LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20767, 9 January 1931, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The daylight limited expresses, which resumed running on the Main Trunk on December 19 for the holiday period, will be suspended after Monday. The trains were well patronised by holiday traffic, but after the end of this week it is considered the usual night expresses will be sufficient.

The Royal Mail liner Aorangi left Vancouver for Auckland at noon on Wednesday, but she was detained at Victoria until yesterday afternoon to wait for English mail, which had been delayed. The liner's passage across the Pacific will be expedited, and it is expected she will reach Auckland on the due date, Sunday, January 25. It is very seldom that English mails fail to reach the Pacific coast in time to connect with the New Zealand mail liners.

Good progress is being made with the contract for the erection of the large inward goods shed near the railway station and the brickwork on the Beach Road frontage of the building is beginning to take dofinite shape. A large number of men is employed in clearing the adjacent ground in readiness for the track work and concrete roading, and one track has already been completed. Some of the lines will bo used as waggon storago sidings.

Speeding motor-cyclists, who refuse to slacken speed when rounding the sharp curve in Manukau Road, at the intersection with the top of St. Stephen's Avenue, Parnell, are making the locality unsafe for pedestrians, especially those crossing the road or stepping off the sidewalk to board city-bound tramcars. The cars stop a short distance round the corner, and it is difficult for pedestrians to be aware of other approaching traffic. One motorcyclist, bound for the city, speeded round the bend at such a fast rate the other day that his machine swerved right across the road, narrowly missing an elderly woman crossing from the shopping area to St. Stephen's Avenue. Residents in the locality express the opinion that Manukau Road at this point should bo patrolled by the traffic department of the City Council.

Mild excitement was caused at the Auckland railway station last evening when a young man, carrying a small suitcase, pursued the limited express for Wellington over half tho length of the departure platform. > The man passed through the gates just as the train had started, and made a determined effort to board it. He overhauled the guard's van but his way to the nearest carriage was blocked by a group of people who were farewelling friends. By the time he had swerved to the other side of the platform and back again tho train had gained too much speed, a porter preventing him from making another attempt to board the fast-moving carriages.

A " baby" Austin motor-car, owned by Dr. R. Maxwell, was removed from outside his residence, 2, Park Road, Grafton, between 8 and 9 o'clock last evening. The car had not been recovered at a late hour.

Patients treated in the Waikato pital in 1930 totalled 4230, compared with 3904 in 1929 and 3440 in 1928. The operations performed numbered 1968 in 1930, 1862 in 1929, and 1599 in 1928.

Since the major works in connection with the new Auckland railway station and deviation have been completed it has been possible to make more rapid progress with tho duplication of the main south line from Papatoetoe to Papakura. This eight-mile stretch, which will complete the present plans for a double line, is now nearing completion, and it will be in use before the coming winter.

Campers around the eastern bays near Wellington and trampers in the Wainui and Orongorongo areas experienced the full force of the northerly gale which blew at last week-end. Several tents to the south of Muritai were torn from their fastenings, while many parties of trampers returned to their homes after a soaking by Saturday night's rain, which was particularly heavy in the hills. The ferry service steamers experienced difficulty at times in approaching the Rona Bay wharf at Eastbourne and although they were not obliged to return to the Day's Bay wharf to land their passengers, considerable manoeuvring was necessary to tie up.

The passenger returns in tho Union Company's ferry and intercolonial services showed a decrease for December in comparison with the figures for December, 1929. The Wellington-Lyttelton ferry returns are down about 25 per cent, and the intercolonial returns show a still larger decrease. During the Christmas and New Year periods the ferry steamers had very few spare berths, but over the whole month the returns are well below those of last year.

A cyclist was noticed to dismount from his machine in an Oainaru street the other day. He went into a near by house, borrowed a broom and swept a quantity of glass from tho road into the gutter. If all would bo as considerate when they notice broken glass on tho roadway there would be fewer punctured tyres.

Record prices for street fruit stands were paid in nearly all cases on Wednesday by Indians at the Wellington City Council's quarterly auction sale. In -one instance the sum paid was eight times as much as was realised for tho first quarter of 1930, and in other instances four and five times the prices bid for the corresponding quarter of last year. None could explain why such enhanced prices should 1)0 forthcoming. Not even the Hindus could suggest why they were prepared to pay such prices, except that there were now many of them in Wellington, and there was competition.

An American who recently went down tho Wanganui River was impressed with the wonderful primeval bush that clothes the banks of the river. 110 was amazed that such dense hush contained no dangerous animals or reptiles. "I have taken photographs of this scenery," ho said, "but when I tell them at homo that you could sleep out in it all night without any fear of boing attacked by creatures of tho wild they won't beliovo mo. I know they won't."

Tho vandalism of some campers in Otago forms the subject of a letter written by a correspondent to tho Otago Daily Time 6. He states that a farmer found that a lino of posts on his proporty had been chopped off above tho ground, presumably by campers from an adjacent camping-placc, who considered the shortage of heavy fuel a sufficient excuse for their action. . The local stores supply fuel, and waste manuka may be gathered without, question, yet a party of strangers has entered a man's ground and chopped out posts, destroying a fence and leaving the jagged ends a menaco to slock, ho states.