LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19513, 17 December 1926, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The Niagara sailed from Sydney st 5.15 yesterday afternoon for Auckland', en route to Vancouver, She is due here r on Monday-morning. Primary schools in the Auckland Education district, which stretches from the North Cape to Taumarunui, viill break-up for the Christmas holidays to-day. There are 750 schools in the district and about 65,792 children, comprising 34,754 boys and 32,038 girls, will be affected. The schools will reopen on January 31 after six weeks' vacation. The rich stake;! offered by; the Auckland Racing Club and the Auckland Trotting Club invariably prove a great atraction to horse-owners in other parts of the Dominion and southern representation at the summer racing and trotting carnival in ; Auckland is always strong. This year will be no exception and the . number of visiting horses will bo well up to the standard of previous years. A vain able consignment of horses will, reach Ellerslie 'by special train tomorrow, and there will bo another special train next Thursday. The fact, that rates were being paid by two dLiferent parties for the same block ►of land was revealed in a letter from a legal firm., to the Avondale Boirough Council on Wednesday evening. lii'was stated the original owner erf the block sold a largo portion of it some years ago, but was still paying rate 3 on the, whole and he protested. The matter is to be refeiTed to the Valuation Department for adjustment, the council having no authority to alter the rate book. "I regret to find that the study of the Greek language is almost a dead letter in this country," said Canon Archdall, headmaster of Kiing'ii College, at' the brea,king-up ceremony yesterday. "1 am convinced that for the better boys Greek should be a possibility. Every great renaissance of the human intellect has grown out of a fresh appreciation of the Greek genius, and the wonderful growth of modern science and mathematics is a case in point. The modem world has grown from three sources,—Palestine, Greece and Rome—and it will be a disaster if civilisation cuts itself off from its roots .in the past. At least some people in every land should have a special knowledge of the foundations on which, our Western civilisation is built." Complaints regarding the ■ fumes from the fertiliser works of Wright, Stephenson and Company, Ltd., at Otahuhu have been referred by the Borough: Council to the company. Tho latter has replied that it has plans in hand of a plant to condense tho fumes and that the work will be proceeded with almosit immediately. "There Is every hope," this leMer concludes,, "that this equipment will be. completed and in operation within three months, " The office of the Supreme Court at Auckland will close at 1 p.m. next Thursday ' for tho Christmas holidays. It will . reopen on January 4, and will close, at Ip.m. daily for the rest of January, resuming the usual hours on Tuesday, February 1, when the first <joarterly , sessions will begin. The Magistrate's Court office will close on the evening of, December 23 and reopen on January 4. In the interim sittings of the. Court will; be held- at 9 sum daily ft* .police business only. Legal offices will close on the evening of December 23 and reopen on January 10. A shark about 9ft. long was noticed swimming about in the vicinity of Stilphur Point, Tauranga, this week. Lines were thrown out and the shark took the bait, it fought strenuously and was eventually dragged into shallow water and killed. "In matters of sport my motto is keep out of the public eye as much as possible," was the statement made by the Rev. IS. O. Crosse, headmaster of Christ's College, at the annual prizegiving. "I do not approve of photographs of boys being published in the papers," he added, "and as one of the prime movers in the inter-school sports I have arranged that in futures the name of the boy winning a race at that meeting shall not be published but only the name of the school." Something of a record for small scores m cricket was created at Waitara last Saturday when a New Plymouth team was dismissed by the local side in their second innings for a total of three runs, three players making onw run each. The bowlers responsible for the visitors' downfall were L Taylor, who took five wickets for two runs and Wilkins, who tobk five for one ran. The opening of the new medical school in King Street, Dunedin, has been fixed for February 2. The Hon. W. Downie Stewart is to be asked to perform the ceremony. Queenstown now has: a motorists' camping ground. It is sitmated on the recreation reserve between the cemetery and the recreation grounds, and is roughly four acres iin extent. It should aSord ac- ! • commodation for a large number of cars I and water and electric light from the borough supply have been laid on. In conveying this information to the Otago | Motor Club the Queensland Borough i Council wrote stating that the free use of the grcrundl would' be permitted in the meantime, but campers would be expected to do all in their power to prevent anj nuisance arising and any damage being: done to surrounding property. The club decided to congratulate the council on its provision of a camping site. Aucklanders, in view of the sultry nature of this week's weather, may find xt interesting to learn that a, ifrest varyng in intensity from seven • degrees -in some parts of Blenheim" to 10 degress in others, was experienced there last week. It- played havoc with the gardens, tomatoes, beans., pumpkins and potatoes being blackened in all directions, while.even the young walnuts were affected. Potatogrowers suffered particularly, for the, crops this year, looked exceptionally well, and it is stated that some fairly extensive crops have been virtually rained. The frost was so severe that crops wfire affected even in some localities in which prudent husbandmen iiad taken the precaution to cover them with straw,. The farmers suffered severely, particularly those growing early peas. It is reported that, from 600 to 700 acres under, peas were virtually ■ruined, and "it.is feared that whereas crops of 60 bushels might have been expected ; the, gwiwers will now b« fortynate to Bicure IS bushel#.