LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 82, 19 March 1934, Page 6

LOCAL & GENERAL

For the next three months the Napier Magistrate’s Court (police and civil) will sit once a fortnight, instead of once a week. Mr. A. E. Mow. lem, S.M., is still absent’on sick leave. The Court will be presided over by Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., of Gisborne. “The crime of theft is always serious, more particularly the theft of bicycles, which is frequent and hard to detect,” said Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Napier Magistrate’s Court this morning, when refusing to suppress the name of a person convicted on s charge of stealing a bicycle. Advice was received in Hastings this morning that Mr. J. E. Jessep, deputychairman of the Unemployment Board, will be visiting Hastings to-morrow and a combined meeting of the Hastings Unemployment apd the Mayor’s Planning Committees has been arranged for to-morrow evening at 7.30 o’clock in the Council Chambers to meet Mr. Jessep and discuss with him various matters in relation to unemployment locally. A magnificent spectacle was witnessed in Hamilton at a late hour on Friday night, when an area of peat swamp at Rukuhia, five miles to the south of Hamilton, was ablaze. Great tongues of flame shot up into the sky, illuminating the country for miles round, while above the flames there was suspended a thick pall of white smoke. No damage to property was done. Another outbreak of fire occurred some miles away. Dense clouds of smoke were emitted and caused some inconvenience to neighbouring settlers. B'arm properties are affected by the fire. There was again a further increase in the attendance at the weekly old-time dance and card tourney held in the Trades Hall, Hastings, on Saturday night and a very enjoyable time was spent by all present. Excellent music was supplied by Mrs. Hearn’s Premier Orchestra, supper extras being played by Mr # L. F. Taylor. The Monte Carlo waltz was won by Mrs. Spiers and Mr. McKenzie, with Miss Overend and Mr. A. Corbin second. In the card-room the results were as follows: Ladies, Mrs. Furness 1, Mrs. Laredo 2; Gentlemen, Mr. Watson 1, Mr. Manning 2. Advice regarding the date of shipment to Perth of the five-year-old hippopotamus “Pondo” is still being awaited by the Auckland Zoo authorities. In the meantime an especially strong box, fitted with heavy bolts, has been constructed for the transport of the animal. Guile will have to be exercised to lure the hippopotamus into the box. In a day or two the animal’s morning and “afternoon meals will be placed there. Thus it is hoped to accustom him to enter the crate, and, when his sailing orders are received, he will be trapped there. News has been received of the safe arrival of the female polar bear recently shipped from the Auckland Zoo to Adelaide. Legal proceedings to restrain members of the Companies Promotion Commission from sitting as such are being taken on behalf of certain company interests in Auckland. An application for a writ of injunction against the commission has been lodged at the Supreme Court, Auckland, and "ill probably be heard by the court at Wellington. The summonses issued in connection with the application are returnable in Wellington on March 28. The Auckland sitting of the commission, which was to have commenced to-morrow, has been deferred. The chairman, Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., has made the following statement; “We have been served with a summons and a statement of claim issued out of the Supreme Court. We think that, pending the result of this action, we should not sit. Our sittings are hereforc postponed.” The establishment of a national insurance fund to provide some means of relief at times of national disasters such as earthquakes and floods was a matter that the Mayor of Hastings, Mr. G. A. Maddison, urged strongly in various quarters at Wellington during his visit to that city last week. Mr. Maddison interviewed the Minister of Finance, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, who, after greeting Mr. Maddison’s suggestion in a favourable manner agreed to investigate the proposal and see if it is practicable. Mr. Maddison also took the opportunity of mentioning the same subject to the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, and the Minister of Education, the Hon. R. Masters. When seismologists report upon earthquakes they generally refer to the “Epicentre” of the disturbance. This term, little used otherwise, is not generally understood. The actual source from which an earthquake arises may be at any depth, up to several miles, below the surface. This is the socalled “seismic centre.” The “epicentre” is the portion of the earth’s surface vertically above the seismic centre. As was recently pointed out by Dr. C. E. Adams, Government Seismologist, the epicentre seldom coincides with the area of maximum surface disturbance. Though the actual reason for this is not clearly understood, it is possibly due to the fact that the shock movement, is usually not vertical. Further particulars of catches of biggame fish off Mayor Island are made available by the arrival at Tauranga of the launches Naomi and Virginia. Fishing Iron) the Naomi, Colonel Bagmill, of Rotorua, ami Mr. E. E. Preston, of Tanrang'n, captured 21 swordfish. Colonel Bagnall caught nine, ranging from 2231 b. to H9lli, and Mr. Preston 12. weighing from 2311 b. to 4071 b. The party on the Virginia, J Colonel Gibb, Messrs L MeKelvie ami ' Harden, of Wellington, and Mr. J j Mowlem, of Tauranga. secured 14 swordfish and two inako sharks. The swordfish ranged from 3()lb. to 38OHi the majority being well over 3OOIb. The makes weighed 5831 b. and 4061 b., the former being a teeord for the season so tv One of the swordfish caught by Mr. Mowlem was evidently engaged in conflict before it was landed, as its bill was broken clean off and it was still i, bleedna*

A motor-ear collision in which the drivers of the cars concerned luckily escaped injury, but which resulted in serious damage to both vehicles, occurred on the Whakatu-Napier road on Saturday evening at about 9.30 0 'clock. One of the cars was driven by Mr. John Robert Hall and the other by Mr. Harry Roberts, of Hastings.

Fifteen New Zealand boys who have completed a year’s schooling on the naval training ship Philomel at the Devonport base left Auckland by train on Saturday afternoon for Wellington, where they will join either H.M.s. Dunedin or H. M. s. Diomede. The lads will be attached to the cruisers permanently. The next batch of boys to join the Philomel will be enrolled in May.

It has been pointed out in connection with the fire at Mr. W. C. Griffith’s stables, that Mr. Griffith had rescued the three horses before the tire brigade arrived on the scene. The loose boxes where the horses were kept were completely destroyed. Mr. ' Thomas, of Grove road, remembers one horse belonging to Mr. Kerehoma, being destroyed by fire in a Hastings stable.

While in Wellington attending the Municipal Conference it was the intention of the Mayor of Hastings, Mr. G. A. Maddison, to interview the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, regarding various matters in connection with the Hastings Memorial Hospital. However, the Minister was indisposed at the time and the conference will now not take place until next Monday.

Whangarel experienced its third successive frost on Friday. The frosts were comparatively light and disappeared rapidly with the coming of the sun. Frosts in Whangarei at this time of the year are unprecedented in the memory of the oldest residents. The days have been beautifully fine and

warm, resembling summer, but the evenings during the past ten days have been cold.

“It always amazes me that persons who come here and plead poverty are yet able to install expensive wireless sets, ’ ’ couilnented Mr. F. K. Hunt. S.M., in the Police Court at Auckland during the hearing of prosecutions of five defendants for having unlicensed wireless sets. One woman who appeared in answer to a charge said she and her family were in difficult circumstances, but she admitted that there was a somewhat expensive electric set at her home.

A unique St. Patrick’s Day memory is held by Mr. Arthur Hall, of Auckland, who celebrated on Saturday his jubilee as a member of the staff of Wilson and Horton, Limited. Recalling his first days with the company, Mr. Hall mentioned that he entered on his apprenticeship on St, Patrick’s Day, 1884. “The day was not an official holiday, but the firm had decided to allow the men off,’’ he said. “As a result I returned home an hour and a-half after I had left. My mother was horrified. ‘Surely you have not been discharged already,’ she said. I was able to reassure her, but I do not suppose either of us thought that was to be the start of 50 years of unbroken