NEWS OF THE DAY

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

The tender of the Love Construction Company, of Dunedin, in conjunction with tho Fletcher Construction Company, of Wellington, l>as been accepted for the erection of buildings to house the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington in 1940. The cost of the first series of buildings, exclusive of some essention structures to be erected later, will be in the neighbourhood of £150,000. Few ships entering Auckland have such claims to be cosmopolitan as tlie motor-tanker China, which arrived on Wednesday afternoon from Bahrein Island on her maideu voyage. The China was completed a few months ago at Kiel, Germany, she is managed by Norwegian officers and Chinese crew, is owned by an American company, is under charter to a N.Z. company and flies the flag of Panama.

A tribute to the prompt and courteous manner in which Auckland Customs officials treated him on his arrival in the Dominion about a fortnight ago was paid by Mr. E. F. MacDouough, trade commissioner from Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, when speaking at a luncheon at Auckland. “I have travelled widely in the last five years, having visited 12 to 14 different countries, but I have yet to enter a country where it is more pleasant to pass the Customs,” Mr. MacDonough said. He added that the courteous and quick method of working was accomplished without loss of efficiency.

Excellent progress is being made by the Public Works Department with the widening and improvement of the Rotorua-Waikaremoana highway, on which approximately 180 men are working at different points of the route. One of the most difficult sections, the Tarapanamu hill between Te Whaiti and Ruatahuna, has now been almost

completed, the realignment over the hill involving several deep cuttings anl fillings. The elimination of many dangerous corners and sweeps in the old road has considerably shortened the route, a saving of about an hour being now possible for traffic between Rotorua and Ruatahuna.