LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19061, 4 July 1925, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A light motor-truck owned by A. S. Paterson and Company,; Limited, caught fire 0 at the company's store in Freeman s Bay yesterday morning/ ] The City Fire Brigade extinguished tho flames with chemicals, the damago.' to tho vehicle being confined to the burning of the dashboard and the lining of the body. The ignition of benzine fumes is believed to have been the cause of the outbreak. The truck was not insured. The, designs in the Government's townplanning competition for subdividing the Orakei block as a garden suburb are now hung in a room at Parliament Buildings by the courtesy of the Speaker. Those interested may ;jee the exhibition during the daytime. The designs will be sent to Auckland, Cllristchurch, and Dunedin latei on. Nine of the AB class of locomotives are being assembled at the Addington railway workshops. These engines were built in Great Britain and arrived m Ghristchurch a few days ago. When assembled, they will be used on the South Island lines. Among the other work in progress at the workshops is the construction of ten carriages. These carriages will be used on the. south lino an£ l will be equipped with lighting. A number of new carriages are being built at the Hillside workshops and these will also be fitted with electric lighting.

The New Zealand League football team which is to play a series of matcheß in Australia sailed from' Auckland for Sydney by the Moeraki yesterday morning, there being a large gathering of relatives and'friends > on•.rttthe wharf when the steamer left. Most of the local members of' the team were entertaiued by their clubs on the previous evening. The party comprises 23 players, including 15 from Auckland, and three managers. Many followers of the game consider that no previous New Zealand team has had as bright prospects of success in Australia as the present combination.

! : of the'appeal made recently in the HmAfcb for funds for the preservation of the ruins of old St. Thomas' Church, Tarpaki, a sum of aty>ut £l4 his been subscribed by the public. This sum, unfortunately, is not, sufficient' to permit of the 'work being started, as it will take a considerably larger amount to carry out the contemplated improvements, which include the clearing of the grounds and strengthening of the picturesque, ivyco'vered walls of the old ruin. At a meeting of,vestry of St, .Phillip's .Church, I'amaki, this week. $ was decided that a special appeal should be made to residents of the St. Heliers and Tamaki districts, with the object of securing additional. subscriptions to. the fund.

"In a maritime country such as this it is most undesirable that the fishing population should be composed of aliens —ltalians and Greeks." remarked the Hon. G. M. Thomson in the course of his Address-in-Reply speech in the Legislative Council. The position in this respect, he said, was not so bad in the South Island as it was in„ the North Island. It would be a .good thing, in introducing new people into the Dominion, to see if we could not bring some of the good fishing population of England and Scotland.

In his report of clerical duty in the Auckland Public Hospital for the month of June, Canon Haselden says:—" I thank those who have given mo reading matter and spectacles. Up to date I have given 100 pairs of spectacles and have had to buy only one pair; the 99 wero presents from kind friends of the hospital to me. Tho managers of the sale of work for St. Mary's Homes gave me tho toys over,from the sale and within an hour I gavo them to the children in tho wards. Every child "had something, and tho few that wero over I entrusted to the sister in charge to give to the childron who were sure to come in during the next few days."

The enterprise of the " sneak thief " is as great as ever. This was proved at the expense of ono unfortunate motorcar owner in Wellington one evening this week_ The motorist had left his car drawn up outsido a residence on Wellington Terrace, with, approximately, 3£ gallons of oil in tho well. When the time arrived to go homo he discovered that all tho oil had been draVvn off. Although ho had to walk homo ho comforted himself with the. reflection that it might very well have been the tyres which tho thief had coveted.

41 1 believe that this disruptive movement in the world to-<jay comes from that poisonous, pestilential brood which t is centred in Moscow," declared the Hon. G. M. Thomson in the Legislative Council. Ho said that if the activities he referred to were carried into effect they would retard tho progress of the world by a 1000 years, and convert peaceful regions ink) hell.

When seven people in tho Hawke's Bay district had to seek the protection of the Bankruptcy Court during April it appeared as though tho district was again experiencing hard times financially. That, however, was apparently an outstanding month, for since then not one petition in bankruptcy has been filed in Napier, both May and Juno being absolutely free. Over, the wholo of the first six months of th< year petitions 'filed numbered 13, exactly the same number as for the first half of 1924. This year's financial failures all followed different occupations, being as follows-Commission agent, native, motori driver, mercer, motor proprietor, second-hand dealer, 6awmiller, grocer, labourer, pastrycookj carpenter and contractor*