LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1930, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

"Have you a list of the assets, Mr. Secretary?” asked a member at the annual meeting of the Stratford Mountain Club last night. ‘'Yes—we have the mountain,” a member replied. • During last week, while the nurse was in the building, some person stole the collection box from the Plunket Rooms at Wanganui East, states the Chronicle. The amount in the box was not known, anil its absence not noticed until the nurse was closing up. Remarking that witnesses seldom could remember dates with any degree of accuracy, Mr. Justice Blair mentioned, in the Supreme Court at Wellington, that in half the divorce cases that came before him those concerned could not even remember the date of marriage. In view of the difficulty of retaining the services of maids for household duties, says the Marlborough Express, an advertiser was delighted the other day to receive an application in which a promising type of girl subscribed herself: “Yours fox’ ever.” The Arapuni situation, said Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, chairman of the Auckland Power Board, had been the subject of a good deal of speculation, and the report of Professor P. J. Hornell was being awaited with a great deal of interest. He understood on good authority that the expert had not disclosed his opinions by a single word.

The credit balance available when the New Plymouth Horticultural Society was wound up is to be used for the improvement of the Mt. Bryon’ reserve. Arrangements have been made with the Unemployment Relief Committee, under which Mr. V. C. Davies will supervise work to be done by .six. unemployed men, including three returned soldiers. Dredging work on the new 330 yd. “cut” near the Newton King wharf at New Plymouth should reveal further evidences of the wreck of the Hawea. A number of relies have been brought up during the past year, but in the majority of cases,, these came from' the fore part of the ship. In the hew cut the dredge should encounter the stern of the Hawea.

For years past the Auckland Power Board’s accounts have passed through the Government Audit Department without a “tag.” This week Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, the chairman, said it reflected great credit on the staff that again this year the audit accounts had been found correct in all details. Accounts totalling £96,027 were passed for payment, covering a period of one month. Training of the New Plymouth Aero Club pupils is in full swing. Yesterday morning two more, Messrs. C. Linwood and Is. Martin, solo for the first time. In both cases the pupils took the plane up after only about six hours flying. If weather permits, Flying-Offi-cer I. Keith will leave New Plymouth to-day for Hawera, where he will carry on instruction for a week.

During his recent visit to the School for the Deaf, Sumner, Christchurch, Mr. A. Cowles, inspector of special schools, granted li sixth standard proficiency certificate to a. senior girl pupil. This is the first occasion on which a proficiency examination has been conducted at the school, and it demonstrates the high standard of education attained, by pupils who spend all their school years at Sumner.

A counterfeit florin was passed at a New Brighton’shop on'Saturday evening, states the Christchurch Times. With the date 1915, the coin was similar in every particular to a genuine coin, except that' it was of a slightly lighter colour and had no ring. Probably the coin is one of a number which were in circulation sonic months ago. It is possible, however,-that it may be tlie first sign of a fresh outbreak. The diver at the port of New Plymouth was employed yesterday with the dredge in raising heavy boulders from the sea floor in the ocean end of, the new 330 yd. cut off the Newton King wharf. For two hours yesterday the diver was operating all the time at a depth of well over 30 feet.

A profit of about £42 and receipts amounting to £B5 were reported at a meeting of the committee of the Whiteley Methodist spring flower show last night, when the recent show was reviewed. The Rev. Clarence Eaton presided. Entries and donations exceeded those of last year, but the attendance of the public had - not been so good as usual.

A four-roomed house on the Burgess Road, Warea, about a mile from the school, was completely destroyed by fire last night. The house, which was owned by Mr. J. Donohue, ujas occupied by Mr. E. Benton, who was away at Okato with his family at the time. AVhen discovered the fire had a strong hold, and with the northerly wind blowing it was impossibly to save anything, though Mr. Donohue and Mr. Langley were quickly on the scene. Fortiinately/'the wind was blowing away from Mr. Donohue’s homestead nearby.

Thriving under a constant temperature of 76 degrees F., which the thermometer knows as summer heat, cinerarias of many delicate,hues are to be seen in the small winter garden in the Botanic Gardens, says the Christchurch Press. The large glasshouse has taken on much of the atmosphere of a tropical garden. The orange trees arc in blossom, the bananas are beginning to cluster, and flowers of many colours show up against the dark green background of the tropic palms.

Evidence of the coldness of the past winter is shown in the Wellington Botanical Gardens, where, says the Evening Post, many of the line “black pungas” (Cyathea niediillaris) are putting out new shoots curled rip, proving that even these hardy trees, rat far from the seaside, were frost-bitten. Probably the "blizzard”,which struck the city in midwinter was partly responsible. The Director of Parks and Reserves (Mr. J. G. MacKenzie) says it is most unusual for free ferns to be thus nipped by the frost in the gardens.

To be used for the erection of homes for married blind people, t>yo and threequarter acres have been given to the Jubilee Institute for the Blind at Auckland. The gift has filled a long-felt want, states the annual report of the institute, as before such cases had been prevented from coming to the institute because of the. difficulty of obtaining housing for their wives and families, '’aluable ideas for the work and welfare of the blind have been brought back by the director of the institute, Mr. Clutlia N. .McKenzie, who has recently spent some time in inspecting sister institutions in England.

Built in a day when there was more air in Wellington than anything else, some of the older buildings slowed what would be a shocking disregard of health regulations to-day. In one of the old Lanibton Quay buildings pulled down for tlie war memorial on Quinton’s Corner. space had been utilised to the last degree. This was especially noticeablein the. case of an attic, where only Klin, from the inch and a half thick ridge plank lihd been wasted. The vertical "Walls” of this room were only 2ft Ilin, high, and the “ceiling,” which was merely the slightly thickened ridgepole, was only 7ft. Gin. from the floor. It was, moreover, lit by a skylight only, and the occupant must have brought in his own ventilation daily from below.