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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19376, 14 July 1937, Page 4

A prolonged but light earthquake was experienced in Wairoa at 10.30 o’clock last night. It was preceded by a loud rumbling.—-Special.

Approval of proposed charges, detailed in the Herald a fortnight ago, by the Gisborne Carriers’ Union of Employers, were approved by the Borough Council last night. The works committee, which recommended their adoption, expressed the opinion that the proposed charges were fair and reasonable. “No bullocks,” remarked the deputy Mayor, Cr. H. Holmes, who presided at last night's Borough Council meeting, when referring to the abattoirs report. This gave the killings during the fortnight ended July 10 as follows: Bullocks nil, heifers 16, cows 375,'sheep 1027, lambs 49, calves 45, and pigs 226. “Twenty of our comrades have ’gone west’ during the year, including two whose services to the association deserve special mention,” states the annual report of the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association. "They are Jim Poynter, at one time a member of the executive and always an ardent worker for the Diggers, who battled gamely through a long illness, and Sergeant Harry Murphy, our official bugler for many years and for some time prior to his death our only honorary member. To the relatives of all who passed on, our association offers its deep sympathy.”

Reference to the congestion of executive work entailed by the delaying of subscription payments until the last month of the financial year is made in the annual report of the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association, prepared for submission at the annual meeting of the association on Saturday evening. The report mentions that 496 members became financial only in March last, during the final four weeks of the financial year, and that the work of the secretary could be much simplified by earlier payment of subscriptions. The total strength of the association on March 31 last was 1193, and more than onethird of the total subscriptions were dealt with in the final month.

The assistance of drovers in piloting motorists through large mobs of stock in the season when the mobs were making their journey througn from Poverty Bay to the Waikato on foot was a matter discussed at the meeting of the Gisborne advisory committee of the A.A. (Auckland), held yesterday afternoon. In Gisborne members did not think that there were sufficient men in charge of the stock, some cases being reported of mobs with 1200 sheep per man, while in the Wairarapa and Waikato the number of sheep under the control of one drover was limited to 900. The chairman, Mr. F. Tolerton, said he had not heard of such a restriction in Poverty Bay, and it was probably nothing more than a custom In the districts mentioned,

A youth was convicted and placed mder the supervision of the child wel-

fare officer for one year and ordered to pay costs amounting to 17s when ho appeared recently before Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Juvenile Court at Tc Araroa charged with the unlawful conversion of a bicycle from Cape Runaway on March 29, 1937. A new building will be erected shortly at the corner of Bright street and Gladstone road, next door to Woolworth’s. It is understood that no definite plans have been completed regarding the nature of the structure, but the present building will be demolished and an entire new one built to accommodate Messrs. R. Hannah and Company, Limited. Since the recent suspension of work on the Tarnciale road, in the Waikohu County, men from that job have been employed on other public works less remote from centres of population. The main highways work in the neighbourhood of Mangatuna, beyond Tolaga Bay, has absorbed some of these men, while others have gone to new reconstruction jobs on the Opotiki-Cape Runaway section of the East Coast main highway. Still others were drafted to the main north road improvement work at the Mahaki end of the Otoko Hill section.

Whcit speaking of the reflecting type of road signs at the meeting of the Gisborne advisory committee ol the A.A. (Auckland), held yesterday afternoon, the touring manager, Mr. R. E. Champtaloup, said that the silver leaf used as . the reflecting surface would not stand up to the salt air on the Coast, although it lasted well in the sulphurous atmosphere of Rotorua. All the reflecting type of signs had to be erected at night so that the patrols would be sure that they would be at the correct angle to catch the rays of passing vehicles.

The monthly meeting of the Cook County Women’s Guild was held at the I-leni Materoa Children’s Home yesterday, those present being Mrs. T. Garrett, in the chair, Mesdames 1. Quigley, A. F. Hall, 11. Gilmer, Newton, T. Munro and A. E. Pyatt. Apologies were received for absence

from Mesdames A. Beere, H. G. Wellborne and I-I. Angcll. Accounts totalling £sl 8s 4d were passed for payment. It was reported that there were 30 children in the home, and all were in good health. Mrs. Wcllborne and Mrs. Angell were appointed the visiting committee for the month.

The increasing number of signs on the roads was to be avoided if possible, as it was the experience in other countries that motorists disregarded the value of the warnings if there were too many, said Mr. M. B. Mander at yesterday afternoon’s meeting of the Gisborne advisory committee of the A.A. The touring manager. Mr. R. E. Champtaloup, explained that the patrols were instructed to eliminate unnecessary signs when improvements were made on the highways and to alter the positions of others that might be dangerously situated as the road made faster traffic possible.

A contract for the reconstruction and sealing of six miles of the Coast main highway between Makarori Hill and Pouawa Stream, will be signed during the week, it is understood, a tender having been accepted by the Public Works Department for .the work. This contract will link up two lengthy strips of bitumen surfacing, and will almost complete the programme for water-proofing the surface of the highway between Gisborne and Tolaga Bay. One or two short lengths of bitumen work will still await attention, as for instance on the Panikau Hill beyond Whangara, whore recent widening and regrading work is being allowed to consolidate as a preliminary to bilumenising.

The improvements to the roads and highways of the East Coast and Poverty Bay districts, as also in other sections of the Dominion, were continually shortening the routes, and to keep the signs up-to-date there would soon be about 250 new signposts and amendments to be made to the warnings on the roads between Nuhaka and Hicks Bay, said the touring manager of the A.A. (Auckland) yesterday afternoon at a special meeting of the Gisborne advisory committee of the association. Mr. R. E. Champtaloup explained that the straightening of the road at Ruatoria was going to make a saving of a mile, and that would make it necessary to remove several signs and make alterations in the milages on others. The improvements in tinUrewera country were also referred to, and Mr. Champtaloup was of the opinion that they would mean a great deal to Poverty' Bay from the tourist point of view, and he thought that in 12 months the horrors of travel on the road would be removed completely.

Calling attention to the state of the Wharerata Hill road to Wairoa at the meeting of the Gisborne advisory committee of the A.A. (Auckland), held yesterday afternoon, Mr. M. B. Mander said it seemed to be neglected. The bitumen was in a bad state and it seemed that the road was being neglected in favour of the railway. The resident A.A. patrol, Mr. D M. McGregor, said in reference to a bad bend that a start had been made to straighten out the road at Bartlett’s. The touring manager of the association, Mr. R. E. Champtaloup, said that the programme of bridge-building and the altering of the road to eliminate railway crossings was an extremely costly one, and the tar-sealing on the highways was being greatly reduced in the meantime throughout New Zealand. Members pointed out, however, that the road was in such a state that the whole section would have to be rc-sealed if repairs were not soon carried out to maintain the surface. Mr. Champtaloup promised to refer the matter to his council on his return to Auckland.

Signals for motorists as an indication of their movements to overtaking drivers were discussed yesterday afternoon at the special meeting of the Gisborne advisory committee of the A.A. (Auckland), and the touring manager, Mr. R. E. Champtaloup, advised members that there were onlytwo recognised compulsory arm signals—one for slowing down and the other for turning to the right—the others were merely courtesy signs. Some members were of opinion that others were necessary, such as waving another man on or signalling him to slow down on account of danger ahead of which lie was unaware, but Mr. Champtaloup referred to the difficulty in the past ot compelling motorists . to use the two compulsory signals and did not favour increasing the number at present. The motor-vehicle owners were now working in better with the Government in regard to regulations, he said. In regard to the waving-on courtesy signal, it was an easy matter to misinterpret a right-hand turn if the driver giving the signal allowed his arm to remain limp and to sway about before making his turn. Dr. A. L Singer said that he had nearly been caught bv a motorist not. keeping his arm rigid, and the members of the committee expressed the opinion that it would be in the drivers’ interests if they would take more care in their signalling,