LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22463, 6 July 1936, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Clouds Mar Eclipse The partial eclipse of the moon, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, was marred in Auckland by the overcast sky. This prevented the phenomenon from being observed by Auckland astronomers. Animals on Steamer A dog and a horse are on board the Federal Line steamer Northumberland, which arrived from London on Saturday. The dog is a purebred Russian wolfhound and will be landed at Auckland. The horse is the pedigree stallion Foxlight, which will be landed at Wellington. Concert Chamber Comfort Improvements recently made to the Town Hall concert chamber were appreciated by the Little Theatre Society's audience on Saturday night. The seats of the chairs have been upholstered in leather-cloth and a dozen electric radiators have been fastened to the walls just below the level of the windowsills, after the same fashion as in the Jarge Town Hall. Trawling Prohibited By an amendment to regulations made in 1932, under the Fisheries Act, 1008, trawling has been prohibited in the Bay of Islands. The area affected is described as lying inside a straight line drawn from Cape Wiwiki to the northern extremity of Bed Head, on Bed or Okahu Island, and thence in a straight line drawn in a northerly direction to the northern extremity of Cape Brett.

Struck By Hockey Stick While playing for the University A ladies' hockey team against the University B team in the senior competition at the Beinuera grounds on Saturday, Miss Ruth Mason, a daughter of the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, Minister of Justice, was struck by another player's stick and her nose was broken. Miss Mason was taken to the Auckland Hospital and attended in the casualty department.

Boarding-house Charges Private hotel and boarding-house charges are beginning to reflect higher labour costs, mostly represented by the statutory minimum rates scale brought into operation from July 1. One large private hotel has increased its charges by 10s a week. Other increases vary from 2s Od a week upward. One board-ing-house keeper stated that not only were his expenses affected by dearer labour, but prices of foodstuffs were already beginning to advance.

Hamilton Borough Enlarged The boundaries of the borough of Hamilton and Waipa County have been altered as from July 1 by an Order-in-Council just gazetted, to include in the borough an area of o(J acres known as the 'Richmond Estate and situated on the Ohaupo Road, near the Waikato Hospital. The alteration was recommended some months ago by a commission in face of objections by the Borough Council, and the recommendation was approved in April by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry.

No Child Delinquents The Auckland Children's Court, for the first time for some years, had no cases to deal with at the weekly sitting on Saturday morning. Fewer mischievous children are expected to come before the Court as a result of higher wages and less unemployment, according to officers of the Child Welfare Department. They consider that the paternal influence, which has been absent in cases where married men have been in relief camps, will again be exerted as fathers return to their homes, and it is anticipated that; stricter discipline will tend more to keep children out of trouble.

Napier's Tramways The languishing of Napier's tramway service by competition from motor vehicles and push bicycles was referred to last week by the retiring town clerk of Napier, Mr. John Dick. "In 1916 the tramway department was functioning very efficiently," he said. "But 20 years later competition by motor vehicles and push bicycles caused the service to languish. The electricity department also started badly, but the council gave the public every encouragement, with the result that to-day we have some 5000 consumers, and last year's profit was between £II,OOO and £12,000."

Butter For Language In support of Professor A. Sewell's recent advocacy of the American language, the Hon. Bernard Martin, M.L.C., made a counter-suggestion at the Independence Day luncheon on Saturday that, in return for the Dominion's introducing the American language into this country, the United States should take some hundreds of tons of New Zealand butter. In so doing, he commented with a smile, the bargain would be complete with advantage to both countries. He added that perhaps New Zealand's political gatherings might be made more picturesque with the addition of American dancing girls and bands, such as those employed in the United States. Large Overseas Mails

The Postal Department will be kept exceptionally busy to-day handling large quantities of mail from overseas. In addition to 800 bags of English mail and 200 bags of parcels which arrived from London by the Northumberland on Saturday afternoon, the Poval Mail liner Niagara is due from Vancouver this afternoon with 1298 bags of English and American mail and 359 bags of parcels for New Zealand. A further quantity of mail will arrive by the Monowai, which is due from Sydney this afternoon with 263 bags of Australian mail, including three Empire air mails. Another large quantity of English and American mail will arrive from Los Angeles on Friday morning by the Matson liner Monterey. Unusual Shipping Activity

Considerable activity will take place on -the waterfront to-day when five overseas vessels will arrive, in addition to two overseas vessels and three colliers which arrived during the weekend. The collier Kartigi arrived from Westport on Saturday morning and the Federal Line steamer Northumberland arrived from London in tho afternoon. Yesterday tho Bank Lino motorship Oakbank arrived from Ocean Island in the morning and tho colliers Canopus and Pool t a arrived from Westport and Greymouth respectively in the afternoon. This morning's arrivals will be the Shaw, Savill and Albion liner Tamaroa from Wellington, the Bank Lino motor-ship Tynebank from Java and the Federal Lino steamer Norfolk from New Plymouth, and this afternoon's arrivals will be the Monowai from Sydney and tho Royal Mail liner Niagara from 'Vancouver. Tho Monowai and the Niagara have both reported by wireless that they will arrive off the North Head at ono o'clock.