LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 43, 30 November 1937, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

After being closed for some months, the Fairfield Freezing Works will reopen to-morrow for the fat lamb season. The Auckland Transport Board yesterday decided to enter into negotiations with L. J. Keys, Ltd.,, for the purchase of their water-front bus service between Auckland and St. Heliers. A committee was appointed for the purpose. It was mentioned in the discussion that if the board did not take over the service there was every possibility that the Railway Department would l acquire it. “Can wo cater for the 80-mile-an-hour driver?” asked Mr F. Atmore at an Automobile Association (Taranaki) meeting at New Plymouth, when signs were being discussed. “We have endeavoured to assist and help the driver who goes at a reasonable speed, and that in itself entails enough work.” “If we had. signs every five yards they would be useless to certain types of drivers,” commented Mr G. Gibson.

According to a letter received by the Southland Education Board from the Education Department a large number of dental clinics will be erected during the next few years. This move was in accordance with the programme of the Government, the letter stated, and it was desired that the first group of clinics should he ready for use not later than next May. The plans and specifications of the three standard types of clinics had been revised and brought iip f° date, and the board was asked to ensure that future school dental clinics were built in accordance with these plans.

A proposal to introduce a native treenaming competition at the next Waikato Winter Show has been adopted by the show executive. The competition will be open to pupils attending primary and secondary schools. About 100 native trees, properly labelled, will be displayed at the beginning of the show. Later, the labels will be removed and numbers will be substituted while the placings of the trees will be changed. The entrants will then be iinvitecl to name the trees. Mr. W. Fraser, principal of the Hamilton Technical High School, in commending the scheme, said the ignorance of people concerning the names of native trees was appalling.

“I suppose if you boys and girls were asked to choose,” said Sir Clutha Mackenzie to pupils of Whangarei High School, “between > total deafness and total blindness, all of you would prefer deafness, but I can assure you that all blind people are quite certain that they would rather be blind than totally deaf.” Sir Clutha went on to explain that such an apparently odd preference was due to the fact that the totally deaf person lost most, if not all, contact with .society, whereas the blind person could still hold his own. He could listen to music and take part in conversation, and, if he lost the power of viewing things, he developed a wonderful faculty for making mental pictures.

On a two months’, visit to New Zealand, in the course of a world tour studying flora. Professor A. J. Eames, of Cornell University, America, arrived at Auckland, in the Aorangi from Sydney. He said that within the last 25 years tlie viewpoint of farmers, particularly American, had changed in favour of utilising the services of uni-versity-trained men in assisting them to carry out farming operations. He recalled that one of the outstanding experiences in the course of his tour through England, South Africa, and Australia was a motor drive through the Kruger National Park in South Africa, where lions, elephants, antelopes, and other big game came right up to the car door. Accompanied by his wife and son, he proposes to meet the botanists in each New Zealand city.

“The legislation does not propose to paralyse action among the people and their sports bodies, but it hopes to stimulate action, and its success depends on the individual effort of every person,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry),. when speaking to members of the Optimists’ Club in Wellington 011 “The Purpose of the National Council of Sport.” He considered the only challenge to disease was physical fitness and wellbeing, and that people should strive after that ideal. “If we can infuse this spirit into the nation we will develop a real burning desire to smash down the growing statistical position of ill-health that we have reached,” he said. The Y.M.C.A. would he of great assistance to the Government, he pointed out, if its co-operation was forthcoming.

“Tell all your friends in New Zealand not to worry about the Old Country. She is still ahead of any other nation in the world.” This was the message given to Mr A. H. Nicoll, of Cambridge, by a prominent English business man during his recent trip to Britain. Mr Nicoll said the outlook in England and Scotland was very bright. The people were all busy and happy, and there was little serious talk of war. They appeared to have every faith that Great Britain would never lose its power. The prosperous conditions prevailing, were not all due to armaments, there being a general business recovery. Great scope was being provided in the field of engineering, and English trains were still showing the way with new mechanical designs and inventions. A very good impression had been created in England by Mr Nash and Mr Jordan, added Mr Nicoll.

Strong criticism of the housing conditions with which teachers in country districts have to contend was voiced by Mr (J. A. Maddison (chairman of tho Hawke’s Bay Education Board), referring at a meeting of the hoard to the decision of the Government to erect houses for civil servants. “I doubt if 1 per cent, of our teachers’ houses in tho country comply with the requirements necessary to pass the housing survey,” Mr Maddison said. “This is a position which should have been tackled before the building of houses for civil servants was embarked upon.” He added that the education boards intended to take the matter up, and it was hoped that better housing conditions for school teachers would shortly be brought about. Mr Maddison pointed to the case of one teacher at a Hawke’s Bay country school who had actually been advised to build two rooms for ldmself.

About 10,0C0,000 people rale bicycles in Great Britain, cr one in every four, 31 r George Guy told the Timaru llotarv Club yesterday, giving impressions of his recent tour of the British Isles and the Continent. He undertook a cycling tour but bought a colonial model machine for 255. He wondered at the time why it was so cheap, but found later that the English ride n much lighter, type of cycle on which they frequently ride anything from 80 to 110 miles a day. “Girls often ride 110 miles in a day on a tour and they think nothing of it,” he said.

“Docs the unlimited liability mean that parts of the anatomy > are not valued as they were formerly?” asked Mr R. Sim, amid laughter, at the meeting of the Southland Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union, during a discussion on the recent raising of the limit of claims lor compensation for injured workers. It was stated that many farmers were insured for a limit of £IOOO, and that claims which might ensue following an accident since the amendment of the law might ruin employers. It was decided to protest against the unlimited liability for compensation being placed on farm employers and to request the Dominion Executive to ’endeavour to secure an amendment of the Act.

A decision to join in with the New Zealand Ileal Estate Institute’s protest against a clause in the Finance Bill providing for the non-eviction of tenants unless alternative accommodation was provided for them, was made by the South Canterbury branch of the institute yesterday. The chairman (Mr J. H. Sinclair-Thomson) said it had been decided to send a telegram and letter to Mr Clyde Carr, M.P., asking that the enactment of the legislation .should at least be delayed till fuller discussion of its implications had been held. Members were of opinion that the measure would deter not only agents but builders and lessors from legitimate business.

“The opinion I formed after watching the last test match was that the time had arrived when the game should be given hack to the players, and that the' politicians of the game, who only stood on the fringe, should not be allowed to-tinker further with the rules.” This was the advice to Rugby Football Union officials given by the well-known veteran player, Mr P. Sheehan, speaking at the Auckland Rugby Union dinner to coaches and secretaries. Amid applause Mr Sheehan criticised the appointment of selector-manager and the governing of the field captain in play by suggestions from the sideline. He favoured player-selectors and captaincy on the field by a tried player, with a free hand for sudden changes of strategy. The South Africans had illustrated this point, he said.

The Wellington City Council briefly discussed the suggestion that, to avoid the possibility of electors taking the easiest course when marking a voting paper with many names on it by starting with the candidates the first letters of whose names are A’s and running out of choices before the W’s and Z’s are reached, the papers should be printed in batches, so many thousands starting with A, so many with B, and so on. Mr. P. M. Butler asked what 'was wrong with replacing the present system with the proportional representation system. The Mayor (Mr T. C. A. Hislop) replied that that hardly came into the question at the moment. Mr W. J. Gaudin suggested that the different arrangements of names would, make counting rather awkward. The Mayor agreed that it would take longer, but he thought that the idea might well be referred to the Municipal Association. This was agreed to.