LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22045, 27 February 1935, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Accident on Wharf Injuries to the spine were suffered by Mr. Norman Bissett, aged 21, an electrician employed by the Auckland Harbour Board, when ho fell from a ladder while working in a shed at Central Wharf yesterday. The injured man, who lives at Gilfillan Street, Avondale, was taken to the Auckland Hospital in a St. John ambulance. His condition is not serious.

Resolutions on Unemployment An invitation to attend tho meeting convened by the Takapuna Borough Council at Auckland on Monday night to discuss unemployment was accepted by tho Northcote Borough Council last night. The Mayor, Mr. R. Martin, said such meetings seemed to him to bo perfectly useless. Similar gatherings had resulted in countless resolutions being forwarded to tho Government, apparently only to bo pigeonholed. Fees of Alsatian Dogs

A proposal urging tho amendment of the Dog Registration Act, 1908, in regard to Alsatian dogs, was supported by the Papatoetoe Town Board last night. Tha Auckland Suburban Local Bodies' Association suggested an amendment enabling local bodies to fix a maximum registration fee for Alsatian dogs. The chairman, Mr. W. J. Nicholson, explained that tho present maximum was 10s. A motion supporting the proposal was adopted unanimously.

" It's an 111 Wind " "It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good " is an adage that has proved true in at least one case in connection with the Taranaki floods. A young householder at New Plymouth, who, during his three years of married life, has not given his vegetable garden much attention, woke on Friday morning to discover a heap of pumpkins and marrows deposited by the flood waters against his wire netting. The flood had also deposited in the same place sufficient firewood to last him the winter.

Exhausting Fire Escapes Fatigue and exertion to people coming down long fire escapes was referred to by Mr. V. R. J. Hean, in an address to the Fire Engineers' Conference in Christchurch on fire-protecting design in buildings. He said that in one of the big New York, skyscrapers, three athletes were asked to go from top to bottom of an outside escape. They did so, and on arrival at the bottom were exhausted. Cases had been known where people had been carried off on stretchers after negotiating an escape.

Non-Smokers on Council When five members of the Mount Eden Borough Council attended a demonstration of a flame-throwing type of weed-removing device, arranged in one of the borough streets by a city firm a few mornings ago, it was discovered that neither the demonstrator nor any of the councillors could produce a match with which to light the device, all of them being non-smokers. "In these days it was remarkable to find six nonsmokers together," remarked Mr. S. E. Chappell, one of the party, when reporting on the demonstration at a meeting of the council last night. Search For Benzine Leakage

Further investigations were made yesterday by the city engineer's outside staff in an effort to trace the source of the 'leakage of petrol which is believed to have caused the two explosions in the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board's pumping station in Fanshawe Street last Wednesday. The search has been concentrated on the pipe lines' serving the large petrol storage tanks in Freeman's Bay, 14 of these lines having been thoroughly examined. So far the evidences of leakage have proved very slight, but the effect of the investigation has been to reduce the area under suspicion to very narrow limits. New Waterfront Approaches

Negotiations are almost completed in connection with the compensation to be paid by the City Council to the owners of buildings in Quay Street, required for the extension of Gore Street across the old station site to the waterfront. When the buildings come into the possession of the council they will be removed and the new road will be formed. At a special meeting of the -council yesterday resolutions declaring the extension of Gore Street to be a public street were confirmed. The council also confirmed a special resolution declaring the widened portion of Commerce Street, between Customs Street and the station site, a publio street.

Spectacular Crash in Cycle Race Competitors in the three miles cycling event at the West Coast athletic championships at Eltham the other day provided tho spectators with a thrill, which, fortunately, was'accompanied by little personal injury. J. C. Bourke was in front when the last lap was commenced and he was closely pursued by Anderson, of Wanganui, and Hawkins, of New Plymouth; Anderson's front wheel slipped on the greasy track and he and his machine fell under Hawkins front wheel. While they lay -on the ground the remaining four competitors crashed into them. Bicycles and riders flew into the air followed by loud reports as tvres blew out. The only injury was a strained tendon suffered by W. Ludlam.

Destruction of Rabbits Results obtained by the use of strychnine for the destruction of rabbits have been impressed upon a Canterbury farmer at Waterton. On the advice of the local office of the Department of Agriculture, the farmer bought some strychnine and used it in accordance with the instructions given him by the officer in charge. In three days after laying poisoned oats he had collected 500 carcases and buried them. The method adopted was the ploughing of a furrow well away from a gorse fence and the grain was laid at intervals in very smnll quantities on top of tho furrow. By depositing tho poison well away from the gorse, the rabbits died before they could reach cover and were easily collected.

Waterspouts in Back Country A series of waterspouts, which swept down a gully, picking up boulders, wood and also some boxes of food and odd pieces of camp gear, provided an unpleasant experience for a party of shepherds camped in the Acheron Valley, near Hanmer Springs recently. They had just moved camp and the new site' was near a creek bed. The visitation started with a severe thunderstorm, and then a more sinister rumble was heard, heralding the approach of two spouts, about 6ft. and Bft. high, respectively. The second swept past the edge of the tent. 'Later in the evening another was heard crashing down the valley. The weather in that area has been most unusual of late, one spot, covering about an' acre of the hillside, having had huge hollows washed out by a cloudburst, while 100 yards away there has been hardly any rain at all.