LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19859, 1 February 1928, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Owing to the non-arrival of certain forms from Wellington, the relicensing of motor-vehicles will not commence at the Welleslev Street Post Office to-day. It is expected that 10 or 14 days will elapse before the relicensing can be carried out. Primary schools in the Auckland education district will re-open to-day after the long Christmas vacation. At the end of last year there were approximately 68.000 pupils attending schools in the district, and it is expected the increase in school population this year will be substantial. Advice that the new vehicular ferry berth at Devonport should be in use in the third week of this month was received by the Harbour Board yesterday from the engineer, Mr. D. Holderness. it was reported that 6800 cubic yards of mud had been dredged from the approach to the new passenger wharf to provide a minimum of 12ft. of water at the lowest i ides. As a result of spilling two buckets of boiling water which he was carrying yesterday morning Max Kell, aged 1.7, of 34, Forbes Street, was severely scalded on the left, arm and both legs. He was admitted to the Auckland Hospital, where his condition is reported to be fairly serious. Noisy motor speed-boats on the Waitemata have been erusing as much annoyance to residents on the waterfront as the unsilenced motor-cycle inflicts on those who live near the concrete roads in the suburbs. The Auckland Harbour Board has received several complaints, most of them against the small outboard motor-boats which buzz about. the harbour bays closo inshore. A letter inquiring whether any action was to be taken to compel the use of muffled exhausts was received by the board yesterday from the port authorities of Otago. The board also received a communication from the New Zealand Power-Boat Association offering to support any by-law enforcing the use of silencers except during actual competition in a raciug event at. a regatta. Consideration of the matter was deferred. The Thames Hamilton main road, which has never quite been a perfect highway throughout, is breaking up badly in places owing to lack of rain to consolidate the surface, telegraphs our correspondent. The metal is lifting badly after a heavy motoring season and the road generally is now severe on tyres. Referring to the proposed removal of the T.B. shelters in the Domain, Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, said yesterday the board would be prepared to make a start with the work as soon as the Patriotic Association and the Red Cross Society had brought their negotiations with the City Council to a close. These bodies had offered to erect a central block on the new site. The Patriotic Association had offered to sell its building near the present shelters to the council, but finality had not yet been reached regarding the price. As soon as this was agreed upon the board would be ready to undertake the removal of the shelters. An elderly man who stowed away on the steamer Ruapehu before she sailed for England some weeks ago was landed at Panama and sent back to New Zealand by the Cambridge, which react ed Auckland from Liverpool yesterday morning. On the arrival of the Cambridge he was handed over to the police. Arrangements for a preliminary inquiry into the methods of sewage discharge into the Auckland Harbour and tidal influences have been held up through delay in the issue of the necessary authority to the proposed chairman, the district engineer of Public Works. Advice was received by the Auckland Harbour Board yesterday from the Minister of Health to the effect that the medical officer of health at Auckland was prepared to organise the preliminary committee and that the Minister of Public Works had been asked to forward the essential instructions to the district engineer. A meeting between representatives of friendly societies and the executive of the Hospital Boards' Association tock place in Wellington last week, with a view to arriving at some agreement in respect of fees for hospital patients who were members of friendly societies. Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, said yesterday a recommendation was finally agreed upon, and this would be sent to various societies and boards for their approval. It was probable the arrangement would provide for a uniform minimum daily charge throughout the Dominion. A valuable Maori tiki was found by a Tauranga resident when he was engaged clearing a slip on the eastern terminus of First Avenue. The tiki is of greenstone and is a very fine specimen. It is over sin. long and nearly 3in. in breadth. The figure carvings are in the very old native style. Gisborne fishermen have recently been experiencing a great deal of trouble from sharks. The sharks follow the trawlers and when the nets are being hauled up bite through them and liberate the fish caught. This is very disheartening to the fishermen, for, apart from the fact that tliey lose their hauls, fish are at present very scarce. Weeping willow trees in North Otago have been attacked by a blight or insect of some kind, arid are rapidly dying off. By some people it is believed that the disease is the same as that which attacked blue guim trees. Five strands of rusty fencing wire probably saved the life of a motorist on a North Otago read recently, when his car hung suspended over a 30ft. bank. The car was driven by Mr. G. L. Cuthbertson, engineer to the Waitaki County Council, who wfs following oye of the cars containing tie members of the Main Highways Board. As time was pressing, the cars were travelling as fast as safety permitted, and thick clouds of dust were raised by the leaders. At a concrete bridge over the* Waiakakiiua stream Mr. Cuthbertson emerged out of a dust cloud and found himself immediately behind a strange car travelling at a much slower speed, and within a few yards of the bridge. To avoid striking the vehicle or stonework lie swerved sharply off the road, mounted a steep bank, and plunged into a clump of bushes overhanging the creek bed. The heavy machine tore through the undergrowth, and was only provonted from falling into the creek by being caught and held in the wires of a fence. The force of the impact uprooted one post, and the fence swung out over the cliff like a fishing net with the nose of the car caught fast in its folds. Mr. Cuthbertson was unhurt, but the car received damage to its steering gear, and was left on the roadside.