LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18689, 21 April 1924, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

An unusual accident befell Mr. Roderick McLeod, a taxi-driver, of Green Lane, yesterday morning. Mr. McLeod was inflating a motor-car tyre, when it burst, the flying fragments of rubber and composition material lacerating his face. He was admitted to the Auckland Hospital for treatment. The outward railway traffic from Auckland yesterday was very light. Two Main Trunk expresses, consisting of nine and eight carriages respectively, left for Wellington, but were only partly filled. It is expected that there will be a heavy exodus of visitors to-day, and two expresses will be despatched for the South this evening.

The Auckland Racing Club's Autumn Meeting was opened at Ellerslie on Saturday, when there was an attendance of about 25,000, which constitutes a record for the club's gatherings at this season of the year. The Governor-General, Lord Jellicoe, and Lady Jellicoe were present, and remained until after the running of the seventh race. A highly pleasing incident in the afternoon's racing was the success of Viscountess Jellicoe's colours in the Onslow Stakes, in which the two-year-old colt, Father' Voice, scored a well-deserved victory. The Easter Handicap, which was the leading event of the programme, .was won by Mr. EGeorge's gelding Hipo. The sum of £88,054 was passed through the totalisator, compared with £77,658 10s on 'h." corresponding day last year. This represents an increase of £10,395 10s, Out the autumn of 1921 still stands first with £97,639 10s.

The Titirangi Soldiers' Memorial Church, which is now nearing comub tion, will be opened by the GovernorGeneral on Sunday, May 18. The building is being, built of concrete blocks and it will contain seating accommodation fir about a hundred people. It is situated in Park Road, near the School Koad The church, which will be an inter-de-nominational place of worship, has been erected by public subscription as a memorial to the soldiers from the Titirangi district who fell in the war.

Special arrangements for the regulation of race traffic in Newmarket on Saturday were rendered necessary by the fact that three separate sections of Broadway are being laid in concrete. The three principal corners, at the junctions of Khyber Pass, Remuera Road, and Station Street, are closed to traffic one way, while inward traffic is confined to the tram rails for nearly a block, and outward traffic to half the ordinary width of the road, for the same distance along the busiest part of Broadway. Outward race traffic passed down Broadway and out into Remuera Road in one long procession during rush hours on Saturday, inward traffic being diverted down Morrow Street, and thus into Khyber Pass. The "rule of the road" was capably enforced by the police officer on duty, and despite the exceptionally large number of vehicles travelling in the restricted road space, there wjero no accidents at even the busiest periods of the day.

Though a recent decision in the Magistrate's Court was to the effect "that payment of wages for Anzac Day was not compulsory, it is understood that the manager of the Chelsea &agar Works has announced that employees will be paid for Anzac Day and all holidays mentioned in the award. This action is greatly appreciated by the men engaged on hourly remuneration.

Injuries to his forehead were sustained yesterday morning by Mr. James Henry Kipling, of Woodside Avenue, Northcote, through being thrown violently against the waiting shed on the Northcote wharf. While riding down the approach toward the wharf, his motor-cycle got out of control. The alternative to riding over the end of the wharf was ramming the shed. The latter course was pursued, the seat outside the waiting room being badly smashed. The sufferer was taken to the Auckland Hospital.

The city figures for title year indicate that the Te Aro baths, in Wellington, had a good season. The receipts were £881 13a 9d, and the expenditure £625 17s sd, which shows a balance to credit of £255 16s 4d. This is not a true profit, which could only be arrived at by allowing a proper interest charge on the cost of construction —a fairly heavy sum, as both tho ladies' and men's baths are enclosed by a stout concrete wall erected in the sea.- It has to be remembered, too, that as an encouragement to distance swimming schoolboys who do a mile under proper observation are given free tickets for the whole of the succeeding season. Good progress is being made with the tunnel which is being driven by Mr. Behan's co-operative party at Lake Coloridge, as part of the extension work there. For the week ended last Saturday 58. feet was the distance advanced, making 183 feet to date. The tunnel, when completed, will be nearly 7000 feet long. . < • The serious effects of the dry weather in Otago is illustrated by a report from a correspondent at Lo veil's Flat. He says that water has to be carted a considerable distance in many places. . Crops were small and poor this season, and what threshing there was is already finished. Turnip crops are blighted and decaying. I The importation of luxuries was one of the matters referred to by the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. J. Myers, at the diamond jubilee banquet. Dealing with this question, the vicepresident, Mr. S. A. Longuet, said it might be some comfort to know that those associated with the trade could give an assurance that the number of motor-cars sold for pleasure was not as great in proportion to-day as it was in the past. The percentage of the sales for business purposes, to save time, and to increase earnings, was greater each year. He added that ho had opportunities of studying analyses of sales in connection with the motor trade, and was astonished at the large proportion that must be classed as for commercial use.

There are different methods of farming, and soma are profitably, remarks the Wanganui Chronicle. A man in the Karioi district with 700 acres found there ■was no profit in sheep farming, so he turned his attention to rabbits, and last year came out £350 on the right side of the ledger. Observations in the Waitotara back country show that the wild pigs are less numerous, and with the advance of settlement and clearing of the bush are apparently going further back, although it does not mean that close to Wanganui the wild pig is by any means extinct. In the old days bushmen and roadmen regarded wild pig as tho staple article on their menu card. "This is a dangerous habit, and must be stopped," declared Mr. C. R. OrrWalker, 5.M,. at the Magistrate's Court, in Wellington, when fining John William Riley 30s and costs fop driving past a stationary tramcax.