LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19289, 30 March 1926, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

What country people have sometimes to put up with when patronising mixed trains, often the only form of transport available from small stations, is related in a letter form an Ohaupo resident. The journey attempted was only six miles, from Te Awamutu to Ohaupo. The train was due to leave the former station at 10.20 and the writer, with two small girls, bad to board it from the track as it did not pull into the platform. For no apparent reason the train remained at Te Awamutu for an hour and a-half and even when it started did not make a non-stop run to Ohaupo, so that in tho end it was midnight before the destination was reached. A traveller on the same train informed the writer that he boarded it at 8 a.m. and had travelled littlo more than 100 miles in 16 hours.

A request from a ratepayer that tho roadside lawn in front of his residence be put in order and sown in grass, in which case he would undertake to keep it in the same good order, led to a discussion at the meeting of the Onehunga Borough Council last evening. Mr. Coldicutt said that he thought it would be reasonable to encourage those ratepayers who intimated a desire to improve the road, and Mr. Mcintosh said he thought there was already a resolution to that effect. The request was referred to tho Streets Committee with power to act.

'The prisoner, John .Johnson, who escaped oh Saturday afternoon from Waikune prison camp, near Taumarunui, is about 50 years of age. He is about 6ft in height, with dark hair and is going bald. He also has a scar on the leftside of the upper lip. He was sentenced in August last to two years' imprisonment for breaking and entering and theft at Auckland. He had only been about a week at the prison camp wheD he escaped.

A great deal to lighten the hours of hospital convalescents is constantly being done in an unobtrusive way. In his report of clerical duty in the hospital for the past months Canon Haselden says: — " Time hangs very heavily on those who are in bed day after day and week after week. I am most thankful to give these patients reading matter, and the power to see the printed page." The canon proceeds that in this way he has distributed 269 pairs of spectacles as well as a great many parcels of books and papers. He makes grateful acknowledgment to the donors, and especially to children who have given for their sick comrades' use scrap books, cards, stamps, pictures, albums, drawing and writing books anod pencils.

The hospital authorities reported last evening that the condition of Miss Mavis Mace, who received serious injuries to her face through the discharge of a military rifle at Remuera on Saturday morning, showed a slight improvement. The condition of Mr. A. J. Dickinson, who was one of the victims in a collision between a motor-car and a tramcar in Customs Street last Thursday evening, was also reported to be improving.

Through being thrown from his horse during exercises, Trooper Roy Thomas, of Takapuna, at present in camp with the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment at Epsom, sustained slight concussion yesterday afternoon. He was quickly attended to and admitted to the camp hospital The horse, which is a grey cob belonging to the artillery corps, is said to be difficult to manage, and Trooper Thomas was thrown from it the previous day. Except for this accident and two minor cases 'of illness there has been a clean bill of health at the camp.

"There is nothing criminal in that," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday, when referred in grave terms to the consequences of a conviction against a defendant for failing to register a firearnu " Half-a-dozen respectable citizens have been fined for having unregistered rifles," added the magistrate. Some of Dunedin's citizens are talking about the possibility of securing Mr. F. J. Ricketts' professional services as soon as he is free of his present engagements as conductor of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders' Band, and it is stated that definite steps may be taken in that direction. Those who are immediately concerning themselves in the matter say that Mr. Ricketts could make a band anywhere, and that in Dunedin there is material for a municipal band of championship grade.

That the time is not opportune for the construction of a bridge over the harbour was the decision arrived at when the subject was discussed at the meeting of the Waitemata Chamber of Commerce last evening. The Waitemata Bridge Committee asked for an expression of opinion on a series of questions relating to the proposed bridge, but in the absence of any definite scheme for the financing of the proposal* the chamber did not feel disposed to commit itself fully to the scheme. Before such an extensive undertaking could be considered the chamber was of the opinion that the upper reaches of the harbour would require to be more fully developed.

The Tailway authorities have decided to stop the practice of people crossing over the lines in the vicinity of the Auckland railway station. A by-law prohibiting this has been in existence for years past but up to the present officials have been most tolerant. It is announced that in future all trespassers caught will be prosecuted and that the fines will be substantial It is pointed out that this step is being taken both in the interests of the general public and the officials.

One of the few remaining links with New Zealand's political past, Sir Robert Stout, gave a passing reminder of this fact when speaking at a public meeting in Auckland last evening. "As showing how time carries all before it," he said, "there are only two members alive today who were in the House of Representatives when the Education Act was passed in 1877. They are Mr. C. De Latour. then member for Dunedin and now living at Gisborne, and myself."

The vigilance of the customs officials in Timaru was rewarded a few days ago, when six local men were caught with an undersized net in their possession. It appears that the men had been trawling with a net suitable for catching herring and other small fish, and were converting it into an appliance for catching larger fish, such as barracouta. The men were caught with the net and the fish in their possession, and lie sequel -will be heard before a magistrals.