LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20491, 17 February 1930, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A full load of passengers was carried by the first of the extra Auckland-Hamilton Sunday excursion trains, which left Auckland at 8.47 yesterday morning. The running of an extra train was necessitated by the increasing popularity of Sunday excursion trains, and there werb no vacant seats in the nine cars. The additional express, which stops only at Newmarket, Mercer and Frankton Junction, will run every Sunday until further notice, and will make a total of six trains running between the two centres. The large number of passengers carried on the Sunday trains has resulted in trains being late on occasions, and it is considered that the running of the additional express will minimise delay.

Members of the Northern Depot of New Zealand Engineers left Auckland for their annual camp at Ngaruawahia on Saturday morning. About 60 officers and men were included in the company, which is under the command of Major W. A. Gray.

In speaking at the garden party given to the new Bishop of Waiapu in Napier Dean Brocklehurst remarked on the honoured name the new bishop bore. " Personally I always question whether it is the Williams' or the rabbits that overrun New Zealand," he added, amid laughter. The bishop, in a speech later in the afternoon, said that he had to plead guilty to having some relations. He had once been tpld, he said, that it was said that there were 100 families of Williams in New Zealand,, and all had 10 children each. "I admit that it is founded on fact," he said, amid laughter, " but it is only approximately correct." "I belong to a gas institute just the same as you," said Mr. W. E. Barnard, M.P., when speaking in Napier last week in welcoming the delegates to the annual conference of the New Zealand Gas Institute. Amid laughter from the delegates lie said that the main difference between the gas he and his fellow-members produced and that in „which the delegates were interested was that one seemed to return dividends while the other did not. Mr. Barnard remarked that the shareholders of his concern might make their presence felt shortly if the directors did. not begin to produce better results.

An incident which caused no end of amusement to two of a party of three small boys occurred at one of the many places in Napier where free air is obtainable for the inflation of pneumatic tyres. All three boys, the possessors of pushbicycles, decided that a little air would improve their tyres, and for this purpose rode to a free air station. As so often happens with . boys an argument ensued as to who should have the honour of replenishing his supply first, and as usual the most domineering of the trio acquired that honour. With pride of place he leisurely unscrewed the cap of the valve, attached the tube and pressed the lever. Prom tho events*immediately following it appeared that'his judgment in thinking that he required air was at fault, for there was a loudjexplosion and the fabric was cast asunder in a thousand fragments.

Once again from Stewart Island comes the tale "of a strange marine visitor, and this time the fish has been caught and sent to' the mainland for presentation to a museum. At present, for preservation purposes, it is in cool storage at Bluff. Gathered from observation and remarks it is conjectured that the fish belongs to the ribbon species.Local fishermen say that they have seen nothing like it before and cannot give it a name. The stranger is a most beautiful specimen of marine life, tys length is four feet; at the broadest part it measures nine inches and the maximum thickness is only one inch. It is of a'bright silver hue, and along the back and on the body it has horny projections of about l-16th of an inch.' It is in shape not' unlike a small crosscut saw. It. has a very small mouth, the tail tapers away for about- a foot, terminating in a delicate replica of a butterfly wing or a peacock's feather, with all their prismatic colouring.

A decision to form an Alpine Club with headquarters at New Plymouth, and to be known as the Taranaki Alpine Club, was reached at a meeting in New Plymouth last week, of those interested in mountain-climbing. A large number of members was elected', and it was decided to commence operations at once. The convener, Mr. L. V. Bryant, said that one of the aims of the club would bo to establish huts and bases on the Pouakai Ranges. Members would protect the property of the Park Board in looking after forest and helping the rangers. It was desired also to make some provision for young people to reach the mountain in order to undertake climbing.

"There is no liar nowadays likt# the motor liar," declared a lawyer in the Dunedin Court recently, when commenting on the expense to which the country is being put through investigations into motor vehicle accidents. They come into Court, he said, swear that left is right, and the centre line is tho kerb, and that 50 miles an hour is 25 miles an hour, A poker face was as easy to read as a 'printed page compared with the ceilm, expressionless visage of a motorist in the witness box.

The interesting fact that a subject cannot be joined with the Crown as a defendant in a civil claim was ( explained by Mr. P. J. O'Rogan in the course of a- trial, of a claim for £2OOO brought against the Crown by a labourer in tho Supremo Court in Wellington last week. Tho man was injured at tho Moera workshops, negligence on tho part of a railway servant being aliened. Mr. O'Recan it. was impossible to cite the man's employers as co-defendants, the law preventing a subject from being joined with the Crown. >lt was pointed out. however, that should it be desired to proceed against another party as well as the Crown a separate action would have to be brought and the difficulty overcome by trying both together or separately.

Pinus insignie, by a proper method of treatment, can evidently be made durable for fence posts, a purpose for which it has hitherto been looked upon as useless. In 1910 Mr. Orton Bradley, of Charteris Bay, Banks Peninsula, had some pinus insignia posts soaked in tar, leaving them in it for a week, filling up the receptacle as the tar was absorbed, and then the posts were used for fencing. Recently one of the posts was pulled up to ascertain its condition and it was found to bo as sound as when placed in tho ground. Mr. Bradley had tho butt of the post sawn through the centre and it could be seen how firm the wood was. It was noticeable that the wood smelt as strongly of tar as if it had been applied a few weeks ago instead of 20 years back.