LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Yesterday’s meeting of the Egmont County Council was the shortest held by that body for many years. Commencing shortly after 11 a.m., proceedings were finished just two hours later.

Flying-Officer lan Keith, pilot instructor to the Western Federated (N. 1. Flying Club, has recommenced training pupils at New Plymouth. He has just completed a fortnight at Wanganui and will be at New Plymouth for the same time.

No buyer was found when a section and four-roomed house was offered at auction by Webster Bros, at New Plymouth yesterday. The house, which is situated in Shortland Street, Vogeltown, was bought in by the mortgagee.

With feed becoming scarce the “long acre” is evidently becoming popular with farmers in the Egmont county. At yesterday’s meeting the ranger reported that he had seized and released on the road 121 cows, 19 weaners and one horse, while two horses had been impounded—a total of 143 head.

Looking very much like stowaways, a man and a boy whose heads protruded from an enormous load of furniture on a lorry caused considerable amusement at New Plymouth yesterday* A large tarpaulin was drawn over the load and only the heads of the passengers were seen, framed with chairlegs and canvas.

Charged with the theft of ten packets of cigarettes valued at 75., Henry Edward Thomas Wakelin appeared before Messrs. P. E. Stainton and G. Fraser, Justices of the Peace, at New Plymouth yesterday. It was alleged he stole the packets from Arthur E. Priest at Moturoa . on July 7. On the application of SeniorSergeant Turner the Bench granted a remand until Monday to enable further inquiries to be made. It is seldom that the arrival of the man in blue is greeted with applause, but such was the case at the Tukapa boxing tournament last night. The tournament had been advertised to start at 7.45, but as the time on the police permit was fixed at 8 p.m. the public was kept waiting for a quarter of an hour. The appearance of the policeman in the doorway was the signal for a round of cheers.

Judgement was reserved by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., at the conclusion of the hearing of the dispute between Oswald George and James Campbell at New Plymouth yesterday. As agent for tyres, George claimed £25 ss. for tyres sold, and there was a counterclaim for a refund of £26 7s. 6d. on account of an alleged defect in seven tyres purchased from George. The claim was admitted and the counter-claim was contested. At the conclusion of the hearing on the latter matter Mr. R. J. Brokenshire moved for a non-suit on behalf of George. The point was reserved. Mr. L. E. So-wry appeared for Campbell.

Aspects of missionary work among the Melanesian peoples were again treated by the Rev. A. H. Scriven, general secretary for foreign mission work for . the Methodist Church of New Zealand, in a lantern lecture in Whiteley Hall, New Plymouth, last night. Speaking to a good attendance Mr. Scriven, who had been a missionary in Papua for 18 years, took as his subject “The triumph of the Gospel in Papua,” dealing interestingly from his own experiences with the progress of the work of the church in New Guinea. .

The Egmont County ranger is evidently no respecter ’of persons. At yesterday s meeting of the council Cr. J. S. Tosland raised the question of charges, pointing out that a settler whose horse had escaped on to the road through the gate being left open by a casual visitor considered that when he released the horse on the road the ranger had overcharged him. The chairman, however, made it clear that the ranger had the right to charge Is. per mile driving fee to the nearest pound, plus Is. poundage. He knew those fees were right, because that morning he had had to pay 10s. owing to his cow having been seized by the ranger under exactly similar circumstances as those stated by Cr. Tosland. He did not complain as he recognised that the ranger was only doing his duty.

Building subsidy applications in Wellington continue to reach the Unemployment Board at the rate of 150 daily, and it has been found possible to approve of all except a negligible proportion. Answering Christchurch criticism that. 134 applications were held up in Wellington, the board’s officials state that all received unntil July 5 have been dealt with, except in a few cases where special inquiries are necessary.

Thefts from shop doorways have been prevalent in Greymouth lately. The Grey River Argus reports that on a Saturday night drapery valued at over £lO was stolen between 5 o clock and 7 o’clock. Among goods stolen were a leather coat, a pair of working boots, a felt hat, and a bundle of working socks. The articles were stolen from different shops, and were all in the shop entrances. In place of the felt hat, an old muchworn one was left.

Athough the new Kioreroa wharf, in Whangarei harbour, has not been officially opened, the work is sufficiently advanced for ships to call there to coal, and the first vessel to berth there was the paddle steamer, Lyttelton, which pulled in recently. The Lyttelton is an Auckland steamer, trading up the coast, and she called at Kioreroa to coal. There is still some work to be done at the wharf, both by the Harbour Board and by the Railway Department, but rails have already been laid to give coal trains access to the wharf. . It is anticipated that all work will be completed shortly. To leave the aerodrome warmly clothed and with the intention of reaching as great height as possible and then to find that he had neglected to put on his gloves, was the experience of Mr. E. F. Harvie at New Plymouth yesterday. Rather than descend for them and waste time, the pilot continued the flight, pulling down the sleeves of his coat and tucking the hands into the tops of his leather thigh boots to warm them when they became chilled. When he left the plane at the conclusion of the altitude flight he found that he had been sitting on the gloves all the time. In the meantime he had created a New Zealand light aeroplane altitude record. Humorously apologising for the language he spoke, Dr. H. T. Stearns, of the United States Geological Survey, told during the course of a lecture he gave recently an amusing encounter with a Maori youth in the Urewera Country. The Maori had-listened with awed interest to what , Dr. Steams had to tell him about America, and he finally asked how much longer Dr. Steams would be staying here. Having been told that the visit was only a short one, the Maori youth remarked that it was a pity, for had Dr. Steams remained a bit longer he might have learnt to talk good English, and he added a disparaging remark about whoever had been responsible for teaching him his English.

“I am against the practice of schools growing vegetables and flowers to sell, as I think it most un-Christianlike to deprive small nurserymen, unemployed people, small struggling farmers, and old age pensioners of earning a living,” stated Mr. W. B. Roe, headmaster of the Parkvale school, Hastings, in his report presented at the meeting of the school committee, when referring to the suggestion that the school should grow vegetables and flowers to sell. “In fact, I think the practice of schools entering the commercial world should be prohibited,” he added. “I intend to put half of our vegetable plot into carrots, etc., for the Good-sjCheer Depot, in order to teach the pupils the value of service to others.” The committee agreed with the report.

At the last meeting of the Otago branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the marked recovery in the prices of primary products, the steadily maintained and increasing improvement in the financial position of the railways, and the general tone of optimism which was becoming apparent, were commented upon and freely discussed (reports the Otago Daily Times). It was decided that the Executive Council be asked to press, at the earliest possible opportunity for a share in this returning tide of prosperity by some measure of restoration of the recent cuts. Attention was drawn to the sharp rise locally in dairy produce and meat, and it was reported that some firms were taking action along these lines by restoring cuts to their employees.

Lantern slides being so universally used to illustrate lectures, one would have thought that the civilised world would have long ago agreed upon a standard size for them. But unfortunately America has adopted one size and the rest of the world another, and as the American size is larger than the British size magic lanterns of British make are unable to show American slides. Hence lecturers from the United States when touring New Zealand cannot make use of their slides. This was made evident recently when Dr. H. T. Stearns, of the United States Geological Survey, was lecturing upon Hawaii’s volcano, Kilauea. He had with him some remarkable slides of the lava flow from this volcano, but unfortunately they could not be shown on the screen. His cinematograph films, however, Aore than made amends.

Speaking at the initial meeting of the Nelson Fem Society, Mr. E. B. Martin said that on a recent visit to Tauranga he met a fern enthusiast, who informed him that during excavation work a log was discovered 15 feet below the surface. Some soil was taken from the vicinity of the log, placed in boxes and covered with glass. In due course young ferns appeared in large numbers, and several of them differed from varieties to be found to-day in form and other characteristics. It is an extraordinary revelation, and opens up a wide field of speculation as to how long the spores have been buried at that great depth and as to what happened to put them there. An exceptionally fine exhibition of flying was given by Miss E. Parkinson, of Waitotara, at the competitions for pupils of the Western Federated Flying Club held at the Wanganui airport on Saturday afternoon. Miss Parkinson won both landing competition and the competition for best detailed preparation of an aeroplane for a cross-country flight. She also took second place as the best all-round flyer on the day among the Wanganui pupils. Altogether, there were 15 competitors and Miss Parkinson’s performance was praised by the judge, Captain S. A. Gibbons, and the instructor, Flying-Officer I. Keith, as being exceptionally good. In the landing competition she alighted on the given mark, which no other competitor did. Miss Parkinson spends much time in flying and has a license which allows her to carry passengers. She is said to be one of the best pupils at Wanganui.

A promise to contribute £4OOO or £5OOO as the nucleus of a fund for founding a Karitane Hospital in Hastings has been made to the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Maddison) by a well-known local farmer. In a letter to his Worship, the prospective donor states: “It is my. wish to see a Karitane Home started in Hastings.. I would like to see a maternity hospital and a Karitane hospital connected with it. If this can be arranged and the work started in a reasonable time I am prepared to start a fund with £4OOO or £5OOO. The conditions of the gift could be arranged later if there is any chance of going on with the work. In the meantime my name is to be kept out of this. That is absolutely the only condition at present.” Mr. Maddison has replied expressing thanks for the offer, and has written to Miss Elsie Williams, president of the Hastings Plunket Society, acquainting her of the offer, and suggesting that the Plunket executive shall take up the matter.