LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1930, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

“I have never heard of. that before,” said the D.O.A. at a meeting of creditors at New Plymouth yesterday. In ■ his schedule bankrupt showed a debt of £l3 to his employer which was noted as over-payment of wages. A’ lunar rainbow of about the same distinctness as .the “double” often seen with a daylight rainbow, was seen in the south-west from New Plymouth between 8.30 an'd 9 x>’cloek last night. Light rain followed the first appearance of the rainbow.

Arrangements to cut off traffic in the street at each end of tho block in which a fire occurs have been made by the New Plymouth Fire Brigade with the fire police. This will enable the work to proceed unhampered. In future the fire police will participate with the brigade in its practices. The erection of tho lighting standards in Pukekura Park for athletic evening meetings has been completed on three sides of tho sportsground, and the indications are that the lighting scheme will present a very pleasing appearance when it is finished. The standards are of railway iron painted green and tone lin so well witji the surroundings that they do not offend tho eye. They are a considerable improvement on tlie poles that have been in evidence round, tffe edge of the ground for many years. Closer registration and supervision of -Eastern fruiterers was suggested in a letter from a merchants’ association to the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last night. The letter stated that there had been frequent abuses of credit in New Zealand by Eastern fruiterers. One fruiterer, it stated, had gone bankrupt under one name, absconded in another and begun trading under a third. The abuse of credit was not limited to Eastern people, the president pointed* out. “The trouble is that the whole credit system in New Zealand has run mad, said Mr. P. E. Stainion.

Twenty-two years ago, on November 6, 1908, tho last spike of the North Island Main Trunk railway was driven by tho then Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, near the Manganui-o-te-ao viaduct, half-way between Auckland and Wellington. Earlier in the year the whole length of tho line had been traversed by a special train which took a Parliamentary party to and _ from Auckland on the occasion of tlie visit of the American Fleet. The completion of the railway ended 2i3 years’ work, the first sod having been turned on April 15, 1885, on the boundary of the King Country, near Te Awamutu, by an earlier Premier, Sir Robert Stout. The extent of his or her experience with people under the influence of liquor is a question often asked of a witness in Law Courts. The answers vary, but one medical witness in a case in the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington left no doubt as to his qualifications to speak as an expert. Asked of he had had much experience among drunken men., the doctor smilingly replied that he thought he had, seeing he Rad been for 12 months in a London hospital doing outpatient work on Saturday nights. “You would have nearly as much ex-pen-enee among them as a. policeman, said Sub-Inspector Lopdell. “Probably more," responded the witness. Travelling from Auckland to Wellington by sea is becoming more popular than it was a few months ago, says the New Zealand Herald. The Union Compapv’s steamer Dlarama left Auckland for 'Wellington and Sydney on Wednesday afternoon with 49 passengers for Wellington and only four for Sydney. The small passenger list for Sydney is duo to the fact that the Royal Mail liner Niagara left Auckland for Sydney direct on Tuesday night. The Marama is tlie only passenger steamer to leave Wellington for Sydney tiffs week, and her passenger accommodation will be well booked up. ■ A decision that no teacher who had been permancntlv appointed ton position should, before the end of the following year, be granted leave of absence to visit other countries, except in special cases approved by the board, was reached by the Auckland Education Board thie week. “1 think that this is tlie right tiling to do,’’..said Mr. E. C. Banks. “We have had some difficulty lately through teachers taking up positions and then asking for leave, to visit England, '.this will do away with that and give them notice that the board does not favour it.”

A rare phenomenon in tho sky was observed by Air. E. Marsden, Waiwetu, at 1.15 a.m. on Wednesday, states the Dominion. Mr. Marsden reports that a very vivid blue flash blinded him for a couple of seconds. When he was able to see again he saw a patch of golden sparks close to the moon, which was bright at the time. Although Air. Marsden had never seen anything like it 'before, ho thinks it may have been a meteor.

“A Mayor’s job is to sit on tho financial chest,” remarked the city solicitor at arbitration proceedings between the Wellington City Council and the Fire Board. “Yes,” assented Sir Frederick Chapman, the arbitrator, “each councillor comes along with big requests for improvements in his own particular part of the city, and' when they are all lumped together the Alayor's eyes open wide.”

A correspondent writes to the Wellington Post expressing appreciation of the way in which the safety of correspondence entrusted to the mails is assured by every means in the power of the postal authorities. He recently received a letter, the envelope of which had evidently become loosened and lost during the salvaging of the Tahiti’s mails, nothing remaining but the enclosure. This was returned to the\sender, stamped “Damaged by sea and water; salvaged from the s.s. Tahiti, lost at sea.”

The old settlement of Ohiwa, Bay of Plenty, with its hotel, store and school and other weather-beaten buildings, so well known to the old-time traveller, has entirely disappeared. Since the road to Opotiki, has been made around through Waimana no effort has been made to protect Ohiwa from the sea, and where the township once stood there is now a tumbliAg waste. The sea has regained its own, , •

“The State will keep going and borrow money so that the unemployed may be employed; that is the principle isn’t it?” said Air. Justice Herdman in the Supreme Court at Auckland on Wednesday. Reference had just been made to the State pushing ahead with a tramway connecting the AlcDonald mine to the railway station at Glen Afton. “The unfortunate taxpayer is not taken into account,” was His Honour’s comment.

Miss Stella Murray has donated £lO to the New Plymouth Choral Society as an appreciation of the manner in which the executive officers of the society managed her concert. \ The recent Dominion tour of the boys’ band attached to the Jubilee Institute for the Blind at. Auckland was a distinct financial success. The net receipts from the 27 centres visited were £920 6s 3d, from which 1 1 to be deducted about £l5O for trave-.ng and incidental expenses. The net amount received in •New Plymouth was £4l IBs 9d. The profits will be applied to future musical work. Writing to the New Plymouth Rotary Club Mr. Clutha McKenzie, director of the institute, thanked the club, the Mayor and bthers who assisted by patronising the ■ concert, or extending hospitality to the members of the band. “Though we were making no appeal for money and our prices were wrote Air. McKenzie, “so large •were the attendances and so small the costs (owing to the liberal hospitality of our hosts) that the results are most satisfactory.”

At a meeting of shareholders of the Equitable Building Society last night two appropriations of £250 each, disposed of by ballot from the funds of Group 3, were drawn Ay Mrs. E. L. Humphries.

The fireworks display postponed from Wednesday night till last night was again postponed and will be held during December.

The sailors of H.M.S. Dunedin showed themselves last night to be in general excellent skaters. Their natural sense of equilibrium placed them at a distinct advantage over their fellows in the royal marines. Some of them described the rink at -the Coronation Hall, New Plymouth, as the best they had experienced in New Zealand. The season closes to-morrow night with a carnival at; which the sailors will probably be well represented. 1 ? A collection to defray expenses of providing trophies for the sailqrs of H.M.S. Dunedin was taken at the New Plymouth Amateur Athletic Club gatherrng at Pukekura Park last night and a little over £2 was contributed.

You will be requiring a smart summer coat and smart hat this summer. A word to the wise: Buy now at The Greater McGruer’s. New smart coats, 19/6, 27/6, 32/6, 39/6, 59/6. See our window-to-day.

“Your Mammitis Paint is the best cure for bad quarters I have ever had. I have used it about a dozen times and have never had a failure,” writes a dairy farmer to S. Lissaman, Box 63A, Ka ponga.* \.