LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

• Seeing smoke emerging from the premises of the Auckland Meat Company at tho Mount Eden tram terminus at about 8,30 last evening, a neighbour gavo the alarm to the Mount Eden Firo Brigade, which was quickly on the scene. On examination it was found that tho bearings of the electrical refrigerating plant had become heated and were burning the insulation. The motor was promptly switched off. to prevent any possibility of firo.

The concrelo bridge on the PapakuraKaraka Road, which has been closed since May 26 to allow strengthening operations to be carried out, will bo reopened for traffic on Monday morning. An announcement' to this effect is made by the engineer to the Franklin County Council, Mr. J. F. McArthur, tho council being the controlling authority. The men engaged on the bridge have been working long hours to have the structure again available for traffic as soon as possible, electric flood lights being provided to enable them to continue after dark. Mr. McArthur states that although the repairs will not,be quite completed the bridge will be available for traffic early on Monday morning.

Auckland railway officials attach no special significance to the report that tho staffs of several North Canterbury stations are being reduced, and that some may be converted from officered stations to flag stations. Station staffing is kept continuously under review and is changed from time to time as may be necessary to meet fluctuations in business or alterations in passenger and goods train timo-tables. For example, seasonal traffic, such as tho South Island grain harvest, may necessitate more hands at loading stations, or a time-table rovision may enable a tablet station to be worked with ono shift instead of two. Sometimes conditions change so much that a station may be closed altogether, as tho Thames North station was some time ago.

In future the City Council will request the police to furnish a report upon evory application for a licence in respect o£ a building to be used as a dance hall or cabaret. .This was suggested recently by a councillor, Miss Alico Basten, who said the purpose of obtaining. the report woulcj be to ascertain that the proposed licensee was not a person of bad character or reputation, as referred to in the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act, 1928. Tlio Legal and By-laws Committee supported the proposal, which the council lias adopted.

The pioneers of "Howick, when they formed the main street of the township many years ago, did the task so thoroughly that their handiwork is proving difficult to remove. The contractors who are excavating tho roadway preparatory to laying it down 'in concrete soon discovered that the foundation was of stone packed very neatly and solidly by hand, forming a hard layer that could not be broken without much labour. The cutting down of part of the well-known Stockade Hill has provided a large amount of spoil for fillings ill places where the old level has had to be raised, and also for the regrading of subsidiary streets.

"An impression that the League of Nations Union wishes to have all military training-suppressed in New Zealand, seems to have got abroad," said Mr. W. T. J. Airey, at a luncheon held by tho Auckland branch of the union yesterday. "In criticising military training tho union is considering the possible effects of compulsory training on international relations. The. union proposes to hold a public meeting shortly, when several authorities, witil different views 011 the subject, will be invited to speak." ■ By sitting for nearly seven hours continuously on Thursday night and early yesterday morning, the Auckland City Council probably broke all records for at least 20 years past. The meeting began at 7 p.m. and ended a little before 2 a.m. Long discussions took place, two members taking an active part atid frequently speaking for the full ten minutes allowed by standing orders on each subject. Midnight had nearly arrived before the council had finished the correspondence and officers' reports, and was free to consider tho many reports of committees. At 12.30 a.m. very little more progress had been made, and Mr. T. Bloodworth suggested that (he council should adjourn until tho next day. A voto was taken, and it was decided to finish tho business, which was done just before 2 a.m.

To-day is the 60th anniversary of the launching by Sir Julius (then Mr.) Vogel of his groat Public Works policy, the boldness of which was described at the time as " positively frightening honourable members." It was on Juno 28, 1870, that Mr. Vogel, as Colonial Treasurer, delivered the Budget speech that marked the beginning of the real development of tho young colony. He proposed the expenditure of £10,000,000 within 10 years upon railways, roads, immigration, goldfields, waterworks and telegraph extensions, £6,000,000 to bo raised on the London market. After revision by the Treasury, reducing tho borrowing to £6,000,000, tho scheme was unanimously adopted by Parliament.

Workmen who were blasting a boulder to form a new road to the shoro of Lake Tn rawer a discovered in a small cave tho skelotons of a woman and a child, states a Pi ■ess Association message from Hotorua. The boulder had at some period been dislodged from the cliff above, imprisoning Clio victims. This may have occurred nt tho Tarawera eruption in 1886, but the condition of the bones suggests an earlier period.

Tho annual service of tho Order of St. John, tho St. John Ambulance Association and tho St. John Ambulance Brigade will bo hold at St. Mary's Cathedral tomorrow at 3 p.m. Tho Rev. G. E. Moroton, chaplaiif of tho order, will givo an address. Tho offertory will bo for tho. ophthalmic hospital of tho oi;dor at Jerusalem.

Lack of response to llio appeals of the Napier Hospital 'for persons willing to give blood for transfusion is an incessantly disturbing question to the authorities. Pationts to whom extra blood is all-important are frequently lying in tho hospital, and the location of persons willing to transfer blood is a serious problem. Public appeals, more often than not, have produced a disappointing and disquieting response. This unwillingness to give blood, says a Napier newspaper, can bo traced lo only one cause—an unconquerable thought that it involves a painful ordeal. This is nob the case, tho inconvenience being but trifling. Moreover, a reasonable fee is paid for tho blood.