NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3879, 4 December 1928, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Marton Tennis Club has a membership of 113.

' A northern paper states that those “in the know” hint at another general election in June next. An aerial survey of Greater (Christchurch is occupying the attention of the staff of the Wigram Aerodrome. The work will not be finished for some months. On the New Zealand railways last year the number of passengers carried during the period covered by the festive season reached the surprising total of 1,851,000. In the opinion of Commander Richard Byrd, who has visited most places in this world, the rose garden in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens is the finest he has ever seen.

Wool sold at the first Napier sale this season shows a gross result of approximately £25 per bale. The quantity of cider manufactured in the Dominion last season is estimated at 50,000 gallons, with an approximate value of £12,500. According to the Auckland Star, the Reform Party, like the Labour Party, is without the funds necessary to carry on a successful political ampaign. During the past five years trading in second hand motor cars have grown to such an extent in Wanganui that it now rivals the businesses conducted for the purpose of retailing new cars. “Nota Bene” writes: A sure way to avoid mistaking a poison bottle for another is to push two ordinary pins crossways through the top part of the cork at right angles, with the points projecting. That identifies the bottle even in the dark.

On December 21 a Christchurch Y.MJC.A. party of 20 men will leave on the famous walk alqngjke Mil- ' ford Sound track. Their ages range from 18 to 40, and from their own number they will elect a touring captain when they are actually on trek. With them will go the physical culture expert of the Y.MLIO.A. Special facilities have been placed at their disposal by tho Government Tourist Department. The very first locomotive to enter the new railway shops at Petone is N.C. 462 and it will provide ’a funeral significant of the passing of the old order. Manufactured by the Baldwin Loco Works, U.S.A., an 1904, for the Wellington Manawatu Company, and taken over by ' the New Zealand Railways in 1908, l it is now due for the scrap heap, but it has a service that fully entitles it to an obituary notice. The total mileage run by it to 3rd March, 1928, was 1,000,000 miles. In addition to use on the Manawatu line, it was for a long time running on the Cross Creek-Featherston run. Wlhen the steamer Clan McWilliam caught fire and sank in Vavau Harbour nearly a year ago, the wreck settled on the bottom in an upright position with about 6ft. of water covering one of the masts. As this was a danger to navigation, steps were taken to shift it, the method !employed being described by Dr. H. M. O’Connor, of Auckland, who returned by the Tofua after spending several years at Vavau in a professional capacity. A fuse was lit and inserted in one of a number of plugs of gelignite tied in a bunch. 'Seizing the explosive a native boy dived, and while beneath the water attached it to the mast. In this way the mast was blown off the vessel, which is still there in deep water, but no longer a menace to other shipping. Among the most interesting things at the new railway shops at Petone are the tool cribs in the centre of the machine shops. There lie thousands of tools, each in its slot or box, drills, lathe cutters, etc., shfe behind a steel lattice. Brass checks are used every time a tool is taken out, and the system is designed to keep proper record of tools, a trouble which every shop foreman has experienced. The stores room is a maze of racks, and bins. The weight the upper floor will carry is shown in the girders which support it, built up of wide 'inch-thick steel. Everything from a pound of nails to an engine cylinder will be stored here, the ground floor being reserved for the heavyweight parts. A system of card indexing on each bin will show the exact contents, each article or quantity being marked off as it goes out.