AUCKLAND NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent. Auckland, February 25.

Otago Witness, Issue 2244, 4 March 1897, Page 19

AUCKLAND NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent. Auckland, February 25.

maobi crmros. A cumber of valuable and antique articles oE Maori work have been purchased for tha Auckland Institute. The principal articles are :— (1) A handsome carved doorway from a settlement n6»r East Cape. This district from time icnaemorijtl poisensed the finest carvers ia New Zealand. The carving is most elaboraLo and fine ; it is, indeed, in the highest style of patient Maori art, showing exactly how the Maoris worked in the anoient times before their own ideas were confused by the eight of European things and while they had oniy stono implements to work with. The doorway is considerably higher than the average and it mast have formed the entrance to a large Runanga house. The top piece is broken, but otherwise the whola carving is in a very perfect condition. (2) A large carving on a piece of totara which had formed the front of a verandah. It is still more ancient than the dcorwsy. (3) One of the carving posts' which supported the ridgepole of a house. The figure at the bottom is beautifully curved. (4) Tbe figurehead of a fishing canoe. (5) There are a number of other articles : a baler, * fine greenstone heitiki, a heltiki not finithed, a number of bone fishhooks, several greenstone ornaments, a greenstone mere, two whalebone meres, a carving mallet, the carved top of a calabash, &c. The articles are a decided acquisition to the Maori collection in the mutoum. A SURGICAL JACKET. An exhibition of a new surgical jacket was given at the Drill Sail. It is called the Lawmoor jacket, and was recently imported by the Sfc. John Ambulance Society to the order of an Auckland gentleman connected with the mining industry. ltd object is to alleviate pain and injury caused to a broken limb when the patient is being raised from, say, tha bottom of » mine «r the hold of a steamer, and it is used ia conjunction with tbe ordinary stretcher. The patient is laced into the jacket as it lies on the stretcher, some of tha straps passing round the waist, while another runs lengthwise from an attachment at the top of the stretcher zound t the uninjured leg. Thus, -when the stretches is " up-ended," the weight of the body is supported by the jacket and no pain is given to the injured limb. An improved form of stretcher and a sew surgical hand sack were also exhibited. _____^__^____

Mr A. L. Parsons, manager of the Wanganui branch of the New Zealand Insurance ComI pany, has been promoted to the charge of the ' Christchurch branch. The Masterton show on 24fch turned out very I successful, the weather clearing up. Over 4000 I people attended. The new ground was highly praised, and it is reckoned all round the best show the association has ever held. Mr T. J. Steele, of Crioklewood, has (says the Napier Daily Telegraph) commenced an action for £7500 against the Bank of New Zealand. A commission to take evidence in Napier and Wairoa has been issued bvthe Suoreme Court at Auckland.