LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20603, 30 June 1930, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Serious damage was done to the bodywork of a motor-car, Owned by Mr. R. Lewis, of Koraha Street, Remuera, when a backfire in tho engine caused an outbreak of fire about 11 o'clock yesterday morning. The Remuera Fire Brigade was promptly on tho scone, but considerable damage was done to tho coachwork before tho flames wero extinguished. Tho car was insured for £250 with tho Now Zealand Insurance Company. In order that repairs could be made to tho screens at tho Horahora power station power was reduced between one o'clock and three o'clock yesterday afternoon. Owing to the constant wear tho screens, which protect the turbines, have to bo repaired at regular intervals. As the period was a slack one, there was no heavy call on power and tho full service was resumed at about three o'clock, there ■being only a slight interruption along one line. Tho conjunction between Venus and the moon which occurred last evening was observed in Auckland. Shortly after sunset tho two bodies could bo seen in tho cloar western sky, ancf when tho sky became darkor their brilliance attracted attention. Beside the thin crescent of the moon, the remainder of the disc could bo traced, faintly illuminated by earthshine. Aftor being rescued from tho harbour shortly after midnight on Saturday, a man named Alfred Punch, aged 42, of 219, Dominion Road, was removed to tho hospital by the St. John Ambulance, and is reported to be making satisfactory progress. He had been sitting on tho launch steps near Prince's Wharf and had fallen over into the water. His struggles attracted the attention of bystandors, who promptly pulled him out and summoned the ambulance.

Between 30 and 40 men spent Saturday afternoon with pick and shovel, digging up tho lawns of tho local ladies' croquet club in Stanley Bay Park. It had been foutad. impossible to get a satisfactory growth of grass or the lawns owing to tho seepago of salt from tho underlying silt of tho reclamation on which the park has been laid out. After much experiment it was found that by putting down a mat of scoria six inches below tho surface tho trouble could be completely abolished and tho grass made to grow luxuriously. Tho Devonport Borough Council Is supplying tho scoria and the men of tho district are giving the labour required to carry out the scheme. There was an exodus of steamers from Greymouth on Saturday, some of tho vessels having been barbound inside the port for nearly three weeks. During the early part of last week there wero seven steamers barbound in the river, and the Kiwitea was outside the bar waiting to enter tho . port. On Wednesday tho sea moderated enough to allow the steamer Ngatoro t'o depart and tho Kiwitea to cross tho bar inwards. Other steamers delayed in tho river were tho Kamona, Poolta, Kahika, Kaemai, Kanna and Kaituna. Advice received by tho Union Company yesterday slated tho Kanna and Kaituna wero despatched for Auckland at eleven o'clock on Saturday morning and tho other steamers for various Southern ports. The Kanna had been barbound for 17 days and tho Kaituna for days. A new religious denomination was announced by Lord Blcdisloo in Wellington tho other night. Following upon tho recital of that clever and amusing poem "Tho Denominational Garden," at the celebration of tho founding of tho first Y.M.C.A., tho Governor-General discoursed entertainingly on denominalionalism. He said that when tho troops wero being mobilised for tho Great War, tho matter of denomination was a source of soino little trouble. For some reason or other it was always asked for, and at all times the men themselves could not readily answer tho question. After tho Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches had been disposed of, there were often cases where tho men concerned wero still scratching their heads, so tho authorities devised a column on the form used for "Etceteras."

Comment on tho practice of some local bodies of spreading heaps of loose unbinded metal on the roads for maintenance purposes was made by Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court at Palmcrston North last week. "They put the metal on tho roads and think it is the duty of motorists to roll it said Mr. Stout. "Graders are then run over ' tho roads and the metal is raked into heaps in the middle. It is enough to make any car skid." Forty-five years of almost continuous servico to tho sick and needy is the record of Mr. C. M. Luke, who, because of health reasons, did not seek re-election last week to tho position of chairman of tho Wellington Hospital Board. Mr. Luk6 said that he had been a member of the board since 18Q5 with the exception of three or four years. He had seen the institution, grow from small beginnings. When he first joined the board tho hospital had 40 occupied beds and a staff of fifteen nurses. Tp-day there were 600 occupied beds and a staff of between 240 and 250 nurses. ,

A dead kingfisher, with a young trout firmly jammed in its boak and halfswallowed, has been forwarded to the secretary of the, Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The bird was found under a treo near tho Ellesmere Bridge. It appeared to have misjudged the sizo of its victim. Twenty-two cases of Sturmer apples from Nelson that had been displayed in a Christchurch fruit mart were sent recently to the destructor, where they were burned. They had been condemned by a Government inspector because they showed signs of black spot and codlin moth. The inspector told a reporter that it was most unusual to find apples in this condition and this was tho first case of its kind for many months. Tho correct manner in which to address a, magistrate frequently proves a stumbling block to witnesses who are unused to Court procedure. A good many of them manage tho orthodox "Your Worship," quite glibly, others again recognise that plain "Sir" serves tho purpose admirably, while a few use tho magistrate's surname with tho prefix "Mr." The other (day, however, in the Magistrate's Court in Dunedin, Mr. J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., had more honorary titles conferred on him than usual. One witness in a caise addressed him as "judge," another went a littlo higher and called him "Your Lornship." A third, overcome apparently with tho solemnity of the occasion, capped thom all, and replied to a ciuery by the magistrate with "Yes, Your Majesty." 1