NEWS OF THE BAY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11686, 26 November 1923, Page 6

NEWS OF THE BAY

A prize of £IOOO has been offered in England for an efficient type of locomotive for use in mines. According to advices received by the acting-Prime Minister (says the Melbourne “Age”), tlie competition is open to manufacturers of all countries, and Mr Page expressed the oninion. that Australian initiative could The depended upon to make a good showing. The object of the prize is to encourage the production of a safe and efficient type of electrical storage battery locomotive for use underground in ooal mines, and with a view to displacing pit pomes in deep and hot mines.

The number of motor licenses issued at the Auckland City Council traffic office Was 12,273 (says the “Star”). This is the number of motor vehicles registered in the city, which of course includes motor lorries, trucks and all sorts of machines on wheels with petrol exhausts besides motor-cars, but the motor-car ranks away on top. And the rate at which th© numbers are mounting up is nothing lees than astonishing., In the fortnight between November 51h and 20th there were 244 new legistrations for motor vehicles, which, allowing for Sundays and Saturday afternoons, means an increase of about 17 per day, while in the same period 143 new drivers received certificates.

Jamuna is a playful animal. Auckland’s baby elephant has proved that on many occasions since her arrival in New Zealand (says the “Star”). Now she- has another chapiter to her many “pranks,” this time by girting off the bop of the fourth finger of the right hand of her mahout All. It happened this way: Jamuna, having finished joyriding for the afternoon, was having her daily plurge, when Ali. picking up a peanut, gave it to his charge. She opened her mouth, and closed it on poor All’s hand as well as the peanut, so that when Ali withdrew it the ftnger-top was gone. The injury, however, is not serious, Ali being able to attend to his duties as usual.

The startling extent of infant mortality . among the Maori race was a note of the Maori mission report presented to the Methodist Synod in Greymouth recently (says the Grey “Star”). Even of those who survived, a very large proportion suffered from permanent physical infirmities and chronic diseases which were directly attributable to their parents’ lack of knowledge. In co-operation with the more enlightened natives, and with the Government, the Maori Methodist Mission authorities were seeking ways and means to educate the parents. Though a tedious and difficult task, it was vitally essential to the welfare of the Maori race and of the whole Dominion.

Action is being taken in Sydney, following a move made in Melbourne, to make “jay walking” an offenoe against the traffic regulations. “Jay walker®,” for those who are innocent of the term, are people who cross crowded streets diagonally, between the regular crossing places, and in most cases with their backs partly turned to the line of vehicular traffic. The feeling of drivers of vehicles is that, while the “jay walkers” are allowed to wander across crowded city streets at any place and any angle, without any clieolc on their movements, the police campaign against motor traffic ia a little unfair. Motorists say that natural born fools among pedestrians are responsible for most of the motor smashes.

Travellers by train on the south line have been much struck by the number of carefully devised old-fashioned scareorows which are seen in so many of the paddocks (says the “Star”). Residents, pakehas and Maoris, in the King Country sav that it is the only effective wav of keeping the birds off the plantations of maize and other crops. City dwellers just smile at these assertions and say that if the scarecrows do keep the birds away, they must be much more easily soared than the birds in tjie city, which simply show their contempt for the dummy figures by porohing on the most prominent parts of them. Some of the figures are garbed in the latest style, the female figures have low necked dressed with short skirt*.

The postal authorities have received advice from Sydney that the Marama left at noon on the 23rd instant for Wellington. She carries 247 bags of mails for the Dominion, including 100 bags from Australia, 4 from Africa, and 143 parcel receptacles. “In my opinion,’’ said a member at a meeting of the Motor Association at Invercargill, “on country roads the man who keeps the middle of the road when travelling at ten to fifteen miles an hour and gives you his dust, is worse than the one who travels at 60 miles an hour.” Two men on a jigger narrowly escaped being run down by the Ministerial special train the other day shortly after it left Moana (Westland). They had just time to fling themselves clear. The train was stopped, but proceeded when it was seen that the men tvere uninjured. The abolition of the spot light is a reform which the Wanganui Automobile Association is out to secure (says the “Chronicle”). The spotlight has decided uses, but free play with it in busy streets of the borough is quite unnecessary. The matter is one, however, that can be controlled by a borough by-law. A week ago 18 homing pigeons were liberated from the steamer Mararoa off Lyttelton Heads, to flv back to Wanganui. Unfortunately the birds struck a severe northerly gale, and so far none of them has reached home. The members of the Wanganui Flying Club are still hopeful that their birds will reach home, although it is probable that some of them will be lost. In giving his decision in a case at the Police Court in which a taxi driver was charged with travelling at a speed dangerous to the public, and in which the defendant admitted that a dog had dived in front of the car, the magistrate (Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) said that wherever an accident occurred it was the duty of a licensed taxi driver to pull up. They were the servants of the public, and they should render any necessary assistance.—Dunedin “Star.” Life is longest in New Zealand. Here the average is sixty years. It is shortest in India, where for thousands of years there has been no progress, except Buch as England has forced upon an unwilling race. India’s average of life is twenty-four years. Not long ago the second biggest city in France had neither man nor woman past fifty years of age. Sixty was once very old, and seventy extraordinary. Montaine speaks of his old age at a time when he was not fifty. A break occurred in the overhead tramway wire at the junction of Sy- 1 monds street and Karangahape road, in Auckland, after 8 o’clock on a recent morning. The live wire fell to the ground, but fortunately nobody was struck. . A motor-cyclist, however, rode over the cable without noticing it, but the insulation afforded by the rubber tyres of the machine saved him from injury. The tower wagon was promptly on the spot, and a temporary repair enabled the service to be restored' within a few minutes. The Wanganui river nearly claimed another victim at Putiki (says the “Chronicle") A little Maori boy named Mei Takarangi, a pupil of the Gonville Publio School, but who at present is on sick leave, was swimming below the Pah with other children: He got too far out in/to deep water, and was-just going down for the last, time when one of his comrades, another little hoy named John Hope, swam out to help the distressed .boy, .out he.fail-’ ed to reach him. Fortunately an adult happened to come down and heard the cries of the other children and he leaped into the water• with his clothes and boots on and just ai rived in time to save the children. At the same spot two children were drowned over 20 years ago. -There in the American State of •Missouri a town whose name is Peculiar. It obtained its strange name in this way: —When a new community i 6 formed the post office intervenes if the name chosen is a duplication within the State, and that is what happened in the case of the little town in Missouri. Several other names were chosen by the residents and submitted, hut always with the same result. Finally an exasperated official of the department, in refusing the latest choice, wrote to the “city fathers” and said it was “mighty peculiar” that they could not find .a good name for their town. To this he received the following reply: “Acting on your suggestion, we select the name Peculiar.” And so Peculiar is on the map to-day.