LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19778, 27 October 1927, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A waggon, loaded with butter, in a mixed train travelling from Whangarei to Auckland became derailed at a point on the main lina between Paparoa and Huarau about half-past five last evening. The train, which left Whangarei at 3.30 p.m., was delayed for two hours and a-half. No delay was caused .to any other trains. Injuries to the throat and face as the result of a savage attack by a dog were sustained on Monday by Daphne Bainbridge, aged seven, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. Bainbridge, of 16, Windmill Road, Mount Eden. The girl was playing in the street with some companions when the animal flew at her. Although the wounds are serious, it is not anticipated they will leave permanent marks. Severe injuries to the head were sustained by Mr. Arthur Roberts, of Arnold Street, Rocky Nook, who was knocked down by a tramcar outside the Town Hall shortly after noon yesterday. An operation was performed at the Auckland Hospital and the condition of the patient was later reported to be satisfactory. The City Fire Brigade answered a call just after 10 o'clock last evening to an annexe of three rooms in the grounds of Bella Vista, a boarding house in Lower Symonds Street. Ihe fire was confined to one room and was suppressed without difficulty. After having to use crutches for 12 years owing to the effects of infantile paralysis a Matamata girl is now able to walk unaided thanks to an operation performed recently at the Waikato Hospital, states the Heralds Matamata correspondent. The girl was four years old when she contracted infantile paralysis and is now 16. She has been in hospital for 20 months. Four months ago Dr. Wallis. orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, performed an operation, transferring the muscles from the back of the affected leg to the front. The muscles have knitted, and the girl is able to walk unaided. The assertion that bread of the pr=sent day had not the fine flavour of that made before modern appliances were introduced into the mills was made by Mr, H. R. Burton, of Sydney, at the annual conference of the Federated Master Bakers of Australia and New Zealand yesterday. "If we can get the right flour we can produce the right sort of bread," the speaker added. When packing hides for export recently a resident of Wanganui wrote his name and address on a cigarette card and inserted it in one of the packages. He has now received a letter from a German, in Hamburg, an extract from the translation of which says:—"ln Hamburg there is no money. I. am lodging in a place where they do nothing else but unpack hides from Australia. We are practically all working fdr what we can get to eat." The writer also inquires regarding the prospects of work in Australia. " He's innocent, he's innocent," called out a man among the spectators in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon at the commencement of the trial of a man charged with an offence against a young girl. The protest was continued until the man was swiftly hustled out of the building by a policeman. Ihe protesting one returned a little later to the precincts of the Court and came into such noisy conflict with the police that be was arrested and will appear in the Police Court this mornihg on a charge of drunkenness. The accused on whose behalf the protest was made was discharged later, but, by the irony of fate, the protester spent the night in custody.

Motorists going through the Manawatu Gorge are attracted by an object that resembles a tombstone, and many are tempted to puil up to make closer investigation in case it might indicate that t.h«re was danger ahead, and that the stone was erected to the memory oi somo other reckless motorist, says a satiric*! observer. The lettering on the stone explains that it is intended to hand dowu to posterity the names of those who wei-e responsible for having the road wideued to meet' the traffic.

As her lawyer did not appear a Maori woman in the Court at Hastings last week defended a case for the variation of a maintenance order brought against her by her husband, cross-examined her "worse half," and won her case. Under her questions, the plaintiff admitted that he was over £IOO in arrears, that, ho borrowed right and left—from cousins, from friends, from taxi-drivers, even from his legal adviser. He also drank—sometimes too much—went to the races, went to dances, and did all those things that a husband under a maintenance order should not do. The magistrate summed up in the following sentence: —"He is to pay a maintenance amount and has not paid it. He has been living on hopes, and that is all the wife and children have to live on." The plaintiff was strong and healthy and able to do shearing and work of any kind.

Many little stories of the early days were told at. the handing over of the key of the Wallaceville blockhouse to the Upper Hutt Borough Council recently. " Peoplo then were not hard up in patches," said the Minister of Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod), in tho course of his speech. "They were all hard up," and "Wealth was any mdn's —as long as he didn't want more than sixpence," said Mr. Elsdon Best, when referring to the Minister's remark. Very few had even matches in those days, said Mr. Best, and packets were sold for sixpence, a shilling and one and sixpence each, according to the size. He remembered children coming to his homo and asking for "the loan of a firestick," but, he added, amidst laughter, "I don't remember any of those firesticks being returned."

Jew's harps, drums, muskets and ammunition would not now be looked upon as the best kind of implements with which to keep tho peace, but they served that useful purpose when the first early settlers landed at the present site of Well-, ington from the Tory in 1839 This explanation of the friendly relations between the natives in tho lower part of the Hutt Valley aud the pioneers of tho district was given by Mr. Elsdon Best at the Wallaceville blockhouse function recently. Tho Maoris at tho time Colonel Wakefield negotiated for land for tho newcomers were, he said, "between the devil and the deep sea" from various causes, and those "blessings of civilisation" which the settlers brought with them were just what they wanted.