LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20864, 5 May 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Progress results in the municipal elections will be exhibited by the Herald outside the office in Wyndham Street as they are received from tho returning officers to-morrow evening. Scaffolding and boards arc being erected to carry the names of the candidates and the number of votes they poll. Telephone inquiries by subscribers concerning the elections enn be answered only on telephones number 40-060 and 46-383. There was a slight improvement yesterday in the condition of Mr, Trevor Wilson, of Great South Road, Papatoetoe, who was admitted to the Auckland Hospital on Saturday evening with a bullet wound in his side. He is still a serious case. A foolhardy action, which by a streak of good luck was not accompanied by personal injury to the principal actors, was witnessed by a large number of people who farewelled the limited express from Auckland last evening when three people, two men and a woman, who had apparently been engaged in a prolonged leave-taking, left the train after it had started. The two men jumped first and got clear with only a minor fall. They then rushed forward to assist the woman and the three were thrown in a heap on

the station platform perilously close to the fast-moving carriages. There was a moment of suspense before the remainder of the train had passed, leaving three badly frightened people picking themselves up from the platform.

A fog was experienced in Anckland early yesterday morning. It was heaviest over the western portion of the harbour and in the Rangitoto Channel, but was patchy in the vicinity of the main wharves. Ferry steamers and other small craft were navigated with caution during the fog and were guided to their destinations by the fog sirens and bells on the waterfront. The Royal Mail liner Niagara, which arrived from Sydney yesterday morning, encountored the fog after she passed Tiri Tiri and she had Jp anchor outside the Rangitoto Channel until the fog cleared. The delay caused her to arrive in port an hour later than she was expected.

Momentary excitement occurred on the vehicular ferry boat Eaglehawk early on Sunday evening when she came in collision with a yacht. The ferry steamer was almost opposite the cable steamer Iris at Devonport when tho yacht bearing the number L 23 came in collision with her. Passengers in the motor-cars on the Eaglehawk wero alarmed at the impact, but soon realised that there was no danger. The ferry's bow struck the gear and rigging of the yacht and wrenched adrift a dinghy that the yacht was towing, but tho crew of tho yacht quickly recovered it.

Patients at present in the Auckland Hospital will not bo affected by any reduction made in the number of beds as a result of the curtailment of hospital expenditure. The chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, Mr. W. Wallace, stated yesterday that patients would not bo 'discharged unless they wero convalescent and had homes to which they could return. Tho process of reduction would have to be a gradual one. Nine accident cases were admitted to the hospital on Saturday, Mr. Wallace said, and provision would have to bo made to meet such emergencies no matter what the position.

The great advances made under unemployment relief schemes in improving the grounds at the Auckland Training College and the Normal School were mentioned by the chairman of the Auckland Education Board, Mr. A. Burns, during the presentation of swimming trophies at the Normal School yesterday afternoon. The grounds had been changed from a waste of scoria and scrub into one of the finest areas in New Zealand, Mr. Burns said. It was fortunate that tho work had progressed so far, becauso the Education Department had been compelled to reduce tho board's maintenance fund so much recently that the board, for the time being, would not be in a position to find sums readily for expenditure on improvements.

In consequence of the sustained agitation on the part of tho residents of Pukekohe tho Railway Department has now arranged for tho fast passenger train leaving Frankton at 8.37 p.m. daily for Auckland to stop at Pukekohe every Saturday. The new stop was inaugurated last Saturday. This train replaces the daylight limited on tho Frankton-Auckland section during tho off season, and the present intention is that tho limited Avill observe this stop when it resumes the running.

Tho claim of Taranaki to have grown the largest mushroom of the season is challenged in Auckland. Recently, Mrs. H. Ash by, of Waihi, picked a mushroom measuring by 9in. on the Waihi Plains. It was sent to a Sandringham family and made a meal for two people. The Taranaki mushroom measured 9in. across. A young man who was a passenger by tho limited express last evening had an embarrassing experience on the platform prior to the departure of the train. Just before the express was timed to leave his erstwhile landlady openly accused bim of the theft of ono of her blankets and, unable to accept the young man's vigorous denial, secured the services of a constable to press her charge. The passenger's luggage, which had been checked and stowed in tho guard's van, was secured and the woman asked to describe her property. She was definite that only one of her blankets was missing and when pressed asserted that if the young man had others in his possession they would not be of the same design. Investigation revealed that there were two—a pair—which the man said were his own property. He departed with his blankets and his landlady remained protesting on the platform.

A new riddle was composed at tho New Zealand Club's luncheon in Wellington last week, when Mr. Justice MacGregor, who was the guest of honour and speaker, was presented by the club with a silver kiwi mounted on a piece of greenstone as a paper-weight. Tho riddle is this: — " What is the similarity between a kiwi and a lawyer?" The answer is: "The length of the bill." When making the presentation, Mr. A. Fair, K.C., said that ho could see no resemblance between a kiwi and a Scotsman or a lawyer, but much laughter was caused by an interjeetor who furnished the answer to the riddle. Mr. Fair added that the kiwi seemed to be digging into a hard substance for food, a thing few lawyers would bo guilty of.