NEWS IN BRIEF.

Thames Star, Volume LX, Issue 16855, 4 August 1926, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

America, with its population of 113 million people, owns one motor-car for every six inhabitants. Great Britain has a population of nearly 44 millions, and owns 900,000 cars—one for every 50 people. The death-roll in America per 100,000 people in 1925 was more than double that of Great Britain, where there were only 7.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Some extraordinary strong gusts of wind were experienced in Wellington on Tuesday (says the Dominion), and such was their rawness that one wellknown citizen said that the wind must have “been stropped on the ltuahines and honed on the Tararuas” to carry such an edge. One very strong gust was experienced as the Ulimaroa, from Sydney, was being warped alongside. The intercolonial liner was already held by three lines forward, and was being eased down the berth a little by means of a 3in. wire hawser, when suddenly there was heard a succession of loud snaps, and those who were opposite the spot saw the hawser snap strand by strand under the weight of the vessel and the pressure of the wind. Had the whole of the hawser snapped at once, it might have clone someone harm, but the fact that it went strand by strand enabled those in its vicinity *to shrink hack from the danger-point. A new hawser was quickly rigged, and the vessel was made secure. Whitebait from the Waikato River is now being marketed. Two kerosene tins of the fish, the first to be railed from Tuakau this season, have been despatched, and, it is understood, realised the price of £6 per tin. Further supplies have come to hand since, and have been selling in Tuakau for 2/per lb. A Te Arolia motorist who travelled to Thames, on Sunday reports that he has never found the roads in better order. Repair work is proceeding along those stretches which are worn into potholes, and before the warm days set in the whole road should have a fairly satisfactory surface. Beyond Thames, , proceeding towards the beaches, the road is very bad, and there is little prospect of any great improvement being made before the summer. •>A novelty in automobile construction is at present touring the North Island in the form of an Auckland-owned car made largely of beaten coppei;. The beaten copper work, which was the handicraft of the owner, has been very skilfully executed, the lamps being part and parcel with the wings, while elaborate scroll work is a feature. Not every car connoisseur, however, will appreciate the novelty.