LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1930, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

No bankruptcy has been recorded in New Plymouth during July for two years. . A Norwegian dwelling house has been erected on the Golden Bay road on Stewart Island, as a residence for one of the married men of the settlement, The house was brought from Norway all ready for setting up, each piece of timber being numbered and slotted so that it could be assembled without the use of nails. It forms a handsome addition to the island township and is made more conspicuous by a series of protruding ornaments from the eaves representing dragons’ heads. Philosophy in misfortune was displayed by two men in a mo-tor-car which ran into a drain near Waitakaruru one night recently. A party of Thames motorists saw the car in the drain and went to investigate. They discovered two men fast asleep. When the men were asked if they needed any help they replied that they were all right and would remain where they were till morning, when someone no doubt would come along and help them to pull the car out.. They then promptly went to sleep again.

' A false alarm of fire was given in New Plymouth last evening. From a telephone box in the west end of the town a message came that there was a fire at the corner of Young and Morley Streets. Over 20 firemen and members of the fire police hurried to the place but there was no sign of fire. Apart from inconvenience to the firemen the cost of the act of giving a false alarm is about £5. Further, there is the risk of accident to the men in hastening to the place. A recent false alarm in Auckland caused an accident in which three brigadesmen were killed.

The New Plymouth hospital ambulance was involved in a collision at the corner of Morley and Devon Streets yesterday afternoon. Mrs. S. Macalister (Stratford) was driving a elosed-in car along Devon Street towards the west and the ambulance, driven by Mr, E. J. Upshall, waa proceeding down Morley Street towards the eea. The two vehicles collided on the intersection. The ambulance, which was on its way to a case, was only elightly damaged, the right-hand footboard being twisted where the mudguard was torn away. The bumper wa torn from the car and the left-hand front wheel, mudguard and lamp were damaged.

The fact that an Association football player had written to the Press questioning the ruling of a referee during a match in New Plymouth was the subject of adverse comment at the northern sub-division meeting last night, Mr. C. Cuff said such a thing was against the ethics of the game. If & decision were to be questioned there was a proper place to do it without rushing into print. lie considered that if the identity of the correspondent were known he should be disciplined by hie club. The meeting generally agreed the player had been ill-advised, whether he had a proper grievance or not.

“I am quite satisfied that the policy we have adopted of releasing children at five minutes before noon, is very satisfactory,” commented Mr. E. Barry, the headmaster, at a meeting of the Central School Committee, Palmerston North, the other evening, when reporting on steps taken to avert traffic dangers to children at the noon-day hour. The system having • merely been under trial, the committee decided to make it a permanent arrangement. “Have the Grand Jury any presentment to make?” asked His Honour Mr. Justice Blair of the foreman in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North after a true bill had been returned in the one criminal case for hearing. ‘‘Well, the room was very cold,” replied the foreman. “If there had been another case ” “You would have had a stronger presentment to make, I presume,” interposed His Honour, whoe sally was greeted with general laughter. Wellington has nothing to fear from volcanic action, said Dr. P. Marshall, petrologist attached to. the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research, when speaking at a Rotary Club meeting at Wellington. There was no relation, he said, between earthquakes and volcanoes, and, moreover, nobody could predict them. After the recent earthquake in Italy there had been a heresy hunt io endeavour to lay the blame at the door of volcanic activity, but without success.

“It is astounding that at a farmers’ meeting I hear the most gloomy views. Somebody always gets up and says the bottom x is going to fall out of everything. Then you wonder why the banks and lending institutions don’t finance you.” Thus Mr. J. Snell, Deputy Commissioner of the Rural Credits Department to a meeting of Wanganui farmers. His remarks were prompted by a farmer present wanting to know what would happen to the Rural Credit Board if it lent money to five farmers and all five were failures.

Permission to import from South Africa a most interesting collection of animals for the Auckland Zoo hae been granted to the City Council by the Minister of Internal Affairs, states the New Zealand Herald. The collection includes a pair of giraffes, female kudus, sable and roan antelopes, a female blue gnu, porcupines, an eland, a whitetailed gnu, and four springbok. It was hoped, also, to have deceived at tho same time a number of weaver birds and South African finches, but on account of the appearance of parrot fever in various parts of the world the Minister is forbidding the importation of such birds until March next.

Whether an error of judgment is negligence was a question which the jury in a charge of negligent driving returned to put before Mr. Justice Herdman in the Supreme Court at Auckland on Wednesday. “It may be in some eases and it may not be in others,” eaid His Honour. “A man driving a motorcar is bound to take care, and caro is a matter of degree.” His Honour proceeded to quote a passage from a. legal authority which states that tho law does not require the highest degree of care of which human nature is capable. On tho other hand, it is not sufficient that the defendant hae acted in good faith’ to the best of his judgment and belief and has yielded as much eare as he himself believed to be required of him in the circumstances.

As the result of a scheme devised by some inventive genius in the Waikaia Valley, in Southland,' the deer, which have grown wise to the ways of stalkers in that district, have received a setback. The nocturnal habits of these animals have deprived settlers of an appreciable quantity of winter feed set aside for stock, but no longer will the deer venture to pasture land without some trepidation. Selecting a dark night, a party of several rifles equipped with powerful spotlights adjourned to an area sown down in. turnips, to which tho deer had given very close attention in the hours of darkness. Waiting until the night was well advanced and at an arranged hour the spotlights were turned on to reveal a number of deer quietly feeding among the turnips, The riflemen obtained excellent sport and few if any of the deer escaped across open country to the bush,

Writing to a friend in New Plymouth concerning the cold snap experienced throughout the country, a resident of a Waikato town says the cold was so great that water standing in a flower vase was frozen solid. The sap of flowers in the vase was also affected so that leaves and stems were brittle, breaking . like pieces of delicate china,

At a meeting of the north Mount Egmont committee recently it was remarked that the Syme hut on I’.antham’s Peak had been erected only a few days when traces of mice wcie found. That mice should be found under such conditions was remarkable, but a New Plymouth resident can vouch for the fact that on at least one occasion a rat has been seen near the summit • House-flies hav;e also been in evidence. I ; i ■ ” ’ ' '■