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Otago Witness, Issue 3882, 7 August 1928, Page 3

. The grafting of a portion of a father’s big toe on to the nose of his daughter was the remarkable operation performed S li° CllCr ’ ° T f the Children? Hospital Rardeaux - dea nne Clarens, aged 3 1 had been attacked by a dog, which bit d?piLJ° rtlOn her nose ‘ The surgeon decided upon the operation to save the child from life disfigurement.

The Mayor (Mr W. B. Taverner), Crs Clark and Wilson, Mr Fraser (architect), and Mr R. A. Johnston (chief clerk) paid a periodical inspection of the new Town Hall on Thursday afternoon. It was found that the work was going along smoothly, and that steady progress was being made. It will be some 12 months, however, before the hall will be handed over to the city by the contractors. It is interesting to recall the fact that the tender for the hall was round about £Bl,OOO, but it is considered that its actual total cost will be about £lOO,OOO. The main hall of the building will hold 3000 people, the concert hall 900, and the supper room 600. The roof of the concert hall, which will also form the floor of a large suite of offices, will be of reinforced concrete, and will be suspended from the steel structure which supports the main roof. An interesting feature in the construction work of the concert room is a 70ft Oregon post. 12’ji by 12in, on the top of which a pulley has been fixed, with block and tackle. Considerable trouble was experienced in getting this lengthy piece of timber into position, but man’s ingenuity overcame all difficulties. A meeting of representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, the Fruit Brokers’ Association, the Otago Expansion League, and the Importers and Shippers’ Association was held on Thursday to consider matters in connection with shipments of bananas from Samoa by the Government vessel Maui Pomare. Mr E. A. Rosevear (president of the chamber) occupied the chair. Mr G. J. Williamson reported on the first shipment, and stated that instead of submitting the fruit to auction to retailers, a flat rate had been fixed. This had been done so that the bananas could be retailed at a reasonable rate to the public. From reports received by the committee the prices had not been altogether satisfactory to the public, and it was hoped that future shipments could be retailed at a more reasonable rate. It was also' stated that the packing of the cases eould be improved. It was decided to write to the Department of External Affairs asking it to take steps to have more attention given to packing jyid also to grading. The next shipment is due at Dunedin on August 2f

. Up to Thursday 394 licenses were issued in the Wellington acclimatisation district for trapping opossums, this number being only 10 below the record for the 1926 season. As there are four weeks still to go, this season should be a record one. The weather conditions have been, and continue to be, ideal. Over 400 skins have been taken from poachers, the majority having been caught in May, and they were sold at a public auction in June, realising an average price of 8s 9d a skin.

New Zealand mails which were despatched from Auckland by the Niagara on July 3 for the United Kingdom, via Vancouver, reached London on August 1.

Complaint that certain charges by the Railways Department were very unfair was made by Mr W. K. M’Alpine at the meeting of the Canterbury Progress League on Wednesday night (says the Lyttelton Times). He said that where a settler had property on both sides of the railway line, and wished to take water across the line, the department charged a guinea for crossing the line, and 10s for each water pipe or telephone line which crossed, however far below the line were the pipes, or how high the wires. The speaker said that his property, Craigieburn, had been cut in two by the railway, and it was not fair for the department to impose the extra annual charge. He could take his wool to Christchurch by lorry cheaper than by rail. The department wanted his custom, and yet imposed a penalty on water and wires crossing the lines. It was a Dominion practice. The complaint was referred to the league’s roading committee.

Mr Walter M. Marks, M.H.R., New South Wales, was a passenger to Auckland on the Aorangi, on his way to Canada, where he is to be one of the Commonwealth .representatives at a parliamentary conference. Mr Marks is also chairman of the Royal Commission which was set up to inquire into the motion picture industry in Australia, and has just finished the State and Commonwealth conference reports. Speaking in Auckland, he said the Australian Government was determined to foster the film industry in the Commonwealth. A sum of £lO,OOO was to be allocated annually by the Commonwealth Government for three years for the three best films, and two prizes of £5OO each were to be given for the two best scenarios. The Commonwealth Government was also adopting the recommendation of the recent Royal Commission for a quota of Empire films. Every motion picture showman, he added, would be compelled under law to show a certain number of British films. “ I have no fear but that the British producers will turn out the goods,” continued Mr Marks, “ not only to the satisfaction of the public, but of the showmen. Ours is a race ■which takes a lot of starting, in war or otherwise, but when we once get going it is difficult to catch us.”

The Committee of Inquiry into Central Otago irrigation conditions which had to suspend its sittings last month owing, among other things, to the serious illness of one of its members, Mr R. A. Rodger, is not likely to resume its deliberations for some time yet. Mr Rodger, -who is at present staying with his son, Mr Keith Rodger, of Tapantii, is not yet well enough to return to duty. In a letter to the secretary of the committee last week he states that it will be at least a fortnight before he is able to resume his place on the committee. In view of this, it is probable that it will be more than a month before the committee’s report is placed before the Government.

The experience of being on nine separate occasions posted as being killed was the lot in China of Mr J. R. Ward, who is at present visiting Auckland after an absence of 25 years. is an old boy of Ponsonby School and Auckland University College, and since leaving Auckland in 1903 has become a prominent figure in the wood oil industry of China. As manager of the Fu Chung, Hankow, Wood Oil Corporation, a powerful branch of a Peking syndicate, Mr Ward found himself in the midst of trouble. He was the only “ foreigner ” who remained in the district during the height of the disturbances, and who was not directly protected. He re l mained at the refinery, five miles from Hankow, and on the banks of the Yellow River. Some distance on one side of him was the installation of the Asiatic Oil Company, and on the other was the installation of the Standard Oil Company. Protecting these were-two gunboats, and in case of trouble Mr Ward was provided with a riot gun to give yarning of danger.

Comparing the sentences imposed on criminals many years ago, with those of the present day, Mr C. R. Orr Walker, S.AI., stated at th. social gathering of justices of the pei.ce in Timaru that 110 years ago at one sitting of the criminal court in one county in England, 14 persons were condemned to death. For breaking an entering and stealing a bottle-green coat, a velveteen jacket, and three waistcots, a soldier pensioner was sentenced to death: a boy of 15 was sentenced to death for entering a house, breaking open a desk, and stealing a purse and £3 3s 6d; and another youth and two men received the same sentence for entering a house to rob. Sentence of death was meted out to a youth of 19 for setting fire to an oat stack; to two men for assault and robbery; to a man of 20 for stealing a mare, saddle and bridle; to two men for setting fire co a threshing machine and a quantity of oats and straw; to a young man of 20 and a young woman of 19 for burglary; and to a man for breaking into a shop and stealing a pair of new shoes, a half boot, and a half boot top. The saddest feature of that awful record was the sentencing to death of young people for what to-day most of them would receive probation.

Recent deaths at the Auckland Zoo have included a kudu, a reindeer, a beaver and \a Canadian tree porcupine. There has also been a decrease in the collection of foreign finches. Reporting to the City Council, the town clerk (Mr J. S. Brigham) said the kudu had probably been worried by dogs at night, and steps were being taken to prevent effectively the incursion at all times of dogs into the park. The reindeer, which was one of those presented recently by Messrs John Court, Ltd., was being examined as to the cause of death. The organs of the beaver had also been sent for analysis. Mr Brigham expressed the opinion that both animals had not been properly acclimatised. The tree porcupine had apparently died of old age. The general health of the collection was satisfactory, but the weather of the last two months had increased considerably the difficulty of keeping in good health the animals at the zoo, particularly those specimens used to a tropical dknata

Spring was heralded in on Wednesday in a typically seasonable manner with a light frost in the early morning, followed by bright, warm sunshine throughout the greater part of the day. Early in the evening rain fell, but the atmospheric conditions were pleasantly mild. During the past few weeks the days have appreciably lengthened, and the strength of the sun’s heat has noticeably increased. Reports from all over New Zealand show that during the past few weeks flowers, shrubs and trees have early forsaken the dormant season, and lambs have made their appearance everywhere, even earlier than in former seasons. If the present favourable weather conditions continue and the spring fulfils its early auspicious promise, the season should be a prolific one for the farmers, and townspeople will benefit accordingly.

A Dunedin business man was in Wanganui last week, and in the course of a talk with a Chronicle reporter, he happened to mention a conversation in which he and an Aucklander were engaged a few days previously. The northerner, goodhumouredly referred to the southerner as coming from the city where the only thing that the inhabitants spent was an evening. “Yes, and I will tell you how we spend them,” the southerner rejoined. “ We occupy the time looking over the debentures and other securities of loans to Aucklanders.” The visitor from Dunedin told the Wanganui reporter that Auckland’s indebtedness to Dunedin was £11,000,000 and Wellington’s £6,000,000. That there is almost an entire absence of harmony in design and treatment of street architecture in New Zealand is the opinion of Professor C. R. Knight, of the Auckland University College. He told members of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects that each residential district was a collection of residences as unlike each other as possible. In some cases this achieved a picturesque quality to the neighbourhood, and added to the pleasure of the place. Yet, and "he realised he was upon debatable ground, a greater effect of harmony of treatment would in many instances increase the beauty of the ensemble, and probably would result in lower production costs.

Flouting the law is not .uncommon in sporting circles, particularly in connection with the sports of fishing and shooting, and a rather flagrant instance of this was met with by a ranger of the Otago Acclimatisation Society recently at Tomahawk .Lagoon. He' watched two men sh >oting at ducks on the lagoon, and had a somewhat peculiar interview with them. He charged one man with shooting over a sanctuary, and asked for his name, which he was informed was “ not for sale.” The man moved off, but the rangei was not to be denied, and caught him by the arm, pulled him back, and the man then gave his name. He refused, at first to give up his rifle, but finally did so. The second man also refused to give his name, but subsequently gave it. Asked by the first man when he would see the ranger again, the ranger laconically replied. “ At the Police Court "

M 1 : IV. !’• . i<. r. who celebrated her seventy fifth birthday on July 28, and has ce.curated her golden wedding, said she only wished that there was some truth in the story of her claim having been acknowledged to the “Jennings millions ” (reports the Thames correspondent of the Lyttelton Times). All she expected to get out of the estate was a bit of fun watching other people hum for the money. It was true that she was distantly related to William Jennings. Her grandfather, Patrick Malone, married twice, Miss Jennings being his second wife. She was in the direct line of descent from a William Jennings who lived in the reign of James 11, and died in the reign of William and Mary. The Miss Jennings who married Patrick Malone could not have been the daughter of this William Jennings, but may have been the granddaughter or great-grand-daughter. Full particulars are not in Mrs Barker’s hands, but are believed to be included in Patrick Malone’s will, a copy of which is in the hands of one Page, a Birmingham lawyer. Mrs Barker’s grandfather left a will which indicated his belief that he was entitled to his share of the Jennings estate and divided it equally amongst his children. Mrs Barker’s mother (formerly Ellen Bach), in her will indicated that she was aware of her connection with the Jennings family, but did not hold out any hope of getting any share. Airs Barker thinks that the fortune will never come out of Chancery, but if it does there will be precious little to divide, as she knows that there are claimants all over the world. Years ago American claimants raised a fund to send representatives of their families to England in an endeavour to lift the estate from Chancery, but after spending a verylarge sum of mormv they had to return unsuccessful.

The Wellington City Council r-r-ently asked the Fire Board to take over the supervision and management of the men stationed in theatres. Members of the board questioned the necessity of firemen being required to remain on duty during performances at picture theatres. It was felt, however, that there was some justification for men being in attendance where there was inflammable stage property. It was decided that the City Council be advised that the board considered that stationing a man during the whole performance at a picture theatre was not essential, and that patrol work would suffice. The City Council is to be asked whether it has any objection to the stationing of firemen at pictures being done away with Three sets of moa bones have been discovered on the property of Airs P. F. Wall, at Te Uri (says a telegram from Dannevirke). The manager of the property, Air J. R. Thomson, was engaged in ploughing operations when a horse became bogged, and "in digging to free the animal Air Thompson struck what he thought to be a log, but closer inspection showed that it was a large moa bone. Further investigation unearthed three sets of leg bones, and it is thought that there may yet be furtheir skeleton remains.

The Arbitration Court will sit in Dunedin on Wednesday, August 15, to hear the following matters: —Dominion woollen mill employees’ dispute, Otago general (D.C.C.E.P. and L.) labourers’ dispute, Otago general labourers’, quarrymen’s, etc., dispute, the Kaitangata coal miners’ dispute, and the Oamaru grocers’ assistants’ dispute. The court will sit at Invercargill on Friday, August 17, to hear the Southland timber yard and sawmill employees’ dispute. The court will also deal with other matters lodged before its sitting in each place. Practically the whole of the estate of Mrs Ethel Constance Griggs, of Omeo, Victoria, who died on January 3, is represented by an insurance policy for £2OO, with accruing benefits. The value of the estate is set down at £224 10s. The Curator of Intestate Estates has applied for letters of administration, at the request of the insurance company. Under the statutory distribution, the widower, Ronald Griggs, will receive one-third and the child two-thirds, after deducting the 5 per cent, charged by the curator. The Wanganui Chamber wrote to the Feilding Chamber of Commerce soliciting support to a proposal that proper representations be made to have the stamp duty on cheques and receipts reduced to a penny (reports the correspondent of the Evening Post). The president considered that the chamber might well take the matter up,, for he understood that in both cases the duty of 2d was imposed as a war measure. He moved. that the chamber support the proposal. In seconding the motion, Mr Jeffs recalled that the proposal was a hardy annual—it. had been brought up regularly, bnt nothing had been done. Nevertheless, it should go forward again. The motion was carried

The suggestion that much more could be done in exploiting the tourist possibilities of the thermal regions at Rotorua and Wairakei was made in Wellington by Air F. D. Waterman, of New York. Mr Waterman himself is interested in the American tourist business, owning an hotel in Eustis, Florida, which caters largely for tourist traffic. “It is wonderful,” he said, “ to think how these two resorts at Rotorua and Wairakei could be developed. If they were developed to their utmost they would certainly attract American tourists in large numbers. They could be developed as two wonderful playgrounds for the American people. Many Americans have visited and revisited Great Britain and the Continent of Europe, and are anxious to seek a new field. There is a wonderful future for Rotorua and Wairakei. In New Zealand there is not the hotel accommodation that Americans are accustomed to.”

Speaking at the annual dinner of the King’s College Old Boys’ Association on Saturday night (says the Auckland Star), Major-general Sir Andrew Russell urged more friendly treatment of English public schoolboys on their arrival in New Zealand. “A boy arriving here about 17 or 18 years of age is at the formative age, when the least influence will turn him one way or another,” said Sir Andrew. “What we have to do is to provide the friendship they need, and to enable them to meet people with a similar upbringing.” The aid that was required was not so much financial as personal. He realised the English boys’ viewpoint. He knew one young man who had enlisted when quite a boy, and saw over two years’ war service. This man came to the Dominion determined to make good, but the worst he had to face was the fact that for 10 or 12 months he never spoke to anyone with the same ideas and language as himself. There were many young boys in the same position.

A further reduction of 10s a ton in the price of all grades of raw and refined sugars with the exception of tablet an I icing sugars has been made by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Ltd. The latest reduction will bring the wholesale price of No. 1A sugar—the popular table grade—down to £2l 10s a ton. The price has been reduced four times this year by stages of 10s each, and last year there were four similar reductions, so that sugar is to-day £4 a ton cheaper than it was in January, 1927. The current price lowest on record for several years.

“ A time will come in the near future when we will, I am sure, be compelled to consider the question of closer settlement within our city areas,” said Professor C. R. Knight, when speaking to members of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. “ From every point of view it is undesirable for people live a long way from their place of business. At the moment the demand is for faster and more efficient transport. Trains, buses, trams, and motor cars have done much to shorten distance, but it is costly to the State and the worker, and from a town-planning point of view it is obviously uneconomical. This does not mean that we shall ever be faced with the congestion troubles of other lands, because I am convinced that with the aid of townplanning science we will find it possible to achieve greater density and greater economy by the design of areas for specific classes of residences in close proximity to the various centres of business activity.”

At the monthly meeting of the United Temperance Reform Council, it was re-, solved that the Otago Area Council expresses its complete accord with the decision of the annual meeting of the NewZealand Alliance in relation to “political activity ” at the parliamentary elections.

There were 19 bankruptcies in Auckland last month as compared with nine in the previous month. In July of last year there were 21 bankruptcies. The number of bankruptcies for the seven months of this year is 86. which is considerably lowei than figures for similar periods in 1926 and 19'Z’.

Eight petitions in bankruptcy were filed in Wellington during July as compared with three in the corresponding month of last year. '1 here was a fairly sharp shock of earihfluake in Wellington at 5.15 on Tuesday morning. It lasted for several seconds. The seismological records at the Dominion Observatory seemed to indicate that the centre was comparatively close, and the shock was in all probability a local one. No damage has been reported.

A telegram states that the Petone Borough Council passed a resolution asking the Wellington City Council to call a conference to consider putting into operation a voluntary system of summer time in the Wellington district.

A party of boys who were roaming about the sandhills approximately two miles north of North Beach, Christchurch, on Tuesday, found a skeleton of a child. Its identity has not yet been established, but on January 22 a little girl named Irma Timms, aged eight, disappeared from her home in Brighton, and was never seen again, although a Search was carried out for days over a wide area. An unusually large opossum was caught in the grounds of a New Plymouth suburban resident the other night. It measured four feet from head to tail. . The marsupials are doing a good deal of damage to the native shrubs and trees (says a New Plymouth paper), being particlarly fond of the young shoots of the pohutukaiva, karo, and koekoe. The owner of the property in question has suffered much damage in consequence of these depredations, and is now waging war upon them. Mr Frank Waterman, vice-president of the New York Rotary Club and the organising manager of the pen company of that name, is at present on a holiday visit to New Zealand and Australia. Mr Waterman stood against James Walker for the mayoralty of New York two years ago as a Republican. Speaking to a representative of the Auckland Star of the coming presidential election, he said: “I am strong for Hoover. The Coolidge Administration has been so good, and the States are so prosperous at the present time, that I feel positive Hoover will become President. I intended to come out and see the dominions /oars ago, but have never been able to find time before.” Speaking of the prohibition law, he said he did not think either the Democratic or Republican Party would try to win the election on either a dry or a wet policy. “In the country towns,” he added, “ prohibition functions well, but as far as the cities are concerned, they might just as well have the open bar and the hotel, so prevalent and insistent is the bootlegging business.” Mr Robert Rutherford, an English business man, who arrived recently in Auckland after an extensive tour in Australia, expressed himself as greatly impressed with the possibilities of Queensland as a field for immigration. The climate, he said, is exceptionally good, bananas, pineapples and sugar cane growing in great profusion. Mixed farming in the Rockhampton district has attracted many English agriculturists, who express themselves as very well satisfied with their new country. “ There are great possibilities in New- Zealand,” said Mr Rutherford, “ but Queensland will take a lot of beating.”

Frederick Loyd John Morgan, aged 34, married, was charged under section 14 of the Family Allowance Act with presenting a false document to obtain an allowance (says a telegram from Christchurch). He pleaded guilty, and was fined £2, in default 14 days’ imprison ment. The defendant, in his application, stated that he was employed by a certain firm at a weekly wage of £2, whereas he had been employed by another firm at a weekly wage of £4 3s. It was the first case of the kind heard in Christchurch.

• The widening of the Lower Harbour \road between Port Chalmers and the Spit is sufficiently advanced to show what a boon it will be wdien it is finished. Two vehicles can now easily pass each other ■where the widening has been effected Sharp points have been cut off and the material used to widen the curves at hairpin bends. The sea-walling down as tar as Pulling Point has been rebuilt and generally improved with stone from the Port Chalmers municipal quarry, the stone being supplied free of charge by the Borough Council. Men from the unemployment list are carrying out the work, and they have almost reached Taylor’s Point, where the widening and straightening of a dangerous part of the road will be specially appreciated by motorists. So far the road has not been improved at Grassy Point, but as the Waikouaiti County Council has agreed to compensate the owner of the property for the ground required for widening the road there, the work will be gone on with soon. The improvement of the road is specially noticeable at the end of Pulling Point. The revenue received from tyre tax for the month of July amounted to £1069, and from the motor spirit tax the receipts were £2236 14s.

Vital statistics for the past month, as supplied by the registrar for the Dunedin district (Mr W. E. Gladstone), are as follow:—Births 136, deaths 98, marriages 44. The figures for July of last year were respectively 134, 84, 55.