Untitled

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17951, 1 December 1932, Page 6

The difficulties the North Canterbury Hospital Board labors under in dealing with tlic large number of people who imply to it. for rations were emphasised last Friday , when over 600 applicants wove dealt yv.it ki., • ; .-

A sharp earthquake was 1 felt iff Whakatane at 9.24 a.m. on Tuesday. The shock was preceded by a particularly sudden wind storm, which swept tbrpugh the town at gale force, raising clouds ot dust and causing considerable inconvenience to shopkeepers. The Gisborne agency of the Auckland Automobile Association has been advised unit -motor campers who intend to use the East Coast main road for their nonnay cxijusions cannot proceed beyond the Ra Mahore River, near Cape Runaway, iIS iha bridge over tho river will not ne completed before tho ■ middle of February.

Through the front forks of his machine breaking while he was cycling down Hospital Hill, Mr. Allan Black, Iramii road, suffered a painful tall shortly before 6 o'clock last evening. Mr. Black was not seriously hurt, but was taken to the Cook Hospital for observation, and to-day his condition was reported to be satisfactory.

A fairly substantial increase of over £’6oo occurred in tho Customs returns for (lisborne for the month ended yesterday, as compared with November of last year, and there was a decrease of less than £6O iu the beer duty returns. Following arc the figures for the month, those for November, 1931, being shown in parentheses Customs duty, £3369 IBs 3d (£2760 5s 8d); beer duty. £lO3l 6s (£IOB9 IBs sd).

Normal conditions prevailed on the waterfront this .morning, the loading ot produce into lighters proceeding smoothly, while in the roadstead the transhipment of meat, butter and wool t„ the Home liner Mataroa was likewise uninterrupted. The arrival ot the coastal fleet from Auckland created a strong demand for waterside labor. In respect to the dispute which hold up the departure of tho Tiroa fjor Auckland this' week, with a cargo of railway sleepers, both the union and the owners of the vessel have dispatched'their reports to their respective industrial hendqmu tors in Wellington.

A request that sleps should lie. taken for the preservation of native flora on public and private property was contained in a petition presented to the House of Representatives on behalf ot Johannes C. Andersen and 89 others. The petitioners said that they viewed with grave alarm the wanton destruction of tho Dominion’s native flora, and wished to draft the attention of the House to the destruction of flora resulting from its use for street decorations and for public and private functions. They urged also that forest destruction should be stopped and that people should he restrained from taking flowers, ferns, plants and foliage from other people's properties without permission.

In each of the 11 months of the current year tho birth rate for Gisborne has been lower than that for the corresponding month last year, and in most months there have been fewer marriages, while over the 11 months there was an increase of 11 in the number of deaths. The decline in the birth rate is particularly noticeable when the total of 398 for the first 11 months of the year is compared with that of 506 for the corresponding period in 1931, while marriages so far this year total 141, as against 167, and deaths 170, as compared with 159. Following are the statistics for November, those for the corresponding month last year being given in parentheses: Births. 40 (47); deaths, 15 (IB); marriages, 14 (13).

A healthy condition of the finances ol Knox Church, Mangapapa, was revealed in reports submitted at the annual meeting. The Rev. James Aitken presided over u representative gathering of members and adherents. Tho secretary, Mr. ,1. Lock, read the managers' report, which showed that the year just closed was in many ways a record. The treasurer, Mr. A. Skillet!, submitted the b:i I - niwo-siieet, .vhi-li showed that the giving had been the highest in the history of the congregation, and the year had finished with a substantial credit balance. Otdi'M’ reports were: The choir and P.W.M.U., Mrs. Sicilian: Bible class, Mr. R. Cousins: session, Mr. W. Hall; Funday si book Miss A. Gordon. Refer once was made to the improvements at Knox Church, and also to the introduction of the gift month during October, which proved a great success. The Rev. ■Tamos Aitken and the Rev. ,T. ,11. Boyd gave short addresses, after which supper was served.

The annual report of the Wellington Presbyterian Orphanage slates:--“Strange as it may seem, there hns been a gradual decline in applications for admission, and consequently in the number of children in our homes, nor is the duel hie confined to the Wellington association.. It is suggested that the gradual fall in the proportion of children to total copulation, namely, from 31.32 per cent. in 1911, to 27.18 per cent, in 1932, is in a measure accountable. It is also of interest to note that the average fatherless family, under 14 years, has fallen from 2.39 per cent, in 1914 to 2.02 per cent, in 1931. Abo, of the 2996 married men or widowers who died in 1914, there were left 1655 children under 14 years, whereas in 1931. of mnriird men or widowers who (Red there were left only 1661 children ucdcr 14 years of age. Another factor nffeclin- the present numbers is that the children admitted as a result of the war and epidemic have row m stlv gone out to situations. A vurv disconcerting aspect of the child welfare work in New Zealand is the number of applications where both parents arc alive. The policy closely followed is to discourage applications in such eases. At the beginning: of the year " e had 67 children in residin'o. Dunim the year there were 24 admissions and 44 discharges, leaving 67 children in residence on October 31.’’

It was decided at a meeting of the Wanganui Rowing Association to fix the date for the championship regatta for March 4.-

Tho chain system for killing stock at tiio Tomoana freezing works has turned out a great success, with the result that another conveyor is to be installed next week. The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Company are also installing this system at Whakatu on one side of the killing board.

A 13-year-old Scout who rescued two fellow-schoolboys from drowning at Avondale, Auckland, last week made an unsuccessful effort to keep his plucky action secret. He was Ivan Reid, a member of the Waterview troop. Hie two rescued boys were Clive McLlintock and Arthur Woodward, both 14 years of age, neither of whom could swim. On a property near Ingham, Queensland, about 30 cattle were recently found dead. A stock inspector who made a hurried trip to the district was unable to express any cause for the wholesale mortality. The general belief is that poisoning was tho cause of the deaths.. Ffojrty-eight hours ljfiter, on another pasLoral -property, 11 beasts died in one day. It is reported that a very interesting fossil was found among the hills near Pipiriki House, in the shape of a piece of rock in which a particularly large shark's tooth was embedded, says the Wanganui Herald. As these hills are of a considerable height above sea level, the find raises conjectures, not so much as to how,the possessor of the tooth got there, but the period of years represented by the find.

A record, probably for New Zealand, if comparisons could he made, lias been put up by Mr. T. Newman as an exhibitor and supporter of the. Nelson AgrieulAssociation. For tb'e ' past 40 years-ever since‘the present association'has been in existence, Mr Newman lias been a consistent competitor in all departments, hut notably in the light horse and draught horse sections.

A n\arried relief worker in Cnehunga pleaded guilty in the Onehunga Police Point to a charge of making a false statement of his income. He informed the Labor Department that his earnings for six months prior to October 10 had been £45 12s, whereas they amounted to £123 6s Bd. An inspector said that such cases v. ere becoming common. A line of £5 was imposed. An Indian wedding, carried out in true Eastern fashion, attracted much public interest in r ie Arolia last Saturday. Tho parties were Sikhs from the Punjab, the bride, lacing 18 years of age. J'ho marriage had been arranged by the parents some years ago. Flie bridal procession was played through the town by the To Aroha Municipal Bund and crowds lined the streets.

Gay in blue and white college blazers and long black viilas, or skirts, _ but bare-headed and bare-footed, a choir of 16 mule students of Tubou College, Nukualofa, reached Auckland by the Aorangi on Monday on their way to undertake a five months’ concert tour of Australia. Tubou College is an institution maintained bv the Government of* Tonga, and most of its students become cither school teachers or clerks in the civil service of the island kingdom

The assorted implements of a working ‘•bee” engaged in cleaning up the church grounds were recently used to form ail impromptu arch lor a bride and bridegroom as they left the church aftei (lie wedding ceremony. The incident occurred at All Saints’ Anglican Church, Howick the voung people -being residents of Whitford. The tools used to f(trm the guard of honor included slashers, reap hooks, shovels, spades, mattocks and pitchforks.

There has been a rapid decline lately in amateur theatres in Sydney. Long dusty rooms that were glorified by the name of theatre have gone back to their o.iginal dutv of accommodating, not intellectuals it! rows talking of their ideals in drama, but sacks of potatoes, strings of onions ‘and other marketable products. Miss Carrie Tennant, who knows her subject, has just lectured on tho art theatre. She says that it failed in Sydney because the public have not the mentality to understand good plays.

Crown tenants on hill country in •South Canterbury have been granted a 50 per cent, reduction in rental, on condition that the other 50 per cent, is paid, according to a statement made in Ashburton by Mr. D. C. Kidd, president of the New Zealand Crown Tenants’ Association, who was addressing the Mid-Canterbury branch of the assoc iation. He added that the reduction was the outcome of an assurance given some months ago by the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E.‘ A. Ransom, that temporary relief would be given until such time as prices stabilised.

The fire in the Hikurangi mine was the worst he had experienced in his mining career, declared Mr. <L Makinson, manager of the mine. The fire was still raging on Thursday afternoon, but was under control, As a result of determined efforts a permanent concrete stopping hud been put in to block off the (ire area. The beat of the fire was intense. Three jets of water at 10016 s pressure had been directed on to the outbreak. The affected area was 32 chains from the bottom of the shaft, which was 350 ft. from the surface.

Speaking to a deputation of the Whungarei Relief Workers’ Association at, the annual meeting of the Whungarei Chamber of Commerce, Mr. J. A. b’inlayson, a member of the chamber and chairman of the Whungarei Harbor Board, said the Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, had been very greatly impressed with the board’s leulamation of tidal lands scheme, the development of which was to be put into proper effect immediately. Mr. Finlavson said the work would be a full-time job and would affect the position of the unemployed in tiie district considerably. “I understand the scheme will take 400 men, which will absorb the local unemployed and others,” lie said.

A lonely bush tragedy involving the death of two stags was discovered at National Park recently, when rangers eaine upon the bodies of the stags with their antlers locked together at. Warumbul, near Port Hacking, says a Sydney newspaper. A circle of ground about 40 yards across, beaten fiat and denuded of vegetation, showed that the unhappy beasts bad struggled for days trying to free themselves before they died from starvation and thirst or were killed by the waiting foxes and birds of prey. A piece of wire, which had either been "arriod on the antlers of one of the combatants or bad been picked up during the struggle, bad twisted itself about their beads and helped to prevent their escape.

Am ontimislie note on the outlook wnerully is struck by Mr. Walter Fuller, of Wellington, writing from Melbourne to a friend in Wellington. "After boingi here a week or so, rather a short time, of course, to speak ■oithoritativelv, 1 am," lie writes, “of the opinion that there is onlv a faint «i(mv of depression visible. The street-' seem to lie as crowded as ever and the traffic as great as ever. The pe-pie, ef least those I have spoken to, seen l determined to win through the present crisis: they seem bn'-m-d with ont-oni-"' and firmly of (be innvors'on that il will not be very long before Australia h n -omrs nornud attain. This is what 1 1 ik<to hear and it is f ai more cheerful to listen to than a lot of the mournful eronkimi-. I have heard recent I v in New Zealand,"