LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20474, 28 January 1930, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A large amount of mail from overseas will be delivered in Auckland to-day. The Royal Mail liner Niagara, which arrived at Auckland from Vancouver yesterday afternoon, brought English and American mail, of which 246 bags were for Auckland. The Makura arrived at Wellington from Sydney yesterday morning with 62 bags of English, Eastern and Australian letters for Auckland. The mail will reach Auckland by the Main Trunk express this morning. The Maunganui, which is due at Auckland from Sydney at 6.30 this morning, also has English, Eastern and Australian mail, of which 295 bags are for Auckland. The Makura left Sydney on Thursday and the Maunganui on Friday.

A heavy thunderstorm broke over Rotorua at 4.30 p.m. yesterday and lasted over three hours. Torrential rain resulted in all the water channels being flooded, and in many cases the water reached the crown of the roads. Pedestrians crossing streets were compelled to wade through water much over their hoot t°ps in places. Fish have been very plentiful in the Raglan Harbour this summer, and a large supply was taken into Hamilton yesterday morning by visitors. Fishing with a net one party caught 140 flounder. Another party caught 70 schnapper on the line and another caught 40.

In the Wellington district alone the State Forest Service in the last year has paid a shilling a snout for 22,000 wild pigs killed. This absorbed £llOO out of £4OOO received as the share of the service from the opossum skin royalty.

" About how many deer are there in New Zealand?" was a question put to a responsible officer of the State Forest Service in Wellington last week. His reply was that in two provinces alone in the South Island there were over 2,000.000 deer, but the total in.New Zealand was beyond his conception. They had multiplied ten times in less than as many years, to hazard something like an estimate. Thar deer were first released at Mount Cook. They are Himalayan mountain sheep, and have since spread tremendously in the mountainous districts of the South Island. Quite recently some specimens were mustered with some sheep off the hills in Marlborough, showing how they have spread themselves over the country.

A delightful time is being spent by the children under treatment at the sunshine health camp at Ostend, Waiheke Island. Full programmes for each day are arranged for the children, who, besides finding enjoyment in the open air, are required to rest' for a considerable period. The diet is carefully arranged and is very varied. Last week a special outing to Surt Beach. Onetangi, was arranged. One of the nurses at the camp was recently called to a case of sickness at Palm Beach and appreciation of her services has. been expressed, as no medial aid is available on the island.

A proposal to utilise the screens in picture theatres in the Mount Eden Borough for the purpose of checking the prevalence of false alarms of fire, was adopted by the Borough Council at its meeting last night. In his report to the council the brigade superintendent, Mr. J. Maskell, recommended that the offer of a reward for information leading to a conviction, should be advertised on a slide at the three picture theatres in the borough. Mr. L. Joll said the suggestion was well worth considering. It was not unlikely that some of those persons who were responsible for the false alarms would at one time or another be present at these theatres, and the use of an advertising slide might have a deterrent effect. He moved that the suggestion should be adopted. It was resloved to leave the matter in the hands of the town clerk with power to act.

A swim from McKenzie's Beach, Rangitoto to Takapuna Beach, a straight-line distanre of about three miles, was accomplished on Sunday by Cecil Webster, a younger brother of the well-known Auckland long-distance swimmer, R. J. Webster. Webster's time was one and ahalf hours, a fine performance in view of the fact that he was swept some distance up the channel by the incoming tide. The swimmer left Rangitoto about 12.30 p.m. accompanied by a dinghy. The water was calm all the way across and he usea the double-overarm stroke throughout. When ho reached Takapuna aF 2.15 p.m. he was quite fresh. Webster intends shortly to attempt the swim from Brown's Island to King's Wharf, a distance of approximately six and a-half miles.

The Governor-General's speech-making difficulties were humorously described in his address last Friday at the luncheon given in his honour by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. When one got before a gathering of experts, so far from wishing to offer any comment or criticism, he said, one only hoped that one might get out of it without putting one's foot in it badly. He felt that he had nothing to offer them worthy of their attention. He had sat down that morning trying to think out something to say to them. He had gone through the same ordeal the week before when the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce had entertained their lady patroness, Her Excellency, and, though he had got through that safely, he did not know what he could say on the present occasion. After some two hours' hard thinking, he had got together two or three notes only, and they all appertained to farming and statistics. But he had said to himself, " That won't do," and had put his pen through them.

If there is such* a thing as a society for the prevention of cruelty to motor-cycles and side-cars, it ought to have been in action in Wellington on Sunday, says the Dominion, when a motor-cycle nearly broke down on the Mangaroa Hill under the weight of its human cargo. Six people did it carry —and a side-car, and some luggage, too. Behind the driver sat two adults, while another perched herself between the pillion seat and the edge of the side-car. How she did it was a mystery. In the side-car were a woman and a small child, the latter holding a bottle of milk, from which it drank from time to time. , The luggage looked like the last straw on the camel's back, and was packed on the back of the sidecar. The progress of the whole outfit was certainly slow, but by no stretch of the imagination could it have been described as sure.

A Waipukurau resident had the misfortuno recently while sea-bathing to lose his teeth in the sea. A rake wa3 secured in the hope of recovering the teeth. While engaged in the task a shark was observed, and without hesitation the Waipukurau pettier plunged the rake prongs into the shark's head. So effective was the stroke that the shark was dragged up to the beach, despite a great struggle on its part. The shark was sft. 6in. long.