LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1929, Page 10

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hamilton Airways, Limited, is now ■training 14 pupils at its aerodrome av Rukuhia, and during the last week the instructor, Major G. A. C. Cowper, five hours 15 minutes in the air witq them. With its three machines/ two of which operated at Invercargill and Wellington, the company carried 11J passengers in the last week.

The road from Rotorua to Urewera and Waikaremoana is impassable, according to advice received by Air. V. Duff, secretary. of the Taranaki Automobile Association. There is a good metalled road available from Waitomo to Kinohaka, but the Karioi-Wanganui, via Alangamahu, road is not yet open to traffic -owing to reconstruction voik and wet weather.

A metal lorry being driven toward Te'Kuiti by Mr. L. J. PeiiniallCof Te Kuiti, went over a bank near the top of the Awakino hill the other morning. The driver; who received abrasions and cuts to the arms and face, and is suffering from shock, received medical attention, and bis condition is now satisfactory. The lorry was considerably damaged, the cabin being smashed in.

Four hundred motor-cars were counted on the road between the Inglewood post office and the New Plymouth Boy&_ High School after the New Plymouth races yesterday by a _ traveller from, the south. He was struck by the expensive quality of the great majority of tiie ears, ’fie said the main road through the province from Patea northward carried very heavy- motor-traffic. A service-car driver on the way to New Plymouth yesterday passed between Te Kuiti and Awakino 106 cars and 40 motor-cycles travelling north. The discovery of a device for the testing of wheat for moisture content was mentioned at the meeting of Hie Wheat Research Committee in Christchurch last week.. It was stated that one of. these instruments would be used this season in conjunction with the baking oven in ihe laboratory. Later, it was intended to have facilities for testing at each of the larger centres in Canterbury. The instrument, it was stated, could be used in a farm house and would give the moisture content immediately.

The Board of Governors of Scots College, Wellington, has decided to make a temporary appointment to the principalship of the college for the early part of next year in order to have sufficient time to make a permanent appointment. Steps will be taken shortly after the holidays in this direction, but it is not anticipated that the new appointee will be available before the second term in 1930. In the meantime, the appointment of Mr. Thomas D. Pearce, M.A. (Hons.), as acting-prin-cipal is announced. Mr. Pearce is relinquishing, at the end of this year, the principalship of the Southland Boys’ High School, Invercargill, which post he has occupied for the last twentysix years. .

A girl named Evelyn Wellington has the splendid record of- seven years’ unbroken attemla’iice at the Waitiit School/

A middle-aged man was arrested in New Plymouth at 8.45 last evening and will be charged in the Police Court this morning with attempted suicide.

All the New Plymouth side streets were lined with motor-cars on Christmas Eve, and late arrivals had difficulty in securing a “pitch.” The problem of finding room for visiting cars is monthly becoming more difficult. The narrowness of the streets adds to the difficulty.

The pohutukawa is now in full bloom in favoured localities in New Plymouth and along the coast. In Auckland it has been blooming for some time, showing that the season in Taranaki is behind that of the north. A beautiful specimen of the Christmas tree is to be seen near the New Plymouh bowling green. It has been an object oT interest to many visitors during the holidays.

The unseasonable weather prevailing at last week-end interfered considerably with shearing operations on Taranaki back-country farms that were trying to get the work through before the holidays. In most cases the work had to be suspended alogether, owing to the wet and the cold. The cold snap on the Saturday night was responsible for some mortality amongst the newly shorn sheep. , ■

A slip occurred on the northern side of the tunnel on Mt. Messenger on Monday night,, a big rhnu. tree coming down with the debris. Motorists were obliged to pull lip and await eventualities, obtaining what interest they could from the electric and heavy rain. Early on Tuesday morning a motor lorry happened along with a hauling contraption, which was attached to the tree, and the track cleared sufficiently to permit of traffic being resumed. Those'who came over the Te Kuiti-Mahoenui section that night in the heavy downpour report the experience as one which they never, wish to repeat.

A gracious little act of reverence was witnessed, at the Auckland \Var Memorial Museum the- other day, when two independent groups of school children placed wreaths on the Cenotaph. The children were taken to tlfe museum by their teachers, and the making and offering of the wreaths formed quite a voluntary effort on their part. Their behaviour in the precincts of the Cenotaph was exemplary in every way. ;Tn one case the mother of one of the children had made the wreath early in the morning for her child to take with her as a gift from her class.-

That an Al.P.’s work- does not end when Parliament rises was stressed by Air. F. Lye, member for Waikato, when discussing his activities since the end of the session during his recent visit to Alorrinsville i the headquarters of his constituency. “Since the general election I have covered' the whole of my big electorate twice over,” said Mr. Lye. He added that he was endeavotn'ing to fulfil his election promise to “get among the people and find out what are thenrequirements.” He had frequently left home at eight o’clock in the morning and toured his electorate all day, not getting home till seven at night. Air. Lye confessed that since his election to Parliament he had not had time to do any work on his own farm, and his motoring expenses were very heavy.

An amusing incident of an Australian jury room is recalled by a Christchurch man in connection with the discussion regarding the abolition of juries in Australia. He was living in Sydney at the time, and was elected foreman of a common jury in a sexual case. It was as clear as daylight, and the New Zealander, who, incidentally, is quite a man of the world, and rose frfom a private on Gallipoli to a captain in Flanders, put .it to the jury that there’ was no need to waste time on the ease, as a conviction was unescapable. And then he sw something for the first time of an ugly phase of Sydney psychology. ‘‘Not so fast, mister,” whined one of the jurymen, “it may be you or me in the dock next time.” And on this fear or suspicion or whatever it was the. case was finally decided in the direction of an acquittal.

A bankrupt Alarlborough Sounds farmer told a meeting of creditors in Blenheim last week that the failure of his venture into stock dealing was partly due to the wild state of some of the cattle, which escaped to the rugged fastnesses of his property and could not be captured and sold. “I know where some of them are now, and. if the creditors can get them they can have them,” he offered. ‘‘Can the assignee issue dividends in kind?’ asked the legal representative of a creditor. “If, so, I would suggest that these wild cattle be distributed!” The official assignee o’bserved that if the cattle were equal in value and their number coincided with the number of creditors he might consider it. Otherwise he was afraid it might not be strictly legal! The matter- was not regarded very seriously by the creditors.

The methods taken to cdinbat the mosquito menace were detailed to the Auckland City Council by the sanitary inspector, Air. C. J. Haynes (states the New Zealand Herald), it was explained by Air. Haynes that,, in addition to the regular attention-given to the elimination of mosquitos during the sanitaryinspection of premises, special investigations were.now being made,of watercourses, gullies, vacant sections, and other possible breeding-places and haunts of mosquitos. Arrangements had been made by the engineer’s department for precautionary measures at rubbish dumps and for ihe regular oiling of street cesspits. The parks superintendent was also clearing creeks and ditches on the city reserves. Householders had been requested to dispose of all unnecessary water containers, and to. empty those required at least once a week. They had further been advised to put oil, kerosene, or disinfectants in rain-water gully traps during the dry weather, and to cut down weeds and other rank growths likely to harbour adult mosquitoes.

An innovation that was appreciated by horse owners and trainers has been introduced at the Taranaki Jockey Club’s meet-, ing by the Railway Department. An officer of the department was stationed at the course yesterday for the purpose of making arrangements - for the transport of horses. Thia relieved the owners of a considerable amount of worry. The officer will again be in attendance to-day.

Residents of Optuiake and district, as well as visitors for the holiday season, will be pleased to learn that another of. the popular seaside cabarets is to be held in the Opunake Beach pavilion to-morrow evening. - With Coburn's Star orchestra, providing • the music, a perfect floor, ideal surroundings good supper, no one could wish- ta.qsjiend.4hft evening-more -pleasairtlyj. :