LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19699, 27 July 1927, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The Local Government Loans Board has refused to sanction the Mount Roskill Road Board's proposed loan of £BB,OOO for concreting Three Kings Road and Mount Albert Road, as it objects to the first year's interest and sinking fund'being' paid out of the loan. It states the highest .amount that will be approved is £81,500. At the meeting of the road board last evening the chairman, Mr. E. F. Jones, said it would take a rate of three-farthings in the £ to cover this interest and sinking fund, £6500, but it had been intended to spread the expenditure over a term of years. Mr. Belcher said his idea was that if Three Kings Road were concreted the work on Mount Albert Road could be further delayed a little, if the district did not make the progress anticipated. The matter was deferred for further considerataion. A Chandler car, which was removed from outside the Masonic Hall in Princes Street, on Monday evening, was found badly burned in Abbott's Way, Ellerslic, yesterday morning. , The car is the property of Mr. John Houton, 85, Rose Street Ponsonby. During the past two months three stolen cars have been found burned, while another was discovered at the foot of the crater of Mount Eden. The nuisance created by the accumulation of storm water at the bottom of Kimberley Road, Epsom, has been overcome by the City Council. A shaft was sunk in a vacant paddock, and a culvert constructed from the shaft to the lowest point in the area, which frequently became flooded. A cave was discovered and this is utilised for running the water away. After exceptionally heavy rain, the area was comparatively dry yesterday. There was a strong flow of water in the culvert, but the miniature lakes, which always formed after heavy rain, were entirely absent. « The responsibility of mothers in giving their children spiritual training in the home was emphasised by the Rev. E. E. Bamford at the annual meeting of, the Auckland Diocesan Mothers' Union yesterday. He said many parents shirked their duties in this direction, and he instanced a case in the suburbs where the housemaid brought the child to be christened while the parents were at the races, University students were intx-oduced to mate, a South .. American drink, at the conclusion of a lecture given by Professor Sperrin-Johnson last evening. It is a harmless stimulant brewed like tea from the dried leaf of a shrub, and its popularity has saved the Argentine and neighbouring republics from the dangers of pulque, the virulently alcoholic drink which is the curse of Mexico. The mate was brought by the lecturer from Argentina. It is somewhat bitter, being certainly an acquired taste, and the students' expressions seemed to show that they had not acquired it on first acquaintance.

"I am told that in your Winter Show there is a place marked with three A's, representing the Anti-Asiatic Association," said the Rev. G. H. McNeur, of Canton, addressing a Presbyterian missionary conference yesterday. "There should be enough united Christian sentiment in the city and province of Auckland," he continued, "to make such an anti-British demonstration impossible, because fundamentally it is anti-British." The statement was greeted with applause.

The Harbour Board's barge which capsized' at DevOnport on Monday was righted yesterday afternoon by the 80-ton floating crane. Afterwards the barge was towed to the beach, where it will be pumped out and the cement mixer on board overhauled.' The damage to barge and machinery is not extensive. A motor-van belonging to Burt s Family Service Laundry was almost destroyed by fire in Mount Albert Road yesterday afternoon. The outbreak, which was caused through the brakes becoming overheated, was suppressed by the Mount Roskill Fire Brigade, only minor damage being done. The records of the Dominion meteorologist, Mr. D. C. Bates, show that the coldest night so far was experienced in Wellington on June 8, when the ground temperature was 23.9 degrees. In May the coldest night was on May 7, when the temperature reading was 27.1 degrees. This month the temperature has been down to 24 degrees on two nights. "We very often get the coldest nights in August," remarked Mr. Bates on Monday. "There is a saying, you know, 'that as the days lengthen so the cold strengthens.' "

A deputation representing the Mount Roskill Ratepayers' Association waited upon the road board last evening to urge the advisability of making an early protest against any contemplated advance in tram fares. Mr. .A. St. C. Belcher submitted a report of the meeting of local authorities within No. 2 heavy traffic district. Mr. G. C. Munns said the ratepayers were not complaining of the recent increase, but would support the board in objecting to any further increase, particularly if it was proposed to withdraw the concession cards. He thought that if the Motor 'Omnib as Act were repealed there would be no more difficulty in keeping down the fares. The board decided to consider the responsibility that would have to be carried by local bodies if a transport board were formed, and t-o reply to the deputation later.

A resident of Invercargill was rudely awakened eaily ore morning last week by shrill isquawks and much fluttering. The disturbance continued for some minutes and he decided to investigate. Going cautiously up the stairs which led to an attic from whence the sounds came, the householder was soon enlightened. Half hidden by a large beam, a starling was making strenuous efforts to escape from what was eventually a stronghold. Visions of a large rat immediately rose but before the man could enter the fray, the starling got free and flew out through a ventilator. His curiosity aroused, the investigator armed himself and prepared to do battle. Imagine his surprise on looking under the beam to find a female starling putting the finishing touches to a nest with one of Mr. Starling's tail feathers. "And- 4 this is marriage," he mused, as he sought his couch once again.

A sudden and unaccountable lapse of memory on the part of a Timaru business man led him to buy a railway ticket for Christchurch, and to go thejre, by express, without realising what he had done. His first realisation of the fact that he was not* in Timaru came when he was struck by Unfamiliar sights in Phri'stchurch. He immediately went to a telephone bureau to allay any anxiety which his wife might be feeling on account of his absence. Having done this, he returned by the ne-xt express to ' Timaru.: