LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1927, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A slight earthquake was felt at Hawera at 10.45 last night. The Royal Mail liner Aorangi, which arrived at Auckland from Vancouver on January 2, is to be withdrawn at. Syd ney for overhaul. Consequently she will not visit New Zealand again until next March. During her absence from the service she will be replaced by the Tahiti, which will make a round voyage to Vancouver, leaving Auckland on January 21. Speaking of his trip to New Zealand just before his auxiliary schooner Fisherman left Los Angeles for the Dominion, Mi. Zane Grey said he hoped to catch a 1500 pound rnako shark. He added that make was a game fish and he was very keen to catch a large one. He expected to encounter sail-fish and tuna ill these waters and what other denizens of the deep he could. "America is taking drastic steps to keep out the yellow and black races and also the -Latin races from southern Europe,” stated Mr. Vernon Hoxie, an American manufacturing magnate, who was a pass|enger from Vancouver- by the Aorangi. : "On the other hand the AngloSa? on race is welcomed and will find no difficulty in being admitted. Most of the big robberies you -hear about have been perpetrated by gangs of bootleggers originally from southern Europe.” Increased duty on imported woollen goods is advocated by the New Zealand Federated Woollen Mills Employees’ Union, which decided at its annual conference in Christchurch to support the local manufacturers in their action in petitioning Parliament for an increase. It was stated that New Zealand could not, with the present tariff, compete with other countries, especially in the lower grades of goods. An increased tariff would give more employment in the country. “After seeing conditions in America, England, and on the Continent, I am greatly in favour of any daylight saving bill,” said Mr. R. J. Coates, of Auckland, who has just returned from a world tour. “In Detroit, for instance, I met a workman from the Ford motor works who stated he commenced at 7.30 a.m. and finished at 3.30 p.m., with half an hour break. When I saw him he was off to play baseball. In England one sees young men off to play tennis before 4 p.m.” A large amount of English and other overseas mail will be delivered iif New Zealand early this week. The Royal Mail liner Aorangi, which reached Auckland from Vancouver on January 2, had 1550 bags of English and American mail and a number of bags of American parcels for New Zealand, including, 451 bags of letter mail and 122 bags of parcels for Auckland. The Marama will arrive at Auckland from Sydney this morning with 389 bags of English, Eastern and Australian mail and also 50 bags of Australian parcels. A mako shark, caught at Doubtless Bay, Wanganui, lately, by Donald McKay, in the launch Merita, weighed 567 lb. It was lift in length and sft in, girth. A picnic party composed of Mr. McKinnon, county clerk, and several lady friends, while crossing the bay from Brodie’s Inlet, also saw three other make sharks, one of which was much larger than the one caught. The deepsea angler, Mr. Donaldson, who has just arived with his fishing tacble, admits that this catch is the largest he has seen and confirms the opinion that the largest fish are in the most northern waters.

Railway, traffic in Taranaki was exceptionally heavy yesterday, mainly due to holiday makers returning to their homes. The mail train left New Plymouth with thirteen carriages drawn 1 two engines. All the seating accommodation was either taken up or reserved and at Hawera it was necessary to add three more carriages and yet a further one at Aramoho. The incoming mail train last night was also a heavy one, comprising thirteen carriages when it left Marton and an additional one from Aramoho on to New Plymouth. Despite the heavy volume of traffic the tram was only half an hour late arriving at New Plymouth. The special race trains also handled large crowds. A strange deathbed request is responsible for the presence on hoard the Aorangi of a metal urn, containing the cremated remains of Captain C. Gardner Johnson, one of the pioneer shipping men in the Sydney-Vancouver service, who died recently at Vancouver. Before his death, Captain Johnson asked that his remains should be taken io Sydney, which had formerly been his home, and that they should be cast into the sea outside the harbour he knew so well. When the liner left Vancouver the deceased’s relatives, entrusted the urn to the keeping of the ship’s commander, Captain R. Crawford, who will hand it over to the right authorities upon the vessel's arrival at Sydney. The intention is to scatter the ashes on the waters just off the Sydney Heads, and so fulfil the last wishes of the old mariner.