LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1929, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Leaving New Plymouth yesterday afternoon by aeroplane on a business' 1 trip to Hamilton, Mr. S. E. Neilson, secretary O'f the New Plymouth Aero Club and Taranaki Airways, Ltd., arrived in Hamilton two hours afterwards, after a good trip. Mr. Neilson left New Plymouth with Captain McGregor at about one o’clock.

A car driven by Mr. J. M. Hutchinson, of the Taranaki Agencies, skidded during the misty weather on Wednesday afternoon into a bank in the Mimi Gorge. Mr. Hutchinson, who was injured, though not seriously, was brought into New Plymouth by Mr. Sheard. It was reported yesterday that ho was progressing satisfactorily. The car was not badly damaged. New Plymouth stood fifth on the list of Dominion ports (leaving out the coal ports Greymouth and Westport) in respect of tonnage of cargo handled inwards and outwards during the first eight months of this year. The total handled in New Plymouth was 142,212 tons. Napier was close up with 140,413 tons. Then followed Wanganui with 126,382 tons, and Whangarei with 122,208 tons. Struck by a tramcar at the intersection of Powderham and Morley Streets yesterday, a sedan car driven by Mr. Surrey, of Huirangi, with Mrs. Thoms as a passenger, was hurled on to its side. No-one was injured and not a pane Of glass was broken. One tramcar passenger climbed on to the sedan and opened the door to let the passengers out. The others righted the car and Mr. Surrey drove away. The car, which was only slightly damaged, was travelling along Powderham Street from the town and the tram going down the Morley Street hill./ .

That there is a demand for commercial aviation in Taranaki is evident. Yesterday a prominent South Taranaki business man who was anxious to get to Hawera from New Plymouth as speedily as possible was making inquiries as to the prospects of being taken through by air. The only aeroplane in th locality, however, was not available, as it was about to leave for Auckland with a passenger, and the business man had perforce to curtail his New Plymouth visit by an hour and motor to Hawera. The head of a Taranaki-wide concern anticipates that within two years an aeroplane will have to be added to the firm’s equipment.

The Melbourne, Ltd., has just received another shipment of newest printed Rayons to sell at 2/11 and 3/11. The new patterns are exquisite. Also just opened, another shipment of the famous Irish lawn hemstitched handkerchiefs for ladies at 6d each.

THOSE YOUNGSTERS WON’T BE LITTLE LONG. Let us take a new portrait of your boy or girl ,to keep the record of childhood. Our Portraits will please you and our prices are exceedingly low. Oakley’s, Hash Building (upstairs), Devon Street, New Plymouth. 7.

Dr. Julis P. de Vilnits, a Frenchman, who is touring the world on a twostroke motor-cycle, has arrived at Wellington from Australia. Before going to South America he will visit Auckland, Hastings and Christchurch. Dr. Vilnits left Riga on September 6, 1925, and has visited 56 countries. Among his adventures have been two attacks by bandits. It was on one of these occasions, in China, that the companion he had with him was shot dead by a machinegun. So far 70,000 miles of the trip have been completed, and 37,000 remain to be done. The cyclist will probably spend seven weeks in New Zealand. To-day the unemployed engaged in tree-planting on the Kaitake ranges will finish their work. The total number of trees planted this season is 68,000, making with previous plantings nearly 200,000 trees on an area of 262 acres. This will complete the re-afforesting of the ranges, and it will only be necessary in the future to clean this year’s trees for a year or two and maintain the firebreaks. The occasion was marked yesterday by the planting of seven kauri trees on a commanding point in honour o'f the member for Egmont (Mr. C. A. Wilkinson), the member for Taranaki (Mr. S. G. Smith), the chairman of the Park Board (Mr. T. C. List), the vice-chairman (Mr. W. D. Armit), the chairman of the unemployment committee (Mr. P. E. Stainton), the honorary supervisor of the work (Mr. V. C. Davies), and the secretary of the Park Board (Mr. 11. Baily). The actual planting was done by the gentlemen, concerned, with the exception of the Parliamentary representatives.

“Here in New Zealand we are faced with a forest problem unknown in any other country, for during countless ages no plant-eating animals roamed in our forests,” writes Captain E. V. Sanderson in a booklet recently issued by the Native Bird Protection Society. ’“A forest has therefore been evolved which cannot withstand the attacks of deer, goats, opossums and the like. Yet such animals have been purposely liberated, and even now their presence is connived at by the department which controls such matters and by others who are evidently prepared to sacrifice their country’s welfare for the sake of sport or in other cases persona] pecuniary gain. Even in warrants just issued by the Internal Affairs Department restriction is put on the number of stags which may be shot, and a season is defined in which deer may be killed. Surely, then, we must . consider our forests doomed.” Apart altogether from their incalculable commercial value, continued the writer, our forests are, or should be, the proud heritage' of every New Zealander, because out of 283 kinds of trees and shrubs that go to form the whole, not more than ten are found wild in any other country. They are really tropical forests growing in a temperate region.