LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19604, 5 April 1927, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The price of motor Bpirit and petrol was reduced by 2d a gallon in Auckland yesterday. First grade spirit will now be sold from pumps at Is lOd a gallon, while some of the cheaper and heavier qualities will also be subject to a similar decrease. The price of cases containing two four-gallon tins has fallen by Is 4d accordingly. The dangers that confront fire brigades in fighting fires in the neighbourhood of high-tension electric cables was emphasised at a meeting of the Waitemata Power Board yesterday, when the consulting engineer, Mr. W. P. Gauvain, made certain recommendations for the guidance of brigades. He particularly stressed the danger of playing a hose on a live wire, the current from which would travel along the column of water to the injury of the man holding the nozzle. It was decided to warn the brigades in the board's area and furnish them with a list of streets in which high-tension lines were situated. The business of the annual conference of the New Zealand Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association held yesterday was disposed of in record time. The conference assembled at ten o'clock and adjourned for lunch at 12.15 p.m. Photographs were then taken and it was 2.30 p.m. before the conference resumed. The business was concluded p.m. Mr. A. Thompson, president, said although the business was considered expeditiously it had not been hurried, and all the matters for discussion had been thoroughly thrashed out. The conference would go down as one of the best in the history of the Dominion Association. The weather was dull and threatening at Auckland yesterday and rain fell steadily during the evening up to a late hour. The barometer, after being steady at 29.90 in. from Sunday afternoon, began to rise after mid day yesterday, and last night the reading; was 30.10 in. The new tea kiosk on the summit of Mount Eden, which is at present under construction, will be officially opened at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The Mayor of Mount Eden will probably perform the ceremony. Special invitations will be issued to all suburban local bodies and all citizens of Auckland are invited to be present. At a meeting of the local Borough Coucil last evening the foreman of works reported that rockeries were heing formed and paths laid down in the vicinity of the "kiosk. All drainage work had been completed. Some of the North Shore local bodies are anxious to keep their main streets lighted until 1 a.m. instead of midnight as at present. The Waitemata Power Board received yesterday an inquiry from Devonport as to the extra cost involved. It was stated that, provided no extra capital expenditure were needed, the local bodies concerned would probably be charged for such a supply a rate halfway between the midnight and the allnight rates. The matter, however, was referred to a special committee for a report. A fracture of the left leg was sustained by a ten-year-old boy, Patrick O'Rourke, of Newton, when he slipped on a paved path in Myers Park yesterday. He was taken to the hospital, where he is progressing satisfactorily. The prolonged absence of three lads, Alexander Leslie, William Scott and Hugh Kensington, who left Tauranga on Saturday afternoon in the fourteen-foot sailing boat Silver .Link, caused anxiety regarding their safety, but they returned yesterday afternoon, having been delayed by a heavy fog in the vicinity of Karewha Island, where they had to spend Sunday night. The fog lifted yesterday and the lads were able to sail back to port. Two launches had been sent out to search for the party. Invitations have been extended to the University Colleges of New Zealand to include rowing representatives in the teams for" the annual athletic contests, which this year are being held at Auck-. land at Easter. The race is to be fouroared this year, to enable all centres to compete, but it is hoped that the contest will develop into an eight-oared event. The Victoria College creW this year is: D. Gray (stroke), J. Platts-Mills, F. Crease and F. Mullins. Plans showing how the railway bridge on Mount Eden Road could be widened to carry the roadway out to the line of the existing kerb were received from the Railways Department by the Mount Eden Borough Council last evening. The railways engineer estimated that the work would cost £l4O, half of which he asked the council to provide. As the bridge was on a main thoroughfare and was a source of danger to traffic it was decided to adopt the suggestion. Two nominations for the Auckland City Council elections on April 27 have been received by the returning officer, Mr. P. F. Notley. The first nomination was that of Mr. A. Eccles, and the second that of Mr. G. L. Brett. Mr. Brett is also nominated for a seat on the Auckland Harbour Board. Aeroplanes usually announce their presence, but according to a statement made in Wellington by the Minister of Defence, Hon. F. J. Rolleston, yesterday, on four or. five occasions in March machines passed over Greymouth and Hokitika apparently without the townspeople being any the wiser. Many, of the machines went from the Wigram aerodrome during the recent "refresher" course in the direction of the Southern Alps, and on at least four or five occasions during March machines actually crossed the Alps and went as far as Greymouth and Hokitika, passing directly over those towns at heights of from 1000 ft. to 15,000 ft. One machine flew from the aerodrome as far as Greymouth and was back in well under two hours. Several good catches of hapuku have bben secured near Tauranga recently/ says our Tauranga correspondent, one of the local boats securing 50. A party of eighteen Matamata residents visited Tauranga for a day's fishing. They chartered a vessel arid landed a large number of fish off Te Puna. * Stubbornness on the part of a Wellington resident, J. Whitelaw, in refusing to vacate a reserved seat on a train between Timaru and Dunedin, although another seat was available, cost him a fine of 40 shillings and expenses, £4 lis, says a Press Association message from Dunedin. His intimation that he would plead not guilty necessitated the bringing of railway officials to the Court from long distances.