LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 251, 31 July 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hyacinths in full bloom have graced a room in a house, in. Ashburton lor the last week cr more. The bulbs were planted in fibre and ( left in the window, where they came to maturity fairly quickly.

A gift of £ls was received by the Methven sub-Centre of the Btad Cross Society from the proceeds of the annual ball of the Farmers’ Union Women’s Division and Young Farmers’ Club. This donation was incorrectly stated as £5 in the “Guardian” yesterday.

Pupils of the Sacred Heart Convent High School conducted a, very successful tbring-and-buy social and concert in aid of the fund being raised by schoolchildren tq buy. an ambulance for the forces. The sum of £l9 5s was subscribed from the function. The pupils had previously spent a good deal o'f their time making articles to he sold and some excellent work was included.

.Both the Borough and Ashburton East Schools expect to fill, their quota for the Ambulance Fund very shortly. At Ashburton East £25 5s had been raised up to Friday and it is hoped that as a result of a concert by the White Star Club, a group of girls who handed together a year or two ago, the amount necessary to fill the quota will be obtained.

A peculiar looking fish was found on the Qtaki beach recently. In all, it is 26in long, including the longest feeler of which there are 10. The tail has a spread, as of an aeroplane tail, 6in across; the. body is 6in long: the head which has big eyes, is 3in long; while there are a number of suckers. The fish has been forwarded to the Dominion Museum.

Small supplies of green peas were again offered at the Auckland city markets on Friday, and wens keenly sought, at prices ranging from ,1s lid peii* lb, states the “New Zealand Herald.” The very early appearance of this table delicacy has been accelerated by mild winter weather, and growers have reaped a fine profit horn the rapid growth. Prices will drop sharply when further supplies begin to come in shortly.

A touching incident occurred at the Wellington central depot for the clothes drive conducted recently. An old woman, obviously in very poor’ circumstances., apeared at the door of the sorting room and asked anxiously if there was a good pair of size four shoes thonc. When it was explained to her that the clothes wqre for refugees, she looked wistfully towards the corner where the footwear was piled, then down at her own split and down-at-heel shoes. That glance was too much for the sorters, and after a brief consultation on the ethics of the thing, they decided that charity begins at home and sent the old woman away happy in the possession of a serviceable pair of size four brogues.

Since June 18, when a new: clause was added to the Alien Control Emergency Regulations for the seizure of certain property belonging to enemy aliens who did not have the- requisite permits, over 50 cameras (says the “New Zealand Herald”) have been impounded at the aliens’ registration office in the Auckland Central Police Station, The regulation governing cameras and photographic equipment limits the possession of suck articles to aliens permitted to do so by written permits from the officer in charge of the police district. Many of the cameras surrendered are highly efficient and of expensive German makes. Some would cost at least £4O to day at retail prices.

A very vivid account of the reaction of troops to the cry “man overboard.” when raised on a troopship, is given in “The Rangitatler,” a booklet published in Egypt after the arrival of the first echelon of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, copies of which arc in Wanganui. Colonel 0. A. L. Treadwell describes how what looked to be a piece of wreckage was suddenly seen to be a man overboard from an Australian ship in convoy. He was rescued. Later in the booklet Colonel Treadwell tells how an alarm was sounded when another suspicious object was seen bobbing about. The object was really junk, this time, and Colonel Treadwell’s story of what happened concluded with, the words: “We kept well out of the captain’s road, we who had raised the alarm.’

“Japan is very favourable inclined toward New Zealand and Australia, though less so to Australia because of tariffs, and I do not think she has any aspirations at present,” said Mr R. W. Basler* a Swiss hotel manager from Japan, who is in Christchurch. Newspapers contained reports only, and no political comment in connection with these countries, lie said. “I think that in Manchukuo China, and what might come, Japan has too much to handle already, and you need not worry. Yet a million and a-half is very few people for a country like this.” Mr Busier is an officer in the Swiss Army and he got as far as New York on his way to join up, but the day ha was leaving New York Italy declared war and he was prevented from going. “In the last war Switzerland lost her trade connections because all the Swiss came home,” he said.

After one and a-half centuries of contact with the pakeha civilisation it was worth while considering what the Maori was holding on to and how much of that was of value, s'aid Sir Apirana Ngata, in discussing communal, tribal and cultural problems of the Maori during a lecture at Auckland Univercity College. Sir Apirana said that if the culture of a people was to he seen in food habits, in clothing, in crafts and in religion, it was clear that there had been a change. In material things Maori custom had given wav. The Maori children no longer appreciated the foods of their elders, hut with the old food habits had gone much of the knowledge of Nature. But the pakeha who would understand the Maori way of life must penetrate beyond changes in food and clothing and ask if tbs cove, of Maori social life had changed, Sir Apirana said. The core was to bo found in the family life. 1 The Maori family lived in the lull glare of a community intimately linked by blood relationship'. and this family grouping had an important bearing on all other factors of Maori life. Dealing with the gift of British citizenship to the Maoris, Sir Apirana said they had been thought good enough to he given a measure of equality with thei pakeha. That was a compliment to the Maori.. The pakeha had not kept his bargain badly, but the Maori had been expecting too much,

Two half-fledged thrushes were discovered last Sunday week in the hedgerow of a Hamilton farm, the owner stating that he had never seen nestlings so early ait any time in the past. The nest was found when a thrush was startled out from a barber rv bush.

Amazing to Aucklanders who met Pan-American officials making the first regular mail flight front San Francisco was their almost complete disregard, of distance. One official remarked during a conversation that he was dug in New York on August 11 and lie might be a bit rushed. “But that leaves you a fair margin,” said the Auckland man. “But,” said the official, “I’ve got to get to Hong Kong and back before then.” Thus, in.a few casual words, he dismissed the importance of a rapid trip covering many thousands of miles bv air.

Remarking on the patriotism which prompted people to sacrifice articles of priceless sentimental value to be raffled or sold in aid of the National Patriotic Fund, the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. \V. E. Parry) said at Auckland that many interesting gifts had' been received. One was a gold sovereign of great age, which was an heirloom of a Niew Zealand family, and it was expected that some patriotic citizen would say the value of thp coin and return it to its donor for safe keeping. Regarding a number of ancient gold necklaces, the Minister sa'icl their actual value , was not great, except when viewed from the aspect of the donors’ patriotism.

A visitor to Christchurch from Japan, Mr R. W. Basler, knows personally some of the British subjects who were reported yesterday to have been arrested in Japan. Mr J. Cox, the Reuter’s correspondent, -went for his honeymoon to a hotel of which Mr Basler was manager, and according to Mr Basler he was very popular with the Japanese. Mr Basler had also known Captain O. H. James and Mr J. F. James when they stayed at his hotel. “Spying is right out of the Question for foreigners,” said Mr Basler, “because if you are not a. Japanese you are noticeable and you cannot observe if you are noticeable. I speak Japanese very fluently, but I am still treated as a foreigner. I think it must be something else that caused their arrests.” It was possible, Mr. Baslea* said, that reports had been sent overseas which did not please the Japanese.- He.recalled the arrest and imprisonment of Mr James Young, Japanese manager for the Hearst newspapers for spreading harmful rumours and said that fcir a while the position was very serious and President Roosevelt even had intervened.