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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 117, 17 April 1934, Page 6

The 49th anniversary of the turning of the first sod of the North Island Main Trunk raihvay occurred on Sunday. A feature of the Wanganui horse fair on Saturday was the demand for draught and half-draught horses. Approximately 130 horses were offered and all but 20 were sold.

Since Mr George Bernard Shaw so lavishly praised the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Barbadoes Street, Christchurch, there has been intense interest in the building, citizens visiting it in hundreds every day. An official of the Catholic Presbytery, speaking to a Press representative, drolly estimated that half the people of _ Christchurch would have cricks in their necks from looking at it. “It has been here for 30 years,” he said, “but you would think it had freshly dropped from heaven.”

The figures showing the different types .of motive power used in New Zealand industries, as given in the annual. statistical report on factory and building production in 1932-33 for the Dominion, provide a good idea of the way in which industry is expanding. Most industries showed gains in horsepower, the largest being 106,505 horsepower in the electric supply industry. The total horse-power used in the Dominion’s industries was given as 642,116, an increase of 108,328 horse-power, or 20.3 per cent., on the previous year.

In view of the large flow of water from ail artesian well in the Cloverlea soldier settlement, which was running into two of the board’s drains, the Manawatu Drainage Board recently took up the shutting off of some of the water with the Department of Lands and Survey. At its meeting yesterday the board received a reply from the department stating that it was thought possible to shut off the water. It was decided to advise the department that if immediate action was not taken the board would have the well closed at the department’s expense.

An escape which appeared little short of miraculous was experienced by an Invercargill schoolboy cyclist the other day. He and a companion were cycling out of Nith Street into Tay Street when lie collided _ with a taxi travelling towards the railway station. The force of the impact was such that the boy was thrown over the bonnet of tho ear and somersaulted on to the tram lines, while his bicycle, badly smashed, was carried a considerable distance beneath the taxi. It looked as though a tragedy had happened, but onlookers were relieved to see the boy pick himself up, and, after rubbing one arm and leg, walk away, apparently no more hurt than if he had gone down to a hard tackle on the football field.

The Darmevirke Borougli Council has decided that application be made for consent to the conversion of the borough loans. According to the Otago Daily Times, the Otago portion of last week’s air mail was ingloriously canned over the final stages by a goods train. The election of new school committees last evening was unique in that, under recent legislation, they will be the first in the Dominion to hold office for two years. Coal consumed by the Palmerston North Hospital during the past year was 1228 tons, compared with 1284 in 1932-33 and 1468 in 1931-32. The coal cost, on an average, 30s per ton. The executive of the Associated Chambers of Commerce has set up a “Trade with the East” sub-committee to secure all information possible with regard to the possibilities of New Zealand trading with Eastern countries. A crew of Chinese under the command of Captain It. Cordy, has arrived at Wellington by the Maunganui to take away the steamer Katoa, which was sold last year by the Union Company to the Aloller Company, Shanghai. Patients’ fees at the Palmerston North Public Hospital are now five times as much as the aggregate of twelve years ago, indicating the growth of the institution, which every day provides housing and food for a staff and patients numbering 464. Next year there will be celebrated the jubilee of the Terrace End School. In mentioning this fact at the householders’ meeting last evening the headmaster (Mr A. W. Thompson) said the new committee, elected for two years, would have something to look forward to. In consequence of its offer of a bounty for the destruction of hawks, the Auckland Acclimatisation Society expended £2BB 19s 6d last year in payment for the extermination of 11,559 hawks. In the past 12 years 156,531 of these birds were destroyed at a cost to the society of £4186 4s 2d. A great marine disaster which shocked the world occurred 22 years ago on Saturday, when the Titanic, a White Star liner of 45,000 tons, collided with an iceberg off the Newfoundland coast while on her maiden voyage from Southampton to Neb York. The vessel sank and 1635 lives were lost out of a complement of 2310. The Christchurch police have established the identity of a young man who is stated to have plunged into the Waimakariri River from the traffic bridge early in the evening of Monday last week. Later in the night another man was seen to jump off the parapet of the bridge, but an extensive search has failed to reveal any trace of him. It is now certain that two different men were involved. “For instance, when the Douglas Social Credit people were meeting at Ashhurst, had this hall been here you might have invited them to hold their gathering in Pchangina instead of living in tents down there,” remarked Hon. J. G. Cobbe, in lighter vein when declaring the new hall at Pohangina officially open last evening. “You would have learned a lot about finance, the A plus B theorem and other matters that the bankers do not know at all.” A statement presented at to-day’s meeting of the Kairanga County Council disclosed that of rates struck for the year 1933-34, 91.9 per cent, had been paid of the total of £5882 17s 2d levied in the Taonui riding; 87 ; 8 per cent, of the £4305 4s 4d levied in the Mangaone riding, and 87.4 per cent, of the £4351 16s 3d levied in the Fitzherbert riding. The percentage over the whole of the county is 89.4 as compared with 86.4 last year — an improvement of 3 per cent. Following a discussion with Mr W. H. Cadwallader (Inspector of Labour at Palmerston North) in committee, the Manawatu Drainage Board yesterday decided to hold .over the framing of 'the estimates for this year until the next meeting, when the position with regard to the employment of relief labour on board works would be more defined. It was explained that the matter of how much relief labour could be employed would affect the cost of the maintenance of the board’s drains.

The following is culled from the Dannevirke News: —“It happened in Palmerston North. Arriving there from Chateau Tongariro, Air Bernard Shaw spent the night in one of the town’s best known hotels. Early next morning a maid brought him a cup of tea. Air Shaw was duly appreciative. About half an hour later the same girl knocked on the door and entered his room, a jug of steaming hot water in her hand. ‘Your shaving water, sir,’ she announced. And, perhaps for the first time in his life, England’s best known satirist was left without a reply 1” Reporting to the meeting of the Technical School Committee yesterday afternoon, Air G. G. Hancox, the director of the school, stated that Professor Strong, of the University of Otago, and other visitors had been favourably impressed with the facilities at the house for the teaching of household management and with the training given tlie girls to make them efficient in the domestic arts. “It is gratifying to learn that other schools are about to follow our lead. You will be interested to know, too, that as a result of our pioneering, at least two other technical schools have built assembly halls,” Air Hancox added. “I find it extremely difficult to get away except at the week end or at the beginning of the week,” said Hon. J. G. Cobbe, when declaring the new hall at Pohangina officially open last evening, in touching upon his life as a Minister of the Crown and explaining that he had to leave at 5 a.m. this morning for AVellington. “A Minister has very little time in which to visit his district. I have thought at times that it would be better to elect a mail wlio is not likely to become a Alinister. He might then be able to have the time to visit liis district and see how matters were in different parts. But if you elect a man and he becomes a Alinister then yen just have to put up with it.”