LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 30 May 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A motor-car containing Messrs. J. Nicolson and W. Butler (Hawera) and R. L. Horn (Ohau) capsized on the corner of Mountain Road near the junction with Devon Road yesterday. None of the occupants was hurt. The car was fitted' with a new wheel during the day and was driven away in the evening. A dispute concerning the employment of trimmers on the s.s, Parracombe, which is discharging 3000 tons of phosphates from Nauru Island, occurred at the port of New Plymouth yesterday morning. The disputes committee met but adjourned without having come to any decision. Meanwhile the work of unloading is proceeding normally. Authority to complete the set of the Oxford Dictionary, a work which has been in preparation for very many years and has been completed only in recent years, was given to the librarian (Mr. A. L. Low) of the New Plymouth public library by the New Plymouth Borough Council last night on the recommendation of the Carnegie Institute committed. No asphalt is to be sold by the New Plymouth Borough Council in future, nor will any outside work involving the use of asphalt be undertaken, according to a decision of the council last night. The decision was a repercussion from the sales tax legislation and was made in view of the fact that if asphalt is sold the council will require to pay sales tax on all such material made by it, including that for its own use. Only two applications for exemption from jury service were made by members of the second panel called in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday. Both were granted. One man said that after being out of work for six months he had just obtained a job. The other man was the proprietor of a one-man signwriting business. Times had not been too good, but now there was a number of' urgent jobs on which he could not leave an apprentice in charge.

“f am not a drinker,” said a young constable in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday, after telling counsel that when doing plain-clothes duty at New Plymouth to obtain evidence of bookmaking he had a good many drinks. He took lemonade, squash and beer. “Did you mix them all together?” inquired Mr. Justice Reed, with some apparent surprise. “Yes, sir,” was the reply. “And did you feel unwell afterwards?” asked the judge. “No, sir!” said the witness.

A small outbreak of fire occurred behind the Devon Street, New Plymouth, shop of Mr. M. Scott, pork butcher, about 10.45 o’clock last night. Two sheds containing firewood were ablaze, one apparently having ignited the other, but the brigade’ was very quickly on the spot and the fire was soon extinguished. No damage was done to the surrounding buildings. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Considerable damage was caused to a light commercial truck when it ran into a stationary tramcar in Breakwater Road, New Plymouth, at 2.30 yesterday afternoon. Two young men who were in the cab of the truck were not seriously injured. The vehicle, which is owned by a merchandise firm, had the radiator, engine block, steering and all front gear badly smashed. The tram service on the line was suspended for nearly half an hour before the wrecked truck was cleared off the line.

Many more motor drivers’ licenses for 1933-34 have been issued by the New Plymouth Borough Council staff this year than had been at the corresponding date last year. At the closing of the office yesterday 730 licenses had been issued, compared with 572 last year. The increase is attributed to the fact that drivers have remembered the delay experienced by those who made application on the last day and had to wait some time to be attended to. There are still about 2000 licenses to issue, it is estimated.

Issues from the New Plymouth public library during April, which comprised 22 working days, totalled 11,138, including an issue of 909 in the children’s section, a daily average of 506 issues. On the Thursday preceding the Easter holidays the issue was 1031, one of the largest daily issues of the library. During the month 59 new subscribers were registered and 38 subscriptions cancelled, a nett increase of 21. Accessions to the library for the month totalled 241, under the following library classification: Science 1, literature 3, history 5, travel 9, biography 4, fiction 151, children 68.

The necessity for a tramway shelter in Morley Street, New Plymouth, near Western Park, was raised by the Mayor (Mr. E. R. Gilmour) at the meeting of the Borough Council last night, and consideration of the erection of a shelter was referred to the electric light and tramways committee. The tram stop was used extensively by visitors to the public hospital, Mr. Gilmour said, and in bad weather there was no place to shelter anywhere in the vicinity. A motor caravan approaching the ideal was at New Plymouth yesterday. A man and his wife, travelling from Auckland to Bluff and back on a sales commission, use it as a means of transport and as a home, and a cosier or more complete house on wheels would be difficult to imagine. Lockers and cupboards store provisions, kitchen utensils and samples, a long and commodious rack overhead holds all the odds and ends, a comfortable chesterfield stretched across one end of the room flattens out to make two beds, a wireless set, independent electricity supply—what more could one' want? Then to add that final “home” touch, the family cat and dog tour with them, looking thoroughly at ease. Gymnasium and folk dancing classes for married women and girls are to be initiated at New Plymouth to-morrow when Miss O. J. Taylor will conduct two classes—one at the Y.W.C.A. hall at 10.30 for married women and one at the Central School at 7.30 p.m. for girls. Those intending to join should communicate with the Y.W.C.A. secretary.

Why buy new clothes when the old ones can be renovated equal to new at the cost of a few shillings? We have been dyeing and cleaning garments for over 20 years. Let us have your soiled or faded suits, costumes, dresses, etc., to renovate and you will be surprised at the result. We also renovate and reblock felt hats. Why not have yours done at J. K. Hawkins Co., comer Devon and Liardet Streets, New Plymouth. Thone 680. Mrs. Rudkin (Everybody’s) is our Stratford agent* v

The excellent average of approximately 20 bushels per tree has been cropped each season for the past three or four years from two lemon trees in the orchard of Mr. D. S. McLeod, Te-Mata, Hawke’s Bay. He attributes their present yields to the fact that they are given an ample supply of water at all times, through his irrigation plant.

An addition to the Sydney hospital, one of the city’s principal public hospitals, was opened in April, the gift of a Japanese merchant firm, F. Manematsu, Ltd., which donated £25,000 for the building and equipment. It is an institute of pathology, and was dedicated to the memory of Fusijoro Kanematsu, the pioneer Japanese merchant in Australia, and to the memory of his wife, Sen Kanematsu.

The view that all applicants for licenses to drive motor-vehicles should receive a printed warning against the dangers arising from the consumption of alcoholic liquor was expressed at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Alliance in Wellington last week. A motion was carried urging that the Health Department and the Transport Department should co-operate in issuing a warning concerning the consumption of even small quantities of liquor by motor drivers.

A big demand for unemployed labour is being made this winter by the State Forest Service for development schemes in both islands, and the Hon. A. Hamilton, Minister of Employment, stated in Christchurch on Saturday that the department had notified the Unemployment Board that it required between one thousand and two thousand, men for forestry relief works. Of these between five hundred and six hundred were required for the Auckland district. The men would mainly be single, and would go into camps in various parts of the Dominion.

When the steamer Ku row was docked recently a considerable quantity of the mussels which were scraped from the bottom of the hull were gathered by the Chinese crew, who have been engaged since in opening the mussels and drying them for use during the voyage of the steamer to China. The mussels are considered a delicacy by the crew. The Kurow was laid up at Hobson Bay for nearly two years, and she was removed to the Western viaduct for overhaul when she was sold to the Moller Line, Shanghai.

The establishment of a heliotherapy hospital in the Southern Alps was advocated by Dr. W. Aitken when speaking at the Sunlight League meeting at Christchurch on Saturday (states the Christchurch Times). He said that this would be a great asset to New Zealand. There was no reason why the people should have to go to the Swiss Alps to obtain treatment that could be given in New Zealand. In the curing and prevention of disease the Sunlight .League had a great deal of work to do in educating the public to the benefits of sunlight treatment. Perseverance would reward enterprise. It would be necessary for a hospital of the type he had in mind to be situated about 4000 ft. above sea level.

Since the appointment of wages tax inspectors last October, over 1,000 inspections have been made, resulting in the direct recovery of approximately £3OOO in additional tax, states the Unemployment Board. In addition to this amount, it is said the material increase in the revenue received from the sale of stamps can be directly attributed to the operations of the inspectors. The board reports that the average monthly receipts from the sale of stamps and from wages tax paid in cash to the Post and Telegraph Department for the three months ended September, 1932, amounted to £189,225, whereas the monthly average for the three months ended December, 1932, was £195,993, and for the three months ended, last March, £201,455.

A discovery which leads to the belief that the deposit of volcanic rock which is such a common feature of many parts of the Auckland isthmus is of comparatively recent origin was made when steps were being taken some time ago to find an underground outlet for the water which used to accumulate in the basin on the site of the City Council’s Epsom depot, at the comer of Gillies Avenue and Kimberley Road. Bores were sunk through the scoria on the frontage of the Epsom Domain, opposite the depot, and at several places harbour mud and ti-tree were encountered at a depth ,of 23 feet. The expectations of the council’s officers were confirmed when they encountered underground openings, and since the placing of pipes from the depot site to the soakage area the flooding conditions have entirely disappeared.

In the days of the Great War, when Italian mountaineer troops were engaged in a relentless conflict with Austria, Captain Gappi Spartaco took a personal interest in a certain little corporal of the company. During years of stern fighting and hardship on the Albanian border this interest grew into a warm friendship that could not be broken by differences of rank or station. To-day, when the little corporal, Benito Mussolini, has become a world figure, and Captain Spartaco a ship’s purser, the spirit of friendship is as strong as ever. The Melbourne Age reports that on the arrival here last week of the motor vessel Romolo the purser proudly displayed personallysigned photographs of the Italian dictator. One of these, showing Mussolini taking the salute on the outskirts of Rome, is inscribed, “In memory of our march on Rome, October, 1922.” Prominent in the picture is Captain Spartaco, a captain of the Black Shirts, and one of the most devoted followers of his former non-commissioned officer. Discussing the Duce, the purser said that power had not turned his head or tickled his vanity. He was still the true friend and staunch democrat, a man, who placed family life above everything.

The Old Man’s position is still extraordinarily difficult (says the Sydney Bulletin in comment on the agreement between Britain and Denmark). For 10 years or thereabout 20 per cent, to 25 per cent, of his working people have been unemployed. On an income tax of 5s in the £, with a thumping surtax, he has failed for the third year in four years to balance his Budget. He had to abandon the gold standard, he had to pay £29,000,000 last year to his war creditor. He may have to pay £51,000,000 this year to the same party though President Roosevelt seems now convinced that it would be madness to ask for it. If our venerable parent can pick up a bit of his lost trade by making agreements with Denmark, Argentina, Norway and Sweden it is not for us to object, so long as our interests are not sacrificed. Rather should we rejoice, for practical as well as sentimental reasons, since (for one thing) every Briton put back in work is a potential purchaser of Australian food. During. the most terrible peace year he has experienced since Waterloo was fought, the Old Man refrained from asking us for interest and something off the principal of that war debt we contracted with his Government. We owe him thanks for that and admiration for the unflinching courage he has shown in all his tribulations.

The winner of the Taranaki championship chopping event at the forthcoming Rahotu sports meeting will receive the handsome silver cup on view in the window of Messrs. J. Bennett and Son at New Plymouth.

An important announcement appears in the advertising columns relating to the laying of sewers on private property. Some proprietors arc experiencing trouble with the men they engage to do the work and the authorities seek to deal with the trouble.