NEWS OF THE DAY

p t r Unperturbed. 1 Written by torchlight during the proi gress of an air raid, a letter from a ycung Dunedin pilot, who is the cape tain of a Wellington bomber, shows t how casually even two months ago the j men on active service accepted German bombing attacks, states the "Otago r Daily Times." The nearest bombs, , the writer said, had fallen three miles r away, and, he added, "I can't be perturbed about those." The pilot had ' just returned from a visit to the south - of France, where his squadron had t been sent to "give our back-biting , friend, the Duce, a headache." There a champagne at 4s a bottle had served ' as some compensation for the discom--3 fort of sleeping on a dirty wooden t floor in a place infested with "carr nivorous bugs," and getting nothing t better than bread and margarine to • eat. There, too, air raids were fre--3 quent, but they were "cheap Italian • models and didn't amount to any- . thing." Two hurried dives into ditches r spoiled a new white flying suit, but the only hint of complaint in the letter " was the statement that the air-raid r sirens spoiled the airman's sleep. [ Charcoal for Producer Gas. 3 Part of the important experimental 1 work being carried out at the State 5 mill at Whakarewarewa is the production of charcoal for producer gas, states a Rotorua correspondent. Extensive experiments have been carried out in the past few months with practically all the available kinds of timber to determine the most suitable type for the production of charcoal. There is an almost unlimited supply of wood available, and if the present fuel , shortage continues the production of ' charcoal for producer gas may well be- ; come a large part of the mill's work. . The charcoal will be produced mainly from second-class timbers of little comi mercial value. The mill is one of the t largest of its type in the world. It incorporates Hs own power plant, a • modern box factory, and a cressoting . plant for the production of power and telegraph poles, fencing posts, and rail- • way sleepers. The timber in the - Whakarewarewa block is mainly pinus insignis, with a little larch and eucalyptus. Many of the features of . the mill, such as the pond for sorting . and the shadow sawing device, are 1 unique in New Zealand. "But the Patient Died." ' The following comment on the sac- : rifices he considers Americans will : have to make in the defence of their > country is contained in a letter from ' th« president of a great United States 1 industrial corporation to his New Zea- > land agent:—"l am personally one of ; those who feel that everybody in the ■ United States—capital, labour, employer, employee, generals, and sol- ! diers—is going to have to make social sacrifices, not social gains, to protect i this country. I want to see all employees just as prosperous and just as financially independent as can be but ' I am experienced enough to know that everybody has to sacrifice a good percentage of his income in one way or another to make his country safe. I wish somebody would tell me just what good it did the worker in a French factory to get double time for everything over 38 hours a week, and all the other so-called social gains, when the Germans, who worked 50 or 60 hours a week, walked in and took him over. The Frenchman got his social gains all right, but he lost his country. The operation was successful, but the patient died." Britons Unafraid. "There'll always be an England." This fact is amply borne out in recent letters received from the Homeland telling of the British people's imperturbability in the face of air raids. In the course of a letter to a relative in Wellington, a resident of an English seaside town remarks: "Jerry is out to strafe us night and day; he is trying to shake our morale, or in other words, is hoping so to get on our nerves that we'll be ready to talk to him, whereas all he'll get from us is a kick in the pants. Of course, we get a bit fed up with broken nights and a bit of noise during the day when we try to make up on our sleep, but we're getting used to it and we know the R.A.F. are giving him at least a fair return." The writer mentions that a baby was born during one raid, the doctor having to be summoned while the bombs were falling. "Really," the writer adds, "it's a scream. The women are the warmongers now. Just let them get a hold of Hitler and he'll go' through it. By the way, in the public air-raid shelters there are folk who are disappointed if the 'all clear' siren goes too soon—at night, I mean—for they're having whist drives and they don't like breaking off before they've had at least sixteen hands. Doesn't sound as if we were dropping our sinkers yet, does it?" Grey Kiver Bar. Since the five-knot run in the Grey River on Tuesday, following a brief storm, it had not been possible until Thursday, owing to rough seas on the Greymouth harbour bar, to carry out sounding, but a moderation then permitted this work, states a Greymouth correspondent. It was found that there was a gain of over 2ft in the depth, which is now approximately 20ft 3in at high water. Combined with the heavy westerly seas on the bar, which stirred up silt deposits, the moderate fresh in the river has evidently done excellent work in scouring out a good deal of the unusually wide sandbank which has adversely affected shipping for two weeks. Although the improvement is only slight, it will relieve anxiety with regard to the timber trade, which, it was considered, would be adversely affected. The projected Joading of the largest timber cargo for a considerable time would have had to be reduced to onethird to keep the draught of the vessel within the restrictions imposed by the ' bar depth. This particular vessel will 1 possibly still have to restrict its loading, but possibly not to the same ex- ; tent as was earlier anticipated. Maori Rock Carvings. Carvings of considerable ethnological ; value, in a cave which featured largely in the tribal wars of the Rotorua and • Taupo district, are protected by an order in the Gazette. An area of two ■ acres is declared a Native reserve, as a place of historic interest. The cave, ■ which is below the Aratiatia Rapids, ■ and close to the Fulljames fishing • camp, is believed to have been first explored by Europeans in 1920, when Mr. H. Hill, of Napier, and Mr. R. H. Ward and Mr. G. Stubbs, of Taupo, entered it, states a Ro +orua correspondent. It has since been visited frequently by fishermen, and some of the carvings have been mutilated. Mr. W. J. Phillipps, of the Dominion Museum, carried out field work in the neighbourhood last year, and it is as an outcome of the report he presented that the action is taken by the Government. The carvings on the domed ceiling of the cave are mainly canoe shapes, numbering 54. Four types of canoe are represented. A lizard and two human figures are also incised in the soft rock. They are believed to be the only cave carvings in the district. The cave was used as a place of ambush against raiding parties when the war trail followed the Waikato River. It was within the Ngati-tehu Hapu territory, and is connected with many of their tribal battles. The cave was also used both then and in later days by parties of Maori fishermen and duck snarera, ;