RANGITOTO CHANNEL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1910, Page 8

RANGITOTO CHANNEL.

QUESTION OF SURVEY. GOVERNMENT NOT RESPONSIBLE. In reference to the question raised at the enquiry into the stranding of the Kaipara on a shoal or rock in the Rangitoto Channel as to the responsibility for the survey, the Minister for Marine (the Hon. J. A. Millar) to-day informed a Post reporter that iv was not the duty of the Marine Department to survey any harbour which was under the control of a harbour board. All soundings, buoys, Beacons, or lights, were under^the sole control of the harbour board. The only thing the Marine, Department did, when it was proposed to make any change in beacons, buoys, or lights, was to approve and gazette came. In the particular case of the Kaipara, owing to the desire of the Magistrate to have aji independent survey, enquiries had been made. '"'ihere is, however," Mr. Millar added, "no man in New Zealand, so Jar as I know, whose survey would be accepted by the Admiralty. ■ They would only "altec their charts on the certificate of a surveyor recognised by themselves." The Government had communicated with the admiral of the Australian Squadron with a view to allowing the captain of the Challenger, who is now in Auckland, to have a survey made, in the event of permission being granted, of the 1 locality where the Kaipara is supposed to have struck. At the same time, owing to 'a statement made by the harbour- master at Auckland (as to the existence of a shoa) being known) it vpas doubtful whether any further information would be obtained in regard to such shoal or rock.

Wheeling. the world is the present occupation of Mr. Dranoel Trawets, of Spokane, Washington, U.S.A., who has landed in Wellington, after cycling 9000 miles in various countries. He hopes to capture a £3000 wager which, it is said, has been going begging for a few years. The Mayor of Turin, the visitor states, offered £3000 to a cyclist who could prove the completion ot a world tour in five years, following the line of an itinerary mapped out for him, the start to be made on the customary condition of the world-compassing industry — empty pockets. Mr. Trawets says he contracted for the feat, and started out from Turin on 27th December," 1908. He has been through Italy, India,' Ceylon, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, and the South Is land. He proposes moving on to Auckland, then to New South Wales, Queensland, China, Japan, North and South America, Britain, and Europe. He collects municipal common seals and signatures for the satisfaction . of the Mayor of Turin, and mentions that he has now about 1300 of these corroborative articles. He has been in various perils, including three or four cycle smashes, but hi 3 frame is still intact. The South Waimakariri River Board is charged with the duty of protecting the lauds lying on the south bank of that l-iver. Recently the question arose, states an exchange, as to the board's duty in the event of the river changing its course, and on this point, at a late meeting, a legal opinion was read. Ac cording to Mr. T. W. Eowe, who supplied the opinion, in the event of the river resuming its old course near Prebbleton, the board's jurisdiction would not be removed to the southern bank of the new bed of the river, but it would have to concentrate its energies in attempting to keep the river to its present bed. The Christclturch Press observes : The bylaw restricting the weight of sacks of grain and other agricultural produce to 2001b was drawn up iv the interests of the men who have to handle them and it was, of course, necessary to provide some penalty fqr breach of the regulation. But the penalties imposed m the cases mentioned are out of all proportion to the offences, which might quite as easily have been caused, as suggested, through ineffici^t scales a? by want of proper care; Some margin of error should be allowed to farmers, or those who rail their grain from flag stations and sidings will, with the best intentions of obeying the • bylaw, constantly run the risk of losing half their expected profits through putting* a pound too much wheat or oats in their sacks. The following team will represent the Hutt Tennis Club against Victoria College on Saturday (men at Victoria College, ladies at Hutt) :— P. Jackson, Green, Clere, Callender, Howden, Brown. Miss G. Foster, Miss Callender, Mrs. Hawkins, Miss Wilson. ' Messrs. R. Hannah and Co.'s summer shoe 6ale commences to-morrow. Special lines are advertised in this issue. The Family Hotel, Foxton, has been taken over by Mr. H. S. Munro, late of Palmerston North. An announcement in connection with the hotel appear* in our advertising columns.