LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20869, 11 May 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Although the weather was fine in Auckland during the week-end and was improving on the coast, tlio conditions at sea were still stormy, according to wireless advice from the Union Company s Island steamer Tofua. The vessel was due at Auckland from Suva at six o'clock this morning, but a wireless report last evening stated that she was meeting bad weather and would not arrive before one o'clock this afternoon.

A youth, Frank Wilson, aged 17, of 39, Brown Street, Fonsonby, was admitted to the Auckland Hospital early on Saturday evening,' suffering from a fracture of the right leg. He was riding n bicycle when he slipped and fell.

Damage to the extent of £2 was done by two boys, aged 16 and 13 years, who were caught by the polico in a fibrous plaster works at 39, Crummer Road, Grey Lynn, yesterday afternoon. The boys, who entered' the building by breaking a plaster panel, were seen to go in by the owner, who was watching the premises, as the factory had been entered several times recently and boys wero suspected. On this occasion, as in the past, there was no attempt to steal anything. Hie boys will bo dealt with in the Children's Court.

Ten of the 13 starters in the Auckland Cycle Club's road race on Saturday afternoon had their tyres punctured by tacks strewn on tho roadway on different portions of the circuit. The three competitors who escaped punctures filled the placed positions. Only one other competitor was able to reach the finishing line, one of the scratch riders borrowing another machine and completing the course on it.

That strong padlocks are not always the safe protection for business premises that they are commonly thought to bo was shown by a theft which occurred on Friday night, when a city shop was found to have beon entered, although the windows had not been forced and the padlock on the front door was intact. A detective making investigations at once came to the conclusion that the lock had been picked and then replaced. When informed of this theory, the owner of the shop was sceptical, declaring that such a lock could not be opened easily, but he was soon convinced when the detective obtained a length of wire and picked the lock within a few minutes.

An expert report upon the largo collection of pictures recently purchased for the Mackelvie Gallery will probably be prepared by the Auckland Society of Arts. The president of the society, Dr. E. B. Gunson, stated on Saturday that he proposed to ask his council to appoint a special committee of eight or ten artistinembers to make a comprehensive report upon the new pictures, for publication in the press. "Wo approach the matter with a perfectly open mind," added Dr. Gunson. "The purchases is very important, and I feel that the society should give the public a lead in regard to it."

The gale in the Opotiki district caused heavy damage on farms. Many haystacks were blown down. One farmer had 56 sheets of iron carried a long distance, and hay was blown over the paddock. Trees are down in all directions, one across the main road at Waiotahi causing traffic to go through paddocks.

The Auckland Education Board has been advised by the Education Department that, owing to the expense involved in carrying out suggested improvements, the existing arrangements for conveying children by ferry to and from school across 'the Whananaki River must be continued. Tho Public Works Department was asked to report on the proposal, and its officers found that the erection of a jetty on the southern side of the river, for tho purpose of facilitating transportation, would cost £556.

On tho visit to England of Mr. A. M. Samuel, M.P. for Thames, who will return to Auckland next month, ho was a consistent advocato of trado within the Empire. 110 interviewed many business officials suggesting intensive promotion of trado between Britain and New Zealand. An interesting aspect of the representations made on behalf of the Dominion has been the large amount of sympathetic publicity obtained. English provincial newspapers, in particular, have given prominenco to New Zealand topics. The Gloucester Journal recently published a long and highly satisfactory description of New Zealand and its resources, with an account of Mr. Samuel's views on trade.

"This form of mischief has assumed large proportions and will have to be put down," commented Mr. J. Miller, S.M., when committing to the care of the Child Welfare Department a Maori boy aged 14£ years, who appeared before him in tho Juvenile Offenders' Court at Masterton last week, charged with having converted a motor-car to his own use. The magistrate gave a -warning that any youths who came beforo him or. such a charge would be dealt with severely. Tho caso was an echo of a similar one heard in tho Masterton Police Court recenlly, whon a youth concerned in the same escapade as tho boy charged was committed to the Borstal Institute.

Tho position of South Canterbury Crown tenants, so far {is their rents are concerned, was brought under the notice of the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, by Mr. T. D. Burnett, M.P. for Temuka, in a telegram last week. lie asked the Minister if he could meet a mass meeting of Crown tenants to discuss rental adjustments, remissions and the policy with regard to outstanding rates. " The position," he said, " is becoming impossible, tho firms in many cases refusing to pay clients' rates and instalments."

The museum at Hokitika contains among its exhibits several Boer rifles, which were sent there by the Defence Department Recently a banker from South Africa, while passing through Ilokitika, visited the museum, and noted a name engraved on one of the rifles. On his return to South Africa he found that the owner of that rille had died, but had a daughter living, who expressed a wish to secure the rifle with which her father had fought more than 30 years ago. The Hokitika Library Committee, which controls the museum, desires to* hand the rifle to its claimant, and is in communication with the Minister of Defence to 6ecure hia sanction. ,