NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Unexpected Gifts,

Tlie mistake of a shop assistant in a not them town was responsible for the puzzlement of tlie Commissioner of Pensions, Wellington, when lie received in his official mail recently the- present of a watch. Rut the it'elini; of ui\stcry in his case was mild complied wiili that of a provincial resident who was expecting the return of a repaired timepiece tlie postman brought him a cork leg. A New Auckland Ambulance. I'or use around tlie city and in the subin Ik. a new ambulance will be delivered to the .Auckland St. John Ambulance Association on Monday. '1 he tenth in the Auckland fleet, the \ chicle will be fitted with unsplinterable glass. It is stated that when the glass is broken it forms into small particles, crystal-like and without rough edges. The vehicle features several of the latest developments in ambui■l construction, and is designed to make tlie \\nik ot the officers of the association speedier. An Oddity. I - or 22 years a store in Texas. U.S.A.. has soul mei cha ndise at exactly cost price—and .ias prospered. A placard informs the customer concerning ,he creed of tne store: "All jtoods ale sold to you at cost; nothing added as pi ('fit to the store. I lie store is kept by liccwill offering-:. Anything you add to your purch<i>e is received with thanks." .War the dooi is a box in which one inav drop his offering. Many add as much as *J0 per cent, and still come out ahead on their Inlying. Others give nothing, yet the proprietor is making a good living. Milk Required. A resident of tlie district who is familiar with Ha tana I'a states that the school there is one ot the lirst_ in the i-bnd that should Jbavc been supplied with a daily deliverv of tniik. for many of the children need it in ';cnt iv. 7[ would be safe to state, he re- | marked, that some of them rarely taste milk iluiiiig the course of a year. The pa is con- \*■ 11 • i-1111 y situated tor a daily distribution, and 1 lie matter should b. looked into immediately by a responsible oflicer of the Health Department, more particularly as the present ( lovernment is taking a lively int in the welfare of the Maori race. Financial Pointers. The revenue collected in Xew Zealand 1 lorn tlie sale of postage stamps Inst year (to I March .!!) was .£ :25,000 more than in the previous 12 months. Other notable increases in revenue in the same periods of comparison were: Lottery duty ,iiS!)l, racing taxation C 1:5:2.047. and amusements tax £14,100. The lottery duty collected last year was C20,1.V2. and the racing taxation amounted to £.110.807. In March. 10.1 IS, the motor vehicles licensed in Xew Zealand numbered 2.">.745—107,000 in the North Island and 88.7.'i0 in the South Island. Of these 170.004 were privately owned cms, and 24.201 motor cycles. Radio licenses issued increased from 182.521 in April, 1936. to 228.705 in April of this year. A Minute Fraction. A fine adjustment of wage rates was apparent in an Australian industrial award quoted by Mr. D. I. Macdonald in the Arbitration Court at Christchurch (reports the 'Tress"). It was so fine, in fact, that his Honor Mr. Justice O'Regan did not grasp it immediately. Certain workers in New South Wales, said Mr. Macdonald, received 1/10 4-11 an hour. His Honor thereupon remarked that this was a wide range of payments—"from 1/10 to 4/11." "It is 1/10 and 4-lld," Mr. Macdonald explained. "A very minute fraction," commented his Honor. "I have an idea that in Australia the same juggling of rates takes place as under our Xew Zealand legislation," said Mr. Macdonald. "That may account for it." Springbok " Names. "Readers may be interested to know the pronunciations of certain of the Dutch names among tbe South African footballers who are to visit New Zealand this month, writes a correspondent, "Ex-Afrikander." "The English names, naturally, present no difficulty, nor do Nel, Lotz or Bester. As to the Dutch names, it should be borne in mind that in Afrikaans 'g is pronounced as the Scottish 'ch' in loch, 'v' as 'f,* *y' as 'ay,' 'a' lies between the English 'a' and 'o' values, every V is trilled, and a final 'd' becomes 't.' Thus van Reenen is fon Reenen, Bergh is Berrch, Brand is Brahnt, Lyster is Layster, Broodryk is Broodrake, Hofmeyr is Hofmayer, Louw is' Low, van der Berg is fonder Berrch, du Toit (a French Huguenot name) is dop Toy, and van der Vyver is fonder Fayfer. Another Huguenot name, de Villiers, may he de Villyers or de Fillyee, according to whether the tradition in the family is English or Afrikaans. The Christian name, Pierre, is not pronounced as in French, but Perry. Danie, the name by which Craven ia known to his team mates, ifl pronounced Dariry." New Zealander Surprised. "One of the most surprising things I found in England was the astonishing difference between the Anglican Church, as we know it in New Zealand, and the Anglican Church in the Old Country, particularly in London," writes an Auckland resident, who went Home for the Coronation. "In many of the London churches I found all the furnishings proper to a Roman Catholic place of worship. The high altar was decorated with the usual six tall candles and two smaller Mass lights, a red lamp indicated the sacramental • Presence. There were side chapels, with statues of the Virgin and the Saints, votive candles and holy pictures. In the nave there were confessional boxes, and regular times for hearing confessions were advertised. Holy water stoups were at the doors. You can't distinguish some of these Anglican places from Roman Catholic —in fact, they seem to go one better. An Anglican High Mass which I attended the other day was much more elaborate than any Roman Catholic Mass celebrated in Auckland, and the church was full to overflowing. As far as London is concerned, all the talk about empty churches is so much nonsense."

How Many Hotels? Districts such as Matamata and similar places, which have not even one licensed house, must be staggered to learn how many hotels existed in Thames in the palmy days of gold mining, states the Thames "Star." So far a representative has compiled an authentic list of 133, and it is not contended that this list is yet complete. Tramcars Delayed. Trams were held up for three-quarters of an hour early this morning at Newmarket. A derailment at the intersection of Xewmarket and Kliyber Pass Koad caused a long line of trams to accumulate, and on one line there were as many as 48 trams banked up waiting. Passengers who were in a hurry had no option but to hire taxis or walk. Only Carpenter Could Bore Hole. To illustrate the inconvenience of having two awards in one industry, counsel in the Court of Appeal recently said that an electrician wishing to carry a wire through a wall and equipped with the auger for boring the hole hud been prevented from doing so. A carpenter had to be sent for to bore the hole. This, he said, was not a hypothetical occurrence. but something that had actually happened. Wireless in Demand. "If you want a real lively entertainment, come out (lily evening to the Public Works camp at Kordell," remarked one of the workmen to a Wanganui reporter. "Xearly cverv family now has a wireless set, and when they settle down after tea, all the sets are going full blast in opposition. The hutments are all close together, and it is possible to hear nil sorts of noises within a p;dius of a couple of chains. One enterprising dealer, when he knew the light was about to be switched on. nipped out to I'ordell and sold seven *ets ill the one day." " The Eyes Have It." The touching spectacle of ail entire meeting in tears was witnessed at Wellington recently. when the Victoria University College Students' Association met. Before the meeting some chemical had been liberated in the gymnasium, and those present suffered from tearful eyes for the rest of the evening. Mr. 0. ( urrie moved: "That this meeting of the \ ietoria College Students' Association wishes to place on record its strongest possible disapproval of all forms of chemical warfare." The motion was put. "The eyes have it," declared the chairman. " Spikes Inside and Out.** The Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, invented a uew type of running shoe during an address to the Canterbury Advertising Club. Talking about the fine achievement of young New Zealandcrs in the construction of the Mohaka viaduct, on the Napier-Gisbornc railway line, he said there hud been no "scroungers or street-corner loafers." He had stopped them getting there. Had he found any he would have given them those running shoes. "I've invented a special pair for those fellows—they have spikes inside and out," the Minister said. "Those who get them are still running. The men who put the job through were all Xew Zealanders, and 1 take my hat off to them, but I had to take my gloves off to some other birds." Lost Dog Recovered. The only woman competitor out 040 at the Morrinsville A. and P. Society's sheep dog trials held in April, Mrs. J. McLennan, of Taumarunui, had the misfortune to lose her dog while staying with Morrinsville relatives, but after an absence of ten weeks the dog has been found. It had strayed to a farm 13 miles from Morrinsville. By good fortune the farmer mentioned to an agent of a business firm that there was a stray dog for which he wanted to find a home. In due course the agent told a keen Morrinsville dog trial competitor, Mr. J. T. Robinson, who took the dog away, and as soon as he saw it working realised that it must be Mrs. McLennan's missing dog. Mrs. McLennan came to Morrinsville next day, and was delighted at finding her dog safe and welL Brighter Transport. A dozen matrons, Intending passengers to the city, watched with housewifely interest the evolutions of the conductor of a tram standing outside the Auckland railway station yesterday, writes a correspondent. Almost before the last passenger had disembarked he had produced a whisk broom and was proceeding to cliase the elusive cigarette butt and the evasive used tram ticket around the bases of the seats and in the corrugations of the wooden floor of the tram. The best surprise came last, however. From a canvas bag he fished out a dainty dustpan enamelled in a distinctive shade of cerulean blue; into this the rubbish went, thence into the container. Have members of the Transport Board been reading the "Brighten Your Home" articles in the women's pages of the "Star," or was the distinctive shape and colour of the olfieial dust pan a protective measure against theft—on the lines of the clothes brush stencilled "Stolen From ff Ideal Site for Airport. In the large area of tidal flat extending from the Mange re Bridge and embankment to the railway line at Westfield, Auckland has a potential airport site which a local aviator with overseas experience regards as one of the finest in the world. "I have flown across it many times," he said to-day, "and I regard it as an area which would be ideal if properly It can be approached from the four cardinal points of the compass in all weather conditions, and it has no equal anywhere—not even in the Templehoff aerodrome at Berlin, which is one of the best in Europe. It is situated close to all the main lines of traffic, and would be a splendid link between the tramways, the railways, road traffic and the air. Situated between the two harbours, it would serve equally well for overseas air traffic, and it would be strategically well placed jn the event of war. There would be no engineering, difficulties in developing the area, and it is large enough to meet the requirements of Auckland for all time." The tidal flats mentioned have an area of 1900 acres, the greatest length being two and a quarter miles from the bridge, just beyond Onehunga to the railway embankment "near the Westfield works.