LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20759, 30 December 1930, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The Herald will not be published on Thursday, New Year's Day. For the convenience of advertisers the Queen Street office will be open between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. on that day.

Injuries to the head were received by Mr. Mervyn Wheeler, £ged. 21, of 50, Douglas Street, Ponsonby, when he was knocked down by a motor-cycle in Ka'rangahape Road yesterday afternoon. He was removed to the Auckland Hospital by the St. John Ambulance. His condition is not serious.

The daylight limited express from Wellington was 25 minutes late in arriving at Auckland last evening. A delay of about a quarter of an hour was caused by the automatic signals in the yards at the Auckland railway station failing and the remainder of the time was accounted for by minor crossing delays. Two girls, aged about 16, escaped from the New Street Receiving Home, Ponsonby, ,early yesterday morning. One of the girls is slim and of dark complexion, while the other is a quarter-caste Maori.

The motor-car owned by Mr. S. F. Marler, of Main Road, St. Heliers, which was removed from the owner's garage early on Sunday morning, was recovered by the police yesterday. The car was found abandoned at the corner of Rockfield and Green Park Roads, Ellerslie.

Damage 'to native bush on the properties of Mr. G. Wellings and Mr. H. Weaver, Princes Street, Northcote, was caused by a fire which broke out shortly after mid-day yesterday. The fire started on Mr. Wellings' property and spread along the cliffs at Northcote Point. The Northcote Fire Brigade was called and the flames were prevented from reaching residences in the vicinity. Three grass fires were attended by the city brigade yesterday afternoon. The outbreaks were in Remuera Road, at Avondale and in Pompallier Terrace, Ponsonby. The Devonport Fire Brigade was called to a grass fire at the foot of Graham Street yesterday afternoon.

Two accidents occurred on the liqer Niagax-a on the voyage from Vancouver to Auckland. A third-class passenger, Mr. E. L. Freeman, was playing with a child on deck when he fell violently and received a compound fracture of the right leg, which necessitated his removal to hospital on the arrival of the liner at Auckland yesterday. Three days later the same child was running down a corridor when a stewardess, Mrs. Waters, emerging from a cabin door, stepped on a ball the child was playing with. She tripped and fell, receiving a simple fracture of the left arm. The annual cruise to southern ports of the minesweeper Wakakura, the training ship of tho Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, was commenced yesterday when she left Auckland for Dunedin. When tho Otago division of the reserve has completed its training, the Wakakura will proceed to Lyttelton and later to Wellington. She is expected to return to Auckland early in July. Although three first meetings in bankruptcy were set down by the official assignee, Mr. A. W. Watters, for hearing yesterday, in no instance was a meeting held. The two bankrupts who were to be examined in the morning were present, but no creditors attended the meetings, while in the afternoon neither the bankrupt nor his creditors were present. All meetings were adjourned.

The Takapuna Surf and Life-Saving Club is showing an excellent spirit of self-help. During the holidays members have painted the clubhouse, formerly the municipal kiosk, with paint supplied by the Takapuna Borough Council. Apart from numerous demonstrations at Takapuna the club members gave a demonstration to the newly-formed Thome's Bay Life-Saving Club. Fortunately the club's services have not been called upon to effect any rescues during tho holiday period.

Members of the Alpine Sports Club are at present on an extended tour of National Park, and have established a summer camp at Waihohonu, in the northeastern area of the park. Brilliant warm weather is being experienced and it is anticipated that much of t l ie snow, which is unusually low on the mountains for this time of the year, will soon disappear. The advance party last week visited Ruapehu; Ngauruhoe and Tongariro and made a camp on Ruapehu at the 5500 ft. level, to permit climbing parties to explore points of interest that could not otherwise be visited. It is expected that a very comprehensive series of tours will be undertaken as a continuation of favourable summer weather should enable the more distant localities to be reached.

The annual summer school of the Workers' Educational Association in the Auckland University district is being held at Wesley College, Paerata. The camp commenced on Friday and will continue until next Saturday. Nearly 130 people will be in the camp over this period, living in the college buildings under conditions of comfort and surrounded by 680 acres of fine rolling country. The Waikato district, where the movement has grown rapidly, is well represented at the camp, and there are also several members present from Wellington and the South Island. The camp director is Professor H. Belshaw, of Auckland University College. Lectures occupy most of the mornings, but the campers are free to amuse themselves in the afternoons. The evenings are brightened with play readings and music. A complaint that he had not been able to effect any insurance on his stock in the Ohura district was made by a bankrupt at a meeting of his creditors at New Plymouth last week. Ho had tried several companies without success, he said. A creditor stated that the insurance companies had refused several applications recently. They did not want to take the risks on account of the lack of fire-fighting appliances in the district.

"I never had a drunken person on my tram all Christmas Eve, and I was on duty from two in the afternoon until midnight," said a conductor in Christchurch last week when the question of the soberness of Christchurch during the present " festive season" was being discussed. The holiday was noticeable for the very small number of intoxicated persons seen about the streets. Whether the reason was shortness of cash, or whether the community is getting more sober, was not apparent on the surface, but the fact remains that Christmas, 1930, in Christchurch was one of the soberest known.