NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 76, 23 December 1935, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Pohutukawas Late Every year one half of Wellington notes how marvellously the weather affects the blooming of the pohutukawa trees in the Courtenay Place reserve. This handsome clump came into full bearing fully eight days before Christmas last year, but presumably owing to the cold rough spring, particularly in November, the blossoms began ta show up on only one or two trees on Friday. From the present outlook the Courtenay Place pohutukawas will not be in full bloom for another week at least.

Victim of Alleged Assault. Mr. Joseph Hale, aged 43, proprietor of the York billiard saloon, Manners Street, who was admitted to Wellington Hospital with a fractured jaw on Friday evening, allegedly the result of an assault, was stated last evening to be progressing satisfactorily. Mumps and Chicken Pox.

Christmas joys have not been in creased in some households in Wellington by the appearance of chicken pox aud mumps in a mild form. While there is nothing to be alarmed about these infantile ailments may be said to be present in a mildly epidemic form. Summer sickness is also going the rounds. Christmas Tram Services.

The Wellington Corporation Tramways traffic department has arranged a special time-table of services for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The time-table, which provides for the Seatoun, Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Karorl, Miramar, Hataitai, Kilbirnie Post Office, Wadestown and Brooklyn tram services, aud the Seatoun-Karaka Bay, Worser Bay-Scorching Bay, and other bus services, is advertised in detail upon another page of this issue.

Speedway Rider’s Travels. Putt Mossman, the American speedway rider and stunt artist, has covered a great amount of ground during the last few days. On Wednesday evening he gave a rodeo display in Wellington. On Thursday his motors were packed on to a trailer, and with his party he set out from Auckland by car. Arriving on Friday night, the riders competed at a speedway meeting there on Saturday evening, leaving for Wellington again at midnight, and reaching their destination at 10 o’clock last night. None of the members of the party had ever been out of Wellington before, and on the outward trip a Wellington speedway enthusiast had to conduct them out of the city on to the main highway northward.

Happy Children, Happy, well-nourished children and adults of sound physique are two impressions which Dr. M. E. Fuche, a visitor to Christchurch from Berlin, has gained from his visit to New Zealand. He admired the country, he said, and the people in it much more than the landscape, beautiful though that was. The health of people in New Zealand he attributed mainly to the absence of slum conditions, and to one who has lived in both Germany and Italy and travelled the world, the New Zealand system of families living in houses of their own, however small, appealed greatly to him, ho said. He was a student of economics, and had given some time to a study of the Dominion even before he arrived, and it was his opinion that, although it had the same problem of unemployment as faced older countries, New Zealand would “develop out of it, and come to great prosperity.”

Perpetrating a School Name. At the closing ceremony at the Clyde Quay School, 3lr. J. J. Clarke, a member of th© Education Board, made it known that if it suited those concerned the new school in Elizabeth Street could be called the Clyde Quay School. While this gained the plaudits of ex-pupils there are others who consider that that would be inadvisable, and may in the future lead to misunderstanding. People of the future may be puzzled to find a school in Elizabeth Street called the Clyde Quay School, when not only is in not in Clyde Quay, but also far from the water’s edge. An alternative suggestion has been to call the school the Wellington East School, and have done with street names altogether. ■ This would at least have the advantage that, no matter where tho school may be shifted in the future, it will bear the name “Wellington East.”

A Glorious Week-end. Wellington was fortunate in enjoying a wonderfully fine pre-Christmas week-end. Thanks to Friday’s rain the hills and countryside round the city were fresh and green, and, in the golden sunshine from clear blue skies, every prospect pleased. With the summer sunshine camo summer warmth, inducing thousands to visit the seaside bathing beaches on both sides of the harbour. Oriental Bay was crowded with bathers on Saturday afternoon and yesterday, every available fashion in bathing dress being displayed to its best (or worst) advantage, according to one’s ideas on these matters. Worser Bay and that popular resort of Wellington South people in Evans Bay, near the Kilbirnie Recreation Ground, teemed with bathers, while those who prefer the sting of the surf had a great time at Lyall Bay and Island Bay. Across the harbour the beaches at Lowry Bay, Day’s Bay and Eastbourne served as a playground for thousands.

A Willis Street Tragedy. From the centre of the footpath it ran in rivulets to the gutter. Glass was mingled with it. It was irretrievably lost. Over it, dejectedly, swayed one in whose hip-pocket it had but a few moments ago been placed, wrapped in a handkerchief, for safekeeping against the coining of the second of his five or six Christmas days. He had already enjoyed one. Now he mourned the passing of his friend. He crossed himself. He placed the dripping handkerchief upon his head and muttered, perhaps an epitaph. Once more lie crossed himself. Then he sought the communion of another spirit. Carefully he made his way across the perilous passage of the pavement and sought the sympathy of a man who stood within a shop doorway. The accosted wanted none of him, so he tied. Officialdom approached, hands clasped firmly behind broad and sober back. The celebrant pleaded that it was “Christmas. guv’nor.” The policeman was benevolent, no started the other down the street and walked behind him to keep him on his way. Still crossing himself, he who had been presiding so mournfully over the obsequies of his companion, passed as rapidly as be could down several footpaths to the end of the street.