LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 47, 7 February 1928, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

Mails which left Wellington on January 3 via San Francisco, arrived in London on February 3 The largest estate, for winch pro bate has ever been granted by the New York Tax Department, has been left by anna Harkness, widow ot the partner of Rockefeller, who died last year, aged 88. The official appraisal exceeded £20,000,000. Some idea of the value of opossum skins to Western Australia is given in official figures issued last week. In four mouths 80,000 skins were collected and some were still left to be counted. The value to the State of the open season will be about £20.000. Forming the biggest military encampment held in New Zeadand, 1100 men of the Ist Battalion Auckland Regiment go under canvas this week at Hopa Hopa. This battalion, which is numerically the strongest in the Dominion, will be carried from Auckland by special train to Ngaruawahia to-morrow (Wednesday morning). “Laugh and the world laughs with you,” evidently was the maxim of the Dannevirke excursionists who recently availed themselves of the cheap week-end railway trip to Napier. Last evening the borough inspector reported to the council that on the occasion of the Dannevirke visit to the seaside, a sum of £5 1/6 had been collected at the laughing gallery.

Mr. Philip Bailey, of Hamilton, who has been in communication with Major de Haviland, of Melbourne, in regard to the possibility of securing a machine suitable for effecting a transTasman flight, has received a reply to the effect that an endeavour to carry out the project with a single-engined machine is out of the question. A dense fojr, combined with the pall of smoke which was overhanging the Waikato district, prevented the Limited express from reaching Auckland on time on Saturday morning. It was impossible for the driver to see even one carriage length ahead and consequently the train could travel only very slowly. She arrived at Auckland three-quarters of an hour behind her time The appeal by Archbishop Averill, Primate of New Zealand, for funds with which to restore the historic stone buiding of the Melanesian Mission, Mission Bay. Kohimarama, is meeting with success, but still more money is required before the restoration can be begun. A sum of £6OO is required. Archbishop Averill has received £l2O, and if another £lOO is forthcoming the work of restoration will be started. A meeting was held last night at Havelock North to take steps to erect a suitable headstone over the grave of the late Mr Thomas Timmo who, it will be remembered, was accidentally drowned in the Tuki Tuki river while assisting to restore Havelock’s electric lighting system. A strong committee was set up with a view to erecting a stone at an approximate cost of £2O. Messrs J. Duncan and W H. Anderson were appointed joint secretaries of the fund. Donations may be left at the Havelock Cycle Depot, or the Town Board office. The Magistrate’s Court will sit in Hastings to-morrow, when Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., will deal with the following business: — Police sheet: Two charges of false pretences, one of opening premises to sell liquor during prohibited hours, one of a licensee of a hotel supplying liquor during prohibited hours, three of being on licensed premises after hours, six of breaking borough by-laws (principally of not using silencers on motor cycles and of cycling on footpaths). and three maintenance cases. The civil list consists of 58 cases, including eight judgment summonses and 10 defended actions.

The opinion that New Zealanders who were in Great Britain at the time war broke out and joined the Imperial Army should he permitted to apply for New Zealand pensions was expressed at a meeting of the Waikato Returned Soldiers' .Association on Tuesday evening. It was pointed out that these men .were often debarred from transferring to fhe New Zealand forces. Two cases were cited in which men were debarred from receiving pensions because they had not applied within seven years of the date of their discharge. It was decided to send a remit forward that the association considered that this law caused undue and unnecessary hardship

Poverty Bay wool for the February sale at Napier is coming in rather slowly, and at present the Gisborne allocation is far from being filled, says the P.B. “Herald.” Trie bulk of the Gisborne wools have heen sent forward and were sold at the earlier sales, for which three was a mild rush to have the clips included in the earlier catalogues, but since there has been a rising market some of the growers have been regretting their haste Tile Hawke’s Bay catalogue for the next sale has closed already, although the auctions are not to be held until February 27. The Poverty Bay fanners have still a fortnight to get their clips in for the sale. “That the present law relating to the, construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of highways in the Dominion be amended so ns to enable the Main Highways Board to take over and be wholly responsible for the main arterial roads in the Dominion with a view to coping with present and future traffic requirements.’■ This was the resolution the Napier Borough Council was asked to pass last evening. It was received from the Green Island Borough Council with a request that the Napier Council should support such a remit at the Conference of Municipal Associations. The council agreed to support the movement At th e railway conference in Gisborne it was suggested that a road should be constructed from Hangaron to Te Wera in order to be a feeder to the proposed inland railway, to provide better access to a large amount of good country, and also to give a much shorter arterial roa'd from Wairoa to Opotiki, states the P.B. “Herald.” The suggested road would be able to take the wool to the proposed inland railway at a far cheaper coast as a result of the lesser distance to be travelled. Even if the suggested road was valueless as a railway feeder, it would be worth its construction cost in the matter of easier access to Gisborne for a great area of lajid. and also as a sir route from Hawke’s Bay to fhe Bay of Plenty. The idea impressed the Minister of Public Works, who lias authorised its investigation by the Public Works engineer

The Hastings High School opened this morning "after the holidays and on enquiry it was ascertained from the principal (Mr. W. A, G. Penling. ton, M.A.) that the attendance numbered 278. There was a large enrolment of new pupils, the total reaching 139. At the close of last year the roll numbered 184. “Pyease try to imagine that you are talking to a child, and explain th e matter as simply as possible,” pleaded counsel in cross-examining an expert veterinary witness in a case of alleged cruelty in the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth “But I know I’m not talking to a, child,” objected the witness. “I know I’m talking to a pretty shrewd man.” It has been a wonderful season for the earwigs of Christchurch (reports the “Sun”). In all parts of the city householders have complained about flowers and fruit ruined by the pest. Some gardeners make nightly and daily raids on the earwig tribe. The earwig likes to explore the folds of crumpled newspaper sheets, which many householders place among their flowers. A valuable Maori tiki was found by a Tauranga resident when he was engaged clearing a slip on the eastern terminus of First Avenue (states the “New Zealand Herald”). The tiki is of greenstone and is a very fine specimen. It is over sin. long and nearly 3in. in breadth. The figure carvings are in the very old Native style.