Untitled

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 63, 12 February 1936, Page 6

The first Christian service in Australia was held under a tree on the banks of Sydney Cov© 148 years ago. On Sunday week, under a tree in the Domain, a commemoration of that' historic event took place. The opinion that in the interests of aviation in New Ze-aland an Air Ministry should be formed in the Dominion was expressed in a resolution passed yesterday afternoon bv the council of the Palmerston North Chamber or Commerce, to whom the matter had been referred by the Associated Cliamhers of Commerce for an indication of their point of view. At the last meeting of the Tokomaru Harbour Board, a lengthy report was considered from a firm of consulting engineers, concerning a pi-oposed new wllarf for Tokomaru Bay. The board decided to go ahead with the work, and it is understood that detaled plans are to be prepared immediately for a concrete! structure which is expected to cost in the vicinity of £22,000. A visitor from Auckland (Mr P. W. Sampson) had a narrow escape when he was driving to Christchurch from the south. Near Waipahi a pea rifle bullet entered the rear window of his car and passed through the windscreen, narrowly missing his head. There was no traffic on the road at the time and nobody was in sight. Mr Samps'on concluded that the bullet must have been fired by somebody shooting rabbits. He said that if he had turned bis head when the bullet passed through the car it would have struck him.

An unusual experience befell Mr G. Butt, Post Office official of Wliakataaio, when a wild duck went through the windscreen of his car while he was returning from Tauranga. It was just after midnight. While he was proceeding through Otakiri the duck, which was flying very low for one of its species, struck the windscreen immediately in front of the driver and the impact shattered most of the glass. The bird Hit Mr Butt a hard blow on the face, covering him with blood from an almost amputated wing. He escaped witli minor cuts on the face. “I have to inform you that the matter will receive consideration,” stated a reply received by the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, yesterday afternoon, from the chairman of the Main .Highways Boa.rd (Mr C. J. McKenzie) to its recent representations that the Pahiatua lload be declared a main highway, and that it be improved to carry traffic deviated because of blockages in the Manawa.tu Gorge during the wet weather. The letter was formally received, the president (Mr A. J. Graham) commenting that the matter was being kept steadily in view. Mr W. H. Cadwallader said improvements to the Pahiatua lload were proceeding almost continuously.

When the Waiwcra put to sea from Gisborne roadstead during the recent gale she carried with her ■ one of the Harbour Board’s portable radio telephones, and by this means was able to maintain regular communication with the shore and report her position. The staff at the signal station spoke to the liner every hour, the vessel in the meantime proceeding up and down the coast waiting for the gale to subside. The experience, indicentally, provided an unusual test for the radio telephone; equipment. It was found that it was possible to carry on a two-way communication without difficulty at a time when the Wairewa was approximately 30 miles distant from the land station, while speech from the liner was distinctly audible at a distance of 40 miles.

Five building permits, to the value of £2llO, were issued in the Manawatu county last month.

The Wellington Bowling Centre has agreed to the match with the Manawatu Centre taking place at Wellington on Wednesday next. The Minister of Health (Hon. P. Fraser) has been approached by Mr J. Hodgens, M.P., on behalf of the Palmerston North Hospital Board, to make an inspection of the Hospital and present medals won by nurses. No date has yet been fixed for the Minister’s visit. The Palmerston North City Council advised the Terrace End Progressive Association, last' evening, that it was awaiting a reply from the Kailway Department in reference to the leasing of the Terrace End gravel pit before considering finally a request that the pit be used as a playing area for children. The Commonwealth Government has decided to establish a national historical films and speaking records library as a section of the Commonwealth National Library at Canberra. A national film committee will be set up to determine what films shall be included in the collection, and to advise about technical details,

Seventy lives were lost when the steamer Penguin struck a rock off Cape Terawhiti 27 years ago to-night. A high sea was running on the night oi tho disaster, and the lifeboats were smashed to pieces against the side oi the vessel, or later swamped. The Penguin was bound from Nelson and Picton for Wellington.

Owing to there being no play on the first day of the match between the M.C.C. and Hawke’s Bay, approximately half the amount guaranteed Ip the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association for the match was lost. The a.mount taken at the gates on Saturday was about £75, and this will leave an amount of nearly £IOO for the guarantors to face.

It was pointed out by Mr H. M'. Whyte, of Scotland, who is on holiday in the south, that while in New Zealand excellent fishing can be enjoyed for the nominal sum of £1 a year, the rents in Scotland, where all fishing lights are privately owned, might be as much as £IOOO a year, and for this the fishing would not be up to the standard of New Zealand.

No difficulty was experienced by the fire brigade in extinguishing a fire which broke out in an unoccupied house at 113 Rangitikei Street yesterday afternoon. It was discovered that the flames had obtained a hold in the shingles on a portion of the roof from which the iron had been dislodged by the recent gale. The cause of the outbreak could not be discovered. There is a small river in Marlboi> ough, tlie Waihopai, which is giving engineers an unusual amount of trouble. Well up in a rocky gorge in the foothills above Blenheim, it was dammed about 10 years ago to supply storage for Blenheim’s hydro-electric supply, but since that time so much silt and shingle has backed up against the dam that a storage lake no longer exists.

A whistling wind and fitful shadows provided the atmosphere for the meeting of the executive of the Terrain End Progressive Association in the Bowling Club’s pavilion last evening. The recent gale had severed the electric light wires, and the business was transacted by the aid of four candles which provided a small circle of uncertain light about which red glows in the darkness designated the presence of meni hers whose positions were shown by their cigarettes.

Extension of Cook Strait Airways’ service between Wellington, Blenheim and Nelson down the West Coast to Hokitika is now under consideration, although it is only six weeks since the cross-strait service was inaugurated. When this link becomes operative., there will be a continuous airline operating from Palmerston North down to South Westland, running through tho South Island almost parallel with Union Airways’ trunk route to Dunedin.

The fact that water, though not of a quality fit for human consumption, is obtainable within twelve feet of the street level in the Square was elicited in a discussion of the city water supply at a meeting of the executive of the Terrace End Improvement and Progressive Association, last night. It was stated that when tlie water level reached + hc Fitzlierbert bridge level it used to be discernible on the premises of the old Occidental Hotel at the corner of Fitzlierbert Avenue and the Square. Mr C. L. Hunter, M.P., is at present taking action in connection with the proposed new Technical High School for Levin. Members of the School Committee conferred with tlie member during tho week, when the questions, and in particular the education reserve area on the corner of Bath and Cambridge Streets, were 'fully discussed. After an' inspection of the areas concerned Mr Hunter will communicate with the Minister of Education (Hon. P. Fraser) with a view to furthering the matter. “Having suffered a similar visitation in October, 1934, we can more readily realise the tremendous damage done to your city and district,” stated a letter received bv the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, yesterday afternoon, from the Masterton Chamber of Commerce in conveying deep sympathy with Palmerston North citizens in the great loss they had suffered through the ravages of the recent storm. Appreciation of the tenor of this letter was expressed bv members of the Palmerston North chamber, which decided to reply conveying these sentiments.

Attention was drawn at the Mana,watu County Council meeting yesterday to the very rough and pot-holed, condition of the strip of tar-sealed road at Hitnatangi, on the FoxtonSandon highway. It was stated that many complaints had been received from motorists a-nd the question had been asked what the council intended doing about the road. The engineer (Mr H. V. Bond) explained that the piece of road in question had nothing to do with the council. The Main Highways Board had taken it over for experimental purposes, and the sealed coat that had been put on, and which was now badly worn, was merely an experimental surface. The council was not called upon to do anything, hut he understood the board intended doing something to the road.

The roads in New Zealand are a credit to tlie country, considering its youth, in the opinion of Dr. R. F. Harvey, a London doctor who is at present visiting Christchurch. Dr. Harvey arrived -In New Zealand about Christmas, arid since then has been on a motor tour of the North Island and parts of the South Island. Not everywhere has he found the roads of the same high quality, sharp bends, twisting routes, ,and steep grades he found fairly frequent and very trying on tlie motorist—but generally driving was a pleasure, and there had been a vast improvement in the roads since his last visit to the Dominion more than 20 years ago. He was impressed with the manner in which roads had been hewn out of seemingly impassable country, and confessed that it puzzled him to know how in the first place surveys had been made in the bush-clad lands.