LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 15, 28 October 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Sustenance payments will lie made next week to 71 men on the Ashburton unemployment register. The number this week was 71 and last week it was 79.

The Ashburton fund for Chinese refugee children has been raised to £64 6s, a donation of 5s from Sister Miles and one of £4 from an anonymous donor haying been received by the Town Clerk (Mr R. C. Major).

Because he suffers from recurring attacks of quinsey, rheumatic gout, and high blood, pressure, Mr I. AY. Popham, of Auckland, has undertaken a 100 day’s fast. Yesterday he was 34 days “out” and will not eat again until New Year’s Day. His diet is almost solely water. Since 1933 he has indulged in fast of 57, 81. 100, and 40 days. “L am feeling better every day,” he said yesterday.

Characteristics of the Chinese and Japanese races wore described by the Rev. AV. O. McDouall, a missionary in those countries for about 25 years, when he gave an address to members of the St. Stephen's Anglican Parish on AA’ednesday evening. The address was illustrated by a display of samples of Chinese and Japanese art, showing the different interpretations of each raoe of given subjects as incorporated in painting and handwork.

The description of a visit to Australia for the tenth AYorld Convention of the Christian Endeavour, which was held at Melbourne, was given by Mr AY. R. Hibburt (Dominion Youth l.e.idr for the Church of Christ) when he addressed members of the Church of Christ, Ashburton, under the auspices of the local Christian Endeavour Society. The first half of the lecture dealt with travels in Australia, while an account of the Convention occupied the latter half of the evening.

Actual work in reticulating the eastern half of the Hauraki Plains County for a. water supply scheme costing £90,000 has now commenced. Galvanised iron mains are now being laid in the Kopuara'hi district, a machine being used, to dig -the trenches. The manufacture of concrete pipes at Kopu to hiring the water through a portion of Thames County from the Apakura Stream, behind Puriri, has been proceeding, and these pipes are now' being tested „by the Hauraki Plains County Council’s waterworks engineer, Mr E. F. Adams.

Good progress is being made with the construction of the new building for the Union Bank of Australia at the corner of East and Tancred Streets. The erection of a large strong-room in the middle of the site is proceeding rapidly, while a start has been made with:' the main outside walls. The building was started near the end of last month, and, with a contract time of construction of 30 weeks, it is expected that the new premises will be ready for occupation about next June. N

There was one particularly interesting feature at the annual sports of John MoGlashan College at (Dunedin, and that was in the 120 Yards Hurdles Handicap. The scratch men in the two heats were twins, and each came through the field to win his heat in the same time of 20 3-ssec. In the final the two boys lined up on the back mark, and in an exciting finish they breasted the tape together. Although ndti Siamese twins, the youthful hurdlers could not be separated by the judges, and appropriately enough were bracketed in first place.

“A determined effort is being made to market the cheap German cars in England at the present time, but I do not think it will succeed,” said Dr. B. J. Dudley, of Lower Hutt, who has just returned from a 'holiday tour. “Except for tourist cars, I saw no British cars on the- Continent, each country supplying its own needs, and tlije smaller the car the more noise it makes, the sound of some of the horns being frightful. The German small cars are quite efficient, even if they have not the same finish as the British cars. Keeping a ear in London is somewhat of an expense, as garage expenses run into £1 Is per week.”

“AA f e have a vivid picture in mind of a headmaster who sat in his office one sunny-morning and directed the physical exercises of his whole school by the way of a microphone and, loudspeakers,” says the editor of National Education. ‘T>ne couldi not help feeling that it was unnecessary and uneducational. It- would have been so easy for him to shane the sunshine with the youngsters, to make himself at one with* them. His own personality would have been far more inspiring than this disembodied voice that blared from the school wall. AVhat chance of independent thinking will children have who have become accustomed to the voice of authority sneaking up on them unawares from the loud-speaker?”

The correspondent of the United Press Association, writing from Rarotonga, says that Rarotonga and, Aitutaki are the only islands of the Cook Group that now have measles. No deaths resulted from the epidemic. There are four cases under treatment at Rarotonga, and t'hjree at Aitutaki. The total number of cases to date in the different islands is as follows: Rarotonga 686, Aitutaki 51. Aitu 35, Penrhvn 114. Manihiki one. The schooner Tui Cakau, under charter to the Government, left Suva recently to visit the northern islands of the Cook Group, to remove persons suffering from leprosy to Makogai. From Manihiki eight persons suffering from leprosy were removed, one from Rakahaiiga, and 34 from Penrhvn. The schooner expects to return to Suva about thr end of the month.

Comment on wha'f was called a remarkable coincidence was passed recently at a meeting of the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board when the chairman, Mr J. J. Kingston, reported how a house in One Tree Hill had a fire on the same date and at the same minute as one which occurred at the same house in 1932. Mr Kingston, said six years ago at 10 a.m. on August 22 the brigade had been called to the house to extinguish a fine 'which had been caused by the sun s rays focusing through the medallion of a. leadlight window on the top of a curtain. At 10 a.m. on August 22 of this year another fire had broken out throngn exactly the same cause. The fact that no fine had occurred, in the intervening time was probably because the sun had been hidden behind clouds at that moment or because there had been some different arrangements of the window.

A case of tuberculosis was notified in Ashburton Borough this week. There were no notifiable cases in the County.

Seventy-four years ago to-day, the ship Lancashire Witch arrived at Lyttelton, and included, among the passengers were Mesdanies W. H. Collins and S. Giles, of Ashburton, and the late Mr G. W. Lead ley, of Elgin. They were all children then. The surviving passengers can tell many interesting stories of the voyage, which took 12S days, during which 28 of the •500 on board died of fever.

The registration of the following company is notified : —Cookson Bros., Ltd. itegd. as a private co. Oct. 19. Office: Methven. Capital: £2OO into shades of £1 each. Subscribers: Methven—F. W. Jewell 199. Ashburton — W. Jewell 1. Objects: Acquire ana carry on business of. grocers, now carried on by Receiver for debenture holder of Cookson Bros.. Ltd., together with certain assets and liabilities.

The annual sale of produce arranged by the Ashburton branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance .Union was held in’ the Baring {Square Schoolroom this afternoon. Tastefully decorated stalls were well patronised,, and visitors were entertained by enjoyable musical items. The stallholders were: Home delicacies, Mrs E. Tinker ; produce, Mrs J. Tullocn, and Miss E. A. Watson. Afternoon tea was served. The proceeds will go to the Union’s funds.

During the months of August and September there was no occasion on which the error in the time signals sent out from the Dominion Observatory at Kelburn (Wellington) exceeded one quarter of a second. That is near enough to the “right time” for most people, and amply satisfies the require\ments of the most exacting of marine officers. It is, in fact, a remarkably good record. Taking the whole of last year, the number of occasions when the time signals were between one quarter of a second and one second wrong was only fourteen. Only on three of these fourteen occasions was the error in excess of half a second, and on no occasion was it more than one second.

An Ashburton resident who travelled to Christchurch by motor-car a night or two ago has come to the decision that in future lie will be careful where he parks his car while in the City. He left it outside a hall in a rather quiet street and on returning to it an Hour or two later, experienced a little trouble starting it. However he was able to get it going after a time and was fortunate in arriving back in Ashburton without- afiy delay. Next morning, however, the car refused to start, and on an inspection of the petrol tank the dismayed owner found that it had been partly filled with milk, which, having curdled, almost completely blocked the petrol pipes. He is still having trouble starting the car, although strenuous efforts have been made to clean out all the stale milk.

Private gardens in Dunedin are proving a source of attraction to unscrupulous plunderers. Not content with removing an abundance or blooms, the marauders are evidently without any scruples, for they leave behind them a. trail of wanton destruction. Complaints that gardens at iSt. Clair have received unwelcome attention have been fairly numerous this season, but this is not the only locality which produces flowers to the liking of the thieves. On Saturday afternoon a motor-car drew up outside a residence in Littlebourno. A man and a woman got out, walked up to the door, rang the front-door bell, and, receiving no response, turned their attention. to some rhododendron trees. After gathering a, large armful , each and picking some smaller blooms, they re-entered the car and drove off.

“I was very interested in a local in Wednesday’s issue of the ‘Guardian’ concerning Cercis Siliquastrum (Judas Tree),” writes a correspondent. “My experience is that this tree is quite common in both Christchurch' and Ashburton, as well as most parts of New Zealand. Bean and Osborn, experts of Ivew Gardens, England 1 , tell us in their books that this tree is a native of southern Europe and. the Orient, growing mostly to under 25 feet, but' there are specimens, one in Kew about 40 feet high with a girth of almost live feet at the trunk, and one which grew, and may still grow, at Bath which in 1878 had a girth of six feet. Cercis Siliquastrum has been cultivated in England for over 300 years. It may also interest your readers to know that the flowers are of a sweetish acid taste and ao'e often used as an ingredient in salads. Other varieties of this tree are C. canadensis (Red bud of North America) pale rose; C. Chinensis (China and Japan), pale pink; and O. s. var album white. The latter and Cercis Siliquastrum are both to bo seen in bloom in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens at the present time.”