LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 4 April 1929, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The rcliccnsitig of motor vehicles "ill commence in Auckland on Monday, April 15, and it will be illegal to use f lie current number plates after May 31. The main depot will again be in the Wellesley Street post office, and, as was t lie case last year, the numbers 1 to 20.000 will be allocated to the Auckland district. The new number-plates will he blue with white figures. In conjunction with relicensing it will bo obligatory to undertake third-party insurance. The charges for a private car this year will accordingly he £2 for the licence, 2s 6d for number-plates, arid £1 for insurance. The names of companies accepting this class of risk will be embodied in the form to he issued and motorists may nominate their preference.

The Northern Company's steamer Ngapuhi returned to Auckland yesterday morning after making the last trip in the Tauranga passenger service, which has been run by the company for over 40 years. The service has been abandoned because of tho competition of motors and trains. The Ngapuhi has been replaced by the company's auxiliary vessel Ronald, which will run a bi-weekly cargo service between Auckland and Tauranga.

Through being thrown under his wag gon as a result of tho horso bolting, Mr. J. Wattan, of Mauku, sustained a fracture of the wrist and bruises to his head and leg. Mr. Wattan was proceeding Jiome when the horses became frightened. In endeavouring to check them ho lost his balance and was thrown to tho ground, a wheel of tho waggon passing over liirn. Dr. MeWhirtcr, of Pukekolie, attended the injured man.

The first contribution to the fund just opened in Auckland for tho relief of famino in China has come to hand from tho united Congregational service held in the Beresford Street Church on Good Friday. Tho sum of £22 was contributed by the meeting, and is being sent on by tho Rev. W. Mawson, local treasurer to the fund, to the National Christian Council in Shanghai, through the Missionary Council in Wellington. Other smaller sums are being received from private donors.

A fracture of tho ankle was sustained by Mr. Edward Millett, aged 47, of 143, Wellesley Street, who was struck by a falling bag of sugar while working in the raw store at tho Colonial Sugar Company's refinery yesterday morning. lie was brought to Auckland by ferry steamer and was taken to tho Auckland Hospital by the St. John Ambulance.

The third Auckland wool sale of the season will be held in the Town Hall concert chamber next Thursday, commencing at 3 p.m. The offering is not expected to exceed 5500 bales. Buyers will arrive from the south next Wednesday.

A local body which claims to have lived entirely within its means throughout the financial year just ended is the Tuakau Town Board. ' In submitting the balance-sheet to the board this week the clerk, Mr. A. H. Tapper, said there was no item for interest on overdraft, as at no time during tho 12 months had the board's account been overdrawn. Tho year ended with a credit balance of £27.

A Dunedin inventor, Mr. Ft. Ferguson, has brought under the notice of tho Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. B. Taverncr, a device for tho protection of shunters when handling tarpaulin-covered trucks, says the Herald's Dunedin correspondent. The source of danger at present is that the tarpaulin generally covers the handrail which the shunter would otherwise grip when he jumps on tho brake to bring tho truck to a standstill. The invention is being referred to the departmental experts.

It is expected that the equipment and stoics will all have been taken out of the holds of the Byrd Antarctic ship Eleanor Boiling by to-day, says the Dunedin correspondent of the Herald. She will then proceed to Port Chalmers to tic up alongside the City of New York for tho winter months.

Tho Young Women's Christian Association in Australia and New Zealand is seeking to promote closer co-operation and understanding between their countries and the Far East through a systent of inlerchango of secretaries. The scheme was put into operation toward tho end of last year, when Miss Constanco Duucau went from Australia to Tokio, and her place in Australia, was taken by a Japanese secretary. The experiment has already proved a marked success. The Japaueso secretary is doing excellent work on tho national staff of the association, and is making a study of conditions in Australia. With tho same object of promoting good understanding the New Zealand Y.W.C.A. is planning an exchange of secretaries with the association in China. Miss Nessio Moncrieff, at present in Duncdin, will go from New Zealand when a suitablo Chinese worker has been selected to join the staff of the association in the Dominion.

Tho first meeting of tho newlyappointed Board of Administration of the Mental Defectives Act took place in Wellington last week. Tho conference, which was attended by every member, lasted for a day. Under the chairmanship of Dr. T. Grcv, members wero engaged in making themselves thoroughly conversant with the provisions of the Act and tho duties that will fall to them in carrying it out. Tho cyily member of tho board not resident in Wellington is Miss Jean Begg, general secretary of tho Auckland Y.W.C.A.

An interesting souvenir of the recent visit of tho English cricketers to Australia is possessed by Mr. F. W. Christian, of Palmerston North, in tho shapo of a, copy of P. F. Warner's "Fight for tho Ashes in 1926," autographed by the 1928-29 defenders. In 1891 Mr. Christian, then an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford, secured his cricketing colours in the college eleven under the captaincy of M. R. Jardine, father of D. R. Jardine, who was with Chapman's team in Australia this season. In the year mentioned Balliol numbered among its opponents m the annual match with Rugby no loss a future cricketing figure than P. F. Warner himself. Mr. Christian, while the English team was in Australia, wrote to Chapman's lieutenant, mentioning his association with his parent, and asked if tho English skipper would permit his team to autograph the book which lie sent.. This was done, with the result that, Mr. Christian is now the possessor of a muchprized souvenir.