LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 236, 18 September 1934, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

Tho Mayor of Hastings (Mr G. A. Maddison) acknowledges a donation of J 2/6 from Mr B. M. Kessell towards tho Mayor’s Relief Fund.

Mr J. E. Hewitt, of Mangamari, who is to be one of the judges of the Romney sheep section at the Spring Show, has consented to give a demonstration and lecture on Romney sheep on the second day of the show

When Mr R. McLean asked the engineer of the Napier Harbour Board, Air G. W. B. Lowson, what were the depths of water at the Port, he received the reply that at the West Quay there was 6 J feet—the worst. Further up the channel the depths rose to between IQ and 11 feet, and that the J.D.O. had been dredging at the iron Pot and Quay.

“It looks as though the sales tax has come to stay. I see they have budgeted for £2,000,000 out of it,” commented Mr 11. W. C. Baird, chairman of the Hastings Chamber of Commerce at its meeting last ereniug when the question of affording relief to taxpayers was briefly referred to in a circular letter received from the Associated Chambers of Commerce.

A more devoted follower of any sport could hardly be imagined than the father of Milner, a member of the Australian hockey team now touring New Zealand. Mr Milner is so wrapped up in the game, no doubt on account of his son’s success, that he travelled for nine days over a distance of more than 2000 miles—from his home in Perth to Sydney—in order to accompany his son on his visit to New Zealand.

A canvass for members is io be undertaken next week by the special committee appointed by the Hastings Chamber of Commerce. This fact was disclosed at tho meeting of the Chamber last evening when Mr J. Wilson, on behalf of the committee, intimated that the matter of increasing the membership had not been overlooked, but when first mentioned some months ago the committee had been of the opinion that the time was not then ripe. However, the committee was now ready to carry out the proposal.

The Welsh people in New Zealand are to supply the bardic chair for the next great Welsh Eisteddfod to be held at Carnarvon next August. The Eisteddfod is tho world-famous Welsh musical festival, and at its conclusion the winning bard is crowned in a. ceremonial chair supplied for the purpose. This year the Welsh people in New Zealand thought it was their turn to supply the chair, and to that end the sum of £3OO was collected aud the chair secured.

One of the oldest trees in Wanganui, probably 500 years old, is growing in a private garden on St. John’s Hill. It is a pukatea, a very slow growing tree, the wood of which is very tough ami useless for firing purposes. The tree stands in a clump of native bush, together with miros, karakas ami other native trees. It is fretn 12ft, to 14ft. in circumference. In the early days of Wanganui it was known as the “post office,” because romantic swains used to place their love-letters in a hollow in its trunk.

A tour round the world of a party of girls in 1935 is being promoted by the Western Australian Parents and Citizens’ Associations, who are inviting girls in Australia and New Zealand to join the party. The promoters call it the girls’ goodwill tour, and the itinerary includes visits to Suva, Hawaii, Canada, U.S.A., Britain and the Continent. The return will be via Suez. It is proposed by this means to provide for a very large organised party of girls seeing the world at a cost of about £3OO, very much less than would otherwise be possible.

One of tho assistants mowing the lawn edges in Cornwall Park, Hastings, last week, was attracted by an unusual sight. In the small stream running through the park he saw a large rat swimming along, holding an egg in its fore-feet. It was making good headway to the stone-work at the side, and had almost reached an opening among tho stones, when, sensing that it was observed it dropped the egg, which sank in the water, while the rat ran into the hole in the bank. Evidently it had got the egg from tho bottom of the creek where tho ducks swim and had brought it to the surface to carry to its hole.

Fifty years ago next month, in October, 1884, the railway lino from Auckland to tho Thames Valley was opened for traffic, as far as Morrinsville Junction. The Morrinsville Borough Council, which is arranging for the celebration of the district’s sixtieth anniversary of settlement this year, has invited the Railway Department to co-operate in commemorating at tho same time the golden jubilee of Morrinsville railway station. A reply from the General Manager of Railways read at a meeting of the Borough Council stated that the department would be only too pleased to assist.

The longest case in the history of industrial litigation, an application by tho Locomotive Enginemen’s Union, begun seven years ago, reached its concluding stages at Melbourne on August 29. Final addresses were commenced in the Arbitration Court before Judge Drakc-Brockinau in tne ease which deals with rates of pay aud conditions of service for locomotive running men in. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Evidence already given covered 12,000 pages, which stood in a pile 2ft. Gin. high. The address by the Rail

way Commissioners covered 500 pages, and the union reply, estimated to take about a week to deliver, began on the date mentioned. Mr A. S. Drakeford, Federal president of the union, assisted by Mr J. M. Galvin, Federal secretary, delivered the address. Except for the period 1930-33 when the Court refused to exercise jurisdiction, the case has proceeded almost continuously since July, 1928