NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 220, 16 September 1940, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Their Majesties. Reference to the recent bombing attack on Buckingham Palace was made by Mr. J. W. Shepherd in proposing the royal toast at the annual reunion of the Railway Officers' Institute on Saturday night. "This toast is no longer a formality," said Mr. Shepherd. "The danger through which our King and the Royal Family are paseing is a very real one, and it is with real feeling that we wish them strength and courage in this day" Railway Superannuation. "I think it is a pity that some provision for the wives and families of men on superannuation was not made when the present legislation was brought- into operation," said Mr. L. V. Carmine, representative of the Railway Officers' Institute on the Superannuation Board, when speaking at the institute's social reunion on Saturday night. Mr. Carmine concluded by expressing the hope that something substantial would be done for these people in the near future. Waste Metal Collection. About 12 tons of metal, estimated to be worth some hundreds of pounds, was assembled in , a collection of waste metals to aid the war effort at Hastings and Havelock North on Saturday afternoon. The 24 tons of material returned by 20 lorries included two machine-guns, engraved shell cases, several vacuum cleaners, dozens of preserving pans, thousands of brass taps and three tons of aluminium ware, in which were many new pots.

Workers , Increased Pay. The Court of Arbitration gave judgment to-day refusing applications to exempt from application of the general order of August granting a 5 per cent increase of wages to all workers under the bakers, lime workers and rural local bodies labourers' awards. In the course of judgment in these cases the Court announced that it could not accept the existence of price control in an industry as an adequate reason for the exclusion of the workers in that industry from the operation of the general order. Ngauruhoe Active. Ngauruhoe was active last week, according to an Aucklander who returned at the week-end from a visit to the Chateau. He said signs of an eruption had been noticed by several people who visited the mountain on Friday morning. A smoke cloud, which, was hanging over the crater late on Thursday night, was still visible, although considerably smaller, on the following morning. When he and some companions made a climb from the Chateau side they noticed the snow was blackened with dust particles and the air was laden with dust. On the northwest side there was very little enow, but there were distinct traces of black mud and the ground was steaming in this locality. The party proceeded to the ridge between the two craters, and found clouds of steam being ejected at intervals of about 20 minutes.

Sneak Thief Caught. Caught red-handed with a big armful of flowers, as he stepped over the low front fence of a home in Vauxhall Road, Devonport, a sneak thief last night had the surprise of his life. The man who found him in the act was the owner, who was returning about 10.30. It was bright moonlight,' and the presence of two women holding bundles of flowers near the front gate indicated that something unusual was afoot. As the owner approached, the women began to move away, and the thief, who had apparently been warned by them, was trying to make his escape. Challenged, he surrendered hie collection of flowers and then made a dash, running "all out" past hie women companions and out of sight around the nearest corner. The owner was completely taken by surprise at the man's panic. On examining his garden this morning, he found that a large bed of narcissi and freesias had been raided, but the garden was not damaged. Moons and Liquor. The problem of liquor in Maori villages v.-as the chief matter discussed by the Church of England Maori Church conference held at Ohinemutu during last week. The conference—the equivalent of Synod—was attended by representatives from each of the six pastorates in the Tauranga archdeaconry. The Rt. Kev. F. A. Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa, who presided, was assisted by Canon W. G. Williams, superintendent of the Maori Mission. After keen debate on the liquor question a resolution was carried unanimously proposing that the law forbidding the introduction of intoxicating liquor into Maori villages should be strictly enforced; that during the war the hours for the sale of liquor should be reduced, and also that the law forbidding the sale of liquor for consumption of licensed premises now applicable to soldiers and Maoris should apply without exception to everyone during wartime. It was also proposed that hotel bars should be closed all day on Saturdays, and that the alcoholic content of liquor should be reduced.

Tea in New Zealand. Exception is taken by a correspondent, I'lr. Robert Notpn, to a statement alleged to have been made by a tea planter in India, Mr. J. J. L. Logan, and. published in the "Auckland Star" of Wednesday last. "Our friend is correct when he sta tee that the tea consumption in the British Isles is greater than in this country," writes Mr. Noton. "The figures are eight and a quarter pounds as against our eight pounds per capita of population. Strangely enough, prior to the Great War British consumption was only four pounds per head, with Zealand as at present, eight pounds, equal to just under 1,000,0001b per month. The absurdity of the statement that people in New Zealand think they are drinking Indian tea lies in the fact that little or no tea is imported into New Zealand from India and people here have no illusions in this direction, but for Mr. Logan to go further and say that what he has had here is tea from the Dutch East Indies, meaning , Java and Sumatra, is a wide stretch of his imagination. There ie no Dutch tea in New Zealand, none being imported for two convincing reasons. One is that tea grown outside British possessions bears a preference further duty of 3d per pound, bringing the total to 6d, wli: h makes the article uncompetitive. The second reason is that New Zealand tea drinkers are connoisseurs, too subtle to be beguiled with inferior types. Measured by statistics, New Zealand average importations of tea rank higher in quality than in any other country in the world." Mr. Noton also takes exception to Mr. Logan's reported statement that he had never seen so much, drunknenness as in New Zealand.