NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1928, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Anzac Day. There will be no publication of the Auckland Star" to-morrow, Anzac Day. Advertisers should make their arrangements accordingly. Burglaries and Lighting. A proposal to keep the street lamps burning all night for the inconvenience of burglars was made to the Onehunga Borough Council last night by the local Chamber of Commerce, but was not entertained, one member expressing the opinion men W(n oe e^iea per to employ more policeJewish Cemetery Site. lhat this meeting of citizens of Auckland protests against the City Council's alienating any portion of the public reserves of this great city," was a motion proposed by Mr. A. J. Stallworthy, piesident of the Auckland branch of the Protestant Political Association, at last night's meeting in the Town Hall. The motion referred to a request by the Auckland Hebrew congregation for a part of the Symonds Street cemetery, as a site for a communal memorial hall. The land was vested in the City Council in 1908. The resolution was carried, with only two dissentients, and will be sent to the City Council. Another Bird Sanctuary. A movement lias been started in Wanganui by the River Trust to have the Wanganui River declared a bird sanctuary. Favourable communication with the Acclimatisation Society 011 the matter lias already taken place, and representations to the Wanganui Harbour Board for support have been received cordially. Further developments will be watched with interest by local residents, says the Wanganui "Chronicle.' Should the proposal bear fruit, protection will be placed on birds from the mouth of the Wanganui River to the top up-river 'boundary of the trust's area. Lighting Devonport's Memorial. Devonport's war memorial, a lieroic-size bronze statue of a soldier in full marching kit, the effect of which since its- erection five years ago has been confined to daytime, will 011 Anzac Day have its attractiveness increased by the installation of a floodlight for night illumination. *Rom a concrete box concealed in an adjacent rockery, a 000-watt lamp will light up the figure, the base of which contains nearly a hundred names of Devonport citizen soldiers who fell in the Great War. The statue itself was sculptured and cast by Mr. F. G. Lynch, an Australian, the cost of the figure and the pedestal amounting to nearly £1500, being contributed by local subscriptions. The present lightiyg installation has been arranged by Mr. A T. Griffiths, the borough engineer, at the request of the local municipal authorities. Higher Education. A protest against the lower expenditure per student upon University education than upon secondary education in New Zealand was contained in a resolution carried by the Auckland District Court of Convocation last evening. The resolution was: "That this meeting of the Auckland Court of Convocation draws the attention of the Government to the . inadequate provision for the education of University students, as illustrated by the financial return compiled by the Auckland registrar, and submits its opinion that this condition must stunt development and hinder progress in every walk of life in the Dominion." The Rev. Dr. H. Ranston said there was no suggestion that too much was being spent on secondary education, because the reverse was the case, but there should be relatively greater expenditure on University education. Dominion's Grass Lands. At a conference on the subject of grass lands held at Aberystwyth, Professor R. G. Stapledon, M.8.E., M.A., Director of the Plant Breeding Station, gave a paper on "Some Grass Land and Other Lessons from Australia and New Zealand." He said that Australia and New Zealand had one outstanding lesson to teach farmers of Britain, and that was the influence of the grazing animal on sward formation, sward, and sward deterioration. Eighty years ago New Zealand was without grazing animals or herbage, but to-day its stock unit was 71 as compared with 100 of the Mother Country. Intelligence and tenacity had done much for New Zealand, and the beet swards there were as if lilted bodily from Northamptonshire, except that they were 20 per cent better. Both Australia and New Zealand were wonderful countries, and he would advise everybody to go and see tliein, and never come back. Stanley Bay School Affairs. At a school committee election in Stanley Bay in recent years, one /solitary householder appeared to hear the outgoing committee present its annual report. With becoming gravity he listened to it as read by the chairman, moved its adoption, seconded the motion, and loudly voted for it. The same procedure was followed when the committee was declared re-elected, and in the moving and adoption of the customary resolution of thanks. One vote carried the day. As a sovereign example of general apathy and individual enthusiasm this would be hard to excel. At the forthcoming election at Stanley Bay next Monday, however, there will be a decided change. There lias been an awakening of interest in school affairs, and a brisk contest is anticipated for the offices of committeemen, thirteen nominations having been received for the nine seats. This is the outcome of a general desire for improvement in school affairs, and local prophets forecast an interesting meeting next Monday night. Money for Good Works in Devonport. "It is gratifying to find that there is such a willing response to worthy appeals in Devonport," said the Mayor of that borough when itemised returns from the Returned Soldiers' Poppy Day appeal were made known. "Over £70 is very creditable for the Devonport effort, and reflects great credit on the willing local workers. With the usual borough subsidy of £ for £ this will provide quit 6 a lot of help among local unemployed soldiers." He also mentioned that at the Salvation Army barracks on Saturday evening there had been received a collection of £51 12/ for extensions to the building. He had then complimented Commissioner Hay on "the fine art of inducing donations," at which a member of the audience reminded the speaker that in another assembly close by on a recent Sunday there had been collected over £300. There had then been expressed a devout wish that the local Borough Council possessed this secret of voluntary increases to its funds. The Parisian Way. An Englishman in Paris, writing to a friend in Auckland, relates the following amusing incident, illustrative of how they do things in France. The driver of a two-horse lorry, which was heavily laden with bales of cotton, chose for his mid-day siesta a busy place like the Quai du Louvre, opposite the Pont du Carroussal. He was a kindly inan, and had taken off the horsey' bridles and fastened on their nosebags before tumbling two bales of cotton on to the footpath for his own couch. He slept soundly, oblivious of the noise of traffic that rumbled and honked around him. Right in the heart of the city, on the Boulevasd des I tali ens, a man and his wife were displaying mechanical toys to passers-by. When the hour of mid-day approached, madame retired to the kerb, and there prepared and cooked, on a tiny charcoal stove, a succulent meal. This attracted no attention _ from the Parisians. The spirit of laisser fairc has made it difficult for the people to become accustomed to obeying the traffic police and signals.