LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 January 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Express Train Stopped.

Just as the Limited express was pulling out from the Auckland railway station on Thursday evening it was stopped through the communication cord being pulled in one of the secondclass carriages near the front. It is believed that two people, who alighted when the train stopped and disappeared in the crowd on the platform, discovered they were in the wrong train. The express resumed its journey after a delay of two or three minutes. Orgy of Destruction.

During the absence of the owner, a residence in Royal Terrace, Dunedin, was broken into recently and, having gained an entrance, the intruders embarked on a veritable orgy of destruction. Doors which had been left locked were burst open, drawers were ransacked and their contents strewn over the floors, and a new and expensive carpet was ruined by a trail of ink which was spilled across it. The kitchen received particular attention, jams; pickles and other household commodities being scattered all over the floor. Old Debt Paid.

The head of an old-established retail grocery business in Auckland was surprised beyond words on Thursday when a man went into the office, walked up to the cashier, and paid a debt of 19s lid contracted with the firm 43 years ago. The man would not give his name; all he wanted was a receipt. He said he had been “starved out of* New Zealand” 48 years ago, and the firm had given him credit for 19s lid. I With these few words he left the office, saying that he had others to pay. The firm had no record of the debt.

Bicycle Thief’s Long Ride. Something of a record has probably been established by the person who recently unlawfully removed a bicycle from outside the premises of a Rotorua businessman and rode it to Gisborne. approximately 200 miles away, where it was recovered by the police and returned to Rotorua on Wednesday. Although cases have been known where a bicycle has been stolen at Wellington and later found at Auckland, there is no evidence that a stolen bicycle has been actually ridden the entire distance between the two cities.

English Farming Methods. The opinion that 50 per cent of the farmers in England had made little advance in their methods since he came out to New Zealand as a young man 53 years ago, was expressed by Mr J. A. Paine, of Auckland, who returned from a holiday visit to Great Britain by the Tainui. Many of these farmers were 30 years behind New Zealand as far as dairy farming was concerned, he added. England offered a great contrast, however, for side by side with the backward farmers were those who followed the most up-to-date principles used the most modern equipment and machinery. Driving Contrasts.

A contrast between town and country drivers who have found themselves motoring under new conditions during the holidays was drawn this week by an official of the Automobile Association (Auckland). Country motorists, he said, frequently held up traffic in Auckland because of timidity in congested or busy city conditions. On the other hand, town drivers appeared to accept the comparative freedom of the open country as a licence to relax vigilance, and they might then be inclined to encroach on the incorrect side of the highway on bends, or in other places where visibility was restricted, to the danger of road users.

Meeting of Cabinet. Governmental activity for the year will begin in earnest on Tuesday when the New Year’s first Cabinet meeting will be held. This was announced by the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, in an interview yesterday. After the holiday vacation, though it had been a short one for members of Cabinet, a good deal of policy and administrative work will await attention. Mr Savage spent the Christmas and New Year holidays in Wellington, where he was in close touch’with his office to deal with questions of urgency. He has spent some time at his desk on most days, but otherwise enjoyed a respite from official duties. A number of Ministers have been on holiday in different parts of the Dominion, but most of them are expected to be back in Wellington by Tuesday.

Valueless Samples. Four sets of indent sample goods, each valued at over £lOOO, are lying virtually useless in the showroom of an importing firm in Auckland. Travellers were to have set out with the sample range of articles, but the whole complexion of their work was altered by the receipt of licences from the Customs Department drastically reducing the quantity of imported goods for the first six months of the year. As a result, the. samples were left in the showroom and the travellers were dismissed, it was stated, with the suggestion that they might just as well spend Hie day at the beach as do anything else.

Prisoner Still at Large. The youth, Robert. Clarence Clarke, aged 19, who escaped from the prison camp in Rangipo, near Tokaanu, last weekend, has not yet been found. He has been at liberty since Sunday night or early on Monday morning. As the result of investigations it was found that Clarke escaped on one of the horses belonging to the camp, and rode about five miles along the Waioura Road, which runs between Rangipo and Taihape. Marks on the roadside gave cause for the belief that he met a motorist who had stopped with a punctured tyre, and it is thought that he was given a ride in the direction of Taihape.

New Motor Camp. Miramar North, that area immediately to the north of the tram terminus, presents a scene of rather remarkable animation at present, representing one of those waves of development that come to all suburban districts round Wellington from time to time. Going straight ahead after leaving the tram, one traverses Darlington Road for some 300 yards, when one comes upon the new motor camp site of 48 acres which is to serve motor tourists next summer. This land, sloping swards of turf with a little scrub here and there, leads on to hilly country at the head of the valley, broken at this point into two attractive glens. The plan of the motor camp shows the main road entering this area from the northern end of Darlington Road and. curving slightly to the westward, leading to the two glens mentioned, the lower ends of. which are included in the camp layout,