NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Mr. H. Preston, ground engineer of the Wairarapa Aero Club, flew solo in ZK-ACD to the New Plymouth airport on Sunday, and will make the return flight to-day, weather permitting.

A chimney ablaze in Drivers’ store, South Road, New Plymouth, was responsible for a call to the fire brigade about 10 o’clock yesterday morning. The fire was extinguished with chemicals, and no damage was done.

A broken leg was suffered by Mr. A. Wilson, a New Plymouth warehouse employee, as a result of a fall from a step ladder yesterday afternoon. He was attended by Dr. D. E. Brown, and was later removed to hospital.

The sea distance between Oamaru and New Plymouth, 435 miles, was travelled in 29 hours by the Port Gisborne, which arrived at New Plymouth yesterday. Aided by a southerly breeze which reached gale force when the ship was two hours off New Plymouth, the Port Gisborne averaged 15 knots.

There is a “joker” in every crowd, and he is to be found even in a hospital ward. Recently, when some official visitors arrived at one of the wards of a public hospital, a patient with very serious face tried to explain that there was always “cussin’ and swearin’ ” in the ward. .. This, of course, simply shocked the visitors, who said they could not understand it when everything looked so serene and quiet, and when all the sick people were being looked after so well. There was a brodd smile visible on all faces a little later when Nurses Cussen and Swearin were pointed out as being actively engaged at their work, and were the chief cause of the ward’s good appearance.

The efforts of some person or persons to extract cigarettes from a sixpenny slot machine in New Plymouth by means of tin disc the size of sixpence proved unsuccessful. However, considerable annoyance was caused would-be purchasers as the machine failed to produce cigarettes or return the money. Rebates were given by the proprietor. Extending over seven feet in length, the root of a tree was found in a New Plymouth drainage pipe by sewerage contractors yesterday. The root had penetrated a joint in a six-inch pipe and had completely blocked it. It was stated by the contractors that there were occasional instances of tree roots penetrating pipes, but they had never previously heard of one- growing to this size. “One of the most interesting places the team visited at Sydney was Peters’ ice cream factory,” said Mr. A. J. Geddes, manager of the All Blacks. “This factory supplies the whole of Australia with what is probably the most popular of summer delicacies. The New Zealanders were shown all over the plant, and when about to leave each member of the team was presented with a football of ice cream to which was attached a silver fern."

The City Council is apparently under the impression that the Mayor of Palmerston North would look a little more dignified if he were attired at open meetings of the council in his Mayoral robes, reports the Manawatu Times. At last week’s meeting it was decided to call tenders for the supply of the insignia, and a resolution was passed that the Mayor “shall wear his mayoral chain” as well. “We have the responsibility; they have not,’' said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, on Saturday evening, when telling the New Zealand Company of Master Mariners that his mail included many letters from correspondents advising him how to control the affairs of the Dominion. “We have to do the job, and we have to make the decisions,” he continued. “Those decisions are made with no other thought than the best interests .of the country. The reputation of our Parliament has not let down the honour of the great Mother Parliament in any way.” An observant New Plymouth citizen is at present concerned by the omnipxescence of superstition in the civilised community. He claims to have observed the behaviour of no less than 28 pedestrians in Devon StreeJ recently when a painter was busy on" the front of a building. Twenty-seven, he declares, went to some trouble to avoid walking under , the tradesman’s ladder. The twenty-eighth failed to notice it until he had almost passed beneath it. He glanced up, registered an expression of horror and amazement and departed hurriedly with his thumbs crossed behind his back!

The strong south-easterly wind which brought a heavy snowfall on Mount Egmont yesterday was responsible for remarkable cloud • effects observed at New Plymouth early in the afternoon. At one stage when the sky overhead was comparatively clear, the snow clouds hung so closely to the contour of the mountain that the effect was uncanny. At first glance it seemed that the mountain had grown to three times its normal bulk, and was covered to the ranges with irregularly shadowed snowfields. Even the sharp, delicately defined crest of the crater was outlined in wind-driven cloud.

Minor injuries were responsible for the admission to the New Plymouth hospital of three young men. R. Kennedy, Eltham, aged 19, was involved in a car accident at Burke’s Hill, Eltham, on Sunday and received facial abrasions and a fractured left knee-cap. His condition was reported last night to be satisfactory. While cutting firewood yesterday morning H. Uncles, Carrington Road, aged 20, severed his right thumb, and was reported last night to be in a fairly satisfactory condition. A horse fell on E. Harrison, Te Kiri, aged 23, on Sunday, and he was admitted to hospital with painful injuries to his left leg. The leg was not fractured, however.

Eighteen fully qualified second mates are at present serving as able seamen aboard the Port Gisborne, which is at present at New Plymouth. “There were no vacancies when we returned to Britain last trip and the men have stuck to the ship,” said Captain W. G. Higgs. They were a particularly fine type of man, he said, and he was hopeful that several would receive appointments at the conclusion of the present voyage. It was hoped the launching of new vessels and the general upward trend of shipping activities would absorb these men. The scheme has been in progress for four years and during that period Captain Higgs has been in command of the Port. Gisborne, from which between 20 and 30 seamen have been drafted into the company as officers. A paragraph which appeared in the Daily News some weeks ago raising doubts about the permanence of typewritten records has apparently occasioned interest in other parts of the Dominion. Many newspapers are making reference to the experience of the New Plymouth firm which found its archives sadly faded. One southern publication went so far as to consult a number of local solicitors to ascertain if there was any likelihood of their records vanishing with the passage of time. The information gathered was mainly negative, and the conclusion drawn that quality of both ink and paper had much to do with permanence. While it is generally admitted that chemical inks will not last as long as vegetable stain inks on vellum, the average commercial house is not seriously perturbed by the thought that accounts may be illegible in *a century or so! That is the look-out of the historian of the future. The only acid typewriter ink—that contained in the pad of a now obsolete machine—was withdrawn from the market many years ago.

A gaplogical history of the formation of Lyttelton Harbour, written by Professor R. Speight, was quoted at a recent filming in Christchurch of motion pictures dealing with the port. The history’ stated that where the harbour lies, millions of years ago there was a volcano probably 6000 ft. to 7000 ft. in height. Lyttelton Harbour owes its formation primarily to volcanic action. Professor Speight wrote. Some millions of years ago, more or less, a cone probably 6000 ft. to 7000 ft. in height was built up by the ordinary processes of basaltic lava and showers of fragmentary material thrown from a centre which must have been located somewhere near- Quail Island. According to the generally accepted opinion, the upper part of the cone was blown off by a paroyxsmal explosion, such as has affected other volcanoes, and debris therefrom was scattered far and wide, and a great hollow left somfe 2000 ft. in depth, and probably several square miles in area. While volcanic action subsequently declined and after it was dead, ordinary water drainage attacked the inside of the hollow, cutting back the walls and forming valleys, which were divided from one another by ridges such as those so well developed round the head of the present harbour.

All secondary schools in the Taranaki Education Board’s district will resume to-day, after a three weeks’ vacation, for the last term of the year. The school year will end on December 19.

“The concern that supplies the electric power to Melbourne will be sorry the Test matches are over,” said an Invercargill resident constantly in touch with Victoria’s capital to a Southland Times reporter the other day. “When the tests were in progress 13 per cent, more current was consumed than in ordinary times, indicating that long evening sessions with the radio were in progress."