The Hawera Brigade proved itself the champion of the tournament by winning the Championship Shield, the High Pressure Shield, the Simplex Shield (tie with Hillside Railway), and the Merrymaker Shield, and by gaining third place in the Manual Shield.
The Hillside Railway Brigade, besides being runner-up for the Championship Shield, annexed the Manual Shield.
Trains have a ding
Two passenger trains collided at Port Chalmers on Saturday, but fortunately little damage was done.
The 10.55am train from Dunedin ran into the train which was drawn up at the Port Chalmers railway station, and which was timed to leave Port Chalmers for Dunedin at 11.30am. The cowcatcher of the incoming train was badly buckled, as it came into contact with the cowcatcher of the standing train, and when this was unbolted from the front of the locomotive the trains were shunted apart.
A carriage near the centre of the outgoing train was also damaged. The departure of the train for the city was delayed. The mishap took place at the Beach street crossing at Port Chalmers, and was due, it is understood, to the siding points not being switched over when the signal was set clear for the incoming train from Dunedin. A departmental inquiry will be held.
NZPO enforces telephone use
Christchurch: A new field of activity has been found for postal clerks. They now read the want advertisements in the newspapers, and if they come across an advertisement like this: “For Sale, a Persian kitten and a clothes horse. — Apply telephone 0020,” a letter will come from some high official of the department, thus: “Dear Sir, It is noted you are advertising your telephone number in connection with an advertisement. No reference whatever can he made to it in any advertisement, card, or billhead for a telephone paid for at private residence rates. Unless all reference to the telephone number is deleted from the advertising, business rates will be charged as from December 1 last. I shall be glad to have your assurance that the reference to the telephone number will be discontinued.”
This letter was forwarded to a resident of Harewood, who pays £20 10s annually for a telephone to his private address. On his property at Harewood he grows potatoes, and what he has above the household requirements he disposes of by means of casual want advertisements in the newspapers. The subscriber just sells what he grows himself, and is in no way a dealer, so he contends that he is not in business.
The departmental regulations are not elastic on the point. A postal official stated to a reporter that when a telephone is indicated in an advertisement where trade or business is aimed at it is liable to be classed as a business phone, and assessed at the business rate. “There is no give and take in the departmental attitude according to the instructions from head office,” stated the officer, ‘‘and we are only carrying out our instructions. The department is out after all the revenue possible from its telephone lines.”
“Do you not think you are likely to make the telephone service unpopular, and drive business away?’’ queried the reporter. “That is for the head office to say,’' was the rejoinder. — ODT, 9.3.1925
Compiled by Peter Dowden
