LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 October 1913, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A new bakehouse in brick and concrete is now in course of erection for Mr H, AndersoD, of the "Champion " bakery. A child named Murray, living in Wellington South, was choked to death the other day through swallowing a peanut. The building trade is fairly brisk locally, at last half a dozen houses being now in course of erection, and several have just been completed. A loan of £17,150 is to be raised by the Ellerslie Town Board for various improvements and acquisitions. Tenders are now being invited for this amount, which will be divided into 5 per cent, debentures of £.0 each, A sum of £15.000 has been raised in a fortnight for a Y.W.C.A. building in Auckland. A laige number of canvassers and collectors were engaged. Owing to other attractions on Friday evening the meeting of the cricket Club had to be adjourned. It will be held next Thursday evening; all members and intending members are requested to attend. A man named Murry received a severe shaking on Tuesday by his horse falling as he turned the Bank corner, and was lucky to escape with light injuries. Mr A. M. Myers M.P. has made a gift of £3,000 'to the city of Auckland for the purchase of land just above the Town Hall, which is to be formed into a public park. A general meeting of Helensville Bowling CJub members is advertised to be held on Friday evening. Cream supplies are now showing rapid increase at the local factory, This week's butter output will total nearly 8 tons. A large contingent of boys from Marist Bros' School paid a visit to Helensville tcday. We understand that the Library Trustoes have had a meeting on the question of handing, over the Library to the Town Board, and have now asked the Board to say what they will do in regard to the upkeep of same. The Ladies' Committee of the Helensville A, P. Association met last Thursday afternoon to deal with tent exhibits at the forth-coming show. Slight alterations were considered advisable on last year's Schedule, and a number of new classes were agreed on and lecommended for adoption by the Executive. The closing euchre Social of the season in connection with St. Matthew's Ladies' Guild took place on Monday evening, and passed off successfully. The prizes were wen by Mrs J. F. Lambert Jnr, and Mr W Cullens ; and the booby prizes by Mrs li. J. Walters and Miss Becroft (gent's) An enjoyable dance followed for wh'ch Miss it. Ohaniion supplied the music. Another wreck has taken place off the New Zealand coast. The Houlder liner Tyrone went ashore near Wahine Point (a mile and a-half to the South of Otago Heads), about half-past four on Saturday morning. Tho crew of 70 were brought ashore, and most of their effects were saved. Captain Mc Lauchlan was the last to leave the vessel. The Tyrone is fast on the rocks and shipping men regard her as doomed. An attempt to haul her off failed. The vessel had been purchased bv the Union Company, but she was still running under the auspices of the Ped. eral-Shire line. *' During tho past year there have been a number of accidents on railway crossing*, some unfortunately attended with loss of life and severe personal injury to occupants of motor-cars driven on to crossings in the face of approaching trains. As the use of the motor-car extends these risks will in crease, and with a view to providing additional sa peguards I have given instructions for the designing of automatic signals for use oa railway level crossings, " —Minister for Railways. A man named Charlie Hammond caused a bit of excitement during last week at Kanohi aud Kaukapakapa by showing symptoms of lunacy. He had been engt.ged in scrub-cutting in the district and lived alone in a tent. His behaviour was veryjstrange and several residents deemed it their duty to place him in the care of Constable Drisooll. Among the man's hallucinations was an idea that he was shortly to come in for a fortune of £500.000, and that various people were chasing him to kill him and prevent his getting the money. These visions were so pronounced that his screams kept the Constable awake all night, and the man was taken to Auckland next morning, where he was rnedicallj examined and committed to the asylum. It appears that Hammond had boon studying a dream book, from where he got his ideas about the fortune coming to him. The Minister for Kail ways (Hon. W H. Hemes) has replied to tho New Zealand Farmers' Union, regarding compensation for damage done to settlers' pi-operty caused by sparks from railway engines, that ho regrets he cannot see his Avay to recommend any alteration in the existing law. As a matter of fact ( he says), the majority of the fires that are attributed to sparks from railway engines arises from other causes, and if the department were made liaole, the probability is that it would be open to many exorbitant claims, and the number of fires during dry weather would considerably increase. The appliances used "on the New Zealand railways for preventing sparks are (says the Minister) equal, if not superior, to any thing used on the principal railways of the world. Wakneh's Eust-proof Corsets. Styles for all figures at lowest prices ; consistent with good quality. YV_it- \ xer's are guaranteed remember.

Mr Jas. Stewart, attorney for the Stewart Estate bordering Awaroa road recently effected a sale of the property, which released over £9,000. A proposal is under consideration to' bridge the mile of water between Dargavilie and Aratapu at a cost of £25,000. Another level crossing fatality was reported from Dannevirke the other day, the victim being a milkman returning from his round. His horse also was killed and the trap smashed to bits. The contract for road formation etc on the Parkhurst road has been let by tho Engineer (Mr Gf. A. Jackson) to Mr J. Morris. There were three tenders for the job but the prices were considered too high. We beg to acknowledge receipt of a Press courtesy for the Gentlemen's Plain and Fancy Dress Ball at Kaukapakapa on the 17th inst, which promises to be of a very succssful order as the Committee are sparing no effort to ensrue an enjoyable time for all who attend. Some of the suppliers to a dairy factory evidently expect their factory officials to have the powers of a clairvoyant. A large can of cream arrived at the local factory the other d_y from a supplier, with a note under the lid to "please put my name and number on". The can was a new one and the instruction would doubtless have been followed, but the owner had omitted to enclose his name. Another supplier forwarded cream with a request that to avoid confusion, a number of other suppliers having the same surname as himself, in future his initial should be altered to B ; but he forgot to say what his real initial wi3 and signed under the adopted one. Postal officials are sometimes sot some curious problems in order to ascertain the correct destination of letters. The other day a letter, enclosed in a very big envelope measuring 15in one way about 9in the other way, was dropped into the Timaru letter box and the only address on it took the form of a caricature of a man whom the officials were evidently expected to know. There was a penny stamp on the top corner of the envelope and the, words New Zealand at tho bottom j corner. With characteristic perspicacity the Herald says, the postal officials filled in the missing address as J. Vigor Brown, Mayor of Napier, and subsequent enquiries indicated that the letter has been sent to the person for whom it was intended. Por many years the world has been baffled by the problem of where the pins go that are turned out in millions of millions by the pin factories. But the problem seems to have been solved at last. A Paris scientist, Dr Xavier, has been experimenting on pins, hair-pins, and needles by the simplo process of watching a few. He states that they practically disappear into thin air, by changing into ferrous oxide, a brownish rust that soon blows away in dust. An ordinary hairpin took only 154 days to blow away. A steel nib lasted just under fifteen months. A common pin took eighteen months to vanish, A polished steel needle defied the ravages of the atmosphere longest, taking two and a half years to disappear. So the reason why tho wo Id is not a foot deep in the pins it buys is, it seems, exactly the same which makes an iron surface scale off when exposed for a long time to the atmosphere without the protection of paint.