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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 281, 26 October 1934, Page 6

No fixtures have been made for tomorrow at the Supreme Court at Palmerston North, bankruptcy applications will be taken at 9.30 a.m. on Monday and divorce petitions at 9.30 a.m. daily subject to arrangements With the Registrar. No fixture lias yet been made for the hearing of Licensing Act case appeals. Information that two coveys ot chukor of about 70 birds had been seen at Hawhrden was placed before a meeting of the council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society recently in the report of the game committee. The report stated that Mr J. Quigley, of Rawarden, had recently seen the two coveys at the back of “The Peaks.” It was very pleasing to find that the birds had become established in the district, said Mr D. C. Wheeler, chairman of the committee, in submitting the report. He added that the birds had been liberated two years ago. He did not know where the particular birds had been liberated, but the nearest point at which liberations had been carried out was a considerable distance from The Peaks.”

Seven young men from Christchurch who set out on Sunday from Lees Valley to canoe down the Ashley River had a much more dangerous and exciting voyage than any of them bargained for. Three canoes started on the adventure, two reached the traffic bridge over the Ashley at Rangiora, but the third, hurled against a cliff wall when it got out of control in the rapids above Ashley Gorge, was so badly damaged that it will probably never be used again. All of the seven men at one time or other were in the water. The smallest canoe, 10 feet in length, carrying E. Rich, had a comparatively easy trip (says the Christchurch Press), with only one capsize in deep water, and with little or no damage structurally. The second canoe, 14 feet in length, manned by G. A. Doig and L. It. Hewitt, met with an early mishap and had to be taken to the Ashley Domain for repairs. The most unfortunate crew—T. T. Robins, I. W. Tucker, and E. M. Wilson-—in a 16-foot canoe, had an earlier misfortune before meeting with complete disaster, when their canoe, travelling at fast speed in swift water, went over a small waterfall and tossed its occupants into a deep pool. Later m the trip this canoe was so badly damaged that it had to be abandoned.

“There are many evidences of improvement in trading conditions,” said Sir George Elliot, when speaking at the annual meeting of an insurance company at Auckland yesterday.

A resident of Gladstone Road, Levin, who is conversant with New Zealand bird life, reports having heard a nightingale for the last three or four nights in a piece of bush near her residence.

In the near future the well-deck of the Government motor-ship Maui IJomare is to be covered in to increase her cargo carrying capacity, and to enable this to be done £I3OO has been voted in the Estimates.

The budgerigar has become a very popular bird in Auckland, and a local society has been formed of owners. A start was made with less than 19 members a little over two months ago, and the membership is now approaching the hundred mark.

“It is better t° be five minutes late in this world than fifty years too early in the next,” commented His Honour Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North to-day when evidence was being given concerning speeds in a motor collision.

The half-yearly allocation of income under the will of the late Sir Charles Skerrett, a former Chief Justice, whereby- he sot aside portion of his estate to apply the income to such educational charities in New Zealand as the trustees might think fit, has been made, the Palmerston North Convent receiving £lO. The Auckland City Council has decided to contribute £IOOO to assist the School of Engineering at the Auckland University College, which the council was informed was in' danger of being closed down. The Mayor (Mr G. W. Hutchison) stated that in such a case all the engineering students would have to go to Canterbury. Numerous cases of petty thieving and minor burglaries nave been reported lately in Palmerston North. An annoying feature of the occurrences where church and other buildings are unlawfully entered, is that though no money or valuables are kept on the premises, considerable damage has been done through locks being torn off and cupboards prized open. The area planted in potatoes last year throughout New Zealand was 35,028 acres, there being 6450 acres in the North Island and 18,578 acres in the South Island. These totals, as explained in this week’s Gazette, do not include plantings in holdings of less than an acre. It is estimated that 20,300 acres will be planted during the 1934-35 season, the areas being 5100 acres in the North Island and 15,200 acres in the South Island.

Two Palmerston North breeder's who were exhibiting at the Wairarapa show had small sums of money stolen from their clothing while they were asleep in the early hours of yesterday morning. Both men were guests at an hotel, near the main entrance, to the showgrounds, and were sleeping in separate rooms on the second Door. The thief or thieves secured about £4 in notes and silver. Entrance to the rooms was made between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., and the money in each case was taken from the visitors’ trouser pockets. An earthquake was felt in the Wairarapa and Manawatu districts, and in a lesser degree further afield, at 11 o’clock last evening. According to advice received by the Director-Gen-eral of the Post and Telegraph Department, it was rather severe in iVlasterton and Pahiatua. Other places to record the occurrence were Palmerston North, Wellington, Wanganui, and New Plymouth, but with considerably less intensity than the Wairarapa towns, which apparently were close to the centre of origin. Arrangements for the observance of Armistice Day on November 11 will, as notified in the latest Gazette, be similar to those made last year both in Great Britain and in this country. As Armistice Day this year falls on a Sunday, the New Zealand Government trusts that the Dominion churches will agree to arrange that on Sunday, November 11, the morning service shall commence not later than 10.45 a.m., and that, in the course of this service, the several congregations may be invited to rise at 11 a.m., and silence be observed for two minutes.

The countryside in its mantle of green presents a charming picture at the present time, but motorists who have passed through the Manawatu Gorge during the past few days have had unfolded to their view a spectacle which is quite superb, the broom which masks the hillsides on the Woodville side of the route being a mass of glorious golden colour. There are sections of the district where broom abounds, but beautiful as it might be, it cannot compare with richness of the broom an the Gorge with its deeper tones. Those motorists who have viewed the spectacle are loud in their praises and consider it well worth another visit.

Aviation has been adopted in commercial spheres with marked success and the Manawatu A. and P. Association is the latest organisation to avail itself of the aeroplane. On Wednesday morning, the secretary (Mr Hugh Kissling), with Mr E. TV. Barnett a member of the committee, as pilot,, flew to Masterton and Carterton and secured almost 100 late entries. They then flew to Wellington to secure amendments to the catalogue and were in Pelmerston North again in time to start their duties yesterday morning. There are now 4800 entries, which is in excess of those for the 1932 Royal Show.

Dr. A. R. Thorne, superintendent and secretary of the Bendigo Base Hospital, Australia, who has been appointed superintendent of the Wellington Hospital with full administrative control over' all departments, is expected to arrive for the commencement of his duties about the middle of next month. The appointment marks a departure entirely new to hospital administration in New Zealand. Dr. Thorne has been appointed to control not only the medical sphere of the hospital but to supervise all functions of the board’s activities including finance, allied institutions, charitable relief, and accounting generally.