find it, and I tell you its faster than Sydney, and that’s fast enough, goodness only knows. I’m going back for a rest."

“What time does this Court start?" said a man who wandered into the Magistrate’s Court the other day. On being informed that the Court sat at 10 a.m., and it was over for the morning, the visitor asked what happened to So-and-so. When he was told that So-and-so had been sent to gaol for twelve months he said: “Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll see him when he comes / out”

“Complaints are being made about the increased charges for medicines at the Public Hospital,” said a doctor to a representative of “The Dominion” ou Saturday. “It must be remembered, however, that drugs are very dear, and doctors hesitate in private practice to prescribe certain medicines to their patients on account of the price the chemist would have to charge to make it up. In the Hospital it is different, as medicine is prescribed no matter what it costs for the patient. Those who get medicines at, ihe Hospital should realise this before growling about the little extra charge.”

“Doesn’t It seem a bit unfair,” writes “Subscriber,” “that the Government should charge a penny for information to be given over the public slot telephone When a 'phone book is torn or a name you are looking for is not in the book one dials ‘information’ to inquire, but as soon as he gets on he has to put the penny in 1 the slot, the same as if he was calling an ordinary number. It seems only right that the Post and Telegraph Department should allow information to be given free.”

A large audience in the Magistrate’s Court on Saturday was treated to a bit of comedy by a man charged with attempted theft. When charged, he asked that the case be adjourned until Tuesday so he could get a lawyer to defend him. As the principal witness was leaving town before Monday, however, the case had to be more speedily dealt with. “What solicitor do you want?” asked Mr. E. Page, S.M., who was on the bench. The voice from the dock: “Mr. Mazengarb.” Mr. Page: “Which one—Mr. A. J. or O. C.”? Accused : “Mr. A. J.” Mr. A. J. was sent for and he came hurrying to court. Hastily he talked the matter over with the accused in the prisoners’ room. Accused and counsel then came back to court. :“1 appear for the accused,” said Mr. Mazengarb, “and plead not guilty.” The case went on and the turning point was whether or not accused had been in the car of his brother-in-law that day. He told counsel he had, he told the policeman he had. If such was the case, then he would go free because he might have got into the wrong car, and tried to open a parcel, thinking it was his brother-in-law's property. The magistrate said he would like accused in the box and it was because he went in the box that he Is now in gaoLX Accused told his counsel and the court that he had been with his brother-in-law that day, but Senior-Sergeant Butler, an experienced hand at crossexamination, smashed the story by his first question. Have you a brother--in-law? “Yes.” “How many years since you have seen him; about six years?” “Yes, it would be about six years since I saw him,” answered the accused, taken off his guard. “How long since you saw his car?” “About six years.” The court laughed, the .lawyer, who had been wrongly instructed, hardly relished the position, .and the accused a moment later turned into the prison van which was waiting outside the court.

The young man who sped down Wellington Terrace in a high-powered twoseater sports model car at about 40 miles per hour a night or two ago, mpst have been rather nervous when another car came up Woodward Street and went to turn as he flew past. For a second it seemed that a bad crash was inevitable. The young man jammed on the brakes and the car shot to the left almost over the footpath, swaying as if It, was about to overturn. He, however, had not finished with shocks, because his fair companion, to whom he was obviously trying to show off, said, “You idiot! Let me out. Do you think I’d rifle another yard with you!” With that she left the car, much to the amusement of a crowd which had collected, and to the consternation of the young man who a moment later was verbally cartigated by the driver of the cat that he so narrowly missed colliding with.