NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Twenty-seven and Nine! There was laughter at yesterday's meeting of the Auckland Harour Board, when tenders for the supply of slack coal were opened. There were seven tenderers, six from Auckland firms and one quoting a price for a South Island coal. Without exception the six Auckland firms quoted 27/9 per ton. • Bequests to Charities. Under the will of the late Mrs. Emily Isabella Tully, who died on May 3, two Roman Catholic institutions will benefit to the extent of £25 each. One bequest is to the Parnell Parish Church, and the other Bum is to go to the Little Sisters of the Poor, Ponsonbv. The estate was valued for probate at less than £1000. Full Pay Work. A letter expressing appreciation of the council's action in placing 100 men on work at full pay, and requesting that where possible returned soldiers should receive preference when the men were being encaged, was received from the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association at last nTglit's meeting of the Mount Eden Borough Council. A similar letter was also received from the Eden-Roskill Ex-Servicemen's Club, in which the club stated that they considered the action of the council a step in the right direction. Shrine Windows. The proposed designs for the commemorative stained glass windows to be placed in the shrine of the Auckland War Memorial Museum were discussed in committee by the Auckland Presbytery last night. A resolution moved bv the Rev. W. Bower Black to the effect that the Council of Christian Con-m-esations should -be requested to take the necessary steps to see that the religious symbolism of the windows is representative 01 common Christianity, and that their historical symbolism represents something of the history of New Zealand, was carried unammously. Extension of Cricket. A development In the popularity of the chief summer sport is foreshadowed by the formation last evening of the Auckland Friendly Societies' Cricket Association, which intends" to conduct an official competition. As the Friendly Societies' Association in Auckland district embraces 70 lodges, the new cricket body may become a strong organisation. At tliic foundation meeting it was mentioned that occasional cricket matches had been arranged between lodges, and the time was now ripe for an association to strengthen the bond of good sportsmanship. One speakcr said it was likely that the move would be emulated in ether parts of the Dominion. Fast Travelling". \ double crossing of the Southern Alps was made by Mr. J. C Mercer and Mr. R. A. Kirkup in one of the Canterbury Aero Clubs aeroplanes one morning recently (says the "Christchurch Times"). After breakfast in Christchurch the men set out and landed in Hokitika in time for morning tea. By-lunch time they were back in Christchurch, the double crossing being accomplished in less than three hours. The trip to Hokitika occupied one hour 20 mimics, and the return flight was done in one hour 30 minutes. The train which left Hokitika early in the morning for Christchurch was- passed at Jackson's on the return trip, and the train from Christchurch to Greymouth was passed at Avoca. Spartan Diet and Health. Speaking to tbn "Good Companions" bridge party, which was organised to assist the "funds of St. Saviour's Orphanages, Timaru, Dean Julius, in explaining the causes and results of the depiction in the maintenance funds of the two homes, said that the food was necessarily rather on spartan lines, but that, despite this, the children were healthy and happy. He instanced proof unassailable. When the medical officer visited the central public school at Timaru he picked out from the hundreds of pupils the fifty healthiest, "and," said the dean, "forty-nine of them came from our Boys' Orphanage in Timaru. Wo have only fifty attending the school," he added naively. "They walk the two miles there and back each day and assist in various work about the home as well." Who Laughs Last. An amusing story of a borough councillor buying potatoes from a relief worker is being recounted at Port Chalmers. The potatoes had been grown on an unoccupied corporation section temporarily set aside as vegetable gardens for the unemployed. The potatoes were sold as they etood on a rough calculation of producing four sacks. After the deal was completed and the money passed over, a day oi-'two elapsed before the potatoes were dug by the new owner. The result was disappointing, for instead of four sacks there were barely four sugar bags of potatoes, and small ones at that. The patch had very- evidently been "bandicooted" by a marauder, and the laugh seemed to be on the side of the seller. But the laugh may have been too hurriedly apportioned, for the Unemployment Committee is inquiring as to who gave permission for the sale of potatoes which had been cultivated in relief work hours. Veterans, But Not So Old. "They call us old soldiers, and certainly the years are passing quickly, and taking their toll of our numbers. Yet we are not so old," remarked Veteran J. V. Scott, in the course of a speech at the annual reunion of the South African Veterans' Association in Gisborne. "Colonel Gambrill has said that he was a boy when the Boer War started, and looked up to the men who went overseas to fight. Well, when J was a boy, there was an old Regular who used to visit my father occasionally, and he had fought at Rorke's Drift in 1879. That was perhaps the greatest feat in the history of the British Army, for 90 men of all ranks stood off 3000 Zulus, and the occasion wa« marked by the award of no less than six Victoria Crosses. We are 34 years past the close of the Boer 'War, but we are not so old. When the Great War broke out, 75 per cent of my old regiment reported for service, and there are a few who are good to-day for anything that comes along." Laburnum's Itinerary. Owing to the delay caused by repairs to her boilers, the Imperial sloop H.M.s. Labur-

num sails to-day for her annual Islands cruise, instead of on June 4. Her revised itinerary is as follows:—Pago Pago, June 18; Apia. Juno 19; Tokelau Group and Eastern and Western Samoa, with the Administrator of Western Samoa, Mr. H. E. Hart, until July 5; Vavau, July 8 to 10; Nukualofa, July 11 to 14; Ono-i-lau, July 15; Suva, July 10 to 20; Lautoka, July 27 to 30; Yasawa, July 31 to August 10; Lambasa, August 11 to 13; Somo Somo, Auaust 13 to 10; Wakaya, August 10 to 20; Levuka, August 20 to 23; Suva, August 23 to 30; return to Auckland, September 4. This morning the cruiser Dunedin left dock after prolonged repairs, and she i 3 to undergo speed trials in the Hauraki Gulf to test the port tailshaft and "A bracket," which have' been overhauled. An inspection will probably be made by a diver to-morrow morning, and the ship is then to berth at the dock wharf j if the repairs prove satisfactory, and will; remain there until Friday. On that day she j leaves on her cruise to the Pacific Islands, returning to port on August 7. H.M.S. Dionicdc. which was to have left on June IS for the Pacific, is to dock to-morrow inoniiiia; for ten days, having been delayed by the Dunedin's occupation of the dock. She now sails on June 26. ,

Boundary Road Restored. By a decision made at a special meeting of the Mount Eden Borough Council last evenin"-, on the motion of Mr. K. N. Buttle, Landscape Boad West is to be given back its former name of Boundary Road, i A Mammoth Flounder. What is claimed to be the largest flounder ever caught by a Thames fisherman was netted off the coast on Monday by Mr. W. Pernio, felling from the launch Ruby, states i the '-Star" Thames correspondent. The fish | weighed 41b soz uncleaned, and was 21in long and 12in in width. It was in splendid condi- | tion for so large a fish. Price of Milk. After its formation yesterday at All Saints' Hall, Poneonby, the branch of the Union of Mothers and others resolved to call on the Milk Council to permit the winter sale at 4d a quart of raw chilled or pasteurised milk "by those who economically can do so to those otherwise deprived of its full nee." This, it was stated at the meeting, the council had already done for the unemployed, and there were many families in Auckland in equally distressing circumstances. Debaters' Mistakes. Xew Zealanders have become accustomed to being told that persons living any further abroad than in Australia think "hat tins country is either part of Australia or else is successfully tucked away mysteriously in the Pacific. Even two American university/debaters who are coming to the Dominion to debate against our university colleges do not appear to be very clear about New Zealand "ecraphy. A cable to those arranging the tour at the Otago University was addressed to "Otago, Dunedin." Apparently a knowledge of details about the Dominion is not part of the test that university students in America have to pass before they come to debate against us. Manager Plan Hardly Possible. The executive of the Wellington Ratenavers' Association is of the opinion that because of the present electoral system, under which the men who control the policy of the council are elected by popular vote, it would be practically impossible for a city manager to have untrammelled control. The committee considered that there is no analogy between a manager responsible to a board or directors and a city manager responsible to a council of 15 men who know nothing or next to nothing of the technical aspects of the business they control, and whose judgment is influenced by the popular clamour for favours and concessions. The executive believes that until municipal affairs arc freed from the dead weight of political control, local or general, the question of the appoincment of a city manager is best left in abeyance. Bargains in Firearms. Every year the police accumulate quite a good collection of firearms of various stages of antiquity and of many different sorts. Some have been confiscated, and others have been voluntarily surrendered by the owners, who do not wish to go to the expense of registering them. Periodically an auction sale of" such weapons is held, and at one such sale held last week in Wellington 40 weapons were disposed 1 of. Those sold were chiefly rifles, and some excellent bargains wore obtained by rabbit shooters and pig hunters looking for lethal weapons. Prices ranged from 10/ to 30/, and, as sonic of the rifles had no defects or only very slight ones, purchasers made some good bargains. Firearms of no use whatever the police destroy, unless they are of sufficient interest to be put in the police or Dominion museums. Historic Uniform for Museum. The full dross uniform of a colonel of the 18th Royal Regiment of Ireland was the unusual gift made to the Auckland War Memorial Museum recently by Mr. Bertram Dawson, of Remuora. The regiment, with the 56th saw service in New Zealand during the Maori wars, and Mr. Dawson's father was ono of the early colonels to come to the colony. The uniform consists of the tunic and sash and the bearskin busby. Another recent gift to the museum is a collection of Maori implements from Mr. R. H. Sheppard. A large stone adze shows the method of preparing stone implements. In this adze the flaking sta<*c has been .completed, and the bruising process just begun. A fine greenstone adze has been deposited by Mrs. J. Morris, which shows two grooves that have been made to begin the production of three . greenstone chisels. A Strong Accusation. There is nothing new in the attitude of dairy farmers which expresses its disapproval of daylight saving in such terms as "a stupid idea" or the childishness of a "degenerating or effete civilisation," but such "soft impeachments" are far outweighed by the suggestion of a Southland dairy farmer at the South Island Dairy Association Conference that daylight saving was the direct cause of a distressing tragedy during the past season. Explaining his accusation, the speaker said that a man who had been in the habit of crossing a railway line at the same time every morning was on one occasion struck by a train and killed. The occasion was the first day of daylight saving, and on the man's body was found a watch which had not been put on the statutory half-hour. Without daylight saving he would, as usual, have been half an hour ahead of the train. Cheerful as a Priest. What is the characteristic in the appearance of an Irish priest? Or, rather, why is it that the Key. L. McMaster, the Presbyterian minister of Woolston, is so frequently mistaken for an Trish priest? asks a Christchurch journal. The other night this likeness secured for him some publicity that he laughingly disclaims, for he was credited with being the victim of a slight motoring accident, whereas it was a clergyman of another communion who was concerned. An ingenious student of these things has submitted the theory that Roman Catholic priests are very much alike because their trousers have no cuffs at the bottom, that they prefer boots to shoes, favour a white scarf if they wear one at all, and have hats of uniform style, whereas the clergy of other denominations go in for occasional greys and other variations. This theory holds water up to a point in respect to Mr. McMaster, but there is something more to account for the likeness, and some of his friends say that it is the cheerful and tolerant spirit of bonhomie that his whole personality suggests.

Milk Inspection. "Now that the Milk Council has taken on this business, let them carry it through—if they can," remarked Mr. T. McXab, Mayor of Mount Eden, when a letter was received at last night's meeting of the Mount Eden Borough Council, in which the 'Milk Council stated that in order to avoid the appointment of more inspectors, it desired to make use of existing facilities, and would be glad to know if the borough council would undertake the inspection of milk shops, as previously. Asked by a member of the council whether he knew that a man had been taken ill in the borough through drinking infected milk, Mr. McXab said that the case wju not on the list of infectious diseases. The borough had two employees qualified as sanitary inspectors, said Mr. McXab, but- the Milk Council had stated its intention of appointing expert men as inspectors of the milk supply, and the legislation which brought the Milk Council into being had rendered the borough by-laws iii respect of dairies mill and void, It was decided tu reply to the Milk Council that milk inspection was out of the jurisdiction of the borough council's inspectors.