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Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 307, 25 November 1932, Page 6

The November series of Sydney wool sales closed yesterday on a very firm market.

Thirty-three goldmining concerns have been formed in New Zealand this year, the nominal capital being £499,274. The Auckland City Council last night decided to again refuse the use of the Town Hall for Sunday faithhealing meetings. Since the Palmerston North Free Ambulance Transport Service started seven months ago, the ambulance had, up to yesterday, run exactly 5000 miles.

Mr Charles Barwell, of Auckland, who is 70 years of age, this week completed a trip by bicycle from the extreme north of New Zealand to Bluff and back to Auckland.

“London has still the best controlled road traffic and the worst controlled footpath traffic in the world,” stated an Auckland resident who returned this week from a trip to England.

Confidence has been largely restored in Britain, and Treasury bills are being taken up at low interest rates, not only by Home investors, but also by foreign interests, according to Sir Harold Beauchamp, director of the Bank of New Zealand, who returned to Wellington yesterday.

For the second time within two months the premises of Mr L. Ingram, hairdresser and tobacconist, in High Street, Dannevirke, were burglariously entered between closing time on Wednesday afternoon and early yesterday morning, when a clean sweep of the shelves in the shop, containing cigarettes and tobacco, was made, the proprietor estimating his loss at between £3O and £4O.

.Reporting on the Avon and Heathcote Estuary Conservancy Bill, the Local Bills Committee recommended to the House of Representatives yesterday that, as it provided for the creation of another local authority, and in view of the fact that the Government proposed to undertake investigation into the possibility of reducing the number of local authorities, the Bill should not be allowed to proceed this session. I

The recent series of mishaps to aero club machines is understood to have had a serious effect on the clubs. Recently, three aeroplanes were damaged to such an extent that they could not be recommissioned, and the clubs are finding it difficult to obtain sufficient machines to train the number of pupils offering. It is understood that a plane which was for sale in Wellington a lew days ago was very eagerly sought after and purchased. There is a definite shortage in the Dominion.

A total of 31 individual buildings, representing a cost of £214,645, have been completed in the town area of Napier, comprising Emerson, Hastings and Tennyson Streets, while ah additional £187,757 is involved in the 48 blocks which are in the progress of erection at the present time. So far, an expenditure of £402,402 is being, or has been, undertaken in the erection of 79 blocks in the town area proper, while these figures could he increased to a very considerable extent if work done oil buildings damaged by the earthquake and not by fire were also taken into consideration.

“There is a general feeling of optimism in England and banking authorities are of the opinion that there is a definite movement toward improved financial and commercial conditions,” said Mr J. W. Hayden, of Auckland, who returned this week from a visit abroad. He had been struck by the high retail prices being maintained for New Zealand meat and expressed the opinion that an influential “ring” must be operating to produce such a result. It was a great pity so much New Zealand butter was being blended with foreign butter in England, usually Russian. It was being sold under an Empire'label, which w’as extremely misleading.

On a recent afternoon members of the Lyttelton Rowing Club, who were resting on the staging at the club’s sired, witnessed an unusual sight. Just a little way from the floating slipway a ling,- over four feet in length, darted out of the water at a great speed and landed high and dry on the rocks about two feet above the water line. The fish wriggled and slipped off the rocks back into the water. An onlooker hastened down to the spot, and seizing the ling by a gill, brought it ashore. Those who witnessed tire incident (says the Christchurch Times) were astonished by the speed with which the ling travelled through the water, and were of the opinion that some other fish must have chased it.

“Urgent public business,” on account of which members of Parliament are frequently granted leave of absence, may relate to a wide variety of circumstances. However, when that reason was given when leave was applied for on behalf of two Labour members in the House yesterday, there seemed to be no doubt among members as to the real nature of the “urgent public business.” Loud laughter greeted a request for three days’ leave for Mr J. A. Lee on that account, and the general merriment was renewed when a similar application was made on behalf of Mr W. J. Jordan. Both members have been busily campaigning in the Motueka electorate during the past week or two on behalf of the Labour candidate, Mr P. C. Webb.

“I have always lived In hope that the day might come when I would see your church destroyed by earthquake or by fire. The history, attached to it is not lovely, and has been a matter of sorrow to many. Indeed, I hope the dry rot will get rid of it for you, and allow you to erect something finer and better,” said Archbishop Julius, preaching at St. Johns Church, Woolston, in connection with tho seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations (reports the Christchurch Press). “Why on earth you took down the old clay church I don’t know,” he said, “for what finer building material is there than clay? Of course, 75 years is a long spell in a young land, but in England it is quite a common thing for a church to celebrate the 750th anniversary of its consecration.”

Several instances of narrow escapes from death which had occurred as a result of people interfering with fallen electric power wires rye re reported to the Ashburton Electric Power Board by the running engineer (Mr A. T. Saunders), who said that in some cases fallen wires were not being treated with the caution they deserved.. In one case a small boy oh his way home from Bchool was seen playing with a wire at Mitcham. Five minutes before that wire was carrying 6600 volts. On another occasion wires were reported down in the Lagmhor district. The faultmen happened to be at Rakaia, but when they returned and went to carry out repairs they found that someohe had removed the crossarm with live wires attached from a fallen pole and fastened it to a stake driven into the ground. In a further case, some bushmen had felled a tree on the line. They proceeded to cut it clear, and during the operations one of the men saw blue flames flying from the wire. He got a bucket of water and threw over it to put the fire out. In each of those cases the persons responsible escaped death or at least serious injury by luck —a matter of only a few seconds. It was decided to circularise all the schools in the Ashburton County pointing out the danger of children handling fallen electric wires.