IN TOWN AND OUT

Southland Times, Issue 22187, 1 December 1933, Page 6

IN TOWN AND OUT

NEWS OF THE DAY Bluff the Third Port. It was mentioned at _ yesterday s meeting of the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce that for last year was the third port in New Zealand based on the number of visits from overseas vessels. Auckland was first and Wellington second. Half-Yearly Conference. Many matters of Southland interest will be considered at the half-yearly conference of district progiessive leagues and local bodies which is to be held in Invercargill to-day. Figuring prominently on the agenda paper are the Kingston-Queenstown road and the Bluff-Melbourne service. ***** Activity in Building Industry. “I have not seen so much building going on for three or four years, but I expect that things will quieten down after Christmas,” Mr C. Provan, secretary of the allied building trades, -remarked to a Times reporter yesterday. “The building subsidy has created a lot of work, but after this is finished the trade will be more slack.”

Scottish Generosity. “We have received greetings from sister societies in different parts of the world,” said the Chief (Mr J. L. McG. Watson) in his opening remarks at the St. Andrew’s Day celebrations conducted by the local St. Andrews Scottish Society in Smith’s Hall last night. “Among the expressions of goodwill are messages from the St. Andrews societies of London, New York and Winnipeg respectively, while the editor of the Weekly Scotsman has sent us a supply of heather gathered from the hills of bonny Scotland. And to-night we are handing out these sprigs of heather for nothing, ladies and gentle - men—-for nothing.” (Laughter.)

Butter Competition. At present available in Matheson's Esk street shop for inspection to anyone interested are samples of the six foreign butters with which New Zealand has to compete on the London market at the present time. These samples, selected, specially packed and forwarded to New Zealand to give local dairymen an idea of the standard of the foreign article, were opened and examined in the presence of a Southland Times reporter last evening. They are samples of Argentine, Swedish, Finnish, Esthonian, Latvian and Danish butters. To the layman none but the Danish sample could compare with New Zealand butter. All were more or less rancid, ill-coloured and lacking body. As one merchant remarked at the sampling ceremony, “New Zealand has nothing to fear from this competition.” That just about sums up the contrasts. The samples will be on exhibition at Matheson's to-day. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ One-Man Car for Wellington. Wellington was shown something new in tramcars last week—the first one-man car to be made in this city (states the Dominion). This, like all one-man cars, can be changed in a twinkling of an eye into a two-men car, and is one of the best jobs ever done at the tramways workshops. In design the new car is quite different from any car that has yet run over the Wellington tracks. It is wholly enclosed and there is no break in the continuity of the body. It closely resembles.a raihvay coach, and with the canted-back front windows, fitted with screen-wipers, and the absence of any protuberant feature, the new car has been given a stream-lined effect that is smartly modern. The new car has a long parlour compartment -capable of seating 32 people. The seats are double on one side of the intersecting aisle and single on the other. The car is practically fool-proof as concerns the driver. While the car is moving the controller handle has to be depressed constantly even when “notching.” The only alternative is a foot lever, which on long runs may be used to relieve the left hand. The reason for this “dead man” device is that as soon as that slight pressure is released it releases a cut-out switch, which brings the power brakes into action immediately. If the motorman concerned were to have a fit or a seizure of some kind, his hand would at once leave that controller handle, the brakes would be automatically applied, and the car would' stop.