LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 232, 13 September 1934, Page 6

LOCAL & GENERAL

Eighteen fully qualified second mates are serving as able seamen aboard the Port Gisborne, which is at present at New Plymouth. “There were no vacancies when wo returned to Britain last trip and the men have stuck to the ship,” said Captain W. G.,Higgs.

A request for repairs to the river crossings on the Hampden-Maraekaka-ho road has been referred by the Hawke's Bay County Council to the engineer, Mr. R. Puflett, to report upon the extent of tho work required to be' carried out.

Plans have been approved by the Public Works Department for a new reinforced concrete bridge over Bicknell's stream ou the Puketapu-Hako-whai road. The new bridge will be on a much improved alignment to the present structure, giving a wider radius to both approaches.

Extending over seven feet in length, the root of a tree was found in a New Plymouth drainage pipe by sewerage contractors. Th loot had penetrated a joint in a six-inch pipe and had completely blocked it. It was stated by the contractors that there were occasional instances of tree roots penetrating pipes, but thpy had never previously heard of one growing to this size.

Notice appears iu a recent copy of Hie New Zealand Gazette of the aoqllirnig of 1 rood 34 perches of land ar Whakutu required in connection with the construction of the new Whakatu railway bridge. The new bridge, which is to be two feet higher than the present structure and slightly greater in length, will bo commenced at an early date.

hi New South Wales the Christmas gilt lamb export campaign has taken on a sporting complexion, A correspondent writes to a Sydney paper:— “1 notice in your issue of yesterday that somoono is sending Larwood a laud). Strange to say, the first day the campaign opened I went down tn the Commonwealth Bank and arranged to send one to an old cricketer friend of mine, with the remark that, as Englund must have been very disappointed with the ‘Old Woolley,’ in the Test mutch, 1 was sending him ji young woolly.”

An observant New Plymouth citizen is at present concerned by tho omnipresence of superstition iu the civilised wnimuiiity. Ho claims to have observed tho behaviour of no less than 28 pedestrians in Devou street recently when a painter was busy on the front of a building. Twenty-seven, bo declares, went to some trouble to avoid walking under the tradesman’s ladder. The twenty-eighth failed to notice it until he had almost passed beneath it. Ho glanced up, registered an expression ot horror and amazement and departed hurriedly with his thumbs crossed behind his back!

When James Brown, who is 62 years of age, awoke to find the tent in which ho was camping near Forbes (New South Wales) a. mass of flames, he wrapped the blankets aud sheets from his bed around his body and rolled the length of the tent under the flap, and out into the open air, Ho received a singed head and face, but otherwise was unhurt. Brown watched his worldly belongings going up in smoke, aud then calmly took an unburnt piece of the tent from the smouldering ruins, wrapped it around himself, and went to sleep for the remainder of the night in the open under a gum tree.

A protest was received from the Ts Arolia branch of tho Auckland Acclimatisation Society at a recent meeting of tho council of the society against the practice of confiscating tho guns of poachers who were convicted, iu addition to inflicting a fine. It was considered that where a poacher was heavily lined, it was unfair to confiscate his gun also. “Confiscation is an obnoxious term and a relic of the dark ages,” stated the letter, “and we think tho regulation should be modified or abolished.” It was decided to reply that the council regarded the provision as a great deterrent to poaching.

Some responsible people in Dunedin recently wrote to the church authorities in Waimato North, asking for tho loan of Bishop Selwyn’s old registers to examine the entries made about 1844, and during the bishop’s southern tour in 1848. The wardens and vestry could not be persuaded to part with the precious books, but the vicar offered to make any copies that might be warranted. In 1914 a Government official was on his way to Waimato North to make some copies, but ho died at Russell. Tho war broke out soon alter, and the copies were never made. All tho old registers, Maori ami pakoha, arc kept solely locked in a largo iron sui’o at Waimato North.

Cabinet is giving much attention to tho nature of tho legislation required to give effect to Hie recommendations of the Dairy Commission. These were contained in a private interim report received last week. They were considered at a Cabinet meeting on Monday, and to-day the members of the commission are conferring with Cabinet on the subject. The final report of tho commission is expected later in the month, but to-day’s conference indicates that the Government is anxious to expedite as much as possible tho task ot preparing legislation. It is also possible there are aspects of the commission’s recommendations which ban best be discussed by a round-table meeting.

On the last Sunday in June, 30,1)00 railwaymen were employed counting all the railway waggons in Britain. Before the count was made it was estimated that there were 705,000 railway-owned waggons, and 700,000 privately owned, mainly belonging to collieries. Altogether 51,000 miles of railway Were to bn'patrolled, and (he enumerators were to count not only the wagons, but also the railway-owned tarpaulin sheets with which many more were covered. Thousands of forms had to be filled up, and when all the figures were available it was to bo the work of the Railway (Tearing House to equalise (Im rolling stock between the various railway groups. It was known that a largo number of wagons had been working on systems io which they did not belong borne 30,000 tarpaulin ,;hects had 1.0 bo accounted for.