LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20986, 24 September 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A five-seater motor-car belonging to Mr. H McElroy, of 25, Victoria Avenue, Mount Eden, caught fire in Grange Road at about 8.30 last evening. The Mount Eden Fire Brigade was summoned and suppressed the outbreak before much damage was done.

The annual police examinations for the ranking of sergeants, senior-sergeants and sub-inspectors are now being held at the central station, Auckland. The examinations commenced on Tuesday and will end to-day. Superintendent S. Till is acting as supervisor.

A definite opinion against hastening patients out of hospital after an operation was expressed yesterday by Dr. W. C. McCaw, when giving evidence in a compensation case in the Supreme Court. Ho estimated that the claimant should have six weeks in hospital after an operation to his knee "If you lengthen the inpatient period you shorten the period as an outpatient," he said. "Some of the text books say only a fortnight, but I find from experience that if you send a man away in less than six weeks the result is that he is weeks or even months longer in getting back to work than if you had kept him in hospital six weeks at the start."

The male elephant which was purchased from the Hobart Zoo last year is giving every satisfaction to its keepers at the Auckland Zoological Park. The animal has become very docile and obedient, and has grown considerably during its sojourn in its new home.* If necessary, the zoo authorities would have no hesitation in allowing him to take children for rides, but this duty is performed so becomingly by Jamuna, his companion, that there appears to be no immediate call for his service

A subsidy of £IOO for work on the playing fields of the Epsom Girls' Grammar School has been approved by the Education Department. Advice to this effect was received yesterday by the Auckland Grammar School Board.

The owner of the Norwegian yacht Teddy, Captain E. Tambs, who has been visiting Whangarei. received advice yesterday that his wife and daughter were ill with influenza in Auckland. He intended to leave Whangarei for Auckland in the yacht without delay.

"Do as other people are doing—sell your car and pay what you owe," said Mr. F. H. Levicn, S.M., in the Papakura Magistrate's Court yesterday to a judgment debtor who submitted he had not the money to pay an account incurred for medical expenses, but admitted that he owned a motor-car. His ease was adjourned until December to give him an opportunity to act on the magistrate'? advice.

Thp, official opening of the new school at Kariotahi, near Waiuku, will take place to-morrow afternoon, and Mr. J. N. Massey, M.P. for Franklin, will perform the ceremony. The first school was opened in 1879, and the jubilee is to be celebrated in connection with the opening of the new building. An unusual accident occurred on St. John's Hill, W'anganui, when Mr. H. Fuller, of Hawera, had a heart seizure while driving his motor-car. The car ran into a bank and collided with an electric-power pole and was damaged extensively. Mr. Fuller was taken to the hospital. Seagulls are frequently seen far inland but apparently resent the appearance of land birds near the sea. A flock of gulls attacked a pigeon on the Lyttelton waterfront recently. The gulls were as speedy on the wing as the pigeon and harried it until it was forced to leave the vicinity. The gulls then turned their attention to a flock of sparrows, chasing the smaller birds well inland. Great interest has been taken recently by residents of Maori Hill, Dunedin, in a pair of tuis. These birds have been feeding for some time on the berries of a coprosma bush which overhangs the footpath in Newington Avenue. They are remarkably tame and will allow passers-by to approach within a few feet. This provides another indication of the value of planting native trees which provide bird food.

Regret at the action of the Australian Board of Control in nob accepting an invitation to send a cricket team to New Zealand in the coming season was expressed by Mr. M. F. Luckie at the annual meeting of delegates to the Wellington Cricket Association. "I hope that tho New Zealand Cricket Council can induce the Board of Control to alter its decision and let us have a team of some importance from Australia this year," he said. "Wo had always been hoping that the financial success attending the visit of the New Zealand team to England—and it may yet be successful—would place tho New Zealand Council in such a position as to be able to offer satisfactory inducements for visits from Australia almost every year. Wo know that Australia is having a visit from the South Africans in the coming season, but that cricketing country ought still be able to send a team to test New Zealand without any interference being caused with the tests in Australia."

"I know a postman who would say that he delivered letters to that address," said a solicitor, in cross-examining a defendant in a maintenance case in Christchurch. "How do you know 1" asked the magistrate. Counsel: He told me. The Magistrate: Well, ho had no business to. He is liable to a penalty for doing so. He is under a pledge of secrecy in all he does.

"Wo are accustomed to jubilees now. We havo had many in the last 25 years," said Dean Julius speaking in the Christchurch Cathedral this week. " There have been jubilees of schools, parishes, institutions and cities, and no one will say that they have been of no value." The jubilees helped people of the present generation to appreciate their heritage, wero a real joy to the other folk of the community and brought peoplo together in wonderful fashion.

There has been considerable mortality in dairy herds in Taranaki during the past month, duo to tho unusual severity and prolongation of the winter, and tho shortage of feed. The herds, too, havo suffered from tho same conditions, and the milk supply is being adversely affected. The fact is that many old and experienced farmers were caught napping; they provided insufficient feed for a hard and long season, as has been experienced. During the past few ■ days the grass has come away rapidly, and it only requires another few duys of fine weather to give strength and nutriment to the pastures to enable the herds to make up leeway.