NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3772, 29 June 1926, Page 38

NEWS IN BRIEF.

An attempt to enter tlie music store of Mr A. J Berryman, situated in the Square, Palmerston North, was made one night recently (reports the New Zealand Herald’s correspondent), but the would-be burglar was apparently disturbed. Holes had been bored round the lock in the front door and a half-cricle was scored in the glass panel of the door, evidently to facilitate the breaking of the glass so that the lock could be turned. “I must say that your New Zealand police are amongst the finest in the world in the matter of regulating traffic. Wellington’s traffic is very heavy, and the police there are handling it in a most efficient manner. They are unlike the American police, being sympathetic and striving to teach the road users instead of bullying them.” said Colonel Svmonds, in the course of an address at Palmerston North on road construction. An extremely bold theft is reported from Leeston, where the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Company’s grain store at Lake road was broken into recently, and five bales of new grain sacks and 12 sacks of chaff stolen. The store is situated on a lonely part of the road, and the thieves were evidently ahle to work undisturbed for a considerable time. Each bale contained 250 sacks, their total value being £9l ss, while the chaff is valued at £4. Some of the gear consisting of wire and flax ropes, blocks and chains, which was lost off the Blackoall bridge by the Railways Department during the recent flood has been recovered some distance down the river (says the Greymouth correspondent of the Lyttelton Times). The timber work of the gantry, which was lost off the bridge at the same time, has also been located, and will be recovered if the cost of salving is at all reasonable. The number of motor vehicles registered in New Zealand up to the end of last month was 137-600, according to figures supplied to the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. R F. Bollard). The North Island total was 84,698 vehicles (55.993 cars, 12,818 trucks etc., and 15.887 cycles) as against 52.902 in the South Island (34,969 cars. 5631 trucks, etc., and 12,302 cycles) The opossum season for North Canterbury opened a week ago (says the Christchurch Press), but so far no returns showing progress have come to hand. The number of licenses issued compares favour l ably with last year. Indications point to a good season as far as Little River and the bays are concerned. A good deal of poaching is goine rn. and the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society is endeavouring to tran the offenders. “The commercial relations between New Zealand and the Argentine are to-dav very cordial.” stated Senor Humberto Bidone, Consul-General for the Argentine, at the annual smoke concert of the Mannwatu A. and P. Association. “Last year,” he added. “New Zealand exported to the Argentine 19 cows and 406 sheeo. Argentine will be the biggest market for neditrree stock of New Zealand so long as the Dominion continues to export the very best animals.” A striking instance of the ravages of insects among trees is shown in a section of pinna insignis brought to the Ashburton Guardian office the other day bv Mr W. Lock, of Meihven. The section is riddled i by hole®, looking ns though bored with an auger, into which a lead pencil could be inserted. The specimen has been handed to the officials of the Department of Agriculture. who have forwarded it to the entomologist at Christchurch for investigation. Two large plate glass windows in Douglass’s motor garage, Fowderham street, New Plymouth, were smashed recently as the result of a motor car. driven by a woman, netting out of control. The woman had iust left, the garage, and was about to proceed along Powderham street (says the Taranaki Herald) when the car careered across the footpath and finished up with its wheels through the windows. The windows were fully insured, and were soon replaced. “There is a tendency on the part of motorists to make an inordinate use of their car horns when passing stock on the roads,” was the substance of a complaint received by the Wanganui Automobile Association (says the Herald). Drovers resented this, and would not take pains to clear the t road. On the other hand, if motorists would approach quietly they would he shown every courtesy. The letter stated that the incessant tooting of horns made sheep stupid, and they could not be managed without a great deal of trouble. A deputation of Natives waited on the Whakatane Borough Council recently and asked permission to erect a memorial at Pohaturoa Rock, at the entrance to the town, in memory of Hurunui Apanui, the last of the big chiefs of the Ngatiawas. who died early last year. In support of the request it w r as stated that the ancestors of the late chief, upon their death, had been taken to the sacred rock, where their bodies had lain for several days before burial. The council resolved to confer with the Natives and the Beautifying Society before-arriving at a decision. The New Zealand beech is a tree found usually on the poorost ground or at a considerable height in tho mountain ranges. Dr Cocks ync, in a new “Monograph on the New Zealand Beech Forests,” says the beech ha* no particular affinity for poor Sound and exposed positions. He takes e interesting view that our beech, which occurs also in South American, Tasmania, and South-East Australia, is tho old original forest covering of this country and has been crowded off the good land by its better-equipped antagonists, the broadleaved trees, which Dr Cockayne regards ns

later arrivals coming when New Zealand had land connection with the tropics. “Opossum hunters in the Gatlins district are having a rough spin this season,” said Mr Thomas O’Byrne, the Sawmill .Vorkers’ Union secretary, to a Southland Times reporter the other day. “Their catches are not nearly so large, but they cannot say whether the scarcity of the opossums is due to poachers or poisoning. One experienced trapper was a e to secure only 11 skins after 12 days in the bush. Some expressed the opinion that a close season would be necessary to allow the opossums to increase, while others favoured a suspension of trapping for three years.”