LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 20593, 19 September 1930, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The directors ot the Union Steam Ship Company (says a Press Association telegram from Wellington) have granted a bonus for distribution among the ship's company of the Tahiti. At a sitting >f the Bluff Police Court George Denzel Rogers, a stowaway on the Port Caroline from Port Kembla. was fined £5, in default seven days’ imprisonment. He decided on imprisonment, and was committed to the Borstal for a term.

With the departure next Tuesday from Auckland of the Niagara there will leave New Zealand the astronomical expedition which will observe the total eclipse of the sun on October 22. The expedition is the official one of the British Empire, and will go to Niuafou or Tin Can Island, the best spot in the Pacific from which to observe the phenomenon. Dr C. E. Adams, Government astronomer and leader of the party, and Messrs W. R. do Montalk and P. W. Glover will leave Wellington or Auckland on Saturday. The other members of the party, who will join them at Auckland, are Messrs W. C. Burns, F. Gawith, C. B. Michie, and P. L. Overton. Whilst the eclipse will be a total on© at Niuafou, in New Zealand it will bo visible only as a partial eclipse, and should bo seen if the weather is clear from all parts of the dominion. 1 At Wellington the eclipse will begin at 8.33 a.m. (summer time) on October 22, and will finish at 10.33 a.m., exactly two hours after the commencement;

A prisoner at the Takaanu Prison Camp, Thomas Douglas Forsyth, aged twenty-three, escaped on Wednesday night, and set off in the direction of Napier on a stolen motor cycle. Forsyth was traced as far as Taupe, where the machine was found broken down. Up to last night the police had not found the escaped man.

A largo blip two miles south of Wairoa blocks the Napier-Gisborno highway for a chain, ft will be three days before tho debris is cleared away, but mails are getting through. Tho main Waikaremoana road is blocked nineteen miles from Wairo-' by a slip and deep water. A later message says that a slip a chain in length in Turioa cutting, two miles south of Wairoa, has blocked tho Napier-Wairoa road. Yesterday the public works train took the mails and passengers to Wairoa. Tho south* bound mails and passengers were to have been bi'ougbt to the service cars by tho same means last night, but reports of other slips further south and tho danger of tho rising river making the Tongoio ford impassable for cars, resulted in the train being cancelled. It will, however, run to-day if tho road is passable from Oliinepaka to Napier.

An interesting debate was hold by the Hibernian Debating Club on Monday last When the president, Mr A. Gitlick, presided. The subject debated was ‘ Tthat the Modern Cinema Theatre Exercises a Wholesome Influence on the Community.’ Mr J. Toner acted as judge, and the following were the speakers:—Affirmative, Messrs F. G. Brown and J. Lauren; negative, Messrs W. C. M'Donnell and G, D. O’Connell. Mr Brown, .in opening the debate for tho affirmative, stated that the cinema of to-day served to educate and instruct the masses of the people, and lessened tho dullness of everyday life. He bold that tho morals of the people were well protected by the pencil of an able censorship, and contended that cinemas, like art and literature, served a useful purpose to the community. Mr M‘Donnell opened his remarks for tho negative by quoting the high cost of tho cinema, and the vast amount spent on pictures to-day when the great cry for economic measures by all , sections of the people was so common. Tho judge, Mr J. Toner, in giving bis decision, awarded the debate to the affirmative.