LOCAL AND GENERAL

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17503, 10 September 1928, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Tim Postmaster-General has placed a ban on letters, etc., for J. Rodgers, Box 890, G.P.0., Melbourne. A very interesting conjunction between Venus and Mercury will occur to-night, when the two planets will be visible less than two degrees apart in Lhe western sky soon after sunset. A slight decrease in the. number of unemployed men in Auckland Js shown by the returns of the Government Labour Bureau for last week. On Saturday the number of unemployed on the roll was 802, as against 829 and 844 in the two preceding weeks. “It’s rather a pity you gave the constable a fictitious name and address. it will cost you 10s extra,” said Mr F. W. Platts, S.M., in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court this morning, in fining Douglas Joseph Stroobant 2.0 s and costs for rid'og a cycle with t light-

The British Treasury has had an unexpected windfall of £l-000,000. This is in the form of death duties from the estate of the late Mr James Oxley, a retired banker, of Leeds, who died in July. His estate was worth £4,000,000. The death of a second-class passenger on the Aorangi, Miss Olga Sydes, occurred when the steamer was a day or two out from Honolulu, on the voyage from Vancouver to Auckland. Miss Sydes, who was 17 years of age, was an Australian, and had been on a visit to America with her mother and brother. A saving of £II,OOO has been effected in the New Zealand railways’ fuel bill since the financial year opened on April 1, says the general manager) Mr 11. H. Sterling, in a statement in (he Railways Magazine. The saving was due mainly to the use of a larger proportion of local soft coal on locomotives. The Wellington music and elocution competitions again show a loss,' this time of over £2OO, although the entries numbered 2847. The loss for three years totals £7OO. Mr G. A. Troup, Mayor of Wellington, and patron of the Competitions Society, attributed the loss to radio broadcasting. At the annual meeting' of the society the question will be discussed whether the competitions should be continued. It is announced that a thorough search for treasure is to be made at Peel, Isle of Man. A resident of Geelong (Victoria), while exploring some oaves, discovered a secret passage leading to 'the castle, which, it is averred, was the stronghold of one Grrv, an Icelandic adventurer and •looter, in the twelftth century. The Government of the Island has decided to conduct an organised search, as there have been age-long rumours of hidden hordes in the neighbourhood. The Prince of Wales drove to the Gueen Alexandra Memorial Hospital for seamen at Marseilles, and made a tour of the wards. He sa.id he hoped there would always be friends of the sailors who would recognise what the nations owed to the men of the mercantile marine. The Prince and his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, then boarded the finer Kaisar-I-Hind and sailed for Egypt.