LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A collision occurred between two cars on Junction Road near the intersection of Mangorei Road about midnight On Saturday. As a result a man was arrested and will be charged in the New Plymouth Police Court this morning with being intoxicated while in charge of a car. One of the vehicles was stationary on the side of the road. It was revealed by the curator of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Mr. Gilbert Archey, at the meeting of the council recently that the total attendance for the year commencing April 1 last was 183,738. Since the last meeting of the council, about the middle of December last, the attendance was 22,620, making a weekly average of 2827. Harvest festival thanksgiving services were held in some Anglican churches in Taranaki yesterday. A special service at Tarurutangi was assisted by the choir of Holy Trinity, Fitzroy. The service was conducted by the Rev. W. S. C. Stephens, vicar of Holy Trinity, and a sermon appropriate to the occasion was preached by Archdeacon F. G. Evans. There were over 70 people in the congregation. After meeting with good sport on a big-game fishing expedition at Whitianga, Messrs. T. Struthers (New Plymouth) and G. Spratt (Waverley) haye just returned to their homes. Mr. Struthers took a 2641 b swordfish and Mr. Spratt a 3451 b mako shark. Conditions for fishing were not wholly favourable, and the party made only two trips, both in the launch Dauntless. While excavating in connection with the road construction work o» Upper Dover Road, Okato, a relief Worker on Saturday morning unearthed a half sovereign dated 1700. As there was in that vicinity a track greatly used by the Maoris prior to and during the Maori War it is probable that the half sovereign was plunder from one of the wrecked vessels along the coast, dropped by a Maori while trekking inland. A consignment of butter for the Taranaki Producers’ Freezing Works arrived at New Plymouth by the Karepo from Westport on Saturday. It was the first occasion on which butter had been sent from Westport to New Plymouth for grading, Westland usually shipping its produce to Wellington for transhipment to overseas vessels. It is thought that on account of the difficulty of working the port at times the shippers, the Buller Valley Dairy Company, sent the butter by the first available vessel going to an overseas port. The freezing works communicated with Westport but no reply Was received up to last night. The consignment was only a small one of 469. boxes. An attractive addition to the “gay white way” of New Plymouth’s main street made its first appearance on Saturday above the entrance doors to the Opera House. It comprises a “now showing” display in neon gas lighting, constructed in such a way that the title of the film may be altered with each change of programme. Each letter is a complete neon gas unit in itself, and as soon as it is slid into position makes contact with its neighbour through brass contact points, so that when all the letters are in position the electric current is able to pass throughout the system and animate the neon gas tubes. It is understood that this is only the third installation of its kind in New Zealand, a theatre in Auckland and one in Wellington being the only other buildings so far fitted. A visitor to Taranaki who made the

trip by motor bus to the Waitara regatta on Saturday contrasted his 20 minutes’ run with that of 30 years ago, when for months beforehand he used to look forward to his trip to the Waitara regatta, which was made on horseback, taking a couple of hours. Sometimes when he was ready to return the horse would be missing and he would have to get back as best he could in one of the numerous traps of all descriptions that used to rattle along the road on that day! Another visitor on Saturday referred to the manner in which residents of • South Taranaki used to flock to the regatta by train. He remembered one occasion when the passenger load was so heavy that the engine was stuck on the hill and had to take half of its load up to Sentry Hill and then return for the balance.

A striking instance of the hardihood of the Taranaki pioneer was given at the Waitara regatta on Saturday. Fifty years ago, when the Waitara regatta was one of the big events of the year in Taranaki, Einnim Dugdale was captain of the Clifton club and coxswain of many a winning crew, besides having a "mortgage” on such events as the horse marine derby, greasy boom, swimming obstacle and tub race, which he always won. On Saturday, though he is now 76 years of age, he took part in both the greasy boom and the tub race. In the former he demonstrated that he could still go with the young men as he finished second. The tub race, however, proved too much for him. Despite numerous attempts he

found that he was unable to maintain his equilibrium, and after several capsizes he handed over his tub to a younger competitor. The tub race also produced another well known exponent in P. Clare, who, dressed in his ordinary clothes, paddled unconcernedly, but he had to concede too much start to a younger opponent. To-day is the days of days at Scanlan’s Melbourne Corner, the occasion being the commencement of the firm’s end-of-sea-son sale. Seasons come and go and it is the firm’s fixed policy to avoid carrying over fashion goods from one season to another. The goods must be shifted, hence the tremendous sacrifices already advertised in Saturday’s News. The contents of the Premier Cake Shop and Tea Rooms will be sold by L. A. Nolan and Co. at the mart on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The goods have had very little use and are in splendid order. They will be on view at mart morning of sale.*

At a flannel dance at the Y.W.C.A. Hall on Saturday night Miss Jean Stevenson announced that a “Joy Night” would be held for young people on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Community singing would be conducted by Mr. P. E. Stainton, and items by Mr. Chas. Blake and Mr. Basil Hirst. Young men and women are invited, and after supper there will be an hour for informal dancing. Miss Greenwell (general secretary) in a brief speech spoke of the plans to make the Y.W.C.A. a community centre for activities for young men and women during the winter, ’

An oil painting entitled “The Rangatira” has been done by Mr. J. I. McDonald for the Union Steam Ship Company, and it will be hung next week in a space temporarily occupied by a tapestry above the companion stairway of the ferry steamer Rangatira. “Rangatira” means chief, and the painting is of a Maori chief. The Rev. T. A. Pybus, of the WatkinCreed Memorial Church at Port Chalmers, has received the original notes of sermons and addresses givfin by . Mr. Watkin as missionary and pioneer minister in Otago. As these notes probably extend to his first arrival in Otago almost a century ago great historical value attaches to them. The notes were sent to Mr. Pybus by Miss Watkin, of Melbourne, a granddaughter of the pioneer, and will be carefully preserved with the other valuable relics of pioneering. “Hitherto most of the young women applying for positions on the teaching staff have not been much good at mathematics, but have been proficient in English and French,” observed Mr. W. Fraser, principal of the Hamilton Technical High School at a meeting of the Board of Managers, when applications for positions on the staff were under discussion (states the “Waikato Times”). “Strangely enough most of the applicants have taken mathematics this time,” said Mr. Fraser. “It seems to be a new development.”

“I think it may be said that the greatest educational advance of the 20th century has been the discovery of the child,” said Mr. N. T. Lambourne, chief inspector of primary schools, in an address at Wellington on primary schools reorganisation last week. “For hundreds of years previously the child had been regarded by its parents and its teachers as a little man or a little woman, and was in some respects treated accordingly. This was especially so in regard to his education, although some very enlightened educationists, Froebel and Pestalozzi, for example, disagreed with this opinion, and established schools in which little boys and girls were taught as children, not as pocket-size adults.”

In connection with the Salvation Army Jubilee Congress, to be held in Dunedin from March 28 to April 3 of this year, an application has been received by the Dunedin City Council from the divisional secretary of the organisation requesting permission to set a brass tablet not larger than 2ft by Ift 6in at the Princes Street side of Cargill’s Monument. The council has given consideration to the request, and recommends that permission be granted to set such a tablet horizontally in the tar macadam paving at the base of the monument and as close to it as possible, the work to be carried out to the satisfaction of the city engineer in al! respects.

“Surprising as it may seen,” remarked Mr. H. Mandeno, Dunedin, during his presidential address to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, “there is still a great deal Of building work dofie without any architect, and some of this work is unfortunately in the hands of people who can afford to pay for professional service. The remedy is largely in our own hands by giving value for service and by showing the public that by employing an architect they can be assured of good value, by giving of our best in design and construction and by faithfully watching the interests of our clients. .If we do our part, I believe the public will respond.”

In the opinion of the Presbyterian Church committee on broadcasting, the only proposal which can satisfactorily solve the question of the church’s relationship to radio broadcasting is for the church to establish its own station, as has been done in New South Wales, where similar questions were faced. There the station was established through the generosity of a prominent churchman, the cost of maintenance being borne by the Council of Protestant Churches. There also the Roman Catholic Church had its own high-power station. “This appears to be the only reasible solution of the question,” states the committee, .“but while feasible, does not appear to be practicable at present.”. In a talk to members of the Nelson Automobile Association on his recent visit to England, Dr. Gibbs, the president, stated that while there he received an unsought dignity. He was a bit dissatisfied with representations in connection with the Transport Act,‘he said, and he saw Mr- Pybus, the Minister, and had a long talk with him. From seeing the heads of the department in Scotland he went down to Carlisle, where the Transport Board was sitting, with Sir John Maxwell as chairman. “I was then introduced as the Minister of Transport for New Zealand,” said Dr. Gibbs. “I said that I must correct the chairman in his description of me, as I was merely chairman of a very small licensing authority. I had been guilty of many things, but not that. Nevertheless, next morning out it came in the Carlisle Guardian that the Minister of Transport for New Zealand was visiting the city.”

A farmer who has been fortunate enough to have over £lOOO in mortgage interest remitted by the court under the provisions of the Mortgagors’ Relief Act approached the Marlborough County Council through his solicitor for still further relief in the shape of remission of part or the whole of his rates. The applicant argued that, as the court has been so considerate, it served to show that his position was so desperate as to warrant further leniency in regard to his rates, which he had not paid for three years, and is now being sued for. Councillors, however, thought the applicant should regard himself as an exceedingly lucky man to be relieved of over £lOOO worth of debts, and they refused to entertain creating a precedent in the remission of rates. Private mortgagees could please themselves what they did in regard to interest due to them, but the council’s duty to the other ratepayers was to collect all rates due. After all, many ratepayers who had not been as fortunate as the applicant were paying their rates, it was pointed out, and the decision to sue to protect the outstandings should not be waived in his case. This was the decision arrived at. '

An immediate start is to be made with plans for.a new traffic bridge across the Waikato River at Hamilton, tentatively estimated to cost £24,000. At a meeting of the Waikato County Council last week the Government’s offer of a maximum subsidy of £BOOO on a £1 for £2 basis was accepted (states the New Zealand Herald). The two other local bodies con-, cemed, the Waipa County Council and the Hamilton Borough Council, have already given their consent to the terms of the grant. The site of the proposed new bridge is near No. 1 bridge, a large culvert on tthe Main South Road at Whitiora, and is about two chains north of the borough boundary. It is proposed to erect a concrete bridge of bowspring arch design, with a 20ft. roadway and two footpaths each sft wide. There are three sets of piles 128 ft. apart, and one short road span. The total length of the bridge will be 400 ft. The local bodies concerned have been actively agitating for a new bridge, so that the present structure could be closed for extensive repairs. Two Government engineers spent some time examining the present bridge, and although their report has not been published it is understood that they confirmed the views of the local body engineers, and that their advice influenced the Government in making the offer of the subsidy.

Buyers of lambs and ewes from hilly country are recommended to attend the Inglewood Supplementary Sheep Fair on Wednesday. A large entry will be yarded on behalf of back-country clients who are submitting their annual drafts. The sale will commence on the lamb section promptly at 12.30 p.m,