LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 212, 22 August 1927, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

Mails which left Wellington on July 19, via San Francisco, arrived in London on August 18.

For cutting the corner with a motor car Reginald Keith McWiilan was fined £l, costs 10s in the Napier Magistrate's Court this morning.

A resident of Spreydon, Christchurch, was very surprised to find a plug of dynamite buried in his supply of household coal. There was no detonator attached.

A bequest of £3300 to the fund for erection ot a new church building for the Somerville Memorial Presbyterian Church, Remuera, has been made under the will of the late Mrs J. Crago. The building fund amounts to £-1300.

The Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company report states that the net profit for the year was £14,472. The output was the largest on record. The directors recommend a six per cent, dividend.—Press Association.

Te Kata Thompson, said to be a son of a Maori chieftain of high rank, was sentenced bv Mr Justice Herdman at Auckland to-dav to six months’ imprisonment for having incurred liabilities of over £2O without disclosing the fact that he was an undischarged bankrupt.

Three miners employed at the Dobson Mine, charged with having cigarette butts and matches in their possession whilst in the mine, were convicted and ordered to pay the costs They pleaded guilt'- and a heavy penalt'- was not asked.—Press Association.

On August loth Ida Ayling was charged in the Napier Magistrate s Court with alleged negligent driving, and judgment was reserved. Mr A M. Mowlem. S.M. this morning delivered his judgment to the effect that the defendant was negligent, and she was fined £2, and costs totalling £2.

The children of Parkvale School will revel in fancy dress at their ball in the Assembly Hall on Wednesday evening next. A ladies’ committee has all arrangements in hand for a splendid supper of fruit salads and other dainties. Adults may dance to an exeeellent orchestra from 10 n m. to 1 a.m. Everybody will be welcome and assured of a good time.

When, nearly a month ago, the egg of a parrot belonging to Miss C. Christensen, of St. Albans, Christchurch, was broken, the bird's owner placed a small bantam’s egg in its cage, and the parrot bega’n to sit. On Saturday a bantam chick was hatched ont. The parrot has taken a kindly interest in the newcomer, and feeds it from its beak. The two promise to be great friends.

A project of much importance to the tourist traffic of the King Country in general is the community hotel scheme, under which it is proposed to erect a new up-to-date modern building in stone, on the site of the present Grand Hotel at Te Kuiti. The building according to the specifications, will contain all the requirements of an up-to-date tourist hotel, and will cost £25,000.

There was a beautiful display of the Aurora Australis seen from Christchurch and Lyttelton last night between 7.15 and 8.15. and especially between 7.30 and 8. The form was unusual in that instead of the bright red flame shooting into the skv from the horizon, it was an arc of white light tinctured bv violet. which later turned to a reddish colour, and so bright as to show up the hills at Lyttelton.

The following were elected the officers of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts:—President, Mr. Charles Wilson; vice-presidents, Mr. J. Ellis and Dr. A. D. Carberry; council, Dr. W. Fell, Mrs. J. A. Tripe; Messrs. W. S. Wauchop, J. A. Heginbotham, W. B. Montgomery, Nugent, H. Welch, W. Gray Young, and Ernest Hunt; hon. treasurer, Mr H. E. Anderson. Mr. C. D. Morpeth was appointed auditor.

A curious "find’’ has been reported by Mr. James Smith, of Omatane, says the Taihape “Times.” Mr. Smith said that when a huge bluegum which had been cut down last week on the farm of his brother, Mr. H. W. Smith, of Marton, was split at the sawmill it was found to have embedded in it a pack saddle. Mr. Smith thinks that possibly the saddle was placed in the forte of the tree many years ago, and had been gradually enclosed by the growth since then.

In Christchursh all petrol stations now have to conform to a standard design prepared by Mr. Victor R. Hean, of the City Council staff. Materials used must be of brick or concrete, or may be rough-cast. Roofs must be covered with red tiles, and there must be a dado four feet high, composed of white tiles, round the pillars and that portion of the building past which cars are driven. The idea of the tiles is so that such parts of the premises can be kept clean, and not disfigured by splashes of oil and grease.

A strange mail delivery is that in which a dog owned by a resident on the wanganui river plays a prominent part, says * the “Wanganui Chronicle.” On the days that the steamer passes on its way up-river the dog is always somewhere along the bank below its master’s house, and it makes its presence known by excited caperings along the water's edge and loud barking. The mail package is hurled from the steamer to the shore, and is quickly pounced on and borne away by the dog—frequently the only living creature at this particular spot.