LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 285, 14 September 1935, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A Press Association telegram from Wellington states tliat the trawler Alfie Cam arrived from Sydney carrying an Australian mail, and an air mail.

Members of the Southland Rugby Union’s touring team, who have been in the North Island for over three weeks, were passengers by the express train this morning on their way back to Invercargill.

• The south-bound express train this morning was a- long one, comprising two engines, 15 cars and three vans. Most of the seating accommodation was taken up, and the passengers included University students returning to Dunedin and secondary school pupils going home in readiness for the opening of the schools -next Monday.

The work of the Association for Country Education was outlined in an interesting address given by the organiser (Miss V. Macmillan, of Otago University) at a meeting held at Ashburton yesterday binder the auspices of the Mid-Canterbury Executive of the Women’s Division of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. Mrs F. Johnson, of Seafield (president), presided over a good attendance.

A large number of pigeons were released at the Ashburton railway station this morning. Four crates of birds belonging to members of the Dunedin Homing Pigeon Club were released at 10.30 o’clock, and made straight for the south without any preliminary wheeling overhead. Seven small boxes of birds owned by meSnbers of the Oamaru Homing Pigeon Club were released at 11.45 o’clock.

A Wellington telegram states that a meeting of the general committee of the New Zealand Authors’ Week indicated that widespread interest in the movement has been aroused. The Dominion organiser reported on his return from Auckland that an influential local committee had keen set up in that city, and practical assistance on a generous scale had been received from Australia. The editorial committee reported that a bibliography of New Zealand authors, which was being compiled, had reached astonishing proportions, and that an invitation to the public to send in the names of writers had met with a splendid response. It was proposed to set up committees in all the centres and provincial capitals. The organiser would visit the South Island shortly.

In the House of Representatives Mr A. S. Richards (Lab., Reskill) asked the Minister of Employment if lie would make immediate inquiries as tO' the reason why different rates of pay are allocated to men living apart from their wives in relief camps. The Hon. S. G. Smith, in reply, said that he had inquired into the matter raised. The information was to the effect that the men concerned were, at the time of going into the country, living apart from their wives and families, and were not contributing to their support. The men went to camp as single men, but to assist the wives and families, many of whom were in difficult circumstances, the Board had been paying them the proportion allowed in married men’s allocations for the wives and dependent children. The effect of the Board’s practice had been to assist the wives and children in cases where tlie husband had been negligent of his obligations.

Boys from the Ashburton East School went to Tlemuka to-day to take part in the annual seven-a-side schools’ tournament there this afternoon.

From 9.30 o’clock this morning till after mid-day there was a steady stream of motor vehicles from South Canterbury passing through Ashburton bearing enthusiasts to Christchurch to witness the Ranfurly Shield match in Christchurch this afternoon. Several hundred people from Timaru went north by road, and many Ashburton people also motored* through to the match.

A spring lamb, the first to be offered i'll Hawke’s Bay this season, was sold for £2 at Stortford Lodge sale, Hastings, on Wednesday. The lamb, which was offered on account of Mr W. Sinclair, of Pakowhai Road, was of good size and had been done well, showing no effect of the adverse weather conditions. After spirited bidding it was sold to Mr W. A. Taylor.

A sum of £147 17s 5d was collected by workers for the Ashburton Plunket Society as a result of the Daffodil Day sales made yesterday. The amount collected last year was £155 17s 6d. Some few amounts from branches have yet to come in to complete the total tor yesterday. Details of the collections were as follow': —Street sales, £32 12s lOd; flowers and plants, £l2 18s 9d; home delicacies and produce, £l6 7s 7d; cakes, £ls Is 7d; jumble, £3l 4s; books and ice-creams, £6 3s lid, variety, £27 6s 9d; donations, £6 2s. Slight structural damage was caused to one of the" Canter bury Aero Club’s Moth ’planes, ZKAAH, when it overturned through striking a sheep while taking off at Wigram shortly after noon Yesterday. The ’plane was piloted" bv Mr C. W. Evans, a pupil member of the club, who had as passenger Mr S. A. Gibbons (pilot instructor). Neither occupant was injured, although Mr Gibbons received a knock on the head. The pilot was unable to see the animal which caused the mishap, as it was in the pilot’s “blind spot.” The machine had not reached flying speed, but turned over on its nose. The occupants, who were strapped into their seats, were able to get out without difficulty.

In the House of Representatives yesterday Mr W. J. Broadfoot (C._ \\iatomoj asked the Minister of Finance if soldier settlers’ mortgages were to be transferred to the Mortgage Corporation, and would the Minister indicate, if such transfer were proposed, had he the right to recall any security or securities where special circumstances should be extended to individuals. The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, in reply, said it was provided that discharged soldiers’ settlement mortgages shall be transferred to the Corporation. There was, however, power to exclude any mortgage, or % class of mortgages from transfer, or subsequently to recall any mortgage. All mortgages transferred are administered by the Corporation as trustee for the State, which stands any losses involved. It was not proposed to force such transfer in cases where soldier settlers prefer to remain on the present basis.

Commenting on the suggestion sometimes made that the herbal remedies used! by the Maoris should be tried by Europeans, Dr. M. Macdonald Wilson pointed out in a lecture at Wellington that internal medicine was not used by the old Maoris, because it would be useless according to their ideas of the cause of ills, which was that they were due to evil spirits. After their contact with Europeans, however, they were reported to have rushed the latters’ medicines, the most nauseous of which they regarded as the most efficacious, think that the very nastiness would frighten out the evil spirits. The oldtime Maori when sick was left to himself and the priest. The natives’ former external remedies, however, often had a'good scientific basis.

At a meeting of the Ashburton branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union yesterday an address was delivered by Mrs Moffat Clow, of Belfast, Ireland, and a- public meeting was held in the Baring Square Church Hall last evening, when Mrs Clow again spoke on prohibition subjects. The district president (Mrs W. H. Robinson) presided at the afternoon meeting, and the Rev. G. B. Hinton (president of the Ashburton branch of the New Zealand Alliance) presided in the evening, when community singing preceded the address. Mrs Clow was entertained at morning tea by the Cavendish Club this morning, when the president (Mrs M. E. Ruddock) presided. Mrs Clow spoke on several subjects which appeal to women, and declared that in her opinion the women of New Zealand were too imitative, looking to England too much for a lead. They slavishly followed English customs, and she urged them to branch out with ideals of their own.

“What are and what is the use of statistics?” asked Mr A. J- Costelloe, compiler in. charge of the factory production section of the * Census and Statistics Office, in an address to secretaries of electric power boards and supply authorities in Wellington. “To the casual observer,” continued Mr Costelloe, “statistics convey little meaning. It must l>e' admitted that the intelligent ‘interpretation of statistical data requires careful and patient thought, and the. lack of appreciation on the part of the uninitiated is very natural. Statistics and ; adversity seem to be natural bedfellows, for since the advent of hard times the increase in the general interest in statistical matters has been really remarkable. In the majority of instances people are apt to regard inquiries of this nature of quite recent historical origin. This, however, is not the ease, as the birth cf statistics dates from time immemorial.”

A verbal picture of fields of clover grown, not for use as pasture, but as a happy hunting ground for mosquitoes, was sk etched by Mr W. J. Phillipps when speaking to the Economic Biology section of the Wellington Philosophical Society on the subject of fishes as controllers of insect and other aquatic life. It had been noted, he said, that the mosquito did not attack man where there was an abundance of clover, and it had been suggested that the reason why the female mosquitoes bit man (the males were not so inconsiderate) was to obtain protein for their eggs. This, however, they could obtain more readily from clover. Mr Phillipps spoke strongly against the use of oil for the destruction of mosquito larvae. _ It was harmful to bird and other life, and should never be used if other methods of control were available. He mentioned the gambusia fish which had been imported to keep down mosquitoes, but said that he did not recommend its wholesale liberation at present.

One case of scarlet fever, frpm Lyndhurst, was notified to the Ashburton County Health Inspector this week. No cases cf infectious disease were reported in Ashburton Borough.

Among bequests provided in the will of the late Mr W. J. Moore, of Ashburton, is one of £4OO to the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church to be used to build a hall at Hampstead for Sunday School purposes.

The first emu- to be born in the Auckland Zoo cracked its shell and stepped out into the world a few days ago. At present it is little more than a ball of grey-striped' down, although it is running about and is able to keep out of the way of its father’s feet. The fact that its father’s feet are the only ones it has to avoid arises from the curious circumstance that- it is the male bird which sits for nine weeks on the eggs and subsequently protects the chicks from the mother, who, if not indifferent, is likely to be antagonistic. In this instance the mother will be kept segrated until the chick is old enough to look after itself.

Carrying over 850 people, a special train, of 19 cars arrived at Ashburton from Timaru shortly after 11 o’clock this morning. The passengers, drawn from all over S&uth Canterbury, were on their way to Christchurch to witness the Ranfurly Shield match, South Canterbury versus Canterbury, and scenes of great enthusiasm were witnessed on the railway station. The Timaru Municipal Band and the Timaru Pipe Band accompanied the excursionists, who collected £6 15s 4d for the Pipe Band and £l2 10s for the Municipal Band. A second train, of 15 cars, not sc well patronised as the other, passed through Ashburton about 11.40 o’clock, and a special left Ashburton at 1.40 o’clock, taking many Ashburton Rugby enthusiasts.

. The cable message from London stating that a boy who was claimed to be the lightest baby in the world, being only 13oz when he was born 11 weeks ago, was doing well in the infants’ hospital at Westminster was referred to the matron of the Kari fan e-Ha rr i s Hospital at Anderson’s Bay (Dunedin') with a request for information regarding the lightest baby which she and her staff had reared. Her answer was that the London experience seemed “almost impossible.” Naturally it would be a premature baby, but even so the claim laid itself open to suspicion that theie had been a slight exaggeration as to the small size of the child. The smallest baby which had been reared under her supervision weighed approximately l£lb., or practically lib. heavier than the London baby.

Advice that alleged irregularities in the transport of bobby calves weie being investigated was contained in a letter received "by the Waikato Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from the Hon. C. E. Macmillan (Minister for Agriculture). The Department’s officers were going into the matter very carfully with a view to endeavouring to remove the causes for serious complaints. “I note what you say regarding calves one day old being sent to the works,” stated Mr Macmillan, “and I am very much surprised that this should be done, seeing that when they reach the works they only go to swell the condemnations which have to be made when animals which are too immature are examined The measures now being taken should have the effect of bringing about an improvement.” A letter received by the society from the Railway Department said" that when ordinary goods waggons were supplied for the transport of bobby calves this was done at the request of the dealers, who seemed to prefer this type of truck.