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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19365, 1 July 1937, Page 4

A property of approximately 86 acres at Mount Wellington, Auckland, which belongs to the estate of the late Mr. Maurice Harding, and adjacent to the Sylvia Park railway station, is part of the site for a chest hospital tentatively decided upon by the Director-General of Health, Dr. M. H. Watt, and a special committee of the Auckland Hospital Board. If the site is apDroved by the Minister of Health, the board will probably decide to purchase the property at its next meeting. The first strippings of trout produced about 230,000 eggs, which were placed in the Turangi hatchery at Rotorua last week, and from now onwards regular striopings will be carried out It should not be long before all the hatcheries controlled by the Internal Affairs Department in the Rotorua acclimatisation district are at full capacity. Until the new hatchery on the game farm property at the back of Ngongotaha mountain is erected, the present Ngongotaha hatchery will remain in use and the first eggs should be laid down there in aboul three weeks. The marked difference in the quality of the land adjoining the road from Opotiki to Te Araroa, via the Coast, was commented on by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin, during his reply to the welcome yesterday at Tikitiki. He said he recognised the difficulty of transport, and thought the position would be bettei if the roads and bridges could be improved and the railway connected between Gisborne and Opotiki. He also understood that the problem of native rating would be tackled in the policy which the Government proposed to carry out. As far as humanly possible the Government would try to face up to the problems and endeavour to make conditions better for the settlers. —Special. The quarterly meeting of Court William Gladstone, No. 6030, Ancient Order of Foresters, was held in the Masonic Hall, (Childers road, last evening, when there was a good attendance of members, the C.R., Bro. V. Clements, presiding. The woodwards report on those at present on the sick list was considered satisfactory. Three new candidates were initiated into the order, an impressive ceremony being conducted by the chief ranger, assisted by the court officers. Owing to the lengthy nature of the . business transacted, the installation of officers for the ensuing year will be carried out at the next meeting. The serving of refreshments by the social committee, the playing of bowls and cards, • brought a successful meeting to a close. During the trip of the rail car Arai-te-Uru between Mohaka and Wairoa yesterday, with the Minister of Railways and the general manager of the department aboard, tests were made of the various loops on that section of the Napier-Gisborne route. Paralleling the progress of the rail car, Mr. A. G. Harris, engineer-in-charge of the Mohaka-Wairoa section, was able to observe the remarkable degree of steadiness with which the rail car handled the points and abrupt curves of the loops, and also a short portion of the line on which a small slip had occurred the previous day, and which was in consequence slushy with moist clay. The rail car negotiated the whole section without the slightest trouble, an interesting feature of the trip being the rapid acceleration shown from time to time, and the high rate of speed attained on the longer runs between loops and crossings. At between 35 and 40 miles per hour the new rail transport development appeared to be merely idling along.—Special. The members of the Gisborne Chinese Association, prior to Coronation Day, went to considerable trouble preparing a huge Chinese dragon to use in the Coronation procession. Unfortunately there was no procession and the public have not had the pleasure of seeing the dragon, which takes about 30 men to manoeuvre it, in action. Mr. Wong Bew, the designer, has made a smaller dragon, and with this six Chinese are going to give a display at the Y.M.C.A. Eastern Fair on Friday evening. The workmanship shown in the dragon is particularly interesting. The head is an enormous affair of coloured paper worked on a cane frame! As the apparition moves about the ears flap, the eyes wobble, and the huge mouth works grotesquely. The body part, made of highly coloured material, is about 15ft long and under it six men crouch, walking or dancing as the occasion demands.