LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20947, 10 August 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Owing to bad weather conditions, losses of early lambs have been experienced in the Auckland province. The return of fine weather within the last few days has tended to bring later lambs forward, however, and there is every prospect of a good season.

A varied collection of Canadian birds and animals for the Adelaide Zoological •Gardens is being conveyed to Australia on the Canadian Constructor which arrived at Auckland from Montreal on Saturday morning. The collection includes two golden eagles, two snow geese, two Canada geese, two blue geese, six prairie marmots, six woodchucks, two racoons, a black squirrel, two ravens and two wood ducks.

The keel yacht Wanderer, which had been cruising in the Hauraki Gulf for a month, returned to Auckland on Saturday. When she left Auckland on July 7, Captain D. 11. Cambridge and Mr. G. S. Gee, the occupants of the vessel, expected to be away only about four days. When she had not returned in three weeks fears were entertained for her safety and the police were requested to make inquiries. Information was received by tho police last Thursday that she was safe at Kawau Island.

"The good fortune of men who knew little or nothing about goldmining is a byword in New Guinea," said Mr. J. A. Miller, of Port Moresby, Papua, who is at present visiting Auckland. Ho said tlie discoverer of the famous Edie Creek field was an inexperienced man, who persevered though he was told the area had been pronounced unprofitable by experts. Now he was one of the richest men in Australia. A distinctive thing about the prospectors in New Guinea was that many were professional men and clerks. As a type, they could in no way be associated with tho traditional adventurers of the goldfields, who often were from tho lowest grades of society.

Three substantial contracts in connection with the rehabilitation of the Arapuni hydro-electric works are announced in a list of tenders accepted by the Public Works Department, published in last week's Gazette. They are as follows : Bituminous lining and paving of headrace and forebay, Neuchatel Aspbalte Company, £24,178; protected steel sheets, Spedding, Limited, £11,700; and concrete paving slabs, Napier Concrete Company, £9728.

The results of the examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, London, were announced yesterday. Of 320 candidates who entered in Auckland 245 passed. A list of the successful candidates appears on page 14.

The Perano whaling party, operating from Tory Channel, Marlborough, have so far this season captured 42 whales, which is well ahead of the tally at this time last year'. The total number caught during the whole of last year was 48.

Arising out of a letter from a woman correspondent, who stated that in her connection with a soup kitchen she had become convinced of the reasonableness and advantages of a suggestion to grow potatoes on the Town Belt, it was decided by the Wellington City Council last week that an acre of- this reserve should be set aside for this purpose. The Mayor remarked that had the suggestion been put into effect last year it would have considerably helped in the Telief of the unemployed.

Mistaking a white bird for a goose, a man, when shooting at Lake Forsyth, Canterbury, shot it. On discovering his error he took the bird to a ranger, who said that it was a white heron, a very rare bird. Tho sportsman later appeared in Court on a charge of having killed a white heron. The acclimatisation societydid not press the caso and the magistrate allowed the charge to be withdrawn.

Election campaigns cannot be conducted without money, and the 60 electors of Kaiapoi who attended last week to hear the opening speech of the Rev. J. K. Archer, the Labour nominee for the seat, found themselves faced with an earnest •appeal to contribute toward the candidate's election expenses, states the Christchurch Times. The first intimation that the hat was to be passed round the hall was given by Mr. C. M. Williams, who said that on account of the hard times the Labour Party's campaign fund was now only about a third of what it was at this stage prior to the last election. He took his own hat through tho hall and secured a moderately good result, though there were several pennies and threepenny pieces among the contributions.

"It seems customary nowadays for a man not to receive letters which he thinks contain summonses," remarked Mr. C. Orr-Walker, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court at Timaru, the other day. One man suffered for doing that, tho magistrate added. He would not accept a letter, thinking it contained a summons,, whereas it was a letter from the mortgagee stating he intended to sell up the property of the man to whom tho letter was addressed. The latter thereby lost his right to appeal. He is now a sadder and a wiser man.

Excavations and scrub clearing on the site for tho new Wellington sports ground at Victoria College have resulted in some odd discoveries. A variety of coins has been found; one, a threepenny piece, was probably lost many years ago, as it bears the date 1860. Tho workmen have also collected dozens of tennis balls which have been lost over a period of many years.

"Witnesses do not always appreciate the limitations of evidence from the legal point of view," observed Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North the other day. "Suppose I saw a fight," added His Honor. "In giving evidence I would not be allowed to say one man was frightened of the other —all I could say was that he shivered. As a witness I could only speak of what I saw, not of the impression created on my rnind by any action. It is for the Court to decide tho result—the witness to tell of what happened. Witnesses all like 'o try cases," concluded the Judge humorously.

"The methods of dairy companies in financing "their factories were reviewed during the hearing of a case in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North last week. A witness, who was a bank manajfer, stated that the banks advanced the dairy companies money,- getting a joint and several as security. A fraction of a penny per lb. of butter-fat was retained in liquidation of the liability. Mr. Justice Blair observed that that was the practice adopted 30 years ago, and was really the way in which the dairy industry and been built up.