Railway For East Coast

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 181, 31 July 1934, Page 6

Railway For East Coast

Efforts to Form Private Syndicate

GOVERNMENT PREPARED TO SELL INTERESTS Per Press Association. GISBORNE, East Night. lit tho course of a visit to London Mr. W. D. Lysnar will make efforts to form a private syndicate to construct and operate a railway between Napier and Gisborne, which was abandoned by the Coalition Government. Mr. Lysnar has been closely associated with the efforts to secure completion of the line and now that the Prime Minister has announced that the Government has no intention of rc-starling the work, Mr. Lysnar has secured a statement from Mr. Forbes as to the terms on which the Government will dispose of its interest in the line to a private syndicate. News to this effect was contained in the foliowing telegram from Wellington to the Mayor of Gisborne (Mr. John Jackson: “Have obtained from Prime Minister satisfactory basis of arrangement for starting railway. Hope good will result." Mr. Lysnar leaves Auckland to-mor-row for London.

The Health Department at Christchurch has been notified of a case of anthrax in South Canterbury, a young man aged IS being affected. The crowded house which greeted the Clem Dawc Revue Company fast evening on the closing night of- their Palmerston North season, was striking evidence of the popularity of this form of entertainment. In ‘‘The Whirl of the Town" the members of this talented company appeared to advantage. Farcical sketches, in which Clem Dawe’s ready wit and inimitable mannerisms were displayed to perfection, attractive dancing, singing and excellently executed violin numbers, drew warm approval from the audience.

A curious trouble, believed to be due to stray electric cur rents in '.he water-supply system, has been experienced at a new fire station rn the Great South Road near Eliersiio. It was found some time ago tim'; the soldered joints of the eopocr ball-floats in the cisterns had given wa\ as a result of corrosion, which had also affected the galvanised linings of ihe cisterns themselves. In the iclicf that the cause might be electrolysis, the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board went, to some expense in having the *'earth” of the electrical installation removed from a water-pipe and connected to a metal plate buried in the ground. Still tho corrosion went c-n, leading to a suggestion that there were stray currents in the water mains, possibly from some industrial plant in the district. This theory is to be investigated by experts.

Harold Catty, who bos decided to withdraw his entry of a Douglas air liner from the MacKobcrtson air race, is always spoken of as an American, as he is now, but he was a Tasmanian boy, educated in Hobart, and was for a good many years an officer in the Union Steam Ship Company, until 1927, when he visited America and found the sort of job that good men deserve, and seldom get, a post on a millionaire's yacht. About this time he became an aviation enthusiast, and through his acquisition of the rights of a special device for air navigation, a man of weight in the flying world. With Lieutenant Bromley he made an unsuccessful attempt to fly non-stop from Tokio to California, but in the following year, 1931, he and Wiley Post made a successful round-the-world flight in the Winnie Mac, which Wiley Post is flying in the air race. A graphic description of the mishap to the Oceanic Company liner Mariposa as she entered Auckland harbour on Saturday morning was given by an Auckland yachtsman whose house overlooks the harbour (states an Auckland telegram). “I was watching the Mariposa coming up Bangitoto channel," lie said, “and saw her turn between the red and black buoys to enter the harbour. To my amazement she continued to turn, passing on her starboard side very close to the red buoy, which is on the north Head side of the channel. It appeared as if the helm, which had been put over to port, had jammed in that position, and the vessel bore down straight for the rocks off North Head. It looked very ugly, and I did not sec how disaster could bo averted. They managed, however, to get her helm over to hard a-star-board. After a thrilling few moments her huge bulk began to move round. Still turning, her bow swung over in tihe direction of Bean Rock light at St. Hcliers, with her stern pointing upharbour. The way she had on carried her dangerously close to Bean Bock, and her engines were put hard astern. I could see the water swirling behind her as her forward speed was gradually slackened. Again it seemed that disaster was imminent, but she was checked in time. Had she not responded so quickly to the reversed engines she would undoubtedly have been wrecked on Bean Bock. It was a remarkably smart piece of seamonship made possible only by tlie power and responsiveness of the engines. As soon as she got into the centre of the stream she dropped her anchor and awaited the arrival of the tug which was already on her way down-harbour to her assistance.”