LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 158, 20 June 1935, Page 6

LOCAL & GENERAL

Dinner for All Blacks. The management committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union last night decided to entertain the All Blacks at a dinner in Wellington on the night of July 30, prior to their departure for England the next day. Argyll Murder Appeal. The Christchurch branch of the No Afore War Movement has sent a letter to the Governor-General urging that the Executive Council should not commit “another murder” by hanging Charles William Price, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Eva Madden, but should exercise its power of reprieve. Motu Resident Missing. Mr. William H. Cooper, a wellknown resident of Motu, where he has lived for many years, has been missing since Sunday. Ho visited friends on Saturday night and was last seen in the township again about 10 a.m. on Sunday. Constable McClinchy, of Matawai, with a party of residents, commenced a thorough search of the district, but there was still no trace of Mr. Cooper. He is a single middleaged man. * Tameness of Bellbirds. The opinion that it was possible io tame some New Zealand native birds provided that sufficient patience and care were exercised, was expressed by Mr. A. T. Pycroft at a meeting of the executive of the Auckland Zoological Society. Air. Pycroft said that on a recent visit to North Canterbury he had seen bellbirds feeding from small honey-ipots attached to a stick, which was being held by a man. The man was a nature-lover and had spent a long time inducing the birds to feed from the pots.

Whirlwind on Farm. A whirlwind restricted to a limited area struck the farm of Air. F. R. Merriman in the Pye’s Pa district, about seven miles from Tanranga, on a recent morning. A cowshed was unroofed and some of the corrugated iron sheets were carried a considerable distance. A small shed was lifted off its blocks and swept over a fence, while the tops and numerous limbs cvere torn off about a dozen wattle trees in a belt rhat is about 30ft. high. The whirlwind was confined to a narrow track and no further damage has been reported.

Nothing Impossible. Apparently there is little that is impossible to the expert. Yesterday Air. R. B. Hammond, Dominion Town Planner, during a discussion on the hying out of the proposed civic square, told the Mayor, Mr. G. A. Maddison, that it would not be at all difficult to move the Cenotaph so long as it had not a reinforced concrete foundation. Not long ago, be said, he supervised the moving of a twenty-roomed wooden house, with seven chimneys. The house was taken to another site some distance away, and re-erected in five sections, each of which was transformed into a separate house. The remarkable part of the feat was that every one of the chimneys was left intact.

All Warships at Sea. All the four New Zealand warships

—the Dunedin, Diomede, Leith and Wellington—are absent from Auckland at present, but the war sloop Wellington will return to-day from the Hauraki Gulf, where she is carrying out gunnery exercises. The other three warships are making winter cruises to the South Sea Islands, the Dunedin having sailed on June 5 and the Leith on Juno 11. The last to depart was the Diomede, commanded by Captain Cosmo Graham, which sailed for the Islands on Tuesday afternoon. The Diomede’s first port of call will be Nukualofa, Tonga, and after visiting 11 other islands she is scheduled to return to Auckland on August 23.

Valuation Objections. Apparently there is some misunderstanding in the minds of ratepayers wishing to make objections against the recent borough valuations, states the Town Clerk, Air. Noel C. Harding. A number of ratepayers with objections to make have been sending them to Mr. F. C. Wilkinson, borough assessor, whereas they should be sent direct to the Valuation Department in Wellington. Mr. Wilkinson, as assessor, is a member of the Assessment Court which will eventually sit in Hastings to hear objections, the other members being the local Stipendiary Magistrate and a representative of the Valuation Department. Forms on which to enter objections may be obtained from the borough office or from Air. Wilkinson, and the closing date is June 22.