LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19221, 9 January 1926, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A fine young female leopard to replace the one that escaped from the zoo some months ago was brought to Auckland yesterday by the Sussex from Calcutta. The new arrival is about sft. lOin. in length and in colour is slightly darker than the male leopard already at the zoo.

After serving sentences of three months' imprisonment for refusing duty, 59 British seamen will be liberated in Auckland earlynext week. Thirty-five members of the crew of thd' New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Otaki will come out of gaol on Monday, and 24 members of the crew, of the Shaw, Savill andvAlbion liner Tainui on Tuesday. Another se.aman from the Tainui, who made a demonstration whem he and his fellow-seamen were sentenced, was given an seven days for contempt of Court. When he is released next Tuesday week, Mount Eden gaol will at last be clear of striking seamen. Arrangements are being made for next week's batch to be sent to England by si steamer leaving Wellington about the end of the week.

The renting of cushions to long-distance train travellers has proved very popular over the holidays. It was found necessary on several occasions to replenish the nightly supply on tho Auckland station platform. A considerable sum is taken in shillings by the attendant, and as many as 400 cushions have been rented on one evening.

Building has been carried on steadily in the Auckland suburbs during the past year, particularly in the areas where large estates have been subdivided. During the 12 months ended December, 321 building permits were issued in tho One Treen Hill Rond district, most of them being for . dwellings. The total value of the buildings 'was £185,690. The permits issued in the Newmarket Borough numbered 85, mostly for commercial buildings. The total value was £30,854. Four were for dwellings costing £3654, and six for shops with dwellings attached, of a total value of £9931.

One of the busiest places in Auckland this week has been the customs branch of the parcels post office in Albert Street. Christmas presents from abroad have been piling in, and so also have the happy claimants of the gifts. It has been hard work for all hands in the office, the conditions being most congested. The office is a poky little place, a few feet square, with enough window space to make it resemble a hothouse. Generally it is necessary to have a little queue trailing toward the door, and often it takes 15 to >SO minutes to reach the counter and claim the goods. Fortunately the staff, by working late each night, has broken the back of tho work, ajid conditions should improve from now on. At the same time the inadequacy of the accommodation for both staff and public is most marked.

Another Chevrolet motor-car was reported missing last evening. A car painted dark grey was removed from St. Benedict's Street at about eight o'clock. Two more parties of Boy Scouts left by train last evening en route to the Dominion jamboree in connection with tho Dunedin Exhibition. A party of 18 Sea Scouts was in charge of Chief Petty-Officer J. M. Neville, R.N., and 22 representatives of the St. Baranabas' troop were under Scoutmaster S. G. Peek.

Owing to the absence of a water supply in Vancouver Avenue, Edendale, the Mount Albert Fire Brigade was powerless to save a large shed behind a house occupied by Mr. E. Wood from being burned to the-ground. Although the water pipes wero lying on tho, road waiting to be connected with the mains there was no water available for the use of the brigade. The shed was fortunately empty and was situated some distance away from the owner's house.

Three men and a woman volunteered to supply blood for transfusion to a patient in the Hawerd Hospital, and one of the men was chosen after the usual test had been made. The transfusion was carried nut,, but the patient died next day.

Admissions of patients to the New Plymouth Public Hospital during 1925 numbered 1342, a decrease; of 64 compared with the total for 1924. ' The average daily rate of admission works out at 3.68, and the number of patients in hospital daily 107. What is an optimist? This question is easily settled by an inspection through Hawke's Bay fruitgrowing areas, says a local papei. Those coming under the heading have taken the precaution of tying up their fruit trees in anticipation of a record crop. •

When the watchman entered Collinson and Cunninghame's building, Palmerston North, on a recent morning, he wa3 surprised to see a stream of water cascading down the steps, and locateid the trouble as being a burst water-pipe on the second storey. He found that much water had collected in the furnishing, drapery, mancbester &nd carpet departments, much valuable merchandise being wet through. Waterfront disputes at Lyttelton during 1925 totalled 26. The chief causo of trouble was the discharging of sulphur, phosphate and guano. A number of vessels were also delayed by disputes between the employers and crews. Some of these hold-ups were of a serious nature. A limitation ot members of the local Waterside Workers' Union was carried out for a period. This was considered a step in the right direction, as it prevented men unskilled in waterside work from coming to the port for short periods, thus reducing the average pay roll, which meant skilled workers leaving Lyttelton to seek work elsewhere.

'Anglers commenced the year with good sport at the Waitaki, says an Oamaru paper. Though there were no very big baskets, practically everyone got fish. One local angler secured seven between the bridge and the mouth. The river is now in better order than ever, most of the snow water having disappeared.

Now in his 83rd year Mr. Edmund Hodgkinson, of Anderson's Bay, Dunedin, makes the claim of being the oldest New Zealand-born white person alive in the South Island to-day. His parents arrived in Nelson in 1842 in the ship Thomas Harrison, and he was born on July 1, 1843.

The manager of a large Wanganui drapery establishment remarked this week that, when he complained to his banker concerning the comparatively quiet Christmas trading, his attention was directed to the fact that the actual depreciation in wool value in the Wanganui district this season was £300,000. The same banker had pointed out that he had noticed himself that deposits paid in were much below the previous year, when phenomenal prices were being realised for wool.