LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1931, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The a.o.v. Aratapu, which has been lying idle at the Waitara whaif fol many months, has, it is reported, been sold’to an Auckland syndicate and will shortly be leaving for her destination.

A draft of 14 ratings from the Wellington Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve left on Saturday for a week’s training on board the \\ akakura. While at sea the men are undergoing a full course of naval training.

The system of paying wages out of cash was criticised during bankruptcy proceedings at Wellington this week. “Most of these small business men seem to pay the wages out of the till on Friday, when they have the money,” said Mr. >S. Tansley’ Official Assignee. Mr. J. Mc”:zcr: “It is a pernicious practice.”

An application was made to the Auckland Harbour Board for the use of the sheerlegs at Calliope Dock for the purpose of erecting an advertising board at the top. The board refused the request which, it was stated, was against its policy. “We might consider presenting the sheerlegs if the applicant will remove them,” remarked a member of the board.

Some fine shooting was obtained in the South Island by Sir Douglas Hall, an English sportsman who is visiting New' Zealand. Stalking at Mount Cook lie obtained fine chamois and he has several good heads to take back to England. Sir Douglas considered that the sport afforded by thar and chamois within easy distance of the Hermitage could not be excelled in any other country in the world.

During the past five years Wanganui tramway revenue has fallen approximately *4O per cent. This represents a loss of nearly £19,000. During the same period motor vehicles have increased in numbers by about 170 per cent. A Very marked drop in tramway receipts during the past four months is attributed to the competition of cheap taxis in the city. There are now six of these taxi linns 'established in Wanganui.

Present indications are, says the New Zealand Herald, that a record number of divorce cases will be dealt with at the quarterly sessions of the Supreme Court to be 'opened next week. Already 91 petitions have been set down for heari»o-, apd others may still be added by leave of the Court. After the criminal business has been disposed of there are 11 civil actions to be tried by a judge and jury, and 05 to come before a judge alone.

Safety of travel on the railways is incidently acknowledged in certain fiee accident insurance schemes, writes the New Zealand Railways Magazine. Thus we find an Auckland daily newspaper in a recent issue holding out the inducement, to subscribers, of free insurance “up to £4OOO in the event of husband and wife being killed in a Railway accident.” The same scheme provides a. benefit of only £250 in the case of a motor-car fatality.

A judgment debtor at the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning stated that he was 38 years old, he was married at 17 years and had. 12 children ranging from nine months to 20 years. The eldest were not in employment. His average wages were £4 10s per week. “It is hard enough to get enough food and clothing,” he remarked, “and. it keeps one’s nose to the grindstone all the time.” “I can’t make an order,” remarked Air. J. H. Salmon, S.AL “The Government’s housing- policy has been one of the worst tactois in inflating the value of urban land, declaied the Wellington city solicitor, Air. J. O’Shea, during the hearing of a claim against the City Council for compensation for land, taken under the 1 üblic Works Act for street-widening purposes. He declared, that the Auckland City Council had had to make application for a loan to carry out repairs to houses which had been thrown back on its hands. *

There was a stoppage in proceedings at the Magistrate's Court in Christchurch one day last week, when a woman, who had shown a great desire to speak, was given a chance of going into the witness box. The clerk, on preparing to swear the witness in, was taken aback because she refused to take the oath or make an affirmation. If my word is not good enough, it does not matter,” she declared in an indignant tone. The magistrate heard what she had' to say without insisting on any formality.

A motion that the shooting season for 1932 should be a close one for swans and an open one for pukeko prompted a lively discussion at the annual meeting of license-holders of the South Wairarapa sub-committee of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, many mempers asserting that the season for shooting swans opened too early. It was eventually decided to recommend that the season for ducks open on May 1 and. that nukeko be shot during the last fortnight in May and swans during the last fortnight in June. An unusual reason for his bankruptcy was given by Andreas Kristian Hansen, a Greytown farmer, in a statement to a meeting of his creditors. He attributed his present position partly to theft ot stock He declared that during the 16 years’ he had farmed his property his total losses by theft were over £l3OO. Another contributing cause was destruction of profits and land by flood waters. He estimated his annual loss in this respect alone at £lOO. Other causes were the present low prices of stock and iaim produce, and an incomplete recovery from the 1922 slump.

“I have travelled 100,(100 miles in the last six years, and have never yet got into trouble of any kind,” said a woman motorist in the Magistrate’s Court ,at Wellington, when charged with driving on the Hutt Road at a speed likely to be dangerous to the public. ‘I only drive a car,” she added, “and I don’t see how I could travel at a speed over 35 miles an hour. Besides, I had mv six young children with me m the ear that day, and it is not likely that I would endanger them by driving at a dangerous speed.” Nevertheless, Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.AI., imposed a fine of £2, and 10s costs. The closing of three bars in Queen Street hotels is the first visible proof in Auckland of the slackening of the hotel trade, says the New Zealand Herald. “Business does not warrant the retention of as many bars as we kept in the days of prosperity, explained a hotelkeeper. “I have gone carefully into my accounts, and find this is the best way to economise, lhe. lead is likely to be followed in other hotels, for everywhere the same tale is heard. Bar’receipts are down; larger and larger grows the circle of men ,to whom' drinking has become an expensive luxury. Medium and “pony” glasses are slowly vanishing from the bar counters, spirit drinkers are becoming noticeably fewer, and trade generally is passing away from the private bar and patronising the public bar, where the drinks are cheaper and bigger.

These are the garments you'll be in need of in these autumn days: A Cardigan or Pullover to wear in the house or neath your coat for that extra warmth. Most certainly a Raincoat for the showers, not forgetting a smart Felt Hat in latest up-to-date fashion. A visit to The Hustlers, New Plymouth, will well repaj you, and you can get any of* these good? at the i .possible >pxices.-

The recent two-day trotting meeting at New Plymouth resulted in an estimated loss of about £420.

The value of the next Taranaki Stakes, to bo run at the 1932 February meeting, is t° be reduced from 500 sovs to 300 sovs, according to a decision made at the meeting of the committee of the Taranaki Jockey Club.

According to a police statement in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, certain youthful motorists in the city have been indulging in a dangerous practice of late. They cause their cars to approach each other at a smart pace, and just as a head-on collision appears inevitable they pull up a few feet apart. One youth mistook a motorist for a friend ’in Vivian Street recently, but the stranger did not see the joke, and r, collision occurred. This joke cost the motorist responsible for the collision £1 snd 10s costs.

The Post and Telegraph Department has advised the Wellington Fire Board that it does not intend to proceed airy further with the placing of placards in slot telephone boxes, announcing . the numbers of lire stations, police stations, and the Free Ambulance. Discussing the matter at a meeting of the board, members generally held that in the case of some queer-uiinded people the very reminder as to what was a fire brigade station number was enough to make them give a false alarm. It was thought that it was' best to have no special intimations in the telephone boxes.

“It seems hard that some of the unemployed teachers on relief work in grubbing grass on the roads could not be put into the schools at the same rate of pay as they are receiving now, ’ stated Mr. A. R. Blank, headmaster of the Fendalton School, Christchurch, in discussing the question of the size of primary school classes. “If they were taken on at schools where the classes are admittedly too large there would be more efficiency with the classes smaller.”

The Marine Department’s competition for large cargo hooks, for which a prize of £lOO is offered, has drawn at least five entries from New Plymouth. Five hooks have been made at the foundry of Messrs. Rollo and Millar at the order of the inventors, and all of them are ingenious. The conditions stipulate that the hooks must hold ropes so that they will not slip, be of simple design and cheap of manufacture, fool-proof, and must be so constructed as not to catch on the sides of holds when in use.

Mystery surrounds the entry of a bullet into a room at a house in Wadestown, Wellington, where some people were sitting on Saturday evening. Mr. R. Godtsehalk, who lives only a short distance away, had called at the home of his father and mother at Cecil Road, and had been with them in one of the rooms for only two or three minutes, when there wits suddenly a sharp crack. Mr. Godtsehalk, junior, and others who were in the room found on investigation that a small hole, perhaps a quarter of an inch in diameter, had appeared in the window. The police were .communicated With, and Mi*. Godtsehalk went outside and into the street, but could find no one about. The police considered from tile type of hole in the Window that it had been caused by a bullet.

Just at present there are special lines to be picked up at a reduced price, which means four pounds will go further when these lines are wanted lines. It means A further saving. See McGruer’s, Central Devon Street, advertisement, then act.

Attention is drawn to an announcement elsewhere in this issue showing, the full list of prize winners in the “Lucky Dog Art Union which was drawn in Wellington on Thursday, April 23/

Considerable interest is being evinced in the Okoke axemen’s carnival ana sports meeting to be held at Okoke on Saturday, May 9. Judging by the number of entries already received from Main Trunk axemen the sports should be a record one.