LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The New- Plymouth Borough Council last night decided to contribute £25 from “unauthorised expenditure” towards the cost of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway celebrations. One business man with an eye to the main chance had a motor load of pies at the Tahora station yard yesterday morning, and when the special train from New Plymouth stopped ho appeared to be doing a roaring trade. Following the ceremony of driving the last spike of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway at Heao yesterday Mrs. C. J. Ryan, the wife of one of the oldest settlers of the Ohura district, took possession of the ceremonial bit that bored the spike hole. She intends to keep it as a memento of the occasion. After the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister of Publie Works, had driven the first train over the newly driven last spike of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway at Heao yesterday it was interestin<T to see souvenir, hunters in the crowd picking up flattened pennies laid on the rails for that purpose. A blow on the nose from a cricket ball was received by a New Plymouth High School boy named Ray Sole when playing cricket on the Tukapo ground on Saturday. The injury was very painful and the boy was taken to the New Plymouth hospital, where he received treatment. He was able to go home shortly afterwards.

“I thought when I drove the first engine over the linking point that I had fulfilled my duty for the day,” said the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister of Public Works, as he stood wiping his hands on a piece of engineer’s waste before addressing those assembled to witness the ceremony of driving the last spike of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway at Heao yesterday. An interesting lecture was given at a Taranaki Alpine Club gathering at . the club rooms at New Plymouth last night by Mr. Oscar Coburgcr, a Swiss guide from Arthur’s Pass, in the Southern Alps. Mr. Coburger dealt with elementary ski-ing, an appropriate subject in view of the approaching Taranaki ski championships. There were 20 present at the lecture and Mr. Coburger was given an attentive hearing and a hearty vote of thanks.

The keen interest taken in the official opening of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway yesterday was shown .by the large" crowd thgt made the trip from New Plymouth, the train being well filled. At Lcpperton the guard had to open the carriages that had been reserved for the official party in order to accommodate the Waitara and Lepperton passengers, the train leaving Lepperton with a complement of over 300. The number increased all along the route until, with the addition of the South Taranaki passengers and a number from Stratford who could not catch the Stratford special, there was a total of 053 passengers, exclusive of the party that travelled in the Railway Board s special car.

Headed by 20 members of the Stratford Motor Sports Club sitting astride their motor-cycles and flaunting gailycOlourcd berets, a large crowd assembled at the Stratford railway station to welcome the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet who were arriving from the ceremony of driving the last spike of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway at Heao. About CO cars were drawn up in lino along the centre of Broadway, and into these the Ministers, members of Parliament and other visitors were ushered. Led by the escort . of motor-cyclists the long line of cars immediately proceeded to the Stratford Mountain resort, and on over the new road to the plateau 4000 feet above sea level. With sundry minor mishaps all 'the cars and cycles reached the plateau, where the party spent 20 minutes in admiring the wonderful panorama.

A drowning fatality almost occurred from the steamer .Tymeric as she lay at the Newton King wharf, New Plymouth. The ship’s cat, no pedigree animal but a great favourite with the Indian crew nevertheless, was apparently chasing a bird when it took a header overboard in the most approved fashion. There were no cries, but the cat immediately struck out for the shore. When it reached the stern of the ship, however, it must have decided that the shore was too far away, for it made a good landing on the rudder and the stem, just clear of the water. Frhm there its cries attracted members of the crew, and a storm of chattering immediately commenced. A rope ladder was dropped over the side and one of the Indian seamen went down accompanied by a bucket on another rope. Finding the bucket scheme impracticable,. however, the Indian placed the cat on his shoulder and returned to the deck.

Speakers at the opening of the Stratford Mountain Road yesterday were intrigued with the resonant qualities imparted to their voices by the mountain air. “Never before have I spoken where the air was so clear and the acoustics so good,” said one. .The grant of free lighting and heating to Welcome Lodge, New Plymouth, was last night extended from September 16 to October 17 and the Borough Council decided to write off the small amount charged. “Auckland sends heartiest congratulations on the completion of this great public work, linking up the province of Taranaki with Auckland,” were the wishes conveyed by Mr. A. J. Entrican, deputy-Mayor of Auckland, to last night’s banquet at Stratford. Prior to the toasts at last night’s banquet at Stratford the Hon. R. Masters was called upon to declare “open” a model railway on a raised dais behind the official table. The flag covering the model fell away amid the cheers of the gathering.

Legislation will probably be brought down this session to permit councils that have sold houses to workers to extend the period of payment so. as to reduce the amount of the weekly instalments. Advice to that effect was received last night by the New Plymouth Borough Council from the Internal Affairs Department. A South African family Bible that had been, deposited in the museum at the Carnegie Institute by a veteran of the South African War is to be returned to that country by the librarian. The New Plymouth Borough Council decided in that direction last night on the recommendation of the institute committee, which had received an appeal for the return of articles and documents of sentimental value.

Urging that the highways fund should be maintained and that at the earliest possible date all special motor taxation should be paid into that fund, the New Plymouth Borough Council last night decided that, while fully appreciating the financial difficulties of the Government and recognising the necessity for the strictest economy in order that the Budget might be balanced at an early date, it disagreed absolutely with the National Expenditure Commission’s recommendation that the highways fund should be abolished.

Writing to a friend in Christeburch, a prominent Oamaru business man says': “We have had a wonderful spring with good rains, and North Otago is to-day looking better than I have ever seen it. There, is a large quantity of wheat in, so we hope the farmers will get some reasonable return from that, as meat seems hardly saleable at all. The recent discovery of gold near Cromwell is interesting everyone about here, and there is every prospect of quite a little Oamaru capital going Tn to one claim that has been pegged off. If the field is really rich it will mean a big thing to Otago, and perhaps the whole Dominion.

Though unable to attend the official opening of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway, Sir William Hall Jones who as Minister of Public Works turned the first sod at Stratford in 1901, still has a fond place in his heart for Stratford and for the “big job.” In a letter read at the banquet last night he expressed his keen appreciation of the invitation to take part in the celebrations. “I would like to meet again some of my old friends at Stratford, for I remember well the pleasant time I had there, especially at the turning of the first sod of the now completed, .railway,” he wrote. “You have my best wishes for the success of the railway; may it bring more prosperity to your town and district.”

“We have two colleges of university degree in Australasia, and they are both in New Zealand,” said Mr. H. G. Dickie (Government, Patea) when criticising Massey Agricultural College in the House of Representatives. Mr. Dickie sgid that when Massey College was first mooted he opposed it strenuously. He realised that what the farmer needed was a central research station, and not a teaching institution. In addition to-Massey College there, was a bureau of z entomology and experimental grass plots, and, Mr. Dickie contended, there should be co-operation between Massey College and the Agriculture Department. Entomological work was carried out at the Cawthron Institute, and if it. was transferred to Massey College a considerable saving would be made.

Economic difficulties no doubt contributed to the keen competition and the considerable originality shown by Auckland boys in their representations of Guy Fawkes this year. Shoppers in Karangahape Road on Saturday morning were intrigued by a very diminutive boy who, no doubt well aware that it was race day, appeared in the guise of a jockey, with a well-known name in large letters on his jacket. The habit of representing celebrities, rather unkindly, considering the nature of the festival, was carried even further by another Newton boy. He carried a placard bearing the name of a Cabinet Minister, whose designs on Parliament would be strangely foreign to those attributed to the Guy Fawkes of history. A testimonial to the -strength and clarity of station 2YB, New Plymouth, has been received by the station from Wauchope, New South Wales. Although it was a daylight transmission, said the listener, the strength was good to very good. Although New Plymouth was hemmed in by a ring of Australian stations, he said, he was rather surprised to hear the New Plymouth call sign so clearly amidst the barrage of local stations around that particular wavelength. Birthday calls were being given (the time being 5.30 p.m.), followed by an orchestral selection by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. This item was received excellently. After hearing the strength and fidelity of 2YB the listener felt he should at least drop a line expressing congratulations and wishing good luck.

The innovation made by the Christchurch Tramway Board this week of issuing weekly passes for use on all lines on seven days of the week will be watched with a great deal of interest by tramway undertakings throughout New Zealand and Australia, according to the general manager, Mr. F. Thompson. He said last week that it was an American system and that it had been adopted with considerable success in Milwaukee, a city larger than Christchurch, and in other cities in the United States. The object is to give the constant tramway user an advantage over the casual user and to encourage the use of the trams during the slack periods. For 3s. a pass enabling the holder to travel as often as he likes on the trams within a four-section radius from Monday to Sunday is being issued, and for ss. a pass will be issued for use over the wholb system. The practice in America is to make a weekly charge of one dollar (4s. 2d. at par) for a pass available over the whole system.

Extraordinary bargains are advertised by Scanlan’s, Ltd., in to-day’s News on page 2. Something new for the Melbourne corner is a line of ladies’ ready-to-wear hats —all this season’s styles—to be sold for 7/11. Other startling bargains are new “Monkey’’ jackets for 19/6, summer coats, 19/6, and a number of wonderful new frocks, including many outsizes, for 29/6. The windows ■will be ablaze with these sensational bargains.