LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 284, 12 September 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Outdoor relief administered by the Ashburton Hospital Board in the last month cost .£39 3s Id, a, slight rise on the amount paid out in the previous month.

Ten. young members of the Ashburton Salvation Army Corps visited the Linvood Corps yesterday to take part in the series of services in connection with the Cadet Brigade. The services were conducted by Adjutant A. Chandler.

A private timber company, with the unusually small capital of £5 was registered in Auckland on Wednesday.

The .capital whs divided into 100 shares of Is each, 99 being controlled by one or two subscribers. It is comparatively rare for such small capital to be subscribed to a company. No other company of similar capital has been registered in Auckland so far this year.

An appeal for the work of the Presbyterian Social Service Association was made at the services at St. Andrew’s Church, yesterday, and in the morning Mr A. J. MqEldowney (Superintendent of the Presbyterian Social Service Association) outlined the work done in orphanages and other spheres of social service. A satisfactory sum was collected for the funds of the Association.

The difficulty in obtaining labour for dairy farms was referred to by Mr W. Bryant int the meeting of the Ashburton Hospital Board this morning, when he reported that the problem was so acute in the south that the Waipiata Sanatorium Committee 'had been compelled to instal machines to milk the 32 cows which were kept on the Sanatorium farm.

While attemping to board the Christchurch to Timaru excursion train when it was pulling out of the Ashburton station at about 8 o’clock last evening, one traveller had the misfortune to miss liis step and fall between the platform and one of the carriages. The train was quickly stopped, however, and the man was injured in no way and was able to take his scat after a very lucky escape.

A party of eleven sportsmen from Ashburton made a trip to the back of Lake Heron yesterday to exploit the possibility of shooting Canadian geese, which although plentiful in the district are extremely difficult to get at. The shooters had a most successful day, returning to Ashburton with a bag of 40 geese. Although there was no snow on the flat on which the party operated, the going was difficult owing to the swampy .nature of the ground.

The new memorial hall donated by Mrs W. Palmer, of Ashburton, for the Rakaia Corps of the Salvation Army, will be opened next Saturday. The ceremony will be conducted by Lieu-tenant-Colonel F. W. Burton, of the Territorial Headquarters, Wellington. The Ashburton Salvation Army Band will officiate at the opening and will present a, special programme in the hall in the evening. Captain Rankin, of the Training College Staff, Wellington, has been appointed the officer in charge of the Rakaia. Corps. The first service will be held on- Sunday, when the Christchurch and Ashburton Corps will be represented.

With a rally which was attended hy more than 50 young persons representing the four Bible Classes, Bible Class Week was cancluded at the Ashburton Baptist Church yesterday. The special services, which started the previous Sunday, were conducted every evening except Friday by the Rev. L. A, Day, of Opawa. Members of the various classes took part in the services and special singing was led hy Mr J. Lewis. On Saturday afternoon' about. 20 members wqlked to the home of Mr and Mrs W. T. Blackie, of Tinwald, where a song service was held in the evening.

The success of the new air mail service in speeding up the interchange of communication between New Zealand Great Britain is-well illustrated in the recent experience of an Auckland Suburban resident. Taking advantage of the first “all up” air mail, which left Auckland by the Mariposa on Friday, August 5, he wrote to a friend in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This letter was delivered in Belfast on August- 19, and the friend replied on the same day. His answer was delivered in Auckland on September 5, exactly one calendar month from the date on which the first- letter left Auckland. This contrasts with the period of three months that has been allowed for a reply in the past. By the Maunganui which left Wellington for Sydney were shipped back to their homes two members of the crew of the Wellington Harbour Board’s dredge Kerimoana. These were an Egyptian, shipped at Port Said, and an Arab, engaged at Aden. The Egyptian could speak English very well and was well acquainted with British currency. On the other hand, the Arab, a little man in the eight-stone class, knew practically no English. To all questions as to himself or arrangement to send his money on to his home port, he had but one reply —“Be Blitish!” Evidently, as a native of Aden, lie had got to know the value of his nationality, and made the most of it.

“The friendly societies of New Zealand will flourish after the, introduction of this scheme just as did tne friendly societies after the introduction of the scheme in England,” declared DT. D. C. McMillan, ALP., in an address on the social security scheme at Riccartoii. “Me have been told that the scheme will spell death to the friendly societies,” IDr. McMillan said. “Act we find in Great Britain, where the societies do not administer the health benefits, they were stimulated by the scheme. M hen Lloyd George introduced his scheme in Great Britain the friendly societies voluntarily gave up the administration of the health and medical benefits. Yet they have continued to flourish as never before. Similarly in New Zealand the giving up of the medical benefits will not affect the societies. The friendly society members will not pay into the lodge for the doctor, medical, or hospital. They will continue to pay the extra medical benefit and the funeral benefit. And the lodges will continue to thrive as tliej are doing in England.” Dr. McMillan pointed out that at present the lodges and friendly societies paid out fees to hospitals and doctors and for medicines, and retained nothing at all for administration costs.

Fifteen ewes and lambs belonging to Mr R. Cniiekshank, of Rosedale, were killed by dogs during Saturday night. Mr Cniiekshank said that sheep worrying had been going on in the district for three weeks. He had shot three or four dogs, all of which had been without collars.

If it is decided to hold a gala on Labour Day as usual this year, the Ashburton Amateur Athletic Club may organise a sports programme for the day. The suggestion was discussed by members of the Advance Ashburton Association and representatives of the Athletic Club on Saturday evening, but the proposal was held over to be placed before a meeting of the Association on Wednesday evening.

“Words are inadequate to express my admiration for the hospital nurses in' India, both native and European,” said Mr A. W. Taff in the course of his Rotary address in Hastings recently. They were continually exposed to great danger of infection from the variety of diseases prevalent in India, he said, and worked fearlessly under what were often very trying conditions.

In spite of the shortage of houses at New Plymouth, dwellings are being permitted to stand empty for periods of as much as two to three months while owners make efforts to sell them reports a correspondent. House agents state that, although number was not large, there were always houses left empty because under the Fair Rents Act owners found it impossible to sell while tenants occupied houses. One agent gave as an instance a, house which was allowed to stand untenanted for more than two months before a sale was effected, although there were always many tenants seeking to rent it.

“The son of a Swedish, washerwoman,” was the sneering epithet flung by the opposition at a candidate for the Governorship of Minnesota. But, according to Professor Ralph S. Harlow, who related the incident to Auckland Rotarians recently, as an instance of the homogeneous nature ot America’s population, the candidate’s party took up the implied challengo, used the designation as a. platform plank, and won handsomely. “And,” added the speaker, “he was the best Governor they ever had.”

One of the developments in England that impressed Archdeacon W hitehead who has just returned to Dunedin from an extensive tour of Great Britain and this Continent, was the enormous extent of new housing provisions both in the cities and in the country. The architecture of a great deal of it was to be deplored, be remarked to an “Otago Daily Times” reporter, as was the great development of fiat building in the south of England. The Noith of England was not adopting Hats, however. “They don’t lik,e flats up there,” lie said, “and this type of accommodation is still comparatively rare.”

"When the power boards and electrical supply authorities meet in conference at Wellington this week, there will be a remit from the Manaw-atu-Oroua Power Board advocating that daylight saving be extended to coyer the whole year, spates “Tlie Evening Post’s” Palmerston North representative. The position is that every time the time is changed the board has to spud men, around to alter the clocks than control tlie switching on and off of the hot water systems, and as the district is a> wide one this means that some 3000 to 4000 miles have to be covered each year for this one pui pose. The cost- to the board annually is about £SOO, which would be saved if daylight saving were completely adopted.

Research work which it is hoped will help solve the problem of facial eczema in sheep and cattle is to he undertaken by Dr J. MelCille who has arrived in Dal infers ton North from the South Island, states “The Evening Post’s” representative. At the moment this complaint is believed, to be a dietetic one and Dr. Melville s chief iob will he to study the nitrogen metabolism of grasses. He explained that there were a number of dietetic complaints from which stock suffered which were connected with nitrogen metabolism, and it was not so much a matter of under-nutrition as ma ' nutrition. The effect of climate and soil on tvpes of pastures was something about which comparatively little was known.