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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17437, 8 April 1931, Page 6

In view of the saving in maintenance expenses effected by the laying down of inexpensive “hot-mix ’ road formation, 'a description of which process appeared in a recent issue df Ihe Herald, tlie inspection committee of the borough Council, in its report to the council at its meeting last'evening, suggested that tiie engineer, should be authorised to continue with as much of this class of work as possible this season, provided funds permitted. The committee recommended that the bus routes should •he given preference. —The report wafe adopted.

About noon on Friday a service car, the property of the 11.8. Motor Co., bound from VVairoa to Napier, and driven by Mr. I*. Brown, was run. into by another car .driven by Mr. il. L. Aba rbrook, of Wanganui, at about three, miles on the Napier side of Waikari, None of the passengers were injured,-but the service car sus taint'd• a fair amount of damage. A lady passenger travelling with Air. Ala rbrook was injured, but. not seriously.

The fatal accident which occurred .near Otoko on Saturday afternoon, in which Air. J.- (J. Windle lost his life, was referred to .by the Mayor, Air. I>. W. Coleman, at tlie fortnightly meeting of , the Borough Council last evening. Mr. Coleman mentioned that the deceased was the husband of a young ,woman, then Alisa .Lewis, who for many years had been employed in the council's office. She was a most efficient officer, and he thought it only fitting tiiat a vote of condolence should be .passed to her and to her family in their very sad bereavement. The motion was carried in the usual manner.

A decline in revenue of over £IOOO as compared with tlie corresponding period fast year is shown in tlie returns ‘lor the Gisborne section of the railways for February, the lotal revenue for that ‘month being £1505 14s Id. us against £2084 3s lid. In all, 1423 passengers were carried, compared with 3245 for February of last year, and there was a substantial decrease in the amount of t ini her and goods carried, the tonnage l his year being 1265, as against 4525 •last year. In I lie carriage of slock, however,- the railway was more successful. 10,128 head ‘of stock being transported in February of this year, us compared with 18.530 in the corresponding month in 1930.

Buffering from serious burns received in a blasting accident, Air. AV. Healey, a borough workman, was admitted to hospital in Taihape. When .Mr. Healey and two other workmen "ere engaged in widening a road, explosive inserted in papa rock failed to explode. After a considerable time had elapsed it was decided to remove the charge. Air. Healey was thus engaged when apparently a spark, caused by his pick striking a stone, ignited the charge and an explosion occurred immediately. Air. Healey was seriously burned about I lie face, arms and chest, his left; arm being very badly affected. His shirt caught fire but was torn from his hack by his workmates, who rushed to his assistance.

An urgent call to Opolil.i jo perform. an .operational the hospital there involved Flying-Officer Money and Dr. W. S. Wallis in a minor accident on Opotiki bench on Wednesday evening. Tlie call came through late in the afternoon, and rather than make a long journey by road Dr. Wallis decided to travel by air. Accordingly, lie set off shortly after 5.30 p.m. for Opotiki in the Gipsy Afotli aeroplane of Bothnia Airways. It was almost dark when the destination was reach od, and it was impossible to dis tin guisli the landing ground. The pilot decided that the only safe place to land was on the beach. Unfortunately the tide was in, and, despite a good landing, the soft sand pulled up tlie plane abruptly, throwing it forward on its nose. The propeller 'Aas splinUrod, but the two occupants escaped without injury. Dr. Wallis po't'omiod a successful operation at tin' hospital and returned by another aerop'ane to Rotorua next morning.

In connection with tlie controversy between the Borough Council and the Power Board over the removal of the power linos at the Awapuni aerodrome, the secretary of the board, Mr. V. E. Sanders, advised the council at its meeting last evening that it had been decided to appoint a committee of the board to confer, with a committee representing the other local authorities interested in the aerodrome, with the object of arriving at a friendly arrangement in the matter of meeting the costs involved in altering the power lines as required by the Director of Air Services. The letter was con sidered by the works committee of the council, which recommended that iio .'letion should be taken in the meantime, and that the borough solicitor should be asked to give an opinion on the question of liability for the removal of the lines. The report was adopted. A collision between a car and a eye Ip, on the main road from Patutahi on Monday evening resulted in head injuries for the cyclist, Mr. John Loach. With a companion, lie was returning to town after the motor-cycle sports, and was overtaken by the car, driven by Mr. B. Moore. Just as the car was passing the two cyclists, a motor-cycle also claimed part of the road, and in endeavoring to escape a collision with the newcomer, Mr. Moore struck Air. Loach a glancing blow, and threw him from his machine. The motor ambulance was also returning from the sports meeting, and conveyed the injured youth to town, Mr. Loach being medically attended at his home, where one stiu-h was inserted in a cut on his head. Mr. Loach suffered no serious disability from bis act blent,• and is well on the way to recoverv.

Various works which the (lisborne Borough Council contemplated undertaking during the next two weeks to avail itself of tlm terms of the Unemployment Hoaid s No. 5 scheme, will have to be suspended in the meantime, in view of the fact that the scheme ceased to operate nil April 5. On April 27, however. the scheme will come into operation again, though under amended rules, (lie nature of which are not yet disclosed. At its meeting last evening the council was advised of the suspension, and of the Government's decision that the rate of pay on Government, relief works should be reduced t<> 12s (id per day for married men and Os per dav for single men. as from April 1. The Mayor, Mr. 0. W. Coleman, expressed Ibe npin mu that married men' could not manage on 12s (id a dav for only three or four days a week. The second Idler pointed out that there was nothing to prevent local bodies from subsidising the wages of the. men to bring them un lo 14s. but the position was vastly different from the ordinary class of unemployment rebel works. On the Mayor’s motion the .matter was referred to the finance committee Itr consideration ami.a report,

Bequests to charity totalling £4lO are provided in the will of the late Mrs. Ellen Hunter, of Remuera, Auckland, who died oil Alarch 8. Airs. Hunter, who was 70 years of age, was the wife of Air. Thomas Hunter.

The lighting of a match near a petrol pump at Belmont, near Newcastle, New South Wales, on Alarch 7 caused fatal burns to two people, Airs. Henrietta. Marie House, 28, and her daughter, Shirley House, 5. A, finding of accidental death in both eases was returned at the inquest. As the result of an unknown per-’ son liberating 30 captive hares the coursing meeting which- was to have boon held on the racecourse at Oamaru on Easter Monday had to be cancelled. The meeting was arranged in an endeavor to reintroduce coursing into North Otago. During the past few days over 2000 head of cattle, in four mobs, from Poverty Bay, have been driven through to the Waikato via the'lvaimai road, states a Tauranga correspondent. The cattle are chiefly Hereford and Polled Angus, and comprise particularly fine lines of two and three-year-old steers. Nor many New Zealanders who onlisted in the Great War are over the allotted span. There is, however, one .such in. Wanganui, 80 years of age, who enlisted 15 years ago. He is still active in limb and brain, though occasional bouts of illness, accentuated doubtless by the war’s experiences, incapacitate him.

Hundreds of holiday-makers visited Rotorua for the , Easter holidays. There was a particularly heavy rush of traffic on the, roads, a continuous procession of ears pouring in over the Mamuka bill. All hotels and boarding houses were full, and many pbople were turned away. The camping grounds and places of amusement were well patronised.

A feature of the Easter railway traffic, says the Auckland Herald, is the large number of passengers who are travelling second-class. The demand for second-class seats has been heavy on the long-distance trains. On expresses such as the daylight Limited, which pick up a large number of short-distance passengers at intermediate stations, the number of-second-class travellers has greatly outnumbered the first, except during the peak of the rush. In order to obviate congestion at fires and the hampering of the operations of the engines, the Gisborne Fire Board in a letter to the Borough Council at its meeting last evening asked that a by-laiv should he framed prohibiting motor-cars and other vehicles from crossing or turning into the nearest intersection to Ihe fire. It was contended that the road should be left quite clear for the fire engines and men. The Mayor, Mr. 1). W. Coleman, remarked that the trouble had been particularly noticeable at a recent fire, cars absolutely blocking tlie engines from getting out, and hampering operations. It was resolved to take steps to frame a by-law to fill the requirements. As in former years, it is the intention of tiie Gisborne. Returned Soldiers’ Association to hold a commemoration service at the War Memorial on Anzac Day, April 25, the service to he preceded by a parade of ex-servicemen, territorials, and others, proceeding from the Y.M.C.A. via Peel street and Gladstone road to the memorial. The permission of the Borough Council the holding of a parade was sought at the council’s meeting last evening bv the secretary of the association, Mr. W. Oakden, who extended an invitation to the Mayor and councillors to attend the service should permission bo granted. It was resolved to grant permission, and that as many of the councillors as possible should attend.

Two confirmed travellers, Mr. and Mrs, W. Aims, of New' York, are through passengers for the United States by the Aorungi, which arrived at Auckland on Monday from Sydney. Both well advanced in life. Mr. and Mrs. Aims confess to a roving disposition, and they find great enjoyment in wandering aimlessly over the world. Mr. and Mrs. Aims recently completed a tour of New Zealand' by motor-car, and they state that they are delighted with the country. In the United States the general impression was that New Zealand was somewhat difficult to reach, Mr. Aims said. However, they received the utmost consideration and the greatest help from the Dominion office in the States, and their New Zealand tour was a splendid success.

A decision of the Supreme Court, upheld by the Court of Appeal, which was of considerable importance to all local bodies, vyas brought under the notice of the Borough Council at its meeting last evening by the town clerk of Inglewood. Ihe writer mentioned that his council had been recently invblved in an action taken by the Crown to determine, briefly, whether a local authority could exercise powers under the Rating Act and Municipal Corporations Act to obtain payment of rates owing in respect of property mortgaged to the Crown. Tlie decision went in favor of the council, and was sustained in the Court of Appeal. The costs of the action amounted to £4OO, and it was suggested that contributions towards this cost be obtained from other local bodies for the following reasons: That the decision was of very great importance and of immense value to all local bodies-; that the Inglewood council was representative .of onlv a small community and the action really resolved itself into a test case on behalf ol all local bodies, and further that the council, had not received any assistance from local bodies either through the Municipal -Association or otherwise in lighting the action. The sum which the council was requested to contribute was £2 2s. The Mayor, Air. D. W. Coleman, agreed that tlie decision was an important one, and the request was acceded to.

i leaseholders who have occasion to call the Fire Brigade sometimes receive ilie impression that the alarm system is slow in operation, owing to tlie’lapse of a short interval between -the registration ot the call and tlie sounding of the siren. Discussing the system to day, Air. .1 iyane, superintendent of the Gisborne fire Brigade, pointed out that the siren is an independent alarm unit, which is operated by the custodian of the station as an auxiliary to the call bells in the firemen's homes and the gong in the station house. When an alarm is given at a call-box, the number of the box and the approximate location of the fire ik learned from the number of rings trqnkmitted to the station, while a record is also made by a duplicate system "of shutters, one. working by metallic circuit and the. other by earth circuit. On receipt of the alarm, the men in residential the station set in operation tlie call hell system connecting with the firemen’k homes, and (be custodian, after chocking no the number of the alarm-box, sets tlie siren going, to call up any men win might at the time lie absent from their homes. In the meantime,' tlie station staff are busy getting into their Uniforms, and preparing the engines for immediate departure to tlie scene of the fire. In the ease of yesterday, mornimi’s blaze in Gladstone road, the brigade left the station exactly four minutes after the- receipt, of the initial call, rung in bv Air. C. Church from the Masonic Rotej corner. When the plunger in the call box is messed, clockwork inside the hox is set in motion, and its quiet tick ern be taken as an assnranee that the system is operating efficiently.