NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Traffic Control. In view of the fact flint the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill proposed to increase the speed limit in settled areas from 2.~> miles an hour to 30 miles an hour, the Ellerslie Town Board decided last night that the enforcement of traffic regulations in future would have to be more stringent, and that the board would support the actions of the Minister of Transport, the Hon. K. Semple, in endeavouring to make the roads safer. Arrival of Air Mails. Advice has been received that the Empire mails sent from London on June 7 and June 10 will reach Auckland from Sydney by the Mariposa on Saturday morning. The liner also has on board Australian mail, the total mail being 1.38 bags. The Chief Postmaster announces that mail which left Auckland by the Niagara on May 20 via Vancouver arrived in London last Monday. An Empire mail which was sent from Wellington on June 1 also reached London on die same day. Centenary Bonus In Fifty Years. A lighter touch was imparted to his annual address by Sir George Elliot at the meeting of Wilsons (New Zea* land) Portland Cement Company yesterday. He informed shareholders that while the present bonus of 5/ a share to mark the jubilee must not be considered as a recurring item he would promise that if shareholders would meet liim there in 1956 he would guarantee them a centenary bonus exceeding that now being paid. An Interested Spectator. Quite an interested "spectator" at the football matches in Hastings on Saturday was a kingfisher, and its perch provided it with the very best "seat" which was available on the ground. During the ear,ly senior game the bird perched itself on the crossbar of the goal posts on Ko. 2 ground, and from there it watched the play for a considerable time, but apparently the play was not exciting enough, so it transferred itself to the adjoining ground, where the senior match was being played, and again the crossbar was its scat. Its attention was focused on this game until the play commenced to come to the end of the ground where it was perched, and then it sought fresh fields and pastures new. Duties and New Government. "The coining into office of a new Government," stated the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, to-day, "brings an enormous amount of extra work on the executive as well as the rank and file officers of the Public Service. There followed the Government's assumption of office just before the beginning of the year," the Minister said, "many investigations into the work of the State Departments. Innumerable reports of a wide ancl varied character in many matters were required by Ministers. It has been my 'experience—and I know the experience also of my colleagues—to find the officers ever ready and untiring in their efforts to comply with the demands made upon their time. We have a splendid Public Service, composed of a fine type of men and women; and I can speak of their work only in praiseworthy terms."

Overseas Business Men's Visit. Advice has been received by the Rotorua office of the Tourist Department that about "l(iO of the 200 overseas delegates to the Empire conference of Chambers of Commerce in Wellington will later visit Rotorua. Tentative arrangements are being made for their accommodation and entertainment. At the conclusion of the conference on October 7, the delegates are expected to tour the South Island. On their return to Wellington 80 of them will commence an overland trip by car via Wairakei, and will arrive in Rotorua on October 2;3. Another party, also totalling 80, will first visit Taranaki, and will arrive in Rotorua by special train from New Plymouth on October 24. The usual sightseeing trips and entertainments will be arranged during the visitors' stay in Rotorua, and the combined parties will leave for Auckland by special train on October 27. Golf Progress at Manurewa. Further evidence of the progress being made by the Manukau Golf Club at Manurewa is its committee's decision to purchase the course at present being used. Since February, 1932, when the club came into existence as a result of the fusion of the Everslic and Manurewa Clubs, the now body lias made rapid strides. The Manukau Club selected its present links and obtained a lease with a right of purchase, which it has now exercised. The links are favourably situated, being adjacent to the Mahia railway station. The ground is undulating and the soil of a resilient nature, always dry and pleasant underfoot. The course is a full-length one, and was laid out by Mr. R. P. Worley. The club's intention is Ito plant and beautify the course. Later an I up-to-date pavilion will be provided to accommodate the increasing number of players j joining the club. Historic Trig Stations. During the trigonometrical survey that is now being carried out in the Auckland area the discovery was made that the trig station in Sturges Park, Otahuliu, had been unwittingly destroyed during the course of excavations undertaken by the local borough council. The various trigonometrical stations throughout the country are inseparably linked with the early history of the Dominion, for surveys of the new country were necessary before any planned colonisation could be undertaken. The best-known trig station in the Auckland district is that on top of Mount Eden, and it has stood for over CO years. It is one of the 32 "initial points" throughout New Zealand to which ail bearings are referred, and all points on any survey may of areas round Auckland are Indicated in terms of their proximity to it. The station on Sturges Park consisted of a length of iron pipe? embedded i!i concrete and placed upon a hill, and was one for .a second order surrey.

The Obvious. "I know the witness didn't say it, and I don't want to hear him say it, because I knew it before," said his Honor Mr. Justice Blair 111 the Supreme Court, Wellington. "If you get that the sun rose at so-and-so, and then ask the witness was it daylight, I don't want to hear that, because I'd know it was daylight. Please don't prove the obvious." Rumoured Epidemic Denied. Rumours that there was an epidemic of diphtheria in the Ellerslie district were denied by the chairman of the Ellerslie Town Board, Mr. H. J. White, at last night's meeting of the board. He said that only three cases of diphtheria had been notified during the past fortnight, and this was purely the ordinary seasonal incidence of this particular ailment. He requested the assistance of members in "scotching" these harmful rumours. Need for Producers. The opinion that the drama movement in New Zealand was hindered from a lack of producers was expressed by Miss Elizabeth Blake, adviser to the British Drama League, when answering questions at a social gathering in the Wanganui Savage Club Hall. Miss Blake said that for every 50 potential actors there was but one producer. The British Drama League, she suggested jocularly, should hold schools for the training of producers. Shortage of Dental Nurses. "Is there still a huge list in Wellington of children waiting for dental treatment?" inquired Mr. W. R. Nicol at the monthly meeting of the Wellington Education Board. The chairman, Mr. W. V. Dyer: Yes. It lias left us in a very awkward position, but it is caused by a shortage of nurses. The Minister has told us that he is prepared to do all he can, and is making a definite endeavour to speed up the training of suitable nurses." A Payable Pest. Rabbits which for many years have been a pest, almost uncontrollable in some areas, are providing many Tasmanian farmers with a profitable sideline. The price of rabbit skills is at a level it has not reached for a considerable time, as a result of a keen demand from the United States and Britain. One firm in Burnie, on the north-west coast, has paid £1000 in one week for rabbit skins. Society of Accountants. Mr. D. G. Johnston, secretary of the New Zealand Society of Accountants, who was one of the delegates to the Australasian Congress 011 Accounting, has reported that during the visit he had satisfactory consultations 011 the subject of reciprocal relations between the main accountancy bodies of the Commonwealth and the New Zealand Society. The result was that the Chartered Institute of Accountants and the Federal Institute of Accountants had agreed to a full measure of reciprocity, just as the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants had years ago. £500 for Crippled Children. A cheque for £500 from the trustees of the Auckland Savings Bank has been received by the Mayor, Mr. Ernest Davis, for the fund for crippled children. Contributions to the fund are still being received from all parts of the Auckland Province. It is hoped that when the result of the special appeals which are being made in various districts is known the fund will have been increased to something near the figure aimed at to enable the offer of the Wilson home at Takapuna to be accepted. New Guinea Goldfields. Wau, the main centre 011 the rich Morobe goldfields, New Guinea, is thriving, and residents find life very agreeable, according to the "Pacific Islands Monthly." Many strange sights meet the eye in Wau. For instance, half a dozen "boys" from the gaol may carry £12,000 worth of gold across the paddocks and through the streets. To the inland tribes money means nothing—shells everything. The nomad native collects a bagful of shells before setting out 011 his trek inland, and with these he buys from the "No. 1 boy" in the tribes he meets his potatoes and other food. Wau has a coin that is valueless in any other part of the world. It is the native "mark," which has a hole in the centre for the "boys" to thread 011 string and hang around their neck. In the township these "marks" - are greatly prized by the natives, for if one saves 200, worth £10, he enters the native millionaire class. " A Sort of Blackmail." When two requests for perm.ssion to take up street collections in the l»orough were before the Mount Eden Borough Council last evening, Mr. C. H. Cowan said that while the causes were generally most deserving there should be some other way of financing organisations. The applicants were the St. John Ambulance Association and the Royal Life Saving Society. "If an ordinary beggar comes along to you he is thrown into gaol, but these street collection people seem to get away with it. When you contribute you are given a little badge, and that is the only thing that saves you from being pestered by tlio rest of the horde of collectors." The Mayor. Mr. T. McNab, said it was a sort of blackmail. Mr. Cowan: "It is blackmail, all right." Both requests were granted. New Conditions in Hotels. A feature of the coming into force of the new • award covering employees in hotels, private hotels and restaurants, which provides for a 44-liour week, is that several private hotels, which formerly provided attendance at doors at night are dispensing with such service and are giving guests latch keys instead. It is understood that while in some instances small private hotels have made a slight increase in charges in order to meet the new conditions, which also involve the restoration of the 10 per cent cut, 110 general increase in rates is contemplated in the public hotel trade. The manager of one hotel states that the new order has entailed an increase in his staff and in costs, but with the public spending more freely no attempt is being made to pass cm the added charges. If hours were reduced to 40 a week, however, an entirely new situation would have to be mot. In other respects the new legislation will not affect the hotel business. British Unemployment. An announcement of very great interest has just been made in the second report of the Commission for the Special Areas of England and Wales. These areas present special economic problems, notably that of adolescent unemployment —young men between IS »hd 20 years of age. Not only have they never worked, but thev have grown up in homes where their parents, mainly through the closing down of industries to which they had been trained, had been continuously out of work for years. It is estimated that to-day there are probably only 11,000 or so of these young men unemployed, but even so they constitute a grave social problem. Assistance is to be given, subject to the satisfactory outcome of negotiations, to a number of works of industrial utility. Perhaps the most important of these is an afforestation plan proposed to the Forestry Commission, and for which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has a "Teed to recommend a greatly increased grant-in-aid to the Forestry Fund, amounting to £500.000 per annum for the next five years. It was also considered that a partial solution of the problem of the unemployed adolescent might be solved by the recent Education Bill raising the school leaving age to 15 years, although this to be most effective should be supplemented by the reorganisation of schools into primary and post-primary 011 the lines of the Hadow Report of 1024, which would secure the advantages of a four-year course fox senior schools.