NEWS OF THE DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20132, 29 December 1939, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

The Gisborne Herald will not be published on Monday, January 1.

Auckland Hotels Busy Accommodation of every variety is at a premium in Auckland at the moment. Visitors began to pour into the city in earnest last Saturday, and since then the majority of hotels, private and public, have been fully occupied. Reservations indicate that the position will continue for a fortnight.

Child Seriously Hurt

Falling through a motor car door while the vehicle was in motion, Joan Ferguson, aged two, whose parents reside in Whangarei, suffered head injuries. She was admitted to the Whangarei Hospital, where it was found that she was suffering from a compound fracture of the skull and her condition was reported to be serious.

Historical Pageant Preparations for the centennial historical pageant to be staged in Waimate North on January 2 are nearing completion. The Maori canoe which will be used has been completed. The pageant will first depict the voyage of the Maoris from the legendary Hawaiiki to these shores. Then will follow the coming of Captain Cook, the foundation of Christianity in New Zealand, and the progress of settlement during the past 100 years.

Price of Petrol “We are being charged too much for petrol, and in this respect we are a long-suffering community,” remarked the Mayor, Mr. G. A. Maddison, at the latest meeting of the Hastings Borough Council. The distribution charge for Hastings was id a gallon more than for Dannevirke and 2Jd more than for Wellington, he understood, and now adequate facilities for petrol storage had been constructed in Napier it was time the matter was adjusted. Part of Marine Drive Open

The first section of Gisborne’s centennial marine drive, that portion from Salisbury road to Stanley road, has been completed and will be open to motorists desiring to acquaint themselves with the work of the committee interested in the sevenmile project that will take the drive out to the mouth of the Waipaoa River. In order to improve the approach to the route from Stanley road a grader has been working on that section.

Salcyard Dining-Room Entered

It was noticed yesterday morning that the dining-room at the, Matawhero saleyards had been entered by some unauthorised person. When Miss Agnes Maxwell arrived at the building yesterday to clean out the room she found that the door had been forced open, but she was unable to say if anything had been stolen as the proprietress, Mrs. M. Ashworth, was not available to check over the stocks. It is understood that the usual practise has been to remove anything of value when the building is not occupied. The door was not locked, but was held shut by a chair wedged against it on the inside.

Strange Nesting Place A sharp surprise was in store for a Hastings butcher when he went to secure some tools from the box under the seat of his delivery van. Although the van had been in constant use for a long period and, in fact, had been used extensively the same day, the butcher, to his astonishment, found beneath the seat a rat with an accompanying horde of eight little rats scarcely more than a day old. The nest had been made from the stuffing of the upholstered seat, and a very comfortable nest it was—until the butcher found it. The mother rat succeeded in escaping, leaving her eight squealing babies to the tender mercy of the outraged van owner.