GENERAL NEWS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6733, 9 October 1928, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS

Adam Ernest Smith, aged 51, an insurance agent of Christchurch, was found dead yesterday morning at his residence with a gun alongside the body. P.A. At a recent meeting of the Central Power Board, it was decided to pay the telephone rental fees of those consumers who had been given an all-night connection for the purpose of reporting break-downs in the service. There were 143 connections made by the workmen of the Manawatu-Oroua Electric Power Board during the month of September. The various matters attended to .were as follow;—Lighting and heating, 33; ranges, 6; water heaters, 39; motors for milking, 31; other motors, 11; industrial, 5; additions, 16; street lights, 1. “Prom 12th September to 3rd October a period of 19 office days, 32 travellers called on the Engineering Department of this Board in Palmerston North, seeking orders. This seemed to be less than the usual number," said Mr. W. A. Waters, chief engineer, when reporting to the Manawatu-Oroua Power Board at its monthly meeting yesterday. Mr. J. Hodgens expressed the opinion that a certain time should be set aside for interviewing travellers. ‘‘The engineer has not the time to waste, interviewing these birds,” he said. A telegraph linesman', high on the top of a ladder propped against a pole on the corner of Fitzherbert Avenue and the Square yesterday morning, received a nasty shock when the ladder was almost knocked 'from under his feet by a passing motor car. The foot of the ladder had pot been far out from the base of the pole, but despite this, the motorist passed so close to the corner, that the linesman's sole connection with terra firma was almost jolted from under him. Fortunately, the workman had a safety belt round his waist and a firm grip on the crosspiece, otherwise he would undoubtedly have, been dashed into the street. In addition to his first offence against the by-laws by passing across a street corner, the driver of the car displayed no interest in the serious results which might have accrued from his negligence but made off down Fitzherbert Avenue, evidently anxious to escape. An American business man, Mr. Frank B. Anlos, who spent seven and ahalf months studying marketing conditions and the business outlook in the various countries located in the Southern Hemisphere, said in an interview after his return to the States: "In New Zealand, where the per capita purchasing power is the highest in the world, the general business situation is improving rapidly.” . One thing that impressed Mr, Amos deeply was the poor impressiom, that the peoples of many countries were getting of the United States. This was due to the news matter which appears in their Press, and to the attitude of many American tourists. Mr. Amos said: “If we had more North Americans of representative calibre to translate real United States to other countries, and if our tourists would give a real impression , of North America,, our country would be thought of more/favourably by many of our neighbours.”