LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 19 November 1925, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A comparatively sharp earthquake shock was felt here about 10.20 o’clock last night. It was also felt at New Plymouth and Wanganui. A fire on Tuesday destroyed Mr H. Neal’s residence on the Whenuakura Hill (says the Patea Press). Mr Neal will be a heavy loser, as the house was insured for only £SOO and the furniture for £IOO.

The Malieno, which has been held up at Wellington since Friday, sailed for Sydney last night. Firemen and trimmers were secured after some searching, and the seamen came back to the vessel in the evening. An accident occurred at Mount Eden (Auckland) railway station yesterday afternoon., A. V. Murpliy, a porter, who was engaged in shunting a truck from a goods train, slipped on a rail and a wheel of a truck passed over his left leg, which had to be amputated below the knee.

The inquest at Dunedin on Janies Michael Koutledge, who was killed by a train in Caver,sham tunnel, has been adjourned. In giving evidence of identification, the Rev. Mr. More stated that deceased’s wife had been ill and he suffered from mental depression as the result. —Press Assn

Alfred Burnard, a tram conductor, who had been in the employ of the Dunedin Corporation for only a few days, was crushed again a wall in the car sheds by a trailer on Tuesday night and died after admission to the hospital. Burnard was a married man, aged 39, with three children. —Press Assn. John Towers, who on October 17 injured a boy at Petone, was charged yesterday before Mr. E. Page, S.M., at Wellington, with being drunk while in charge of a car and with driving a car without holding a license. The Magistrate, held that the evidence proved that he was drunk. Accused was fined £3O, and an order was made that no license be granted him for ten years.—Press Assn. Eric Reginald Jackson, alias Clive Okenfull, whose presence in court recently automatically cancelled his wedding ceremony that morning, was yesterday at Hastings sentenced to twelve months’ hard labour for attempting to obtain money by means of valueless cheques. His Worship said the accused had a bad record, there being convictions for similar offences, which appeared to be a particular game of his.—Press Assn.

There was some discussion at the last meeting of the Stratford Progress League in reference to the action of the Hawera Chamber of Commerce in reference to the placing of the sub-ter-minal railway station in conjunction with the proposed new buildings. The chairman (Mr J. G. Nichol) said he thought that if Stratford did not move in the matter its legitimate claims might be jeopardised, and was of opinion that the Minister of Railways and the member for the district should be approached. Mr N. H. Moss said he could not understand how Hawera could expect to be the sub-terminal station when the Stratford-Main Trunk line was through. Stratford was the centre, and trains must be made up here. It was decided to approach the Minister and the member for the district on the matter; also to enlist the support of the member for Taranaki. The Roman Catholics of Thames have reason to be extremely proud of the record put up by them in freeing the new school from debt. Three years ago it was determined that the cost of the school—some £4500 —should not l>e allowed to stand indefinitely, and various schemes were inaugurated to pay the debt off. To-day the school is free of debt, thd bazaar which was held last month securing the final £IOOO. This speaks volumes for the energy and co-operation of the people of the Catholic Church and their friends, and is a record to he proud of. —Thames Star.

The South Canterbury Methodist Synod, at its. sitting at Oamaru yesterday, passed the following resolution: “That the Synod regrets _to learn that a great amount of drinking is being indulged in by young people at dances, at rifle club meetings and pther gatherings. We urge our people to steadfastly set their faces against this evil.”

The Austrian who escaped last Friday from Tokanui, Te Awamutu, was found by Constable Cotter,_ of -■ h. " ruru, wandering on the railway line between Taumangi and Tirau, late on Saturday afternoon. He was handed oyer to the custody of institution officials later.

As a result of an international conference .of official statisticians at Geneva in 1923, under the auspices of the International Labour Office set up by the League of Nations, the collection and compilation of. statistics or industrial accidents is now being undertaken in virtually all countries, and figures are available in New Zealand in connection with the accidents which occurred during 1924 in factories (says the Lyttelton Times). During 1924 there were in New Zealand 1977 ases of “factory accidents,” injuries not likely to incapacitate the injured person for more than forty-eight hours being excluded. T'hese cases comprised nine deaths, eighty cases of permanent partial disability for life, and 1890 cases of temporary disablement. There was no case of permanent total disability. The total period of incapacity in all these cases of temporary disability was 34,275 days, an average of over nineteen days per accident. “Many a person has been drowned after having been rescued and brought ashore,’’ announced the president of the Otago Swimming Centre .(Mr. LI. Henderson) a,t the opening jof the Y.M.O.A. Swimming Club at Dunedin, when addressing the members of the club on the value of life-saving. He said that the simple art of life-saving had as its principle the three R’s — release, rescue, and resuscitation (reports the Otago Daily All swimmers should endeavour to learn how to bring a drowning man ashore, and it was equally important that the treatment of the patient should he learned also, as in many cases death occurred out of the water, owing to lack of proper knowledge of resuscitation amongst those present.

The Prime Minister will attend the gathering being organised by the Reform Party in celebration of the sweeping victory of the party in the Taranaki province at the general election (says the Taranaki Herald). Mr A. E. Washer, as president of the New Plymouth organisation, has received a telegram from Mr G. E. Bellringer, M.P., who is in Dunedin, stating that Mr Coates will arrive in New Plymouth, on Wednesday, December 9, and will attend the gathering on the- following dav. Mr Coates will also open the Smart. Road works of the Farmers’ Fertiliser Co.

A revival on a modest scale of the one-time flourishing beach-combing industry has taken place on Orepuki beach during the past fortnight (states the Advocate). Both gold and platinum are to he found here, and more than one party is finding the collection and treatment of the black sand deposits outside the tide reaches a fully lucrative one. One miner is said to have secured three ounces of gold in one day. It may truly he said that the amount of gold lying at the bottom of Tewaewae Bay is* incalculable, and, as one old-timer remarked the other day, “if the water could be pumped up from the bay it would prove a better scheme than the Kawarau!”

The north-bound daylight Limited express, consisting of seven carriages (three first-class, three second-class, and one first and second-class ladies’ car) made its first run from Thorndon on Monday, says the Dominion. There is on this express accommodation for some 260 persons, but Monday’s passengers totalled only 40. This no doubt was due to the fact that most of the express traffic is south-bound at the present time. A number of the expresses have been poorly patronised lately, and therefore it may be several days’ before an impression can be gained as to the popularity of the daylight Limited.

A cable message dated London, November 1, stated that advice had been rceived from Geneva that M. Spahlinger was suffering from a serious nervous breakdown, and that owing to lack of capital he was shortly selling off his horses and cattle, which would entail long delay in the manufacture of serum for treatment of tuberculosis. Mr G. Shirtcliffe, of Wellington, who is interested in the success or otherwise of the treatment, cabled his son-in-law, Major Harston, now in Geneva, informing him of the London message, and has received the following cabled advice from Major Harston: “Spahlinger well; working splendidly; bovine negotiations progressing satisfactorily.” The concluding words of the message refer to a representative committee that had been formed in England for the purpose of arranging the carrying out of the tests of the bovine serum.

•Caught in, the act of picking a man’s pocket at the Riccarton racecourse, a man who was described as an “international criminal” was given three months’ hard labour in the Magistrate ’s Court at Christchurch yesterday. James O’Brien was charged with stealing from the person of Michael Cookley, on November 7, two £1 notes. 10s in gold and a small leather purse valued at Is. He pleaded; guilty. Chief-Defective T. Gibson said that O ’Bripn was caught ini the act of picking a man’s pocket at the. races. Accused was no good to anyone. He was an international criminal. He started in South Africa in 1913 and finished' up in New South Wales in 1922. It was nothing but pocket-picking all the time. “We don’t want him here in New Zealand,” added the chief detective.

“It cost more to circularise 10,000 people than it does to place a full-page advertisement in a newspaper, and the latter has usually the greater influence.” That (says a Sydney paper) is the considered opinion of Mr Frank Goldberg, governing director of the Goldberg Advertising Agency Ltd., of Wellington (N.Z.), who arrived by the Tahiti. Through the meduun of the newspaper, he considers, the advertiser’s message can reach far more people than can be reached by the same amount of money invested in any other publicity method. Mr Goldberg is in Sydney organising a new office there, so that the Australian newspaper field may he covered effectively.

Business is quiet at Greyniouth, according to statements made by retailers, who say there are several contributing factors (reports a local paper). In the first place, recent stoppages at the coal mines exercised an inevitable effect noon the trade locally, and the flood which damaged the railway bridge stopped the output of coal from the Blackball mine for a fortnight. Such losses told heavily upon the miners, and curtailed their spending power for a considerable time. Apart from that the town is now experiencing the usual pre-Cliristnias lull in trade.

Arising out of the decision made at the Opunake factory suppliers’ meeting on Saturday, discussions have been entered into by a number of suppliers on the Ihaia road with the object of separating from the Opunake Dairy Company (says the local paper). There are proposals for forming a new company, supplying a cheese factory or home separation.

The discussions that have been continued for some time by the shareholders of the Opunake Dairy Company regarding the company’s future policy on the Ihaia road were finalised at a meeting on Saturday, presided over by the chairman of directors, Mr Chambers (says the Opunake Times). The notices of motions to build a factory on a new site and that the company go into liquidation were lost. The position now is that the company will go on with the erection of a factory at Opunake, so that the company will be in a position to manufacture butter or cheese ;-the Ihaia road creamery will be continued, with the prospects of erecting later on, if warranted, further extensions.

On last Friday afternoon a lad named Vivian Barak at was playing with ' a detonator at school at Blaetihi when an explosion occurred, and the whole school received a shock. One hand of the boy was badly injured, and on being taken to the hospital he had a thumb and one finger amputated. The police, on investigation, found that the boy had in his possession 25 detonators, and the wonder is that the concussion did not set off the rest and blow the school up. It seems that the lad distributed these caps amongst his playmates, who were fortunately not successful in setting them off. The lad found the caps in the bush, where a box, apparently holding 500, was found, and the caps strewn all over the paddocks. These were apparently left or hidden there by bush workers. Whether local authority has power to condemn a dwelling because it is borer-infested was a question submitted to the Hamilton Borough Council at its meeting last week. The borough inspector said he had inspected the property complained of, which, it wa.s said, was unfit to live in, but he did not know of any lan- which gave him power to order the house to be condemned. The dwelling was not insanitary, and although borer wrns prevalent it was not so to the extent of making the structure dangerous or untenable. The inspector added that there was no doubt that property infested with borer to the extent that existed in this case was a* danger to surrounding properties, but it was very doufbtfuli (if ftjhe council cpuldi take any aetiou to enforce the removal or demolition. The council decided to take no action.

“I have been much interested,’’ said Sir Ernest Rutherford in Wellington on Saturday, “in the scientific research work being -done in New Zealand, and [ was pleased to see the progress that was being made in the provision of facilities for that special work. Research -w-ort is the most important factor in certain lines of scientific progress and, while much of course to be done in this respect in New Zealand, I was particularly impressed with what is being accomplished at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson. It appears to me that any further assistance given by the State' to this important work could well be by the encouragement of the researches of such institutions. With the preponderating value of agricultural and pastoral products, it seems clear that it is the duty of New Zealand sicentists to devote special attention to these subjects. It is in reality one of the first claims of the country on the Government to see that every support should be given to investigators that may benefit farmers, and enable them not. only to maintain New Zealand’s position as a producing country of the world, but to improve it, especially in view of what is being done in other producing countries to encourage the producer to work along scientifically correct lines, and the suppression of insect enemies.”