General News.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18899, 14 January 1927, Page 8

General News.

Yesterdny morning, at eleven o'clock, the City Fire Brigade was summoned to extinguish a rubbish fire at the rear of St. Michael's vicarage. Oxford terrace. Tliis alarm marked the fourth within a period of 24 hours. Speaking of hunting in England, Dr. F. G, Gibson said to a representative of The 'press yesterday that the meets were gay with pink coats, and the gentlemen of the nouveaux riches wore gorgeous apparel, but there was' a maximum of spills and frequent jams at Iho gates.

The City rates are coming in more slowly this year than they did last year.* The demands were circulated some months ago. but up to tho present only a small proportion of the total has been paid. Out of a total lew cf £301,284, the sum of £61.(394 l?s ocl, about one-fifth of the total, had been paid in by 'Wednesday evening. Referring to the humour of the general strike in England, Dr. Gibson said to a reporter yesterday that he had heard of one bus in London manned by young men in plus fours and flauuels "which bore this legend: "The driver of this bus is a Guy's man. The conductor cf this bus is a Guy's man. If anyone heaves a brick he will be a Guy's patient.".

The first steamer flying the German llag to call at Auckland for thirteen years is due from Texas about February 12th. She is the Karpfanger, of 4974 tons and 407 ft long, owned by Messrs G. J. TI. Siemers and Company, of Hamburg. She is bringing a full cargo of case oil for discharge at Auckland, Napier, Wellington, New Plymouth, Melbourne,'and Fremantle. Only two other German vessels have visited Auckland since the outbreak of the Great War, one being the barque Elfrieda, with guaiio from Surprise Island, aiid the other the Gustav, which recently unloaded guano from Maiden Island.

A certain Auckland suburb is relishing the story of the manner in Which a police official innocently participated in an illegal joy-riding enterprise a few days ago. A well-known buildor had parked his motor-car near the entrance to tho district. A little later, a young fellow got into the car. Aa he was about to drive off, the local constable came into view, and was prevailed upon to accept the courtesy of "a lift up hill," being duly deposited at his destination. Tho stranger then continued his drive over the smooth-roads, eventually abandoning the vchiclo on the roadside some miles further on. The youth is now being anxiously sought by the police.

A young elephant and a young tigress for the Wellington Zoo are on board the steamer Sussex, which arrived at Auckland from Eastom ports. The elephant is a female namod Lily, and she is about eight years old. After being captured she was tamed and taken to the Calcutta Zoo. On tho voyage she was ft great pet of the crew of the Sussex. The tigress, however, snarled and snapped at anyone who inspected her after the steamer berthed on Saturday. The elephant is a gift from the Indian Government to the Wellington City Council, and the tigress was purchased from a wild animal dealer in Singapore.

The migration of whitebait has ever been an interesting topic to fishermen. Recently Mr T. MacNeil, who attended to development works on his coal lease at Ten Mile, discovered whitebait above the falls in tho upper reaches of Ten Mile Creek (stales tho GreymOUtn "Evening Star"). They could not get up the falls, as tho torrent of water was too strong. Mr MacNeil watched one day, and lii a pool at the bottom of the falls in the spray line, cleat of the ourrent, he noticed myriads of whitebait gradually emerging from the water on to the wet, rocky surface With their tiny fins spread, and wriggling themselves forward and up the wet surface of about 12 feet, as steep almost as the wall of a house.

"This Christmas Was .the worst ever experienced at Rotorua as far as weather was concerned," said Mr F. W. Manton, wild returned to Wellington bit Tuesday from a motoring tour in the north. "I was there- for twelve days covering Christmaß and the New lear, and on only three days could the weather be called fine. I have never experienced such rain in Wellington. It came down in buckets, and the main road past Prince's gate was like a,river for a part of the time, and the sight of people- leaving their care and wading almost knee-deep in the water became quite a common one. There were at one time ovor 330 cars at the motor camp (off the "Whaka road), but the number would have beeii considerably greater had all the cars which started out boon able to got through."

Need for stringent regulations relative to the packing of fruit for local retail trade is officially emphasised. The Director of Horticulture (Mr J. A. Campbell) reports that the Auckland strawberry season up to Christmas was quite a good one as far as the quality of berries was concerned. Most growers recognised the value of anti-tOpping regulations, and sent forward well-packed and full "chips." Continuous wet and muggy weather over the Christmas and New Year Beason was disastrous to the balance of the crop, resulting in heavy loss to all the growers. Warning notices were sent to aovoral growers for inconsistent packing or faci«? the top layer of the punnets with large berries only.

In the United States, an Ice Chest u looked upon as a necessity. Our climate is just as hot, yet very few houses have this convenience which enables butter to be kept from becoming an oily mess, keeps milk cool ana sweet, and provides a plentiful supply of ice-cold drinks. Call and inspect our stocks of ice chests from £5 10» upwards. Mason, Struthors, and Co., Ltd. •- ~ 6

Fix your next holiday for Westland, which offers such natural seems attractions in varied character. in* West-land Wondorland is the delight or all visitors. N