NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Wages Here and Abroad. The opinion that a wage "cut" m New Zealand would be of no advantage if wages were reduced. simultaneously in other countries was expressed by a speaker at a meeting of the Open Forum last evening. He said that New Zealand, through the farmer, depended for the bulk of its income on export prices, and if these were further reduced by a wage cut abroad, the New Zealand farmer would still be in difficulties. Other avenues of economy would therefore have to be explored before production could be cheapened sufficiently to benefit New Zealand's position. The Deep-sea Piper. A small fish resembling a garfish, or piper, was secured off Mayor Island recently by Mr. E. E. Preston, of Tauranga. It possesses two bills about an inch and a quarter long, instead of a short one above and. a long one below, as in the common garfish. The fish has been identified by Mr. G. Shepherd, curator of the Wanganui Museum, as the skipper, or deep-sea piper—Scoinbresox fosteri—of the same family as the garfish, but not common anywhere. It has been recorded as far south as the Kaikouras, but more properly it belongs to the northern waters of New Zealand. Government " Economy." At the present time, says an exchange, when the Government is urging the strictest economy not only amongst the community generally, but in its own Departments, it seems curious that a Dunedin business firm should, the other day, have received by the same mail three separate letters from the local District Treasury Office, each containing a cheque for a small sum. Each letter bore a penny stamp, and in view of the fact that the aggregate amount of the cheques totalled less than £1, it would appear that a saving could have been effected in stationery as well as in stamps. School and Bird-Roost. Springfield may now get a new school to replace the present building, which has been condemned (says the "Christchurch Times"). For at least ten years the committees have sent deputations and letters to the Education Board about this school. For years the birds have built in the roof, with the result that the place is infested with vermin, which dropped on to the children as they sat at their desks. One day recently three members of the school committee and the chairman spent a day trying to clean up the building. The committee sent for the health officer, with the result that the children were sent home and the school condemned. News From Napier. "By every evening train crowds of refugees are returning," writes a Napier resident to a friend in Auckland. "Many have returned to tlieir homes, but there arc still 400 odd persons — men, women and children—in the camp at Nelson Park, where I am still stationed. The weather could not have been better. Ever since the 'quake, with the exception of a couple of days, we have had brilliant sunshine, with hardly a cloud in the sky. It is marvellous. Nelson Park is such a peaceful spot, enclosed by pine and willow trees. Walking around the camp in the cool of the evening, one imagines that the earthquake was just a nightmare, and that there Avas no such thing as death and destruction within half a mile." Dresses and " Waists." "Longer dresses for girls means a 'waist,' and it is quite startling to see how they are concentrating on belts of the right design, so that they may. "pull in" in the bad, old-fashioned way, just Ijecause it has become the vogue," lamented the matron of one of our largest institutions where young women are employed. "Dresses have in some cases been too short, but I hope we may never return to the long frocks like those worn before the war. The new standards of eight or nine inches below the knee arc very becoming for girls? with the proper athletic public school bearing, and one of tho first things all those who are interested in the sex should do is to sec that the baneful belt does not become common, because it will bring in its train many of the evils which we used to deplore in connection with our pre-war fashion.?."

Cornwall Park Improvements. A scheme for the development of Cornwall Park, and incidentally for the absorption of unemployed, was discussed by the One Tree Hill Borough Council last evening. It was proposed that sports areas should be laid out 011 the area at the foot of One Tree Hill, known as the Olive Grove, and the Mayor (Mr. J. S. Hardwicke) was authorised to engage the town planning adviser to the council to draw up a plan of work for submission to the Cornwall Park trustees for their approval. Mr. Hardwicke explained that it was hoped eventually to provide tennis courts and bowling and croquet greens 011 the park, but the scheme the council had in mind would not entail a great deul of expenditure. Advantage could be taken of No. 5 unemployment scheme. A Saving for Devonport. It is expected that Devonport will in future make a saving of £400 in the annual cost of operating the water pumping plant, as a result of a new agreement with the Waitemata Electric Power Board. Mr. W. Cassels-Brown reported at last night's meeting of the Borough Council that the basis of the agreement, was to assist the Power Board between the periods of peak loads, and to shut down the plant either entirely or partially during extreme peak hours. The scheme provides for tiie using of only one of the two pumps during slack periods, and for the shutting down of both pumps for certain periods. In the event of an emergency through an outbreak of fire or breakdown in the mains, there is a safeguarding clause by which the second pump could be commissioned without any extra cost for power. The Wrong Calliope. In reference to the anniversary last week of the famous feat of H.M.s. Calliope in weathering the hurricane at Apia in 188!), it was stated that the Calliope Dock at Devonport was named after the famous warship, as she was the first vessel to be docked. This is an error that has often appeared ill print. The fact is that the dock was named after Calliope Point, out of which it was excavated. When the dock was opened in 1888 the first two ships to enter were H.M.s. Calliope and H.M.s. Diamond, the former cutting the customary ribbon. The name of the dock, however, had been decided upon six years before. In February the dock committee of the Auckland Harbour Board agreed "that the name of the new dock be the Calliope Graving Dock." Calliope has always been a popular name in the Navy, and the vessel after which Calliope Point was named was a much earlier vessel than the hero of the Samoan hurricane.

Handy Water Supply. _ Auckland water consumers liave to keep one eye on the water rate, which has a tendency to rise, and the levels of the Waitakere reservoirs, which have a tendency to fall. The Christchurch householder can face a drought with impunity. In this matter of water Christchurch, with its artesian wells, giving a pure, well-filtered, neverfailing supply, is the most fortunate in the Dominion, and possibly no town in the Empire lias a better or more economical system. For the reticulated supply Christchurch pumps its water, up to the top of the Cashriiere Hills, but thousands of householders have their own wells ,in their own backyard. All they have to do is to turn a switch, and the electrically-driven pump does the rest. In thousands of cases, however, the elevation is done by the simple ram. As the artesian water rises in the pipe a few feet above the ground, all that is necessary is to connect a bit of pipe some 12ft in length, which gives the necessary fall to work the ram, low powered, it is true, but quite sufficient to raise the water to the upper storeys of any ordinary dwellinghouse. One of the first things a stranger notices in wandering round the suburbs of Christchurch is the rhythmic beat of the ram in gardens and backyards.