LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23213, 6 December 1938, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL

North Shore Power Failure Considerable inconvenience was caused to residents in the Birkenhead, Northcote and Albany districts last night when the electric power failed for over an hour, owing to a high tension fault in Lake Road, Takapuna. The failure occurred shortly before eight o'clock and it was not until nine o'clock that the fault was remedied. Finland's Anniversary The 20th anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Finland falls to-day. The country was proclaimed a republic on December 6, 1918. Members of the Consular Corps in Auckland will pay courtesy calls on the vice-consul for Finland, Mr. C. E. Tudehope, at the consulate office, and national flags will be flown from the various consular offices. Motor-Oar Thelis To have had her motor-car stolen three times in three weeks has been the experience of an Auckland woman motorist, who reported the latest theft to the police last night. She returned to get her car in High Street, after it had been parked thero most of the evening, and found it had been taken. Not a fortnight ago she had a similar experience, and 10 days before that the car was stolen from another city street. Two other cars were also reported stolen last night. Taking Sand from Beaches Representations are to be made to the Auckland Harbour Board by the Franklin County Council to prohibit the practice of taking sand from beaches on the Manukau Harbour, according to a decision made at a meeting of the council at Pukekohe yesterday. The engineer, Mr. A. C. Bettany, reported that over a period of many years, barges had been removing sand from the Manukau beaches in the county to Onehunga, where it was sold. The result had been spoiled beaches and erosion of the foreshore. Disputes at Westfield Reference to the frequency of stoppages at the Westfield works was made in the Otahuhu Magistrate's Court yesterday by an appellant who sought a variation of a Court order. Questioned as to his employment, he said he was now working at Westfield freezing works. "We don't get full time," he continued. "Every other day there is a strike or a hold up of work while there is an argument about something or other." Mr. W. R. McKean, who was on the Bench, remarked: "You want Mr. Semple to come and see you about it." Unusual Accident Struck on the face by a spanner flung out from a spinning flywheel while he was at work at J. J. Craig's quarry, Marua Road, Ellerslie, yesterday afternoon, Mr. James Jercich, quarryman, aged 37, married, of Ferndale Road, Ellerslie, suffered a compound fracture of the nose. He was taken to the Auckland Hospital in a St. John ambulance. Mr. Jercich was making an adjustment to a stonecrusher at the quarry when the spanner he was using slipped from his hand into a flywheel and was thrown out, striking him on the face.

Visit of the | Making the last of two voyages to Nev? Zealand while relieving the Wanganella in the transtasman service, the Huddart-Parker motor-liner Westralia will reach Auckland at three o'clock this afternoon from Sydney and will berth at Central Wharf. The Westralia, which is replacing the Wanganella while the regular liner is receiving overhaul at Sydney, made a voyage last month to Wellington. A ship of 8108 tons gross, the Westralia has accommodation for about 440 passengers. She was built at Glasgow in 1929.

Court Question Forbidden The question not infrequently asked of a witness in Court, whether another person is going to be called as a witness, was disallowed by Air. Justice Callari in the Supreme Court yesterday. The matter, he said, had been discussed quite recently by a group of judges in Wellington and their considered opinion was that the question was not a fair or proper one. The reason was that the final. determination whether it was wise or necessary or expedient to call a witness really rested on counsel. Of course, that did not prohibit the asking of questions tending to show that a certain person was available to be called.

Physical Welfare Committees A favourable reception was given by the Franklin County Council yesterday to the project for the setting up of district committees under the Physical Welfaro and Recreation Act, 1937. A circular from the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, was received, requesting the council to indicate whether it would co-operate in the movement. It was resolved to reply in the affirmative and to suggest that the Franklin committee comprise throe representatives of the council, two representatives of the Pukekohe Borough Council and three representatives of the Waiuku, Tuakau and Mercer Town Boards. Strikes Discountenanced A a general meeting of the Longburn (Palmerston North) branch of the Freezing Workers' Union the following resolution was carried unanimously:—"That while sincerely sympathising with the Westfield freezing workers in their recent trouble over the ring system, this meeting heartily endorses the statements of the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. 'G. Sullivan, and the president of the Labour Party, Mr. J. Roberts, and the statement of the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, more recently nt Westport, with reference to strikes and the necessity of full cooperation with the Government and country."

Mission Work in China "The soul-destroying activity of the war in China has created a . spiritual hunger, and this is finding its food in the Christian message," said x the Rev. C. W. McDouall, a Now Zealand missionary who has been stationed for many years at Pekin, in an address to a largo audience in the Holy Sepulchre Hall last night. Mr., McDouall showed how the work of the .missionaries had been maintained and developed during' the conflict, and he said the church had grown until it was to-day a sister communion to the church in New Zealand. He suggested that the New Zealand centennial in 1940 should be regarded as an opportunity to send the additional missionaries which were needed by the church in China. It would, he said, be a most fitting way of marking the occasiopj