NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 12

NEWS OF THE DAY

Earthquake Coincidence.

It was a rather remarkable coincidence that earthquakes should have been experienced yesterday, on the sixth anniversary of the big Hawke's Bay .upheaval. The' shock, which was felt feebly in Wellington at 1.30 p.m., and more strongly in Blenheim, had its origin about ninety miles distant from Wellington, and was probably of shallow focus. A shock which is reported to have been felt in Hawke's Bay earlier in the day made no record on the seismographs at Kelburn, and could not, therefore, have been of any great intensity. Sheep Migration. The main drafts of sheep on the roads between Poverty Bay , and Whakatane during the past three weeks commenced to pass through Whakatane at the weekend, on their way to the Taneatua railhead (states a correspondent). Three special trains of 30 trucks each, comprising 6000 sheep, were railed from Taneatua on Tuesday morning for the Waikato and northern districts. It is stated that 60,000 sheep from the East Coast will be offered at the Morrinsville stock sales early this month, and that about 10,000 sheep are at present on the road. Bcautification Schemes. While expressing appreciation of the fact that the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, had decided to call a conference of interested bodies to discuss road beautification, Mrs. Knox Gilmer, at yesterday's opening of the flower show in the Town Hall, remarked that all the conferences in the world would not get anywhere until the destruction of the bush had been stopped. The public mind would have to be properly educated, she added, and broadcasting talks assisted in this direction. "If we had had more of these talks," she concluded, "I am sure that the new chum who set fire to the scrub at I Lowry Bay the other day when a northerly gale was blowing would ■ have known better." I Glasshouse Needed. Wellington is justly proud of its Botanical Gardens and especially of the annual display of begonias. But these beautiful blooms are never displayed to full advantage owing to inadequate room. What is needed is a glasshouse, declared Mrs. Knox Gilmer when speaking at the opening of the flower show in. the Town Hall yesterday. The collection of begonias, she said, was one of the finest in the Southern. Hemisphere, but they were grown in a propagating house in which there was no room to display them adequately. So many visitors went to see them that queues had to be formed, and on Sunday last the doors were shut while there were still crowds waiting to be admitted. Machinery for Tunnelling. Much of the special plant ordered nearly a year ago by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. B. Semple, for railway construction between Napier and Gisborne will be delivered on to the job within the next few weeks (states a Gisborne correspondent). The plant is now afloat and is on the way to New Zealand, and by the end of March, it is anticipated, the various major items will be performing the specialised work for which they are designed. Replying to inquiries, Mr, O. G. Thornton, district engineer at Gisborne, said that tunnelling implements would comprise the bulk of the machinery for the delivery of which the Department was waiting. Air compressors, rock drills, scrapers for the speedy handling of small debris in tunnels, and concreting pumps were the major items. Various other smaller machines would be included in the deliveries, but the tunnelling implements were the most important to the progress of the line. At present, Mr. Thornton pointed out, tunnelling was proceeding by the old manual methods and the rate of progress naturally was slow by comparison with that which the machines were expected to show. The preliminary organisation of tunnelling gangs and the extensive arrangement of labour and material necessary for service of the tunnelling operations are now complete, and there should be no delay in putting the new machinery into operation on its arrival. Permanent foundations had been laid for various items which will remain in place for extending periods, and before April the process of building the WaikokonuGisborne portion of the line should be speeded up materially.