NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 24

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Damage and destruction of Church of England property through the Hawke’s Bay earthquake last February has been estimated at over £lOO,OOO. Urgent repairs will cost approximately £22,000, and this sum includes only £3500 for a tem* porary church to replace the cathedral, which was valued on a replacement basis at £37,500. These estimates, compiled by the surveying architect for the diocese of Waiapu, have been placed before congregations in connection with an appeal in Wellington. New Zealand honey has not suffered from the depressed -market overseas. The London publication, the New Zealand News, states that one well-known brand of New Zealand honey increased its sales throughout Europe by nearly 15J per cent, during the first quarter year, as compared with the same period of 1930. The achievement was particularly commendable, as the price is higher this year. The increase is attributed partly to good advertising. “ I have been out of work since March, 1930,” said a young man who called in at the Dominion office in Wellington the other evening, “ and I have been _ vainly seeking a job ever since. Imagine my surprise in calling in at Arapuni to find an army of Maoris and Dalmatians at work there. Many of these Dalmatians could not even speak the English language. There seems to be something wrong when Dalmatians can get work while native-born New Zealanders are unable to obtain employment.” “ I don’t think we’d find an instance like this anywhere but in an Irish Court,” observed Mr Gordon Reed in the Invercargill Magistrate’s Court when he quoted a passage from a case recorded in the Irish Law Reports, and heard before Sir Ingatius J. O’Brien Lord Chancellor in 1916 (reports the Southland Daily News). The Lord Chancellor, with a case concerning a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle, said: “We see every day in the busy parts of cities attempts, generally successful, made by drivers to save the heedless and unwary. These efforts are the burden of a cabman’s life and would make his occupation almost too exciting for existence were it not for the safety valve provided in the rich communicative vocabulary with which nature has endowed him.” There was a ripple of laughter in the court and the magistrate (Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M.) remarked: “ Very neatly put, I think.” To take a three-mile walk over '’.and that was covered by six feet of salt water four months ago is an experience available to Napier citizens to-day. Manganui-o-roto, better known as the inner harbour, has halved its area of water since the earthquake (says the Telegraph), and large sections, where, early last season, motor boats and yachts were to be seen speeding through the water, are now dry land. First, Second, and Tern Islands can now be reached on foot across the harbour bottom. Thousands of gaping mussel shells give evidence of the recent upheaval and many acres are covered with small pipi shells, reminiscent of a shelly, garden path. Already there are indications of the ultimate use to which these newly-acquired lands may be put, for the small green leaves of freshly sown plants are now to be seen where four ■ feet of salt water once flowed. Sooner than most people imagine, this area may be occupied by farms and playing fields.