IN TOWN AND OUT

Southland Times, Issue 22478, 14 November 1934, Page 6

IN TOWN AND OUT

NEWS OF THE DAY Glad To Be Home. “Melbourne is certainly a wonderful city and the celebrations are a revelation, but, with it all, I’m glad to get home again,” remarked Mr John Macdonald, who arrived in Invercargill by last night’s express after spending a short holiday in Australia. * * » • Tramway Revenue. The tramway revenue for October showed an increase over that for the corresponding month in 1933 and 1932, the respective totals being £l5ll 9/2, £1355 19/9 and £1398 13/-. The revenue derived during the seven months from April 1 to October 31 was as follows: 1934, £10,407 7/4; 1933. £9836 1/6; 1932, £10,435 1/1. • * * * Tulip Time. It was tulip time in the Council Chambers last evening, the room being adorned wtih a resplendent array of these attractive flowers from the public gardens. Councillors at the conclusion of the meeting passed many complimentary remarks concerning the display —and were eager to take home a bunch of blooms as an offering to their wives.* Learn to Swim Week. Approval of the suggestion of the baths superintendent that a “Learn to Swim” week should be held from November 19 to 24 was given by the City Council last evening. The Baths Committee advised that the expenditure, including prizes for evening events, printing and advertising, would be approximately £6, The programme will be similar to that of last year. Patrol for Oreti Beach. The desirability of a patrol being placed on Oreti Beach for the benefit of motorists and picnickers, to check the quantity of gravel taken from the pits, and to prevent outbreaks of fire was stressed by Councillor A. W. Jones at last evening’s meeting of the City Council. The Works and Reserves Committees will consider the suggestion and report to the next meeting of the council. ♦ ♦ ♦ * Cheese Industry. Some interesting figures relating to the cheese industry were given by Mr R. R. Binney in a talk to Rotarians yesterday. He said that there were 6.1 factories in Southland directly employing more than 500 hands whose wages for the season totalled £73,000. In addition to these employees sawmillers, coal-miners, tinsmiths, engineers and electricians were given employment through the industry. At current prices the cheese manufactured in Southland represented about £700,000 a season. » » ♦ * A Crematorium. A lengthy report on the construction, management and maintenance costs of crematoria in New Zealand was submitted to the Reserves Committee of the City Council by the Superintendent of Reserves (Mr B. P. Mansfield) last evening. The committee, while thanking the superintendent for his instructive and detailed report, decided, in view of the heavy expenditure involved, to make no recommendation in the matter. The clause was adopted, but Councillor A. W. Jones suggested that the establishment of a crematorium should be considered when next year’s estimates were being framed. * *. * ♦ Untidy Sections. A letter was received by the City Council last evening from Mr J. S. Baxter again drawing the council’s attention to overgrown and untidy sections in the city. He requested the council to take the necessary steps to have these cleared and tidied up, thus preventing vacant sections in the city area becoming an eyesore. It was decided that the letter should be received and Mr Baxter informed that the council was not in a position to expend money on private property, but that the Superintendent of Reserves was in touch with the Beautifying Society, which was already dealing with the matter in co-operation with the council.

Fires in Scenic Reserves. Reference to the recent fires in scenic reserves was made by Councillor C. J. Brodrick, chairman of the Reserves Committee, at the meeting of the City Council last evening. Councillor Brodrick referred to the damage that had already occurred and to the everpresent menace of still more serious outbreaks. He said that in that morning’s Southland Times there had appeared a letter signed by Mr George Jaquiery containing the excellent suggestion that a fire district should be gazetted. It was decided that the Town Clerk should look into the question of having the areas concerned gazetted fire districts. Threat of Penal Rate.

When a clause in the report of the Finance Committee of the City Council concerning the dispute between the council and the Southland Electric Power Board came up for consideration last evening, his Worship the Mayor (Mr John Miller) said it would be noticed that the Palmerston North City Council had won its case against the Manawatu-Oroua Power Board. “And we’ll win ours,” remarked Councillor A. W. Jones. His Worship said he was not going into that question, but there was not much difference between the two cases. He had always wanted to contest the threat to put a penal rate on the city in 1930 and he would have contested it then.

Main Drive of Queen’s Park. In a report submitted to the Reserves Committee the Superintendent of Reserves stated that the main drive and pathways through Queen’s Park required special attention. On windy days clouds of coke dust caused considerable annoyance to cyclists and pedestrians using the walks, in addition to being injurious, in a degree, to plant growth. In view of the fact that provision had been made on the estimates this year for drive and pathway improvements, and in view of the forthcoming Royal visit, the committee recommended that the matter of having a thin layer of pea granite, or white gravel, rolled into the surface, be left in the hands of the Superintendent of Reserves to carry out the work. The recommendation was adopted.

« * » • Mystery of a Power Leak. The chief engineer of the Southland Electric Power Board (Mr L. B. Hutton) confessed himself mystified by an alleged power leak on a Mataura property at the meeting of the board yesterday. A letter was handed in from Mr W. H. Wright, Mataura, stating that his cows would not give their milk properly because of a power leak in the milking plant. Shocks had been felt on contact with the milk buckets and other parts of the plant. Mr Hutton said that the complaint was a long standing one, and he had had an intimate knowledge of it for at least nine years. The installation had been repeatedly inspected, and instruments had been used in an endeavour to detect the leak without result. He was forced to believe that there must be a fault in the installation, but he had to admit that he and his staff were beaten. The power leak in question was most sinister. He concluded by saying that he would continue to keen an eye on the matter. A member: “Keep both eyes on it.”

Power Board at Mataura. After holding their meeting at Gora yesterday, the members of the Southland Electric Power Board, on their return journey, met the Mayor of Mataura and fellow members of the Borough Council in the Council Chambers. Matters relating to the services of an electrician were discussed and an arrangement in regard to the attention to the street lighting system was finalized. The Mayor (Mr C. D. McConnell) expressed appreciation of the visit of the board and referred to the satisfaction which the board’s supply was giving in Mataura. Mr W. Hinchey (chairman of the board) acknowledged the welcome and expressed gratification that the efforts of the board were meeting with such general approval in the district. The visitors, after being entertained at afternoon tea, then made an inspection of the Mataura paper mills.

Modern Brake Testing Device. What is a decelerometer? A Southland Times reporter who stepped into Inspector Stopford’s car yesterday learnt the answer. The inspector attached a small machine, not unlike a speedometer, to the running board of the car, accelerated to 20 miles an. hour, jammed on his brakes and stopped with a screeching of tyres on the bitumen. The fact that a passing motorist looked extremely worried, wondering what offence he had committed, was beside the point. It was to demonstrate the purpose of the decelerometer that the inspector had stopped so suddenly. The reporter was invited to inspect the dial of the apparatus and there he saw recorded the distance (in feet) in which the car had pulled up and the percentage efficiency of the brakes. The inspector said that the device greatly facilitated the work of brake-testing, and showed not only the distance in which the brakes stopped a car, but any mal-adjustment. » * ♦ • A Homing Pigeon.

Early last month a paragraph appeared in the Southland Times regarding a homing pigeon which alighted exhausted on an intercolonial ship, some hundreds of miles off the coast of New South Wales, and was succoured by the boatswain, a bird-lover. Apparently the paragraph was copied by Australian papers, for later on Mr W. Parsons, a Roseberry (Sydney) fancier, came to the vessel to claim the stray bird after its remarkable adventure. It was learned by the rescuer that the pigeon was liberated at 7 a.m. on September 29 at Ivanhoe, New South Wales, in a race to Sydney, 408 miles away by air line. Whether the bird went astray owing to an unfavourable wind or pursuit by a hawk (the homing pigeon’s traditional enemy) cannot be definitely settled, but it had a remarkable experience—and deliverance. A reward was offered, but this was refused by the boatswain, who discovered that the owner was a working man and had lost a day’s wages through going to the ship for the bird. The case must have created a lot of interest among pigeon owners in New South Wales, for it was lengthily discussed at a meeting of the Sydney Bird Fanciers’ Club.—Bluff correspondent.

* * • • Caroline-Josephville Road. Very largely as a result of the persistent representations of the Southland League, the Public Works Department has consented to put in hand the construction of the Caroline-Josephville road, which is intended to give more direct access to Lumsden and the Western Lake country via the Joseph-ville-Caroline district. It is anticipated that approximately 50 men will be employed on the job for some 20 weeks, and that a commencement will be made during the present month. The men will be engaged full time on the usual Public Works co-operative contract basis. Asked by a Times representative yesterday whether Invercargill married men would be eligible for this employment, Mr P. C. Weenink, officer-in-charge of the Labour Department, stated that there were a large number of unemployed miners at Nightcaps and Ohai, and it was intended that in the first instance the work would be available only for these men and other registered and eligible married men in the Nightcaps and Ohai districts. If further men were required later on it might be possible to place a small number from Invercargill, but in this regard Mr Weenink said that the CarolineJosenhville job was comparatively handy to Nightcaps and Ohai, and moreover it was hoped that further employment for Invercargill workers would probably be available shortly at the municipal airport job. « * * • District Electors’ List.

In a report to the Finance Committee on the district electors’ list the Town Clerk stated: “The new Municipal Corporations Act contains a provision which has been inserted with a view to enabling the district electors’ list to be kept up-to-date by removing therefrom the names of persons .who have lost their residential qualification. I recommend that the council resolve that it be a direction to the Town Clerk that he shall not, except pursuant to a claim in the prescribed form, place on the district electors’ list the name of any person whose name appeared _ by virtue only of a residential qualification on the district electors’ roll in force for the last general election of councillors if such person, not being a candidate and not having voted at that election, did not vote at _ any one of any subsequent elections of a councillor or councillors at which he was entitled to vote —provided that this instruction shall not apply in cases where persons, to the Town Clerk’s knowledge, still possess the necessary qualification entitling their names to appear on the district electors’ list, despite the fact that they did not vote at the general or subsequent elections of councillors referred to above.” The committee stated that the Town Clerk had explained that in accordance with his usual custom no residential elector’s name would be removed from the roll without notice being forwarded to the address advising the elector accordingly and giving him the opportunity to re-apply should he Still possess the qualification. The committee recommended that the Town Clerk be instructed accordingly. The Mayor, when the clause came up for adoption, said that the Act stated that when an elector failed to record his vote his name was to be struck off. He favoured conforming with the Act. The clause was carried.