LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19124, 16 September 1925, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Comment on the way explosives and poisons are left about by persons who do not consider. the results if children lay their hands on them, was mado by Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., coroner, at the conclusion of an inquest on a boy, aged two years, who died last Thursday from severe caustic soda burns. • Dynamite detonators and poisons were too often left, exposed, the coroner said, and children given an opportunity innocently to use them at risk of injury and even death. He did not mean this as a censure on the users of the soda in this case, as the unfortunate incident was entirely accidental.

Considerable difficulty has been experienced in securing a crew to work the rocket life-saving apparatus recently purchased by the Auckland Harbour Board. However, tho local division of the Royal Naval Reserve has come to the rescue by agreeing to provide three complete which can be called upon at any time in cases of emergency or shipwreck. Regular monthly practices will be held to maintain a standard of efficiency. The question of approving this arrangement was referred by the Harbour Board yesterday to the board in committee.

As the result of a fall on some stones at the site of the War Memorial Museum yesterday morning, Mr. John Lorigan, single, aged 25, suffered slight concussion and was removed, to the hospital. He was winding the handle of a crane and slipped on tho ground which was made greasy by the recent rain-

Four "tags" have been attached by the Audit Department to the Hospital Board's balance-sheet. The points raised were explained by the secretary at the board's meeting last evening to be trivial matters. Two matters were to be validated by forthcoming legislation.

The opinion that the time will come when ocean-going ships will be able to communicate with the land by telephone was expressed last evening by Mr. E. A. Shrimpton, chief telegraph engineer. "Despite all reports about the matter," said Mr. Shrimpton, "no ships are at present equipped with successfully-working telephones. There is little doubt, however, that they will be perfected and used as a means of communication with the shore."

Some people appear to have tho idea that accident cases cannot be admitted to tho Auckland Hospital unless by a doctor's order. At the meeting of the Hospital Board last evening it was explained that, in the event of an accident, a patient should be taken to the hospital at once, and that no order of any kind was necessary.

The prospective demolition of the old post office in Shortland Street is mentioned in tho Public Works Statement, which mentions the arrangements for 'the transfer of the site to the City Council. The statement does not, however, answer the question whether the present postal facilities are to be housed elsewhere m the vicinity. On that point it very wisely says that "if the post and telephone ofiice at present conducted in the building is to be continued, new accommodation will require to be found for the (jffice."

The Harbour Board dredge Hapai, after being engaged for three months in dredging in Manukau Harbour, is returning to Auckland. She left Onehunga at a quarter to ten yesterday morning and reached the Manukau Bar two hours later. Owing to the weather being foggy and dull the dredge anchored at the heads for the night, but will resume her journey at an early hour this morning. Captain W. Gardner, master of tho lug Te Awhina, is in charge of the Hapai, which is expected to arrive about Saturday. The weather is favourable for the Hapai's trip, a report from Awanui last night stating that a gentle breeze was blowing from the south-west and the weather was fine.

The question of the destruction of the wrecked steamer Cyrena came up at the meeting of the Wanganui Harbour Board last Friday evening. The chairman, Mr. A. G. Bignell, stated that arrangements had been made to demolish tho remains of the wreck early this week. It was, in his opinion, quite an easy job, as the ship ,was lightly constructed. Tho demolition of tho forward and after parts of the vessel would be, as far as the board was involved, quite an inexpensive matter. Colonel J. E. Duigan, of Auckland, is in Wanganui to superintend the operations.:

The proposal that a national memorial to the late Prime Minister should be erected as a charge on the Consolidated Fund was endorsed by the Papakura Town Board. The clerk reported that the subscriptions at Papakura totalled only £1 9s.

A clerk employed at Lyttelton was seen by a constable to take a newspaper from the doorway of business premises in Colombo Street, Christchurch, as he was on his way to catch his morning train. A charge of theft followed. The magistrate, Mr. H. Y. Widdowson, listened to his plea that he only wanted to glance at the news and for the sake of his wife and family suppress his name. The magistrate extended all the leniency he could under the First Offenders Probation Act, discharging the man without conviction. The police explained that several firms were complaining about their papers being missing in the mornings.

A suggestion that flowers, instead of being sent to funerals as tokens of condolence, should be used for the purpose of brightening the wards of the public hospital at Christchurch, has already shown results. The lady superintendent has received within tho past few days a sum equivalent to the cost of a wreath, wherewith to buy flowers for the wards. The donor adopted this course instead of sending the wreath to the funeral of a friend. Dr. P. C. Fenwick states that he thinks that the suggestion will be gradually adopted and that the practice will become general in time.

American writers of travel books have had a singular habit of going sadly astray over the geographical position of even New Zealand's larger centres. A good example of the confusion is provided in a recent American volume, " Knocking About," published by the Yale University Press. The writer confessed that he was "anxious to carve a fortune in the New Zealand goldfields, so he became one of the crew of the steamer Otago." Appropriately enough, says the Dunedin Star, "this good ship was bound for Dunedin, in Auckland, but apparently our shift to northern regions had not added in any way to our attractiveness, becausie the writer added: 'Finding nothing there or interest or promise, I remained with the steamer and returned to Australia.'