LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19349, 9 June 1926, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The party of 19 gipsies who arrived by the Aorangi from Sydney on Monday, and were refused a landing by the Customs Department pending instructions from Wellington, were removed yesterday to the Marama, before the Aorangi left for Vancouver. Up to yesterday afternoon no word had been received from the Comptroller of Customs to show whether they will be allowed to land or sent back by the Marama, which leaves for Sydney on Friday.

The oyster season in Auckland will open to-morrow. Supplies of the shell-fish will arrive at the Government oyster depot to-day, and it is hoped that enough will be available to meet the demand. Oysters are reported to be very plentiful this year. At the Government depot oysters will be sold at the same rates that ruled last year.

Suffering from the effects of a poison, a 22-months-old baby, Raymond Lovering, whosA parents reside at 165, Great North Road, Avondale, was admitted to the Auckland Hospital last evening. The child had drunk a quantity of poison which had been left standing in a jar within his reach. His condition was not considered serious.

The body of Mr. William Partridge, o£ Inkerman Street, Onehunga, who was struck by a boon, and knocked from a launch into the Manukau Harbour on Monday evening, has not been recovered. A search by the Onehunga police yesterday afternoon proved futile.

The Arbitration Court, which is at present sitting in Wellington, will open at Gisborne on June 24, and at Auckland on July 5, says a Press Association message.

It seems far-fetched to suppose that a man residing in London should first see a picture of an event in which he took part in a New Zealand newspaper. Such has, however, been the experience of Mr. Bertram W. Mills. Writing from Olympia, London, ho says:—"A copy of the Auckland Weekly News of October 15 last has come into my hands, and I am very delighted and interested to see there a photograph of the coaches at the agricultural show at Hatfield. As the winner of that class I am anxious, if possible, to. get hold of tho original photograph, which must be a very good one."

A request for a donation .to , the Y.W.C.A. Girls' Hostel and Holiday House Fund was. received by the meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board yesterday. In moving that the request be declined, the chairman, Mr. H. R. Mackenzie, said that much as they sympathised with the movement, claims such as these should be made on individual pockets. He did not think that public money could very well be given to a cause such as this. The board had only its unauthorised expenditure to draw on and the money was needed for other purposes. Members of the board agreed and the request was declined.

It 'Will be some days before the financial results of the Big Three Art Union will be available. A great deal of detail work has yet to be cleared up, but those responsible for organising the art union are confident that the net profit, which to the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association andthe Maungakiekie Golf Club, will prove substantial. It is expected the gross receipts from sales will not be so large as in some previous art unions, as;the price of the ticket was 2s, or 6d less than in the others. Against that is the claim that the expenses of organising the art union have been some thousands less than any of its more recent predecessors.

To-day is the 65th anniversary of the arrival at Auckland of the barque Mersey with 116 passengers. The barque had a fairly rough passage from England, the voyage occupying 109 days. At one stage the ship sprung a leak and crew and passengers alike took turns at the pumps. Included among the passengers was the late Sir William Russell, who was then a captain in the 14th Regiment.

Resolutions of protest against the decision of the Auckland Licensing Committee to grant- a license to the Ambassadors Hotel, Quay Street, continue to be carried at meetings of various organisations. The general tenor of the resolutions is similar to those already published, most of them expressing appreciation of the stand taken by the chairman,. Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., in dissociating himself from the majority decision of the committee. Further organisations which have made protests are the Auckland Presbytery, the Methodist Ministers, the session of St- Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Ponsonby, the Auckland Total Abstinence Society, and the Hope of Eden Tent, No. 10, Independent Order of Rechabifces.

A continuous telephone service has been inaugurated in Te Puke. The last telephone list contains the names of about 450 subscribers.

Provision is to be made by the Auckland Harbour Board for the accommodation of bicycles at the shore end of the Devonport Eerry Wharf, by fitting up two large offices which are now unoccupied. It was explained by Mr. J. Henderson at the meeting of the board yesterday that at one time the few bicycles used by residents travelling by ferry boat were left in the ordinary waiting-shed, while the owners went to the city, but the coming of concrete roads had induced many more people to use these machines in travelling, from their homes to the wharf, and the board had been compelled to prevent this parking in the waiting-room. It was decided to utilise the two offices at the shore end of the wharf for the accommodation of bicycles, but only on the understanding that the board took no responsibility for the safety of the machines.

When travelling in the Mackenzie Country last Thursday a party of motorists saw a ewe with two lambs in a paddock at Horwell Downs, Fairlie. Lambs at this time of the year are a most unusual occurrence as the lambing season does not usually commence for two or three months later.

Rabbits have been, and still are, a> great curse to New Zealand, states the Otago Daily Times, but skins to the value of £846,416 were exported last year. Nor was this a very exceptional figure, for the previous year the value exported was £745,975. These values represent roughly 20.000,000 skins, and it may be assumed that the greater part of the money goes into the pockets of the men engaged in trapping or poisoning the rabbits and preparing the skins for export. The industry is thus responsible for the circulation of a, very large amount of money and, under the circumstances, there is a great temptation to farm rabbits.