LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 38, 24 November 1937, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the list of passes in the recent music examinations the following name was omitted: —Grade I.—Ngaire Coates (Miss G. Woods, L.R.S.M.)

An indication of the wide ramifications of the Auckland (Sunday School Union was given at the annual meeting. --It was revealed that the union controlled 31-5 schools, from as far south as New Plymouth .and Gisborne, and including all the North Auckland territory. There were approximately 22,000 pupils enrolled, under the guidance of nearly 25Q0 teachers.

There are 10,000 pohutukawas, one year old, in the propagating beds of the Wellington Beautifying Society at Mount Crawford. These are all to he planted out next winter. There will probably be 20,000 ready for the winter of 1938. All are destined for Wellington’s hills, so that in the course ol a few years the city’s Christmastide will be associated with millions of gay blossoms from this much-admired native.

Asked what area of land was most popular as a dairy farm, Mr C. D. Dickie, a member of the Taranaki Mortgage Adjustment Commission, stated in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth that from 80 to 100 acres was generally favoured nowadays. That area was suffieent for the farmer to provide work for members of his family without their leaving the farm. On the other hand, Mr H. N. Purdie, Waitara, would not commit himself on the' question. He said it depended on the man on the climate, situation and various other factors.

The grandstand at the Caledonian Ground, in Dunedin, which was the subject of a critical discussion, at a meeting of the Caledonian Society, must be one of the most ancient buildings in the Dominion. It was erected on its present site in the early ’sixties, and even then was not new, having been taken down from the north ground and then reassembled at the Caledonian. Ground. It was suggested at the meeting that it should be repainted, but the general opinion was that the cost involved (about £200) was not warranted. One member said that it would probably be condemned in V year or so. The directors of the society are now investigating the prospects of erecting a new stand.

A three-quarter-inch puriri splinter was extracted from the heel of an 11-year-old girl, Shirley MackwoocT, of Anzac Bay, Waihelce, Auckland, on Saturday morning, after the splinter had lodged in her foot when she was walking up a hillside about a year ago. Several fruitless attempts had been made in the meantime to find the cause of the pain which forced her to walk on her toes, and visits to the Auckland Hospital had failed to locate the trouble. It was hot until Saturday, when the child complained of a pain in her heels, that her mother probed with a needle and withdrew the splinter, which apparently had travelled four inches along her foot.

The Onetangi Beach, near Auckland, which is and a quarter miles long, was littered for its whole length by thousands of small fish., the other day, which were described as crayfish, from 2in to 4in long. Mr A. W. B. Powell, the acting-curator of the War Memorial Museum and, a leading authority on shellfish, said that they were probably the crustaceans known as “whale"feed.” These might easily be mistaken for young crayfish by a casual observer, he said. They get. their popular name of whale feed from being the diet of southern whales, which follow their vast migrations sometimes for months at a time. Shoals -of them are common about New Zealand waters especially a few miles off shore.

A New Zealander in China, writing to relatives, mentions some points of interest apart from and concerning the war. “In Korea,” it is stated, “all "the Presbyterian schools have been closed by the Japanese because the children must worship the Emperor. In Manchuria all schools must «be taught by Japanese. If the school is closed, the mission property is confiscated. Our Presbyterian Christians have, been imprisoned, tortured, no trial given. One man here was imprisoned in a room the door of which was so low and small he had to crawl into it. One form of torture is to pour water through the nostrils into the lungs. It results' in death. In Tientsin now the Japanese threaten to shoot or otherwise kill anyone of any personality who is against them openly, and were they to get this letter that would happen to me.”

“People down here talk a great deal about the Japanese menace. In my opinion, it is an absolute wash-out,” said Mr T. A. Bridgeman, of Dunedin, who returned a. few days ago after a tour of Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies. “It seems to me a mistake to talk in that way, because it has given the Japanese an impression that we are all afraid of them. The strong impression that one obtains in a- visit to the East is of a sense of complete security as far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned. The strength of Singapore is not fully realised by anybody and the Japanese would never be allowed to pass there.” Mr Bridgeman said that he had. interviewed military and naval officers in the East, and they had laughed at the idea of the Japanese invading Australia or New Zealand. They had absolute confidence in the protection of Singapore. The scheme of cutting a canal through the Malay Peninsula and so destroying much of the efficacy of the naval base was discounted there; even if they were allowed, the Japanese had not sufficient inducement to attempt it.

In his address to the Auckland Rotary Club, Dr. A. F. Gwynne (the Auckland radiologist), said that a wise doctor asked his patient what he liked and let him have it. There were very few exceptions to that. It was true that food might be reduced in quantity for a time with advantage, hut the experience of Germany in the last three years of the war was that twothirds of the average diet brought a decrease in mental and physical efficiency. Dealing with physical efficiency Dr. Gwynne said the ideal was to provide for the complete restoration and maintenance of body tissues, to promote growth in the young, and to provide a source of energy. An adequate diet required properly-balanced percentages of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. A wide variety of foodstuffs was capable of meeting these requirements, and dietetic fads, however dogmatically asserted, had no general application.

"I am in favour of buying New Zealand, goods, providing other things are equal, but not when it mejms the expenditure of an additional £l3 135,” said Mr A. Rosser, at a meeting of the Auckland City Council, when a brief discussion took place on a recommendation to purchase 12 dozen paint brushes made by an English firm rather than a line manufactured in New Zealand. An amendment to obtain an equal quantity of the New Zealand and English articles was lost.

By special arrangement, the Treasury Department has for some months been making deductions from the salaries of many Auckland public servants which it is crediting against general taxation yet to be assessed. In some instances, the deduction is intended to cover the whole of the probable taxation; in others, it is on a basis which will permit of a fairly substantial! contribution toward the amount assessed. It is stated that the system has been steadily attracting members of the Government service, and it is expected that it will show a substantial growth next year.

In a reserved decision of the No. 3 Transport Licensing Authority (Mr T. H. Langford) at Ashburton on November 27, K. G. MeCawn, of Christchurch who applied for a license for three vehicles to cart road material and road contractors’ equipment between the Clarence and Waitaki Rivers, has been granted a licence for one vehicle in the area between the Waipara and Rakaia Rivers; and for two vehicles in the Christchurch exempted area. At the sitting at Ashburton several objections to the applications were lodged, it being contended that local carriers in the respective areas could, do the work.

Proclaimed a borough by Governor Sir George Grey, when the Governor lived in the northern province 86 years ago, Auckland was the first place in New Zealand given the status requiring local government by a Mayor_ and Councillors. On November 18, 1851, the election was held, which made Mr Archibald Clark Mayor, the first in New Zealand. His Councillors were: Messrs Edwin Davy, Patrick Dignan, F. W. Merriman, A. B. Abraham, James O’Neill, S. Norman, T. M. Haultain, J. A. Hickson, A Macdonald, Joseph Newman, William iPowditch, Wm. I. Taylor and W. Mason. Owing to the disapproval in England of the Appropriation Act, on which the new corporation relied for its revenue, it lost its status with the passing of the Constitution Act in 1852. Not until the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act 15 years later did the town have official recognition as a borough, and in 1871 it was proclaimed a city.

An unexpected response given a headmaster by a group of Maori children who had been asked to form a thrift club was related to the Christchurch Rotary Club yesterday by Professor L. L. G. Sutherland. As part of a policy to form clubs in native schools, the headmaster had put before the children a plan to save their pennies, and deposit them in the Government’s Post Office Savings Bank, where they would earn interest. But the children refused to consider the Post Office Savings Bank, and when asked why, said: “We don’t trust the Government.” Professor Sutherland said the story was an. illustration of the truism that old attitudes die hard; in the Waikato district a dislike and distrust of the Government had continued since the Maori Wars, and the children’s attitude exemplified it. They were quite willing to let the schoolmaster look after the money, but not the bank. The story had an interesting reaction amongst its Rotarian listeners, too. When the speaker came to the words, “We don’t trust the Government,” a member cried, “Hear, hear,” and much laughter followed.