LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22399, 21 April 1936, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Anzac Day Observance The Herald will not lie published on Saturday, Anzac Day, and the Herald Supplement will be delivered on Friday. For the convenience of advertisers the Queen Street office will be open on Friday until 10 p.m., and on Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Mild Weather at Tauranga The weather at Tauranga in the past few days has been very mild, with light showers, states the Herald's Tauranga correspondent. Top-dressed pastures are carrying an excellent growth. Chairman's Good Record A notable attendance record stands to the credit of Mr. A. C. Gallagher, chairman of the Gladstone District School Committee. Mr. Gallagher, in the course of 11 years' service on the committee, has not yet mi§sed a meeting. Golds in Dunedin Colds are very prevalent in Dunedin at present, but, according to the health authorities there, this has given no cause for alarm. Contagious diseases have been confined to two cases of scarlet fever in the past week, an exceptionally quiet one from the point of view of notifications of infectious disease.. New Sports Pavilion A pavilion for the use of footballers and others is to be erected in Fowlds Park by the Mount Albert Borough Council, which has called tenders for the building. It will measure 50ft. by 22ft. and will contain two suitablyfurnished dressing rooms with showers, a kitchen and a small ambulance room. The park contains two football fields, which have been in use for sonio seasons past. Week-end Bivouac The first of a series of week-end bivouacs for members of A Company, Ist Battalion, Auckland Regiment, was held at Kumeu under tho command of Captain L. M. Blyth. In spite of adverse weather valuable training was carried out. Tactical manoeuvres, mounting guard, musketry and lectures on the movement of troops and billeting under active service conditions were included in the syllabus. .Flooding in City Area A reminder of the frequent flooding ,in some of the low-lying areas near the foot of Queen Street was given yesterday in a remark by counsel at the City Assessment Court The values of properties in Fort Lane were under review and one valuer supported his claim for a fairly high figure by saying that the building had splendid access. " Yes," quickly remarked counsel for an objector, "access by sea and land." Technical College Grounds The long-felt need for an increased playing area attached to the Seddon Memorial Technical College was stressed by the principal, Mr. G. J. Park, at a meeting of the board of managers yesterday. Conditions were so cramped at present that no pupil was allowed to run in the grounds and all ball and similar games were prohibited. A sub-committee was appointed to investigate the possibility of acquiring additional grounds. Request for Electric Power A petition signed by 25 farmers residing at Makarau and on the west coast highway as far north as Tauhoa was received by the Waitemata Power Board at its meeting yesterday. It asked that the board should make an immediate survey of the route through the district to ascertain the cost of supplying electric lighting and indusj trial power. The board decided to have a survey and canvass of the district, together with areas in the Rodney County, carried out in the near future. Accident Victims' Condition Only one of the four young people admitted to the Auckland Hospital after being injured in a motor-cycle accident on Lincoln Road, betweep Henderson and Brigham's Creek, on Sunday afternoon, is still in a serious condition. Last night the condition of Lois Gladys Rowe, aged 14, of 582 Mount Albert Road, who suffered concussion and a possible fracture of the skull, was considered to be serious. Jean McKay, aged 15, Jack William Hall, aged 22, and Lawrence Burke, aged 18, were all progressing satisfactorily.

111-prepared Objectors Few of the property owners who appeared before the City Assessment Court yesterday to object to their valuations had provided themselves with tho information necessary to convince the Court that their claims were just ones. On several occasions the president of the Court, Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., was forced to remark on the lack of really relevant evidence, and in only one or two cases did the objector know the amount of the Government valuation cn his property. Mr. McKean poiuted out that this valuation could be obtained on payment of a fee, but failing that objectors should obtain a report by a competent local valuer. Clock With History

In the possession of a Gisborne resident is a clock which was first put together in Wellington early in the forties of last century, and which continued to function until the date of the Napier earthquake in 1931. It was made to the order of Mr. George Pilcher, father of Mr. Nathaniel Pilcher, now of Gisborne, during the early days of settlement in Wellington, a Mr. Rotham having brought the works of the clock from England, and the case being prepared in Wellington. Having passed unscathed through the 1848 earthquake in Wellington, it was taken to Hawko's Bay, where it also survived the 1862 shake. In recent years the clock was in Hastings, and in the earthquake of 1931 was battered by falling debris.

Sketches by Samuel Butler Two original water colour sketches which are claimed to have been the work of Samuel Butler, the author of "Erewhon," and which were taken from the walls of his old hut on the Mesopotamia Station, Canterbury, are to be seen at the exhibition of New Zealand books, literature, and curios which is being held by the Christchurch Authors' Week Committee. The sketches were brought to the exhibition by a Mr. Pawson while members of the committee were making final arrangements for the opening. One is a sketch of a red brick house with gabled windows, and set in sylvan surroundings. A photograph in an English weekly has disclosed that the house was Butler's English home. As the sketches were framed in England it is thought that Butler brought them to New Zealand with him.