LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1930, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Following the public address by the Hon. S. G. Smith at New Plymouth last night supporters of the United Party assembled informally in the Hygienic tearooms. An honoured guest was Mrs. F. -Hay, daughter of. the late Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon, who is making a brief visit to New. Plymouth, the first for many years.

A medical witness in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday was quoting from a medical text-book a passage relating to insanity as considered from the medical and legal point of view. “Thus,” he said, reading from the book, “insanity is often wrongly considered by lawyers, publicists and ignorant persons to—” “Pardon me,” said the Chief Justice, “does it say ignorant persons, or other, ignorant persons ?”

Reference bo the recent advertisements in the Taranaki Press of political addresses by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. J. G. Coates) that did not eventuate, was made by the Hon. S. G. Smith at a public address’at New Plymouth last night. He wished to pay a tribute to the fairmindedness of Mr. Coates, said Mr. Smith, for he had cancelled his meetings and declined to give political addresses on the grounds that it was unsportsmanlike to do so when the Prime Minister was out of the.country. .. ' As the Patua household school being conducted by Mr. F. H. Mansell at the end of the Carrington Road will be closed at the end of the year, the Taranaki Education Board decided yesterday to consider establishing a school at a mill about two miles further on, where there are about 13 children to be taught. Messrs. White and Dempsey, board members, were given power to act.after consultation with the senior inspector. The board decided to apply for approval to establish a household school at North Mount Egmont. “One of the conditions of the sale of concession tickets is that the rides must not be resold by the purchaser,” staled the report of the works and traffic committee to the Christchurch Tramway Board at a recent meeting. “A lady passenger on tlie North Beach line, after asking the conductor to take two ‘nips’ from her card for herself and friend, collected the full cash fare from her friend, making a profit on the transaction. She has been advised that if the. offence is repeated a prosecution will follow.”

The. ladies’ coats and froccks now offering at the Melbourne's special 10 days sale, are proving a great attraction to buyers. Occasions like this when seasonable apparel may be purchased nt a long way below normal are all too rare to be ignored.*

The fact that until the appointment of the Hon. S. G. Smith as Minister of Labour New Plymouth had not been represented in Cabinet for a period of /0 years was mentioned by the Mayor (Mr. H. V. S. Griffiths)' at a public address given by Mr. Smith last night. Later in the evening Mr. Smith referred to the same fact and said the last Minister who had previously represented New Plymouth was the Hon. James CroWe Richmond. The speaker was pleased to sec before him Mr. Richard Cock, who was probably one of the few men in his audience who personally knew Mr. Richmond.

The proposed flight of five Moth aeroplanes from Auckland to New Plymouth and back yesterday did not take place owing to the stormy weather conditions. Weather permitting, the flight will be undertaken to-day, the same programme to be carried out as was arranged for yesterday. The visitors are due at New Plymouth between 10.30 and II a.m., and the scheduled time of departure on the return trip to Auckland is 3 p.m. To-morrow the No. 1 bombing squadron of five machines is due at. Bell Block from Auckland, and after remaining at the aerodrome overnight is due to take off early on Saturday afternoon for 11awera and Hastings. ‘

Giving evident- in . the Arbitration Court at Christchurch this week, Dr. John Stevenson, eye specialist, illustrating the effect of hysteria on the sight, mentioned that during the .past fortnight two students who were sitting for examinations came to him with symptoms of blindness. They were suffering from severe headaches and had been forced to leave the examination room, being unable to read their papers. The cause of this, he argued was that they were highly strung and had become upset by their examinations. By wearing the glasses prescribed their sight would be perfectly normal in three weeks’ time.

A meteorological phenomenon of rare occurrence in temperate latitudes has been reported to the Government meteorologist by Mr. Lloyd Mandeno, who observed it at Russell last week. The conditions of the ’•pper atmosphere were somewhat unusual, as the phenomenon known as “mock moons” was then observed in Auckland and,the corresponding daytime effect of “mock suns” was reported from Cape Palliser. The pLenom<...on seen as Russell is known as a circumzenithal arc and was seen shortly after 5 p.m., while the ordinary sun halo was also ve y noticeable. It consisted of an arc about 60' degrees in diameter, with the zenith as its centre, and displayed the colours of the rainbow, with the violet'innermost.

A sale was effected recently through medium of wireless communication between Oamaru and Ellice Islands, in the Pacific. Mrs. D. G. Kennedy, of Oamaru, is one of three women amateur wireless transmitters in the Dominion and each.evening .communicates by morse with her husband, the only white man stationed at Ellice Islands. During one of the communications the name of the representative of a well-known musical firm ■ was ' introduced and Mr. Kennedy intimated that an organ was required for the natives on the islands. Quotations and descriptions were communicated by morse by Mrs. Kennedy, with the result that in due course acceptance of the quotation and instructions for shipping was received by wireless.

Nearly seven degre-s of frost was registered at the G'hri- .urch Observatory on Monday morning, out no frost is reported, says the Times, to have occurred in the valleys along the hills where the commercial tomato-grower’s have their properties. The frost did not thaw until 7 a.m. A frost’of this severity is sufficient'. to cut' down tender plants, such as marrows, cucumber and tomatoes. Young potato crops in the frost area would also be affected.

■ Particulars have now been received in New. Zealand of the results of the. five “consultations” conducted by Tattersall’s on the Melbourne Cup. Although report has had. it that , at least three New. Zealanders drew first prizes, it turns out that only one of the 15 principal prizes—a second prize of £6OOO won by a Henderson syndicate—canie to the Dominion. It is remarkable that 12 of the 15 prizes went to Victoria. The biggest prize, £20,000, was won,, by a Queenslander, and a prize of £5OOO found its way to the United States.

An incident that created some amusement among a . gang of unemployed workers not far 1 from Invercargill occurred recently. An official who had paid a surprise visit observed one of the men consuming a draught from a tilted bottle and, suspecting beer, promptly took ■ possession of the vessel and sampled the contents/ Instead of the supposed nectar, the fluid proved tq be cold tea without milk, which some workers favour as a thirst-quencher. ■ Sup; pressed laughter was general, but sb far, says the Southland News, orders have not been issued tp put milk in the tea.

A curious sequel to a successful petitv>n in divorce in the Auckland Supreme Court is that the husband is still regarded as legally' married, although .his wife is free. This is due to a change in the law relating to divorces in New Zealand. By an amendment to the Act on October 25, the, last day of the recent session of Parliament, a wife who has lived in the Dominion for three years is entitled to petition in the New Zealand Courts for a divorce, but a decree granted to her does not apply to her husband if he is. domiciled, as in the case under notice, in England. “One thing I notice, trying these cases in Wellington and in Wanganui, is that the hospital bills are very much more reasonable in Wanganui,” said Mr. Justice Ostler when presiding at the Supreme Court at V anganui. “I thinK they are charging more in Wellington,” said His Honour, after charges had been compared. Those in the Court smiled when the medical superintendent of the Wanganui hospital, who was in the wit-ness-box, remarked, ‘ “We couldu t get tAe money anyhow, so we couldn’t charge any more.” \ • / “I certainly have tentative proposals for the future of Flock House, but they are not yet ready for publication,” said Mr. E. Newman, chairman of trustees of the Flock House fund in an interview at Marton. Mr. Newman said that there was no doubt that unless something was done the end of Flock House as; a training farm was drawing near. “It would be a national misfortune if the station at Bulls goes back to private hands, and I hope to announce my proposals in the near future.

It must be an uncommon occurrence, says the Nelson Mail, for a man to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment to the strains of the “Wedding March. But that is what happened on Saturday when a young man was being charged with false pretences. The sounds of the well-known tune were wafted through the courthouse from a gramophone in the Registrar’s office, where a wedding was being celebrated. Such use of a gramophone in the registrar’s office must also be uncommon. Professor P. G. Hornell’s offer to report on one, or both, of two alternative schemes for the Wanganui harbour was not accepted by the board. The professor’s charge to advise on whether existing works were on the light lines was £lOOO. To report on a more comprehensive scheme, breaking away from existing work and dealing with the creation of a harbour independent of the Wanganui River, was quoted at £2500.