LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 48, 19 November 1937, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

■ Railway Hina Straightened. The railway between Napier ancl Port Ahuriri is being straightened by the elimination of a five-ehain curve near Pandora Point. It is expected that the change-over will take place next week. Unclaimed Clothing. Although extensive publicity has been given to the discovery, the Hastings poliee have not yet been able to find the owner for a box of woman's clothing found several weeks ago neai Tomoana. Several inquirie3 have been made, but the owner has not yet beeo located. , Latvian National Day. The 19th anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Latvia fell yesterday. _ The country was forined into a republic on November 18, 1918, following the cessation of hostilities in the Great Wai*, but it was not until about two years later that its independence was recog'nised by the League of Nations. A Fine Perfonnance. A notable athletic performance at last night 's evening meeting of the Napier Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club was the exhibition Tun by Mis3 Rona Tong, of Hastings, over the 90 yards hurdles. Miss Tong's time was 13' 2-5 secs, which is only a fraction of a second outside of the Australasian record for 90 yards hurdles. Greetings from Aviator. Yalued possessions of Mr C. T. Wilkinson, of the Courthouse staff, Hastings, are a series of Christmas greeting cards from Flying-Officer E. Clouston, who recently broke the record by air from England to Capetown. For several years Mr Wilkinson has received these cards, of either Royal Air Force design, Or of the fighter squadron to which Flying-Officer Clouston was attached.

Lighter Wool Clip. The Canterbury wool clip, abcording to one prominent pastoralist, will be considerably ligliter this year than it was last year, the reason being the dryness of the season. Last week he shore a number of merinos and Corriedales, the individual fleeees of which were, without exception, between 21b. and 31b. lighter than usual. There was, . he said, little grease in the wool, which was very clean and palpably finer than tllie normal. Trials for Empire Games. The trials of Hawke's Bay athletes for. a chance of selection in. the New Zealand team to compete in the Empive games next year in Australia, will taho place at the Napier Affiateiir Athletic and Cycling Club's evening meeting next Thursday night. Already those with good prospects of being included have shown that they are in good form and next Thursdiy's meeting should be a trial of champions. Widening of Access Koad. Advice has been received from the Employment Department by the H.B. County Council that the plans for widening and surfaeing. the unformed road leading from Port Ahuriri to Westshore, have been approved. At present the access road from the Port is merely a tmik, crossing the footbridge, but the authorised work, which it is hoped to commence on Monday, will Teforia the track to road width. So far there is no indication that the footbridge w'«Ll be replaced.by a motorbridge. Last Night's Eclipse. From the point of view of beauty last evening 's eclipse of the moon fully rowarded all who watehed it. The moon had not long risen and still appcaTed large and red in tho north-eastern sky, when tlie shadow of the earth began to infringe upon the edge of the moon 's circle, but the progress of the eclipse was so gradual that it could not bo followed easily. The" fullest portion of the eclipse, when one-sixth of the orb was shadowed, was arrived at in about 40 miuutes. Rangitihi Sails. The Rangitiki, which sailed last evening from Napier for London, vm Panama, earried New Zealand Christmas mail for the Old Country, which were loaded at Napier yesterday. .A total ofvl684 roceptacles, made up of 1573 mail bags and 111 parcel receptacles was put aboard the ship, which reaches London bn December 2i. Mails from the Napier district comprised 219 ordinary mail bags and 18 parcel receptaeles. Officials say that this years' mail is considerably heavier * than last year's. A Cosmopolitan Crew. The crew of the British Phosphate Commission's chartered steamer Tymeric, which is at present at Wanganui, is cosmopolitan and in addition to Englislimen includes Scotsmen, Finns, Latvians, Estonians, Dutchmen and Americans. The Scotsmen ,include two former members of the famous Scottish regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, who joined the vessel at Hongkong at the conclusion of their period of military serviee. Anotlier member of the crew, an American, was on a British vessel when she was. taken by Spanish insurge-nts near Gibraltar and experienced a series of thrilling adventures including a brief period in gaol.

New Stock Sale System.

Cattle sold at the Westfield stock yards on Wednesday were graded in three sections for the assistance of buyers and to enable the sheep sale to be started not later than two o'clock. Opinions varied as to the success of the new arrangement, in view of the fact that only light entries of stock had to be traded. The sheep sale opened promptly, and was fin^shed by four o'clock, which represented a saving of at least an hour on other recent saies. Just For Show. A Jersey cattle breeder, a foreigner, was being cross-examined by counsel in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court in connection with a dispute regarding the breeding of a Jersey bull, and he was asked why he used wire to traiu the horns of a Jersey calf. "Was it to deceive the public?" asked counsel. "Why do you put on your best clothes and wash your face when you come out?" asked witness. "It is just the same with breeding. We do it for show," he added. The unexpected rejoiuder caused hearty lau^liter in the Court. Fish Eats Fish. Noticing a large browu trout strugbling on the surface of the water, apparently in extremis, a fishing party at Rotorua netted the fish. It was found that it had attempted to swallow , a young rainbow trout of about yearling size, and that the smaller fish had become firmly wedged in its throat, causing (he larger fish to choke. The head of the brown trout, . with tlie smaller fish still in its throat and the tail protruding from the motith, was later taken possession of by a rxnger of the Internal Affairs Department, and will be preserved as an exhibit. Defonnity In Trout. * Two instances of unusual deformity in trout have been brought under the notice of officials of the Internal Affairs Department at Rotorua. One fish was from Tarawera and tlie other from Okataina, and b,otli showed a peculiar malformation of the upper jaw, whidh, instead of growing to its normal size, had curved downward, leaving the lower jaw projecting in each case by at least two inches. It was a coincidence that two fish with the same malformation should be taken in different lakes on the same day. An official of the department stated that in the course of a lengthy experience he Kad seen only one previous instance of a similar deformity.