LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19879, 24 February 1928, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

« Hoavy clouds last evening g'U'O promise of rain, but none fell in the city. At Titirangi, a heavy shower at 4 o'clock lasted for five minutes, and at Avondale light rain fell over a period of three-quar-ters of an hour. Reports from Henderson, Kumeu, Walk worth and Albany state that threatening conditions prevailed in the late afternoon, but there was no rain. A five-seater motor-car, owned by Mr. W. B. Cumming, of Narrow Neck, was removed without authority from Albert Street yesterday afternoon. The car had not been recovered at an early hour this morning. The Auckland Harbour Board's floating crane was ehgaged in the removal of the old vehicular landing stage and bridge au Devonport yesterday. The remaining portion of the old structure is being dismantled, and all traffic will use the new vehicular and cargo wharf, which is almost completed. Although much progress has been made with the new passenger wharf, it is not expected to complete the work for at least three months. The old floating stage for the vehicular wharf was towed to Point Chevalier yesterday, and is now the property of Dixieland, Ltd. It will be used as a raft for swimmers. One. result of the scarcity of milk is the. gradual disappearance of cream from the shops. Milk is becoming so scarce that the dairy factories can no longer afford to separate much of it to provide the public with cream. The position will undoubtedly become serious if rain does not fall within a reasonable time to re.fresh the pastures. One leading city firm is receiving about half the supply of milk which is usually available at this time of the year. The procedure which most dairy factories, are following at present is to fill all the orders for milk and then, if there is a surplus, to separate the cream. The supply of cream has not yet been completely cut off, but it is already intermittent and cream is available only when the demand for milk is less than usual. The New Zealand Shipping Company's iiners, Rotorua and Ruapehu, will arrive at Wellington, with passengers from Southampton within the next five days. According to their wireless reports the Rotorua will arrive to-morrow morning and the Ruapehu on Wednesday morning. Both vessels have general merchandise from London. The Rotorua will unload at Wellington and Auckland and the Ruapehu at Lyttelton and Port Chalmers. Additional de luxe sleeping cars are now being built by the Railway Department and in about two months one will be added to each of the limited express trains. Commenting on the in the demand for sleeping-car accommadation, Mr. E. M. Casey, divisional superintendent, said yesterday that the time was approaching when the limited trains will be made up wholly of sleeping Cars.

A further addition to the Auckland Zoo has .been made by the Rev. Jasper Calder, who presented specimens of two very interesting varieties of lizard. One of these ,was a Gould's monitor, over 2ft. long and beautifully marked in black and yellow. Mr. Calder also presented two blue-tongued lizards. Mr. Calder has studied natural history ever since he was a boy and has a large private museum of specimens collected over a period of some 25 years. Most of them are snakes and lizards and all are in an excellent state of preservation. Mr. Calder intends to present some of his treasures to the Auckland Museum and Mr. Gilbert Archey, the curator, will shortly make a visit to select specimens.

Support for the principle that pedestrians on concrete roads at night should face oncoming traffic was accorded by the Legal and By-laws Committee of the City Council yesterday. There was a division of opinion concerning liability if a pedestrian was run over while walking on what is usually termed the wrong side of the road, but the chairman of the committee, Mr. A. J. Entrican, said there was no rule of the road for pedestrians as there was for other traffic. Other members of the committee considered the fact that the pedestrian was on the "wrong side" would be taken into account by a jury in a question of damages. "You seem to be more in a hurry in Auckland," said Mr. Justice Blair, in ihe Supreme Court yesterday, when dealing with a divorce petition, based on a husband's failure to comply with an order for the restitution of conjugal rights. His Honor was about to grant a decree nisi, to be made absolute in six months, when counsel reminded him it was customary in Auckland to make the decree absolute after three months. "In Wellington we usually make it six months in these restitution cases," said His Honor, but he agreed to conform to the Auckland enstorn. Confident that closet settlement on the land will assist to solvo the unemployment problem a committee set up by the Civic League has forwarded a telegram to the Prime Minister urging upon him the necessity for considering a definite scheme of land settlement. Mr. Coates, in acknowledging the telegram, intimated his willingness to consider any representations that may bo made. "Auckland should be proud of its zoo," said Dr. R. J. Tillyard, the eminent entomologist, after paying his first visit thore yesterday. He was greatly impressed with the progress made in a comparatively short period, and said the zoo was a model for its size. The animals seemed to have been well cared for during the trying weather, and there was no sign of sickness. The season for stalking fallow deer in the Tauranga Acclimatisation Society district will be from March 1 to March 31. ( For red deer the season will be from March 31 to April 30. A deputation consisting of several persons whose fathers were killed in the Kaitangata mine disaster 49 years ago, waited on the Minister of Mines, the Hon. G. J. Anderson, at Dunedin recently, to ask that the sum still standing to the credit of the relief fund be distributed among the surviving descendants. The Minister replied, in effect, that £i5,000 or £16,000 was subscribed by the public, and that by the careful management of the trustees over £28,000 was made available, and had been distributed, while £IO,OOO of accrued income yet remained. Hundreds of others had lost their fathers when just as young. There was recently brought to bis notice the case of two miners who, he believed, should receive some benefit from the fund, and who came within the scope of the resolutions passed by the subscribers. He intended to fgrant them some relief if investigations showed that the circumstances justified 'such a course. He would strongly oppose any proposal to distribute the balance of the fund in the manner suggested by the deputation.