LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A successful lift of a load weighing 65 tons was made by the Auckland Harbour Board's floating crano yesterday, when the gangway for the now vehicular wharf which is to serve Northcote and Birkenhead was moved from near the old vehicular ferry site to the now wharf westward of the Western Wharf, a distance of about a mile. The now gangway is similar to that in use on the Dovonport ferry wharf, being electricallycontrolled and altogether different from the old pontoon type of gangway previously in use. The new vehicular wharf, which will considerably shorten the distance between Northcote and Birkenhead and the city, will be opened by about November 15.

Southland's claim to be a sportsman s paradise was supported by the record number of applications for deer, wapiti and mooso licences received by the Southland Acclimatisation Society, states a Press Association message from Invercargill. Blocks were allocated by ballot yesterday. The successful applicants for the three wapiti blocks were Nitz Brothers (Masterton), G. ftL Crabbe and A. J. Wickway (Ayton) and Mr. and Mrs. K. Sutherland (Wairarapa). For red deer blocks R. Taylor and J. L. Angus (Havelock North), John Anderson (Melbourne) and G. Taylor JDunedin) were the successful applicants outside Southland.

The request for a penny-in-the-slot telephone to be installed at the Ellcrslie post office, instead of the present two-pence-in-the-solfc machine, has been acceded to by the Postmaster-General. Advice to this effect was received in Auckland yesterday from Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P.

Peculiarities of the British climate noted during the past summer were mentioned by a passenger who arrived at Auckland by the Rangitiki yesterday. In the South of England there were only four wet days from the end of March until the end of September. In Scotland, however, rain fell on every day during the month of August.

Keen interest is being taken by the Maoris in the Tirau district in the approaching wisit of Ratana. Great preparations are being made at the Maori pa at Tapapa, where the gathering will take place. Visitors are expected from all parts of the country and those in charge of tlv* arrangements expect between 700 and 1000 Maoris to be present on the four days that Ratana and his followers are expected to remain.

Conditions at the Hikurangi mine, which was flooded some months ago, are steadily improving, states the Herald's Whanga.rei correspondent. The installation of the new generator expedited pumping operations, and on Thursday morning only 34|ft. of water remained in the shaft. The manager, Mr. McKenson, stated that provided operating conditions in the mine were satisfactory after the long submersion, he hoped to have men working by the end of November.

The scow Moa, made famous as the vessel which Count von Luckner captured after his escape from Motuihi Island on December 13 ; 1917, may commence trading to Waitara. The secretary of the Harbour Board has received inquiries as to the suitability of the port for the Moa. He has replied that the boat could work the port with ease. "Mussolini has done wonders for Italy, so far as appearances go," said Mr. Justice Scholes, of Sydney, in a short interview on board the Eangitiki yesterday. "I was there years ago, under the old regime, and the contrast when I visited the country lately was amazing. One sees no more dirt and squalor and idleness. The whole place has literally been cleaned up. Everybqdy seems to be industrious. I often noticed peasants ploughing beside th§ railway, generally with the oddest kind of a team, such as a horse, a donkey and an old cow hitched together. Th 9 man behind, seldom so much as glanced up as the train passed. Men, women and children worked in the fields everywhere from dawn to dusk." No visitor could fail to notice the all-pervading police, although whether this was of good or ill omen he was not prepared to say.

"I think the Court should always, where possible, give effect to a recommendation of that kind," observed the Chief Justice, the Hon. M. Myers, in the Supreme Court in Wellington this week, when sentencing a prisoner who had been found guilty with a very strong recommendation to mercy. "It is highly desirable that there should be mutual confidence between the jury and the Court, and the stronger that confidence is the less likely it is, in my opinion, that miscarriages of justice can occur."

For many years Mr. R. A. Law, of Kaponga, Taranaki, had been endeavouring to locate a hawk's nest without success. Recently he succeeded in his quest through being near enough to see the mother bird leave the nest, which was situated in a swamp. When the nest is approached a hawk usually either remains perfectly still, hoping thus to avoid detection, or keeps well away from her nest until the danger of discovery is past.

Everyone has trouble at one time or another with the knotting of that yard of fabric-covered wir6 that extends between the telephone and the receiver. Somehow or other the wires in the public telephone cabinets are exceedingly prone to this twisting habit, which, when sufficiently aggravated, throws the telephone out of gear. But by the simplest device possible, says a Wellington newspaper, the department has got over the difficulty, and people who cannot bear the sight of a much-twisted wire may now be saved the labour of straightening out such tangled skeins. In the cabinets the wires are led between the telephone and the receiver through a length of red rubber gas tubing, which very effectively prevents it from becoming entangled with itself. There is no reason why this idea should not bo extended to office and the household telephones.

Objection to remarks made at a recent meeting of the council of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association regarding the possibilities of rabbit farming was contained in a letter received by the council yesterday from Fur Farms, Limited. A Chinchilla pelt, stated to be the first raised, tanned and dressed in New Zealand, was forwarded for inspection. The president, Mr. J. T. F. Mitchell, said the criticism had merely followed reference in the newspapers to a certain class of rabbit, and that it had been decided to include rabbit classes in the autumn show as support for the industry. The letter was received*