LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL

•Heavy Supply of Vegetables In anticipation of an improved holiday demand, growers forwarded heavy supplies of vegetables to the City Markets yesterday. Most lines were available in quantities more than sufficient for retailers' needs, and some substantial price reductions»were made. Sting-Ray at Murlwal, One of the largest sting-rays ever caught at Muriwai Beach was landed on Thursday afternoon by Mr. C. S. H. Livingston, of Auckland. The fish measured 4ft. sin. in length and had a width of 3ft. Mr. Livingston was fishing from Main Rock for schnapper when the sting-ray was hooked. It took three-quarters of an hour to land. Aeroplanes Leave ior Hastings Three machines belonging to the Auckland Aero Club left the Mangere aerodrome yesterday afternoon for Hastings, where they will, participate in an aerial pageant to-day. The machines were piloted by Mr. W. J. Sexton^-who carried Mr. W. Badham as passenger, Mi*. L. Cadman and Mr. J. Payne. They will return to Auckland to-morrow morning. Bad Language and Marriage " I never heard such bad language," stated a woman witness who gave evidence before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday, in a case in which an allegation was madn against a young man that he had used bad language. "You seem to know a good deal about such language," commented counsel. "What has been your experience?" "Well, I have been married for 41 years," the woman replied. Passengers for Overseas ' Passenger traffic between New Zealand and Australia is at present heavy, nearly 800 passengers having left Auckland for Sydney by four steamers in eight days. The Mar am a left Auckland for Sydney on March 16, the Niagara last Tuesday, the Monowai on Thursday and the Mariposa yesterday. In addition, the Wanganella is to leave Auckland for Sydney, hext Tuesday afternoon. A considerable number of the passengers who have left recently are en route to Great Britain. The Sanctity of Contract "I have found human nature a surprising thing," said a city solicitor yesterday, when discussing aspects of\ the mortgage market. "There are a few mortgagors who have declined to accept the reduction of 20 per cent in interest rates under the National Expenditure Adjustment Act. They object to the principle of the measure and believe that while they are able to pay the full amount they should do so. Others claim the fullest protection of the law, and openly boast that nobody' pays interest these days." J

Winter Shipping Services During the coming winter season the Union Steam Ship Company will run only one inter-colonial passenger steamer between New Zealand and Australia. When the Marama reaches Wellington from Sydney on April 10 .she will be withdrawn from the service and laid up. The Monowai will then maintain a service between Sydney, Auckland and Wellington, call- . ing at both New Zealand ports on each trip, but alternating the order. On June 28 the Marama will resume in the services, relieving the Monowai, which will be withdrawn at Wellington on' July 12. Relief Worker Injured , r A fractured ankle was received by a relief worker, Mr. Peter Sumich, aged 55, married, of 170 Victoria Street, City, when he was partly buried by a fall of earth at a -reserve being formed by the Newmarket Borough Council at the foot of Sarawai Street, Parnell. Mr. Sumich was excavating at the base of a clay bank about 20ft. high when the fall occurred. He stepped back to avoid it, but was stopped by his wheelbarrow, and let go of his Bhovel, the handle of. which struck his leg "and caused the fracture. He was taken by a St. John ambulance to' the Auckland Hospital. His condition is not serious. - • Houses and Sunshine The building of houses so that they caught fhe maximum of gun and not so that 'they were parallel with the street line, was urged by Sir Louis Barnett, formerly professor of surgery at the Otago University Medical School, at a meeting of the Open-Air Schools' League in Christchurch. He said builders would probably regard the idea as crazy, but that should not matter. Houses, too, should always have an open part which should face northwest. Sir Louis criticised the placing of certain buildings and said a new school in Christchurch, while well placed architecturally, would miss much of the* benefit of the sun through not being built on an angle so that the rooms faced north-west. Birkenhead Reclamation Formal authority has been granted to the Birkenhead Borough Council to construct an, embankment, for the purpose of a footway, over the small, shallow arm of the bay between Rugby Road and Rawene Iload. The old wooden footbridge which for a long period did duty as a ''short-cut' 1 along the foreshore to the Chelsea sugar refinery and whaves,. has become dilapidated and unsafe for pedestrians. It is intended to replace this structure with a permanent stone-pitched embankment, with a' footway at the top. For this purpose an area of nearly a-quarter of an acre will be reclaimed. The portion filled in and not needed for road purposes will be grassed. The work, which will be carried out under the No. 5 relief scheme, is contingent on the transfer to. the borough of certain land necessary for the thoroughfare.

English Currency and Sterling A difference of opinion has arisen between one of the New Zealand banks and the solicitor to a local body over the distinction between the terms " sterling "• and "English currency." When the question was referred to Professor A. H. XL'ocker, of (fanterbury College, last' week, he said there was no difference at all between the two" terms. The best definition nowadays of sterling was British legal tender. The manager of a bank, not the one concerned, said tfiat there was no real difference between the terms, but " English currency " was perhaps more definite. At one time all "British currencies had been termed sterling, but lately there had been an increasing habit among financial institutions to refer to Empire currencies by the name of the country, for example, South African currency, or Australian currency, rather than by the word sterling.