LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20690, 9 October 1930, Page 12

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A motor-car containing two women collided heavily with a telegraph polo at the corner of Carlton Gore Road and Park Iload late yesterday afternoon and was considerably damaged. The occupants had a fortunate escape from serious injury. The car, which is a light sedan model, was proceeding along Carlton Goro Road from the direction of Newmarket. When near the centre of Park Road the driver swerved to avoid a collision with a taxi and, in doing so, veered to tlio wrong sido of tho road. Tho vehiclo mounted the footpath and crashed heavily against tho telegraph polo. Tho occupants suffered severely from shock. Tho front portion of tho car was damaged extensively, ono of tho front wheels being almost torn off. Tho front bumpers were broken and a mudguard was twisted.

Over 60 charges of breaches of traffic regulations wero heard in tho Magistrate's Court yesterday. The prosecutions were for various offences and wero brought by the police and tho City Council. Fines ranged from 10s to £3, with costs in each case.

Lectures at tho Auckland University College ceased for the year on Tuesday evening and the annual term examinations are to begin to-day. They will continue until Tuesday, October 21. Tho results of theso examinations will be announced tho following Saturday morning. On Monday, November 3, tho degree examinations of tho New Zealand University will begin, and the matriculation examinations will be held early in December.

Tho shining cuckoo, New Zealand's spring visitor, which heard in Auckland a month ago, has appeared in considerable numbers on the slopes of Mount Eden. Tho caretaker of tho Mount Eden Domain, Mr. T. Martin, stated yesterday that he saw the first bird on Monday. It was singing in a piano tree just below the tea k.iosk at about 7 a.m. Since then lie' has seen dozens of them in the same tree and has heard them singing evory morning this week.

A matter of long-standing negotiations was finalised at the meeting of the Whangaroi Borough Council this week, when the Mayor reported that a settlement had been reached between the council and the Railway Department for the purchase by the council for £75 of part of the Wliau Valley reservoir site. The negotiations commenced in 1902, when it was discovered that the council had erected its Whau Valley reservoir on land, part of which proved to be the property of the Railway Department, instead of a road reserve, as was believed when the reservoir was erected.

Speaking at a meeting of members of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce yesterday Mr. P. R. Sargood, who represented the chamber at the twelfth congress of tho Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, said he had no intimate knowledge regarding tho manufacture of cheese but he could say that dissatisfaction seemed to be growing in Britain with tho quality of New Zealand cheese. Everywhere ho had gone ho had been told that the cheese market in London had partially gone from the New Zealand product and that if the producers were not very careful they would lose it altogether.

The shyness of tho lui is proverbial, but' there would appear to bo times and places when they are extraordinarily friendly birds. Mr. A. T. Pycroft, lecturing before tho Auckland Institute last evening, said that when he was staying at the Little Barrier Island, which is set aside by the Government as a bird sanctuary, he saw numbers of tuis alight on the shoulders of the caretaker of the island. Tho Maoris, who used to be very fond of the bird as a food delicacy, could only catch them in the winter, when they were thin. In tho spring, when they wero fattened on berries, they were exceedingly shy and cunning.

An extromo case of practical joking occurred at a wedding .in a Wellington suburb last week. Tho bridegroom's now car had been cleaned and polished for the start of the honeymoon, but when the husband took his brido to it after tho ceremony and celebrations it was covered outside with inscriptions in chalk intended to bo humorous and tho insido was filled with rubbish and cumbersome objects. Few who knew of the couplo's plight could appreciate tho prank as a joke.

Politicians are not to bo weighed up according to what their predecessors said 60 years ago; nevertheless it is of academic interest, now that the railways policy is in process of revision, to read Hansard of 1870 on tho subject. As an introduction to such an examination, remarks tho Dnnedin Star, it may bo mentioned that Sir Julius Vogel, in moving the second reading of the Immigration and Public Works Loan Bill, said: "Wo may suppose that the railways we proposo will cost about seven millions sterling; not that wo proposo to borrow such an amount, but that we propose to tako such steps as will lead to such an expenditure." The second reading of that bill was carvied by 39 to 10. Tho leader of tho oppositionists was Mr. J. G. Bichmond, member for Grey and 8011. Tho second reading of tho main bill was carried by 45 to 7. Its opponents denounced it as a policy of profligacy and gambling.

Two pewter mugs, of tho good old English pattern, have come into the possession of tho Canterbury Rowing Club. Tho president of the club, Mr. F. L. Cowlishaw, said at a recent meeting that they had been found in a refuse bin of a pawnbroker's business. They were concerned with the club in 1870, one being for a maiden four and the other for a fouroared pair. They had glass on tho bottom and were, therefore, fairly ancient. Another cup—found in a pawnbroker's shop in Wellington—was connected with tho club's activities in 1863. Mr. Cowlishaw said he paid £3 for it to get it out of tho pawnshop.

An unusual sequel to tho incendiary fires in Christchurch in August, 1929, is provided in a petition presented to Parliament from Messrs. D. If. Brown and Son, Christchurch. This firm lost 99,080 gallons of motor spirits in addition to powor kerosene and other goods. They had paid petrol duty to tho amount of £1663, and had failed to get a refund from the customs, though they said they believed that an Auckland firm under similar circumstances was allowed a rebate. Petitioners did not insure this petrol in respect of tho value involved in duty, being of opinion that if it were destroyed a refund would bo granted without question. They had imported spirits to replace the lost stock and again paid duty, therefore a refund would not mean an unfair loss to the Main Highways Fund.