NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1938, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Painful Accident. Severe burns to tlie face. neck, arms and back were suffered by Mr. Leonard Benjamin, married, of 10. Ferryliill Road, Mount Eden, when a benzine stove which iie was operating in his caravan at Mount Maunganui on Tuesday exploded in his face. He was removed to a private hospital, where a skin grafting operation was performed on his face and neck. I Sale of Grain. Poultry-keepers in Auckland appreciate the present system of grain selling in Auckland with quotations given at 1001b weight. The old system was to sell on the basis of a bushel, but whereas a bushel of wheat weighs fiOlb. the maize bushel is otiib and the oats bushel 401b, the same as the weight of a bushel of mixed grain. The present weight j measure has greatly simplified things fori people who previously had difficulty in making! calculations of price. j Standard of Speech. Reference to the high quality of speech of yew Zealanders was made by Mr. J. J. Almond, a round-trip passenger, who left Bluff by the Maunganui last week. "The speech of Xew Zealanders was something which could not fail to impress us." said Mr.' Almond. '"The enunciation and choice of language of the average citizens of the Dominion is above the average, and reflects favourably upon the educational system of the country.'' Electrocuted Lambs. Three fat lambs were electrocuted through an escape of power from a defective lamp socket at the Feilding railway yards on Tuesday night. The trouble wa-s not realised until one of the drovers in charge of the work of trucking himself suffered a shock of sufficient intensity to cause a burn on the arm. Mr. W. Hooper, of Feilding, went into the yard to ascertain why the lambs were huddled up as though afraid of something. As he made contact with one of the sheep he felt an electric shock, and considers he escaped serious injury by reason of the fact that he was wearing rubber boots. Apparently rain in the afternoon left a chaimel for electricity to leak down a power pole and make the yard alive. Actually, a dozen lambs were rendered unconscious before the trouble was discovered, but nine recovered. Bowling Green Opening. The official opening of a new bowling green, pavilion and a. rotunda for the bowling section of the Auckland Transport Club will take place to-morrow at the Auckland Transport Board's Epsom workshops. The main pillars of the rotunda are old tramway poles, and the pavilion has been made of old stone sets taken from city tram lines. The site of the green was formerly used for storing scrap rails, and fronts Manukau Road. The general manager of the board. Mr. A. E. Ford, who is patron of the club, will net as host. Members of the Auckland Bowling Centre and of the executive committees of other clubs have been invited to attend the opening. Under Royal Patronage. The Prime Minister, the lit. Hon. M. .1 Savage, yesterday announced that he had received advice that His Majesty the King had gladly consented to become the Royal patron of the Xew Zealand Centennial Exhibition, and that His Majesty expressed the hope that the undertaking would prove- a very great success. The exhibition, which will open in November. 1939. is to be one of the outstanding features of the celebrations commemorating the centennial of Xew Zealand. The idea of an exhibition on a scale larger than any previously attempted in Xew Zealand was first conceived by a committee of Wellington j citizens as far hack as 1930. The Xew Zea-, land Centennial Exhibition Company. Ltd.. f was incorporated on September -1. with! a nominal capital of £150.000. The (invern-j ment lias made available a subtly of £1 for' every £2 subscribed, not exceeding £.">0.000.j and a loan of £2-">,000. free of interest. The! shares taken up by subscribing public eom-j panies and local authorities now exceed! £87.000. Arrangements are being made with the British War Office for the engagement of one of the famous military bands, and th'~ : should prove one of the attractive features of, the exhibition. | House Hunters Are Resigned. An attitude of juitience. which in many cases amounts almost to resignation, has been' observed in the willingness of large numberof Auckland families to wait month after ; month for an opportunity to improve their; position. Without more than a room or f.voe many of them, often sharing accommodationwith friends or relatives, they have learned to make the most of limited space, and. according to those closely in touch with the housing) situation, are "holding on"' week after week' in the hope that the promised improvement i will bring relief. How many of these urgent case#! are included in the waiting li-t of appli- j cants for State houses it is impossible to say., but no fewer than 25 per cent of the 2200 j whose applications are before the State Ad-j vances Dej>artment are listed a« most urgent.! while many of the others are regarded as! being in various stages of urgency. Many of' these sent in their applications with the first batch of lfiOO last -Tune and July, which means; that they have been waiting nearly s.ix months! already, and so far only 20 have been satisfied. Meanwhile, COO further names have been l added to the waiting list. Cancellations by families which have managed to secure houses' by other efforts have been almost negligible.; totalling not more than a dozen or two.

. Accident Victims. Mr. Trevor Albert O'Brien, who was ad mitted to the Auckland Hospital very seri ouely injured as the result of n motor accident on Tamaki Drive early oa Saturday morning continues to show improvement in his condition. Improvement is also shown in the condition of Mr. Edward Gilbert, aged 27. o! Paerata, who was injured when some scaffolding fell on him while working at the Kingseat | Mental Hospital on \\ ednesday morning . Xeither of the patients is yet out of danger. Railway Changes at Wanganui. The old Wanganui railway station, for the past 40 years used as the headquarters of the locomotive foreman and his clerical staff, has now been vacated for new and more commodious premises. Ihe new block is now receiving its finishing touches. Formerly the locomotive depot was located at Eastown, but it was moved when the "new"' station was i built. 40 years ago. The present locomotive j foreman is Mr. ('. Symes. of Wellington, and i his assistant is Mr. A. Edwards, formerly of j Cross Creek. Wreck of the Wairarapa Recalled. The wreck of the Union Steam Ship Company's V\ airarapa on the Great Barrier Island is recalled by the death in Dunedin of Mr. William Milner Smith. Born in Balclutha. Mr. Smith went to sea at the age of 21 years, and it was on his first voyage that the Wairarapa. bound from Sydney to Auckland, was wrecked on the night of October 9, 1894. Later Mr. Smith joined the crew of the Union Company's Mararoa, then trading between Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne, and he remained in this ship until 1906. since when he had been a member of the Dunedin Drainage Board's staff until his retirement last August because of ill-health. National Party Aspirants. Aspirants for the Xational Political party's nomination in connection with the Bay of Plenty contest at this year's general elections now number five. Mr. F. B. Starkv, a Toatoa settler, having been proposed to the district executive of the party, reports the "Poverty Bay Herald." The possible candidates whose names had been mentioned previously were Messrs. F. J. Short. Opotiki. H. •T. F. Tombleson, Otoko, J. McXeil, Tolaga Bay. and P. J. Sefton. lately of Te Aroha, but formerly a Bay of Plenty elector. The executive is to meet shortly to consider the nominations. Introduction of Rabbits. After praising the work of the early settlers of Southland at the unveiling of a memorial to C&ptain John Howell at Riverton, the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, passed eorae remarks about acts that were not entirely beneficial. He remarked that the rabbit had first been introduced into Xew Zealand near Riverton. 'T remember that my father paid ten shillings for the first pair of rabbits liberated in his locality." he said. ''He thought they would do well there. And they did," he added. A Wandering Letter. After a little over one year and four months' wandering, a letter which was posted at Pahiatua on August 2ii. 193t>. reached the addressee. Mr. W. A. Robinson, who is at present on a world cruise in an 80ft yacht, states the "Pahiatua Herald." The letter was originally addressed to Papeete, Tahiti, where it just missed Mr. Robinson. It was then for-1 warded to Castle Hill. Ipswich. Massachusetts. Mr. Robinson's home address, after which it was readdressed to catch Mr. Robinson on his] cruise, not doing so until just before Mr.! Robinson sailed from Port Sudan, in the Red Sea. The -writer, who had given up hope of his letter ever reaching Mr. Robins.in. had then only a little over a month to wait before the reply reached Pahiatua. j Dead Marines at Darwin. ! That Au.-traiian outpost, Darwin, must be I a thirsty place, situated as it is 12 degrees | south of the line. Moreover, it receives over i 24.000 bottles of beer a month for a popula- ; tion of well under 2000. including Chinese. j.Tajwnese. and other races, and aboriginals, i The disposal of the beer is no problem, but that of the empty bottles is. A Melbourne firm recently quoted a price of :>d a dozen, tree ■ on board, for these "dead marines." but the , price wats too low. a s it was estimated the ; cost of trucking and handling would be 1 a i ton. or t'.d a d-v.cn. A local <•». ndi-a-.e Ims been formed to dee,! with «': • j.r - ; -i in a : re teal; , way. and. if possible, put it ..•! a ».-m:d final! | cial basis. Skull of Beaked Whale. The skull of a very rare while. Mesoplodoii <ien-irost ris. \v<is recently found on the! •beach near Xuknmrru. and has been presented) to the Wancranui Museum. This is the tirnt j official record of this whale having been found! in Xew Zealand. It is an exceedingly rare variety- of beaked whale, between 1 ft and liir't in length, and onlv seven of the species have ever been recorded, two only in thei Pacific, one at Lord Howe Ishinl and thei other on the Queensland coast. no>-th of Bris- | bane. The Mesopjodon «l«nsir. i-rr : s is out-' standing owing to its great si/.-.' i'i c rnpari*on with other whales of the same r'.ro'ip. It is pelagic in its habits, and. unl : k<- mo-t whales, does not spout when it comes to surface to breathe, this being accomplished bv raising its nostrils just above the water. Owing to the fact that this whale has only one and a half inches thickness of blubber and produces only between olb and 01b of oil. it is not sought for commercial purpo-es. Only the female of the species has ever been recorded, due perhaps to the fact that they come into coastal waters in order to bear their young.