LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 57, 19 February 1935, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

A climbing party at the week-end counted 10 white butterflies in the crater of Mount Egmont. Swarms of sandflies were also present, indeed so thick were they in some spots that the party could not lunch in peace. No sooner wa s food produced than the sandflies settled on it in a black cloud.

A party of New Plymouth fishermen report having sighted a large school of swordfish hurrying mackerel in deep water off the coast near Waitara last week. The fish were reported to be fine specimens of the big game species that proves such excellent sport for rod fishermen from all over the world in North Auckland. They have occasionally been sighted off the Taranaki coast before but seldom in large schools.

An inquest into the death of a small girl, Helen Amy Cater, from injuries received when she was knocked down by a lorry at Whakatu some time ago, is to be held at Hastings on Friday morning, commencing at 10 o'clock. At the same time the district coroner, Mr. (1. Ebbett, will deliver his verdict in the case of the death of Wilfred George Farquharsou, who died aa a result of an assault at Hastings.

The Haumoana Surf Club's display which was to have been given during the week-end was abandoned owing to the threatening weather in the morning. A large number of people visited the beach for the occasion and there was much disappointment that no display was given. 'The club was not at fault, because a decision 1... i to be arrived at in the morning and weather conditions were then anything but favourable.

So far a sum of £3O 5/- has been contributed to the fund for fencing the white pine bush at Tangoio, and a further £lO is expected as a contribution from the Napier Thirty Thousand Chib, states a letter received by the Hastings Chamber of Commerce lin n Mr. A. Dinnie, District Engineer for the Public Works Department. Arrangements are now in hand to go on with the work immediately.

The Hastings Chamber of Commerce decided last evening to write to the Associated Chambers of Commerce .pointing out that the PostmasterGeneral, when ho introduced the present telegraph rates, promised that the schedule would b 0 revised some months afterwards, and that although that time had elapsed, nothing had yet been done. The matter was mentioned by .Mr. Joseph Wilson, who said he believed that the business community would like to see a reversion to the old rates.

It is fairly certain that not everyone can say he has seen a pumpkin growing up a tree, yet a few observant people who daily pass a house along Shakespeare road, Napier, on the town side of foote road, may claim to have done so. From the top branches of a bushy tree about ten feet high, in the front of the garden a fairly largo niarrrow hangs pendulous, and looks for nil the world as though it were attached to the. tree itself. Poking here and there through the branches arc flowers and lines that have wandered far from the root, and give the illusion that the tree, is another ol Mother Nature's Ircaks.

A letter expressing appreciation of the County Council's action in placing a sum of money on its estimates lor the sealing of the road to Haumoana is to bo sent to the council by Ihe Hastings Chamber of Commerce. During a short discussion by members of tiro Chamber last evening, Mr. Cecil Duff said it was the natmal sea-side resort lor Hastings. The Hauinoana Improvement Committee had done a great deal of useful work on its own initiative, and deserved the utmost encouragement. Mr. W. G. Wood mentioned that the County Council had made financial provision for the tar-sealing of the Waimarama road also

Evidence that the climate of southern New Zealand was once favourable to the growth oi kauri trees is given by an interesting exhibit recently added to the collection nt the Canterbury museum. It is a black length of the wood, in the process ol becoming a piece of coal, and was found'by Mr ft. Speight and Dr W. P. Evans in a lignite pit at Mataura. Dr Evans says that the southern pits contain remains of beech and kauri, totara and other podocarps. .Mr Speight, the curator of the museum, says that the lignite pits of South and Central Otago are nearly all composed of drift wood, though stumps ol trees had been seen standing in the pits.

Since the meeting of tho Napier Harbour Board yesterday, there has been a further conference between reprsentatives of the Napier Aero Club, the Napier Borough Council and the board, who have resolved all preliminary matters in connection with the preparation of a bill to be placed before Parliament during this session, lor the constitution of an airport board at Napier, flic Mayor of Napiei, Mr. C. 0. Morse, said this morning that negotiations had now passed through all necessary stages, and the solicitors were preparing documents for presentation before "the House of Representaticek. He hoped the House would deal with the subject in the course of the present session “Banking without interest is not a new form of banking, as some would-be rolurmers suppose," said Mr Hugh C. Ji nkins, when addressing a Rotary ( lull meeting al Wanganui. In Fiji the Indians still practise the most primitive form ol banking known to ancient times,'' he, said. "With their savings they purchase gold and silver ornaments and adorn their wives with them. When the hisband is hard up he takes some of his wile's jewellery and sells it, and so providers himselt with funds from his 'bank . The use ol the Bost Office Savings Bank account is growing among the Indian', blit they are prone io put a pound in nt the beginning ol the week and withdraw it a shilling at a lime, exhausting the account at the end of the week. This phase of their education is fast disappearing, however, as is also the old method of pulling money in a bottle and burying it in the ground.”