LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 9, 21 December 1933, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

The New Zealand Shipping Company have received advice from the Rotorua, which left Wellington for London on the loth instant, to the effect that weather conditions have been very good and all on board are well.

There was a strong tone in the stock and share market in Wellington yesterday, several issues, notably Colonial Sugars, Goldsbrough Morts, and Waihi Gold Mines, advancing to new high levels.

According to a return presented to the House of Representatives yesterday at the request of Mr 11. S. 8. Kyle (Govt., Ricearton), the annual salary of the Chief Justice is £2500, and of each of the other judges £2000.. Only one judge has had an increase of salary, and he was Mr Justice Herdman, whose salary was raised by £2OO in April, 1920. |

The Prince of Wales has a new hobby; it is that of gardening. Recently Major and Mrs. Stern, who have a magnificent garden at Highdown Towers, Ferring, Sussex, were asked cn the telephone if they would show their garden to the Prince and give him lunch. He arrived by aeroplane so quickly that Mrs. Stern had barely time to make the necessary arrangements and instruct the servants.

“Returning to New Zealand as 1 am after three years’ absence, during which the depression has been upon you, I have expected to see signs of stress ujwn your faces, and other tangible evidence of gloom in the streets and shops,” said Mr. D. A. J. Rutherford, superintendent of schools in Samoa, who has come to the Dominion on furlough, to a reporter of the Christchurch “Press.” “But everything seems much the same as when I left,” he went on. “I have been really surprised, because I did expect to notice some difference.”

There was the usual good attendance at the mid-week old-time dance and euchre tourney in the Trades Hall last evening. The results of the cards were as follow-: Women, Mrs. W. Taylor 1, Mrs. Judd and Mrs. Robinson (tie) 2; men, Mr. O’Keefe 1, Mrs. Wallace and Mr. Robinson (tie) 2. The Christmas hams awarded for the aggregate points prize were won by Mrs. Judd and Mr. W. Overend. Ths N.V.W.M. competitions were decided during the evening, the winners being: No. 1, Mrs. Harris, Karamu road; No. 2, Mr. F. Ashford, Eastbourne street. After supper the usual old-time dance was held, excellent music being supplied by Mrs. Hearn, and extras were played by Mr. L F. Tayler. The Monte Carlo waltz was won by Mrs. R. Clilton and Mr. S. Gans, Mr. J. Keith making an efficient M.C.

A contribution of 10/- from the Preston-Thomas family brings the total of the Tangoio Native Bush Fund up to £8 13,-.

Useful calendars for 1934 have been received by the “Tribune” from Messrs F. G. Smith and Co., Ltd. (Napier), the A.M.P. Society and Messrs H. H. Campbell and Sons (Hastings).

Passengers who arrived at Lyttelton by the Maui Pomare and the officers of the vessel expressed mild and somewhat contemptuous amusement when they learned that the people of North Canterbury were rejoicing over a fall of something more than half an inch of rain during the week-end. They explained that while the Maui Pomare was at Apia about 12 days ago there was a fall of 8.72 inches of rain in two hours. The deluge did not affect the loading of the ship, and the native labourers continued cheerfully at work.

The Wangaehu River, which at times is almost free from sulphur, so that whitebait and larger fish are able to enter it, is now carrying an excessive quantity of sulphur, and in its upper reaches presents a very milky appearance. When the waters come down from its source heavily charged wijth this mineral, all fresh life is destroyed, and eels that have been known to cross from creeks that dry up in autumn to the Wangaehu River have been picked up by Maoris in a dazed condition, due to tho presence of sulphur.

Criticising types of work to which some of the unemployed are put, Mr A. Peverill stated at a meeting of tho Christchurch U neinployment Committee that recently he had noticed a gang at New Brighton engaged in wheeling barrows of sand away from a stone wall and dumping it into the sea. Less than 24 hours later, he said, an easterly wind had piled up more sand to a depth of four feet greater than the original obstruction.- That sort of thing, he contended, was a waste o f public money, and there should some definite move to place unemployed on works that would .mean a benefit to future generations.

“In the course of the next few years there is bound to be a development in air travel throughout the Dominion, and it is necessary that leading resorts like Rotorua, Taupo, the National Bark, Mount Cook, Kranz Josef Glacier, etc., should be equipped with landing grounds,” says the annual report of the New Zealand Tourist League. “Our many harbours and lakes provide scope for seaplanes, but possibly many of the air machines of the future will be amphibians, and able to operate from land and water. Those who have seen much of our land from tho air are loud in their praises of its beauty, while the saving of time in travel will be a strong reason for air transport.”

The time-honoured custom of hoisting a flag—in this case a bottle —on a new building when the roof went on was acted upon recently by a Matamata builder, who was employed by a local association at Hinuera. One ol the “heads” happened to pass, and after some casual conversation, during which the “head” toyed with a couple of stones, the builder remarked jocularly that if he could knock the bottle down with two stones he would let the association “off the shout.” To his astonishment, the first stone hit the stick and the second smashed the bottle. The thrower happened to be an old cricketer. Let it be said, however, that he did not take advantage of his prowess, and the drinks were forthcoming.

There are wars and wars. Bathurst Island is not as wild as Arnhem Land, and when a visitor to Bathurst Island was told by the blacks there that a war was “pretty close up,” he found the mission fathers unperturbed. “It will not be a very serious war; just a ‘fight belong lubra,’ according to our aboriginal informants. The eternal triangle is as potent up here as anywhere else. Somebody’s ‘missis’ has been unlawfully moved, and the only remedy is to go-to war over it. East and west will combine against north and south, and maybe a ‘buck’ or two will get speared through the legs. If the wound is serious enough the mission will treat it.

. . The Bathurst and Melville islanders are fine, upstanding fellows, with probably the best physique among all the Australian aborigines.”

In reply to a request from the Farmers’ Union that the present sys. tern of changing number plates of motor vehicles annually be abolished the Transport Department states that it considers that the number-plate system is the most effective so far devised for ensuring that the annual taxation on a motor vehicle has been paid. The annual number plate and license fee is now an integral part of the scheme of compulsory insurance under the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risks) Act, and the latter fact alone would justify a retention of this system, owing to the cheap method which it provides—2/6 annually—of ensuring that the third-party risk premium has been paid. The Police Department is also very strongly in favour of the system owing to the facility which it provides for the ready tracing of the owner of any motor-car. The annual change of the number plates ensures that the registering of cars and owners is reasonably well up to date.

The police of Portland, Oregon, have satisfied themselves of the truth of the story told by “Milton McNamara,” a 19-year-old girl who said she had been forced by her mother “to be a boy” in order that her parents might receive a certain legacy. “Milton” tripped into the police station and told the astonished officer in charge that “he” wished to give himself up for posing as a boy when “he” was really a girl. “Milton” was dressed in a blue serge suit and a jaunty boater - hat, and appeared just an average good-looking youth. Tho police thought that their visitor was a wandering lunatic when “he” told them that he had left his parents, and asked them to assist him iu obtaining girl’s clothing. “I rhavo never been allowed to be a girl,” said “Milton.” “I was sent to a boy’s school, and after that was put to work in a garage as a boy. Now I want to be my real self and wear girl’s clothes and call myself Miltona.” The police matron fitted “Milton” out in feminine attire,

Reserved Judgment was given at Wellington to-day by Mr. Stilwell, S.M., in the recent case of R.K.O. Pictures (Australasia) Ltd. versus C. E. Gray, at one time an exhibitor at Manurewa, the plaintiffs claiming £76 7/7 arising from repudiation of a written agreement to take certain films. Judgment was for the plaintiffs for £75 9/7.—Press Asn.

A witness startled and amused everybody in the Supreme Court at Christchurch by addressing a question to Mr Justice Ostler. The witness, who was giving expert evidence in the use of bitumen, was asked, in cross-examina-tion, how much bitumen had been used on certain work. Witness turned to his Honour and said, “What is the thickness of a quarter gallon of bitumen to the square yard?” His Honour replied promptly, “I’m afraid I don't know,” and counsel laughed heartily. It was stated a few seconds later that an expert had said that the bitumen would be one-eighth inch thick.

The meaning of the word “boxing” in Boxing Day is the subject of an inquiry by a “Tribune” reader. The name arises from tho fact that originally the giving of gratuities or other gilts to servants took place on this day and not on Christmas Day, and from tho fact that it was tho custom to leave the gifts in boxes in the servants’ quarters. It may be supposed that the reason for not giving gratuities to servants on Christmas Day was that every possible precaution should be taken to remove from the servants any temptation to go on the spree to the detriment of their service at the Christmas table, or else that their conduct on the great day of the yeai should be the measure of their reward. The custom is probably a survival of the Roman saturnalia.

A lad had a narrow escape recently at Wairoa, near East Cape. He was handling a young light draught horse when it started. The boy was standing in the coils of a rope lying on tho ground, and one end of which was round the horse’s breast. When tho rope sprang up it was tangled round the boy’s large spurs. The horse increased its pace ai.qf the boy was thrown on the grojind, but the rope held firmly. When the horse turned a corner of the fence it was apparent the boy would strike the stay at the corner, and the boy, seeing the rope running over the stay gave a scream. Suddenly Mr Kaka Kohcre dashed in almost against the hind legs of the infuriated animal, and drawing his sheath knife cut the rope just as the leg of the boy was almost striking the stay. It was a narrow escape.