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Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 113, 12 April 1929, Page 6

It is reported that during the past two weeks there has been a steady inquiry in Palmerston North for properties, and several farms in the surrounding district ase stated to have changed hands.

As a result of being knocked down by. a motor car in King Street, Dunedin yesterday afternoon, a girl named Betty Denton, whose parents reside in Ellis Street, was admitted to hospital, shortly after 2.30. She was suffering from.' head injuria and later succumbed.

“I did not know that was the law,” said a defendant in the Napier Court, in answer to a charge in relation to an offence while riding a motor-cycle. “All I can say,” remarked the Magistrate, Mr A. M. Mowlem, “is that if you own a motor-cycle, it is your duty to know all the law in connection with it.” ' .

Cabinet yesterday decided to reerect the cairn to the memory- of Sir John .McKenzie, which, on account.of climatic changes, had fallen .into a state of disrepair. The cairn will, be erected on the top of Puketapu Hill, in the vicinity of Palmerston North, provided -it can be acquired and adapted for the purpose. Speaking at New Plymouth, Mr: H. H. Sterling, . General Manager of Railways, stated that, included in the rolling stock programme, . were very substantial additions to the insulated wagons. The softening of the meat, Mr Sterling added, was a matter that had been engaging the attention of the department for some time. Engineers had 'made tests in the Hawke’s Bay district with a view to improving insulation, and much valuable information had been obtained. He was hopeful that insulation in the future would be very much superior* to what it had been in the past. As the old ’.wagons went through the insulation would be taken in hand and improved, so' that it was hoped to overcome the difficulty'of meat softening on any reasonable length of haulage.'

Richard Gough, a gardener, of •Woburn Road, Lower Hutt, while trimming a bush yesterday, fell from a ladder, fracturing his skull. He died in hospital.

William Marsh, aged 29, was killed yesterday as a result of falling from and being run over by a crusher on the Main North Road near Waitara, states a New Plymouth Press Association message. '■ When Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Public Works, visits Palmerston North to-morrow, representations will probably be made to him in connection with the Manawatu-Oroua River Boards’ modified flood control scheme. A fracture of the pelvis was sustained bv an Auckland Harbour Board employee, Mr Percy Wright, as a result of being jammed between a truck and a coal-grab on King’s Wharf this week. Mr Wright, who is marribd, aged 51, was removed to hospital. Owing to dense fog on the coast, Captain Chandler, who left* the Wigram Aerodrome at 2.25 on Wednesday, flying a Moth ’plane to Blenheim, was forced to descend at Hawkswood, about 90 miles from Christchurch. Captain Chandler landed in a field iwjlfhout -damaging the ’plane.

A Press Association telegram from Dunedin states that advice has been received that the Dunedin Harbour Board’s new dredger Otakau was successfully launched at Paisley’ on Wednesday, two months in advance of contract time. Her cost was £123,00u.. The dredge has a hopper capacity oi 2000 tons. Officials of the New Zealand University stated last night, with reference to southern' rumours of a .CSAIOO a year grant for five years to a southern university by the Carnegie corporation, that no pronouncement on the subject had yet been made by the Carnegie Corporation (states a Wellington message). ' -

A Statistical Conference is to be held at Canberra on May 20, .at whish all the Australian States are to be represented. Cabinet yesterday apt pointed Mr Malcolm Fraser, the head of the department here; to attend on behalf of New Zealand, at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth.

A proposal to obtain a Chinese evangelist to minister to his compatriots in Auckland is before the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Assembly* stated Rev. E. R. Harries at a meeting of the Auckland Presbytery. No definite decision has been made, but the suggestion had found considerable support. , A proposal w.as put before the Nelson Hospital Board by United Friendly Societies’ Council this week, asking in effect that, subject to a payment of 3s per member per quarter for not less than 250 members, they and their wives and children under 16 be given free medical treatment. It was resolved to defer the matter to enable the new board to deal with it.

What may possibly have a connection with the recent attempt to blow open the safe in the Opotiki branch of the Bank of New Zealand is the discovery that the Farmers’ Trading Company’s magazine in the sandhills near the township has been broken into and three boxes of gelignite, weighing 151 b., stolen. Apparently the door of the magazine was forced with a crowbar. The discovery was made accidentally by some children.

Abuot 11 o’clock on Wednesday night a motor-car, driven by Mr George Poison Maul, commercial traveller, of Palmerston North, crashed into a concrete bridge on the Masterton-Carter-ton Road. The car was proceeding from Carterton to Masterton; When approaching the bridge one of the front tyres blew out, causing the car to swerve off the bitumen road and hit like bridge. The driver fortunately escaped injury, but the car was badly damaged, and could not be removed under its own power.

In comparative figures submitted to the Nelson Hospital Board meeting yesterday, covering the last three years, it was shown that fees received increased from £3470 'to £5154, inpatients treated from 1053 to 1367 out-patients from 325 to 528, maternity cases 37 to 128, operations from 461 to 817. The levy ' required is £9377 against £IO,IBB in 1927. Whilst not commenting on the increase in operation. figures, the chairman (Mr T. Neale) remarked that -it gave one cause for deep thought. What appears to have been a determined attempt to set fire to the King’s Hall (lateT£ing’s Theatre) was made at Rotorua one night this week. The hall was closed after the usual dance and when it was opened next morning for cleaning purposes it was discovered •that someone had poured kerosene in the passage way leading to the supper room. The fire followed the kerosene along the floor, which was charred and considerable damage done. . Fortunately the fire did not reach any wall or partition, the damage being confined to the floor.

The .level of. the Waikato River, between Arapuni and Horahora, where the bed was raised by the mass of pumice poured into it from the erosion of the new course, has been falling about 4in a month for some time. This means that a channel is being cut through the deposit. Beaches are again appearing, and it does not seem likely that the Horahora station will again experience extreme difficulty from clogged screens unless a flood should cause the undermining of high banks. In future, however, flood effects will be reduced down stream from Arapuni, where the lake created by the dam, will exercise a marked control in the discharge of abnormal water.