NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 51

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Squadron - Leader Kingsford - Smith, Flight-Lieutenant Ulm, Messrs Litchfield and M'William will be the guests of Mr and Mrs Paape, of the Grand Hotel, during their visit to Dunedin. Aucklanu city councillors and representatives of suburban local bodies, at a conference;- agreed on the formation of a transport board for the control of passenger traffic. Steps will be taken to secure legislation to bring the board into force. A Wanganui business man of Scottish descent had grave doubts concerning a client who owed him £5 (states the Chronicle). ' He wanted a written acknowledgment, so he wrote demanding £lO, which he said was due to him. He smiled when he received the reply: “I don't owe you £10; I owe you only £5.” The running costs of the flight of the Southern Cross from Australia to New Zealand is approximately £5O (says an exchange)." The petrol bill, at 2s a gallon, makes £36, and the costs of the lubricating oil would not raise-the total expense to more than £5O, stated Squad-ron-Leader Kingsford-Smith the other day.

The sequel to a recent gaining case was heard in the Magistrate’s Court at Hastings on Wednesday morning before Mr A. M. Mowlem, S.M., when Walter W'Quilken and Edwin Lean were charged with assisting Francis William Fitzpatrick in conducting the business of a common gaming house. William Maule was charged with making a bet with Fitzpatrick. M'Quilken was fined £5O and Lean and Maule £l5 each.

“ I had no idea that there were so many shipping men in Wellington,” said Mr G. M'Namara, secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, as his eyes wandered over the large gathering at the combined shipping companies’ annual smoke concert in Wellington last -week (says an exchange). “I feel some of the offices must be horribly over-staffed. We hear that in the civil service pretty often, and I am glad to see that there are so many in the shipping offices.” “ The world is moving very rapidly, more rapidly than we realise,” said Mr E. James, at the C.T.C. “Association Day ” social in Wellington last week (reports an exchange). “ Sometimes I think we are travelling too rapidly. I don’t want to dine in Sydney to-morrow, but with the advent of Kingsford-Smith and the other flyers probably we shall soon be having breakfast in Wellington and dinner in Sydney. I don’t know if you want it. I don’t. We are going fast enough as it is.” Heard on an Auckland tramcar. First passenger: “Been to the theatre this week, Bill?” Second passenger: “Yea, I went last night, but I’m not very fond of grand opera. Still, ‘Faust’ isn’t bad. The chap who took the part of the devil can sing all right, too. I never saw a better Metropolis.”

The technical training scheme inaugurated by the Motor Trade Association, is reviewed in the annual -report as follows: “The scheme is gradually extending and classes are now in operation .n Auckland, Wellington, Christchurc'a, and Timaru (reports an exchange). Subsidies of £5O each have been made from the funds in hand to the last three associations, where classes have been formed during the past year. Other centres are taking Lip the sebeme, and it promises to make further growth during the next year.” Difficulty has been experienced by the Auckland Electric Power Board in securing supplies of coal to keep the King’s wharf sub-station constantly going in face of the extra demand ma'de upon at owing to the breakdown at Horahora (says the Star). At the last meeting of the board, the general manager, Mr R. H. Bartley, said that coal supplies had been seriously low for two or three days last week, and he was forced to get additional fuel anywhere he could. With the station using about 3600 tons a day, the board had to buy southern coal, Australian coal, and even 100 tons from the Railways Department to tide it over. Fortunately the position was becoming easier. The most centrally situated property in the warehouse section of Flinders lane, Melbourne, and one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the city of Melbourne, the -warehouse of Sargood, Gardiner, Ltd., has been sold for £210,000. The purchaser is the Melbourne Electric Supply Company, Ltd., which expects to go into occupation of the premises in 15 months’ time, when possession will be handed over by the vendors. The property stands opposite the central entrance to the Central Railway Station in Flinders street, its frontage to that thoroughfare being 66 feet, and it extends back to Flinders lane the full depth of 312 feet. The lane frontage is 54 feet. Early last year (the Argus states), Sargood, Gardiner, Ltd., decided that its business could be accommodated in new premises which it proposed to erect in Flinders lane east.

The large “ whisky bottle ” advertisement of a well-known brand at the entrance gate at Spriggens Park, Wanganui, has caught the eye of all classes of the community (reports the Herald). Some there are who stood with cold feet on a bleak day watching a “ dud ” game of football and gazed upon the bottle advertisement, doubtless wishing that it was the real article with a tap attached and free access thereto. Others, rightly entitled to their opinions, considered that where young athletes were gathered together it was not fit and proper that liquor advertisements should be dangled in front of their eyes. With this end in view, the W.C.T.U. wrote a letter of protest to the Wanganui City Council last week, which was received. Cr Falconer suggested that if a teapot were put alongside the whisky bottle that might square them up. A simple way of making a voyage part way round the world was adopted by a blue checker pigeon, which may be seen on board the Port Napier, the vessel now a't King’s wharf in Auckland, after her thrilling experiences of explosions and fire at sea. The bird alighted on the vessel during a fog in the English Channel, and, as the Port Napier was outward-bound, the bo’sun decided to. care for it until the return to England (says an exchange).

On one of its slender legs is a tiny ring with markings to show that the bird is registered with the society which controls pigeon racing in England. It is said to be by no means an unusual experience for homing birds while flying for training or racing purposes between the Continent of Euiope and the British Isles to prefer the security of being on a ship to the uncertainty of being lost in the clouds. As in the present instance, they are invariably cared for until the completion of the return voyage, when they are returned to the society for restoratiorr to the owners. Reference to the nine-year-old suit which was worn by a witness in the Auckland Police Court attracted the attention of a prominent local body representative (says an exchange). “Nine years is nothing to . have one suit,” he declared. “ The one I’m wearing was made in 1913.” He explained that . he wrote home to Scotland and told his old tailor to make him a suit that would last a lifetime. The tailor sent out a suit, for which he charged £2 12s. The trouser bottoms had frayed a little, but this drawback was overcome by a “ turn-up,” enabling his fancy socks to be seen. A wag to whom the suit was exhibited remarked that the story must be true, for he had never seen the wearer in anything else. Evidently, however, even this is far from constituting a local record. At the last inspection of the Devonport Fire Brigade by the Mayor and council, Fireman Crabbe proudly displayed a uniform that had seen 30 years’ service. The Mayoress inspected the fabric, and expressed the opinion that the uniform was by no means worn out yet. This winter has been notable at the Hermitage for its number of climbs and long ski runs (says the Timaru Herald). Winter sports are becoming very popular in New Zealand, and this season has been a record one for winter parties. Summer is generally considered the time for climbing, but this winter a great number of ascents have been made with the aid of ski. among them the ski run to the top of the'Lendenfeld Saddle (7391), and the Hochstetter Dome (9200), which are becoming very popular excursions. - Last week Messrs H. Coxhead and J. Pope made the first winter ascent of Mount Elie de Beaumont (10,220 ft Skis were” used from the Malte Brun Hut to a height of 8500 ft. when crampons were fitted. From the summit, which was reached in nine hours and a-half, an excellent view of both the east and west coasts was obtained. With the erection of a new up-to-date hut at the Malte Brun next year, New Zealand will have one of the finest winter sports grounds in the world.

Reminiscent of “ slap-stick ” motion picture comedies was the turnout of the Southbrook Fire Brigade to a fire in the district last week (says an exchange). Shortly after 8 a.m. a man dismounted from a sweating horse in front of the fire station and gave the rope of the bell a mighty tug—only to have it come away in his hand. Nothing daunted, he clambered up the side of the building, on to the roof, and up the ladder to the bell, which he tolled to such purpose as to arouse the residents for miles around. No sooner had he set foot on the ladder on his way down than it collapsed under him, but after a scramble he reached the ground safely. The superintendent and his fire-fighters soon put in an appearance, and with much heaving and tugging they managed to dislodge the handengine from its restingqflace. A passing motorist was hailed, and’ he agreed to tow the outfit to the scene of the fire. But misfortune still dogged the proceedings. Halfway to the fire it was discovered that the hose had disappeared. Then a cyclist overtook the outfit, puffing hard and battling his way against a stiff wind, and bearing the hose in triumph. He had picked it up on the road. The procession once more advanced. The firefighters with their engine eventually arrived in time to see three chimneys left standing—all that was left of what a few hours before had been a six-roomed residence.

A Christchurch clerk is now cured of a habit of playing practical jokes upon office boys (says an exchange). One day recently he called the new office boy, a youth of tender years and innocent countenance, and, giving him a slip of paper with some hieroglyphics on it, told him to go up and collect his washing at a Chinese laundry. “ There’ll be a bit of fun when he gets up there,” he confided to the other clerks, “ that’s not a ticket at all.” Half an hour or so later the youth returned, apparently much agitated. “ The Chinaman called a policeman,” he said, “ and made me give him your name and address, and the cop said you would hear more about it.” The clerk, though he would not admit it, was disturbed. The story sounded unlikely, but that office boy looked so innocent. Later, he was informed that he was wanted on the telephone. “ Police here,” he heard in gruff accents at the other end of the wire. “ This is a very serious thing, trying to defraud a Chinaman. You’ll have to apepar in court, charged with attempted fraud.” The clerk was now in a condition approaching nervous collapse. In the end his fellow-workers mercifully told him that office boys’ faces are sometimes deceptive, and that the call from the “ police station ” was merely one of their number speaking at another ’phone in the same building. The experience of an Invercargill firm which purchases large quantities of skins, hides, and farmers’ oddments, goes to show that there are still people about who do not lose an opportunity of “ putting one across ” in order to gain a little temporary advantage for themselves (says an exchange).- Recently some person decided to dispose of a few calf skins -and took them to this particular firm, which doubtless was selected on account reputation for paying remunerative prices, but before leaving for town the person concerned took the precaution to conceal carefully a cut. of about three inches in length in one of the skins by sewing a piece of flesh across the cut so that it could not be detected and so ruin his chance of gaining a better price for an undamaged skin. The little “ scheme ” worked satisfactorily for the skin seller, and the. damaged skin was able to escape the vigilance of the buyer’s representative. The deception, however, was soon x discovered,, and as the seller can be identified an interesting sequel may be expected the next'time he attempts to di* pose of any skins. <