LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22962, 14 February 1938, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mails by Awatea The Union Company's liner Awatea left Sydney at 9.23 p.m. on Friday and is expected at Auckland about 1 p.m. to-day. She is bringing 117 bags of mail and 42 bags of parcels for Auckland, in addition to London air mails despatched on January 27 and 30. Rotorua Cadets' Success

Tho Rotorua High School cadet company has again won the North Island section of the Weekly Press Shield competition which is open to teams of 10 riflemen from secondary schools in the North Island. This is the seventh time that Rotorua has won the shield in the past 10 years. St. Valentine's Day

After many years in semi-eclipse, St. Valentine's Day, which falls to-day, .is being observed again. The production of "valentines," or cards convoying greetings humorous or satirical, is being undertaken once more on a commercial scale, and the making of gifts appropriate to tho day has been suggested by showcards and displays in various Auckland shops.

Hospital Building Plana The preliminary plans covering tho building programme of tho Auckland Hospital Board are nearing completion. The board's architect, Mr. J. Farrell, has been in constant communication with the Department of Health, and each problem of lay-out has been dealt with as it has arisen. The chairman of the board, the Rev. W. C. Wood, said on Saturday that excellent headway was being ""made.

Busy Railway Station With four trains departing within half an hour the Auckland railway station was extremely busy shortly before seven o'clock last evening. Hundreds of people farewelled friends on the limited express of 12 carriages, while another large complement left by the separate New Plymouth train. Owing to the breakage of a compressed air pipe on. the braking system of one off the carnages the Hamilton excursion train was delayed 22 minutes until the pipe was replaced.

Parking Areas Congested , It was impossible to park cars on the approaches to the railway station over 15 minutes before the departure of the limited express last night. All parking areas were filled, and a number of drivers left their cars between the trair rails and the balustrade on the outward ramp. When all available space was taken, many motorists had to drive back into Beach Road to find parking room, while others made use of the concrete forecourt of the station. Cable Ship's Long Service

The well-known cable repair steamer Recorder, formerly the Iris, completes 34 years of service to-day. A twin-screw-vessel of 2258 tons, she was laid down at Glasgow in 1902 for the Pacific Cable Board and was commissioned on February 14, 1904. For many years she was based at Auckland and was used to maintain practically the whole cable system of the south-western Pacific. She was transferred to Cable and Wireless, Limited, and renamed in January, 1932, and latterly has been based at Singapore.

GateTpillar Eats Kumeras An interesting species of caterpillar was discovered recently by a Rotorua resident to be eating kumara plants. For the caterpillar family, the specimens wore of very largo size, green in colour, with black markings down both sides. The caterpillars were taken to the local fields inspector of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. C. S. Dalgleish. for identification purposes, but neither he nor the inspector of stock, Mr. C. H. Newson, had seen such specimens before. Three of the caterpillars were sent to the departmental headquarters in Wellington for inspection and identification. Although the caterpillars made short work of the kumara plants they did not touch other vegetables in the garden where they were found.

Men lor Clearing Weeds A statement made at the meeting of the Hauraki Plains County Council last week that no unemployed men were available for clearing blackberry and other noxious weeds from waste, lands in the country, .although the Department of Agriculture had offered to find wages for 300 man-days, has drawn a reply from the placement officer fot the Tauranga district, Mr. L. H. Armstrong. In a communication to the Herald Mr. Armstrong states that although, in the vicinity of Ngatea, the area in question, only one man is not in full-time work, there ftro many men available at Thames. If the county council is prepared to find accommodation or transport for four men for two months' work, there will bo no difficulty in supplying suitable men from the Thames register. Main Trunk Anniversary

Twenty-nine years ago to-day the first scheduled through passenger train left Auckland for Wellington over the Main Trunk route. Some months before, on August 3, 1908, the two railheads had been joined, and a special Parliamentary train had been run to and from Auckland the same month to welcome the American Fleet. On November 6 the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, drove the last spike, and two days later a daylight service was inaugurated, passengers requiring two complete days for tho journey. Those bound north had to spend a night at Ohakuno and south-bound travellers slept at Taumarunui. The first through trains took about 19 hours to complete the journey, but this time has been reduced to 16 hours for ordinary trains arid 14J hours for limited expresses.

Spread of Monarch Butterfly About a dozen communications a day aro being received by tbe authorities at the Auckland War Memorial Museum either reporting the presence of tho Monarch butterfly or inquiring as to its identity. These show that the butterfly is now abundant at Devonport and Stanley Bay, fairly numerous at Epsom and occasionally seen at Onoliungft and Mangere. This handsome species is a native but until recently was very rare and therefore unknown to most people. The caterpillar, which is striped, has found a favoured food in the swan shrub, now being planted in many gardens bccauso of the shape of its seed pods, and this accounts for the spread in numbers of the butterfly. Tho butterfly is about 4in. across, is brown-veined, and is hedged in black with white spots. The cocoon is jade green with gold spots and resembles an ear pendant. As the abundance or otherwise of the butterfly appears to depend on the swan shrub, it is not considered likely to become ft pest.