LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 3, 5 January 1926, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The takings on the Dunedin city electric cars, motor buses, and hill cable' and electric cars on New Year's Eve amounted to £1380, which is a record, telegraphs "The Post's" Dunedin correspondent.

The Auckland yacht Sea Wolf, one of the 14-footer class, was dashed to pieces on the rocks off Waiheke Island yesterday. She capsized in a heavy sea, and P. Clarkson, the owner, and his crew of two were left in the water. Their plight wag noticed by a passing launch, and a difficult rescue was made.- The three' rescued men were then taken to Akaroa Bay. The yacht was broken up on the rocky shore.

The Hea]|h Department has received the following notifications of infectious diseases in the Wellington Health district for the past week— the figures for the previous seven days being given in parentheses:—Tara-naki-Horowhenua, scarlet fever 3 (2); diphtheria 7 (1); pneumonia 5 (0); tuberculosis 0 (1). Waharapa-East Cape, scarlet fever 2 (1); diphtheria 1 (0); enteric fever 3 (0); tuberculosis 3 (2); erygipolas 1 (0); ophth. neonatorum 1 (0). Central-Wellington, scarlet fever 8 (1); diphtheria 3 (3); entrie fever 1 (0); tuberculosis 1 (0); puerperal fever 3 (0); ophth. neona torum 1 (0). Nelson-Marlborough, scarlet fever 1 (0).

A remarkable escape from being dashed over a cliff at Castor Bay, Auckland, on to jagged rocks 30ft below, was experienced by three occupants of a fiveseater motor-car on Sunday morning, states the "New Zealand Herald.'' The car was standing on a roughly-formed roadway, which fell away at the side over a pathway directly to the edge of the cliff. Two women, a boy, and a girl were sitting in it when the brakes slipped. The vehicle made for the pathway and dropped about 4ft on to it. In the meantime the boy had jumped out, while the screams of the women attracted the attention of people on the beach below, who could gee the car heading for the cliff. The heavy landing on the path fortunatelybroke th<; front axle, and the wheels buckled. This had the effect of stopping the car within a few feet of the cliS edge. Several holidaymakers later helped to haul it back to the roadway.

The unloading of the cargo of the Manuka (on which a fn-e occurred last week) commenced yesterday, states a Press Association message from Dunedin. About 80 tons were consigned to Dunedin, and most of this was either burned or ruined. The fire evidently started in some photographic' films. Four cases of motor-cars were stowed in the hold, and one was burned, fifteen cases of miscellaneous goods were burned, and several hundred bags of rice and flour were ruined by water. Rubber goods, mostly tires, were burnt to a cinder. The wooden bulkhead dividing the hold from tho bunkers was badly charred, and it was fortunate that the seat of the fire w«i discovered, otherwise the coal in the bunkers would have been ignited and the ship would probably have been damaged structurally. The passengers are being transhipped to the. Moeraki, which will leave Dunedin on Friday. The Manuka -will goto, Port Chalmers to-day for repairs, and will then be laid up indefinitely. The four stud rams which were suffocated by the fire were not (as previously reported) going to Argentina. Two were consigned from Melbourne to Lyttelton, and the others from Bluff to Mevourne. ■

An old Maori who was travelling by train to Auckland last week, when asked if he saw the green moon the other night, replied that there was nothing very unusual about it at all. The old-time Maori was always looking out for signs and wonders, and in the very early times he had always heard it stated that a green moon meant peace, just as a fiery-red moon meant war. He had been talking with some learned young Maoris lately, and they had told him that all the nations had signed a Treaty, of Peace, that there was to be no more war, and he could not understand the pakehas, who thought they knew so much, not conncting the green moon with the Peace Treaty, states the "Auckland Star." When he looked upon it he decided to make the jour-i ney to' Auckland by train, because, previously to that he was afraid to travel when the trains were so full of people; he thought some accident might occur, but he knew thera would be no accidnt when he had seen the green moon. —The Maori's theory accounts satisfactorily, no doubt, for the rarity of green moons; but it leaves i room for perplexity as to why it should have appeared at Auckland instead of at Locarno.

The standardisation" of commodities and the way of doing things had dona much for national economy and efficiency, but it must not be carried too far lest it hamper individual effort, said Dr. M. MacEachern, \the wellknown authority on hospital management, in an address delivered at Melbourne. Manufacturers were finding that by paying more attention to standardising their commodities much j improved and cheaper articles could be produced. Large varieties of artides of the same class tended to flood the market with a great deal that was inefficient, and they had incre»»ed the overhead expenses of the manufacturer as well as the necessary stock which had to be kept on hand. During the past few years the Bureau of Standards, acting through the Division of Simplified Practice at Washington, had studied this matter as f»r as many commercial subjects were concerned. It was interesting to note that it had found that there were over 55 kinds of bricks for building purposes, and these had now been reduced to five or six kinds, which sufficiently met all demands. It was also found amongst many other commodities sold that there ■nrere 552 varieties of wire fencing, which had since been reduced to 69 types. There had been 49 types of milk bottles, but now there were only nine. It had been stated in a recent edition of a well-known magazine that by this system of standardisation the lumber industry in America had saved 200,000,000 dollars. Recently it had been found that there wore 78 different varieties of hospital beds, whereas four types wore «ulte sufficient. Hospital and hotel dishes had been manufactured in 700 different ways, but now tht number was reduced to 60.