NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Car Goes Through Shop Window. Struck by another motor car at an early hour on Sunday morning, a sports touring car mounted the pavement and crashed into the shop window of Beatli and Company, Ltd., at the corner of Cashel and Colombo Streets, Christchurch. The car came to rest among drapers' models, frocks and other articles, which were damaged to the extent of about £300. The driver, Mr. Patrick John Flood, motor salesman, and a woman passenger escaped serious injury, and the occupants of the other vehicle, which was completely turned round in the roadway, were merely shaken.

The Kiwi's Delusion. A party of Wailii equestrians made a somewhat surprising discovery on a recent Sunday when riding over the hill track to Orakawa Bay, near the Waihi Beach, reports a correspondent. They came across a kiwi, very rare in these parts, and after capturing it let it go. Subsequently they discovered its nest, and there they found it sitting on an empty beer bottle, apparently thinking it was an egg. The party, which included some ladies" state definitely that the story is not Action; but at any rate stranger things than kiwis have been known to come out of a beer bottle. Veteran Post Boxes. A Ponsonby correspondent mentions that the wall post box at the junction of Williamson Avenue and Rose Road bears the letters V.R. Ho adds that the discovery was made in a somewhat curious manner. Two neighbours who had used the box for years noticed a picture in the "Star" of the old post box at Huia, and a friendly argument began as to the letters on the box at Ponsonby. One maintained that they were E.R. and the other G.R. Of course, both were wrong. There is a V.R. pillar box at the top of Wellesley Street East opposite the old Grammar School buildings, and doubtless there arc other 40vear veterans in other parts of New Zealand. Local Bodies' Employees. The local bodies of New Zealand, at the end of 1935, had 45,040 employees, of whom 3750 were described as "administrative, professional and clerical." The salaries and wages paid during the year amounted to £0"302,G20, of which about £1,025,000 was received from the Unemployment Board. Ihe total of local 'body employees rose from 24,200 in 1930 to 47,201 in 1931, owing to the employment of relief workers. The highest total was in 1933, when 55,000 persons drew wages or salaries from local authorities. Salaries paid to administrative, professional and clerical employees amounted to £1,028,309 in 1930, but the total dropped each year to £812,739, and rose to £838,045 last year. The number of such employees was 3842 in the year of 1930, dropped to 3540 in 1934, and rose to 3750 last year.

Employment of Youths. Problems of youth employment arising out of the fixing of basic wages were referred to by Mr. C. M. Littlejohn, headmaster of Auckland Grammar School, at a reunion of old boys on Saturday night. One result of this legislation, he remarked, was that employers were seeking the services of boys at a much earlier age than previously, and youths of 17 and older had difficulty in finding positions. In an average of about ten applications that he received in a week from firms requiring boys, nearly every one was for a bov not over 16. This feature of the present situation . was causing headmasters of secondary schools some concern. If lads were to rise to executive positions in business firms, a good education and cultural background were necessary, but under the present conditions many lads were entering business with only a smattering of education. Australians Get a Shake. Several members of the visiting Australian Rugby team had their first experience of an earthquake during their stay at Isapier. They were not aware of the occurrence until breakfast time on Saturday morning! All had been in bed hours when, at one o'clock that morning, there was a very sharp earthquake of sufficient intensity to awaken the majority. Mr. R. J. Walden, the vice-captain of the visiting team, heard things falling in the loom and wondered what had happened. Mr. Harold Judd, a former Australian international, who toured the Dominion in 1905, said lis thought one of the team in the next room had fallen out of bed. When the players realised what had actually happened, some of them expressed their desire to get away from the aiea as quickly as possible. However, they were reassured that this was only the second shock experienced in the past 12 months.

Big Milk Cheque,

A very busy period is expected by shopkeepers and business firms in the Waikato during the next few days, when the dairy companies of the district will their deferred payments for the 1935-36 dairying season. It is expected that well over £1,000,000 will be paid out to-day, says a Hamilton message. One company alone, the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., will distribute £507,089, or £250,743 more than was paid out 'by the company on August 31, 1935. Other dairy companies in tlie = Waikato which will distribute bonus payments for varying amounts include the Cambridge, Morrinsville, Te Awaniutu, To ArohaThames Valley, Tatua, Norfolk, Sunny Park, Raglan, Hinuera, Tokoroa and Bruntwood, tile Waikato Valley and Taupiri. Every town in the Waikato will benefit-by the distribution. East Coast Provincial Aspirations. With a view to having the Gisborne and East Coast provincial district, established for Centennial celebrations purposes, retained for all time, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, was approached last week by Mr. Charles Matthews, chairman of the Cook County Council, while visiting Wellington. The Minister was asked to consider the permanent establishment of the counties of Cook, Waikohu, Uawa, Waiapu and Matakaoa, together with the borough of Gisborne, as a separate provincial district. It was pointed out that the Centennial organisation had seen fit to make that area a separate provincial district, and, in view of its geographical situation and historic associations, the district as outlined would make a suitable province. The Minister said the proposal was a new one to him. He did not know what benefits could be secured, but he saw no harm in it. "The reply was non-committal," said Mr. Matthews, "but I gained the impression that, if pressure was brought to bear, something might be gained." Goats and Young Kauri Forest. Returning from a prospecting expedition in the back country beyond Te Aroha Mountain, a party of prospectors led by a wellknown mining engineer reports the discovery of an embryo kauri forest, covering an area of approximately 20 square miles, states a Te Aroha correspondent. The country traversed still carries some of the original standing bush, including old kauris, some of which, it is stated, run to 80ft high in the bole before branching. By the process of natural reafforestation the entire area is now more or less covered with young kauri trees, ranging in height from Gin to 3ft. While particularly impressed with the possibilities of the area, the members of the party, after spending some days on the ground, l«ve returned convinced that unless immediate action is taken the area will lose all its potential value. Numbers of goats are in possession of the territory, and are destroying the young vegetation. It is considered that the position could be met by the organisation of planned shooting drives, with the possible incentive of a Government royalty for the animals destroyed.

The Shortest Essay. This is how the schoolboy did the shortest essay that Mr. J. F. Russell, assistant master at the Auckland Grammar School, has ever seen. He told the story at the reunion dinner of the old boys at Hotel Cargen 011 Saturday. The essay, he said, was on "The Most Beautiful Thing I have Ever Seen." Mr. Russell had been describing the vagaries of boys, and he said that possibly the fact that the essay was done as an imposition explained its brevity. This was the essay: "The most beautiful thing I have ever seen is too beautiful for words." Shaping Our "Ends." "There is a Divinity that shapes our ends," quoted Mr. T. C. Webb on Saturday night, proposing the toast of "The Masters" at the Auckland Grammar School Old Boys' reunion dinner. He did not finish the quotatation, but said simply that when he was a boy at school more than a Divinity had shaped his—and the fact that his toast was to the masters gave the quotation point. * Mr. Webb thereupon capped his own story, again with a quotation. From the viewpoint of the boy, he said, he thought two lines from Bracken's "Not Understood" were singularly applicable to the masters. These were the two lines: "O God, that men could see a little clearer, and judge less harshly where they cannot see." " White Butterfly a Bogy." A declaration that the white butterfly pest was more or less a bogy, and, like other pests, would come and go, was made by Mr. G. H. Judd at a meeting of the executive of the Canterbury Progress League during a discussion on white butterflies. The subject was introduced by Mr. Henry Holland, who said that he had read a small newspaper paragraph recently, and that had made him think. It stated that children in the North Island had caught 00,000 butterflies. To secure data on the pest he had called on Mr. R. McGillivray, fields superintendent of the Agricultural Department in Christchurch, who had given liim figures showing that the pest multiplied by millions. Mr. McGillivray had suggested a "catching competition" among school children, and that idea he wished to place before the meeting. After some discussion it was decided to refer to the agricultural committee the matter of initiating a scheme to stamp out the pest.

' J Hope Revived. Thousands of men have been given again a decent status in the community as the result of the operation of the placement scheme organised by the employment division of the Department of Labour, reports a Departmental officer. After only three months of operation 2<105 men have been found permanent jobs, 809 casual and 1410 temporary employment through the various placement branches. Drama, tragedy and pathos are registered in the stories of those daily visiting the local placement office, the staff of which seek untiringly through all avenues to transfer men from the hopelessness of relief conditions to the happiness following a permanent job at normal pay. There aro men seeking the aid of the placement office from every walk of life—professional men, men with wide and varied mercantile experience, artisans, labourers, all unfortunate enough to have been caught in the mae'strom of economic chaos, but for whom the. Department offers hope of rehabilitation. Happy Funeral. In celebration of the beginning of the 40hour week, a happy funeral took place, at Otahuhu railway workshops after work on Saturday morning, when the corpse of the 44-hour week was cremated with all the solemnity befitting the occasion, reports the "Star's" Otahuhu correspondent. An ornate black coffin, complete with handles and glittering knobs, had been made, and the "body" placed therein. An inscription on the casket set out the many vices and bad points of the late departed, and the hope was expressed that the "'deceased" would never see the day of resurrection. The coffin was placed in the hearse, which in everyday life is a runabout for hauling timber, but had been promoted for the occasion, and the body started on the sad last journey to the grave. The funeral procession passed through all the shops, at each of which the workers joined the throng of mourners until the cortege reached the crematorium, in ordinary life the blacksmith's shop, where the cremation was performed. The irreverent glee of the mourners was due more to the fact that it was their last Saturday morning at work than to any personal animosity towards the deceased.