NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 45, 23 February 1938, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A State-owned " Strati.** The first Stradivarius violin to come into national possession has been acquired by the \ ictoria and Albert Museum, London, under the will of a benefactor. It is inscribed "Antonius Stradivarius Crenionensis, Faciebat Anno 1699," the last three figures of the date completed in the maker's autograph followed by a ifioiiograinmatic device of A. and S. Engaged on State Houses. According- to the latest returns there are 3311! men engaged in the State housing scheme in the Dominion, Mr. .T. A. Lee, Parliamentary Under-Secretary in charge of Housing, said yesterday. Thin figure does not take cognisance of those indirectly employed in allied trades as the result of the Government's undertaking, such as brick and tile makers, timber mills, sash and door manufacturers, and so on.

New Record Set. A new record for rate collection in the Mount Lilcn borough has been set this year, even though last year's figure then represented the highest percentage ever collected in the borough. The Mayor, Mr. T. McNab, explained at a meeting of the borough council last evening that the sum of £66.069 paid in by the penalty date represented approximately 90 per cent of the amount struck, as against about 88 per cent last year. Plans of 1936 Rhodes Scholar. One of the two Rhodes scholars selected to represent the Dominion in December, 1936, Mr. G. C. J. Dalton, who was stricken with infantile paralysis shortly before he was scheduled to leave for Oxford last year, is making progress toward recovery. Mr! Dalton expects to leave the Auckland HospTEal, where he is a patient, on Saturday. Later he will resume his engineering studies at Canterbury College. At the end of the year Mr. Dalton hopes to leave for Oxford, where he will study structural engineering. A fine scholar and an outstanding athlete, Mr. Dalton was educated at the Te Awamutu primary and high schools, the Auckland Grammar School and the Auckland University College, where he graduated B.Sc. in 1936. He was completing his RE. course at Canterbury College in May last when he became ill. Last Stage by Rail.

The five-ton oil storage tank which is being brought through from Taneatua to Gisborne arrived at Waihuka on Sunday, and is expected to be in Gisborne by rail to-day. Progress was stopped at Waihuka on account of the high level of the stream at the ford. The dimensions of the tank, 30ft by flft, prevented its transport across the Waihuka Bridge. The tank will be erected on the property of the Gisborne Harbour Board in Gisborne. The truck, with its freight, arrived in Opotiki last Tuesday, and since then has been negotiating the road in the Waioeka Valley. The overall length of the truck and tank is about 37ft, and on account of this it has been necessary to manoeuvre it across many of the narrow one-way bridges. On arrival at the ford at Waihuka the drivers reported that there was a depth of silt covering the ford and the approaches had been scoured. Determined not to delay the arrival of the tank in Gisborne any further, the transport company decided to take the load back to Mahaki and transfer it to the railway. Empire Exhibition Features. An Alpine peak permanently snowclad, is one of the spectacular exhibits now being installed at the Empire Exhibition, which the King will open at Glasgow on May 3. The "mountain" is being built by a firm of refrigerating plant manufacturers, and its snow will not melt even under the hottest sun. A modern bakery capable of producing 30 loaves a minute is being built in the Palace of Industry by one of Glasgow's biggest bakers. The plant will be electrically operated, and is being- specially made for the exhibition. A full-sized motor coach placed on the roof of the Scottish motor traction pavilion will offer visitors a novel view of the throng in the neighbouring amusement park. A stairway inside the pavilion will give aceas to the bus. A modelookf k the yacht Nahlin. built for Lady Yule, and now owned by King Carol of Rumania, will be a feature of the display by a well-known firm of yacht brokers. In the huge palace of enp;ineerin«r the steel framework of the first stand is already erected. It occupies a site in the centre of the buiklinsr. On top of the stand a huge globe of the world wi)l constantly revolve, and below it will be grouped a series of pumps and auxiliary machinery. The globe is being built on a steel framework, and the driving mechanism alone weighs 4J tons. The surface, showing the earth's crust, is being modelled in plaster. Scottish Cinema and Drama Display.

Glasgow's first newsreel cinema is being built at the Empire Exhibition. It has been designed by Mr. Alistair MecDonald, and will seat between 500 and 600 people. Programmes will last for an hour, and will include newsreels, cartoons r.nd the best of the available documentary films. The cinema has a stage, and arrangements have been made for two drama fortnights, one in May and the other in September. During the May fortnight Scottish community drama clubs will have an opportunity of playing to world-wide audiences for a week, and the second week will be filled by the Scottish National Players. The September season will be given ovqr to selections from the Little Theatre movement. The cinema has been made possible by the cooperation of the Scottish Office, the G.P.O. Film Unit, the Ministry of Labour, the Commissioner for the Special Areas for Scotland, and the Scottish Advisory Council on Physical Fitness, who, with the Exhibit-ion Association, arc sponsors of the scheme.

Standard Survey. The standard survey of Auckland which has been in progress for several years is to proceed through the Mount Eden Borough Council's area, in accordance with a decision reached by the council last evening. The Chief Surveyor, Department of Lands and Survey, Auckland, wrote stating it was customary for his Department to collet from the local body concerned a contribution of two-fifths of the cost of the survey, the maximum contribution in the case of the Mount Eden Council being £000. The Department's terms were accepted. Modern British Freighter. A striking example of the latest style of British freighter now being turned out by yards in Great Britain is the motor ship Teesbank, which arrived in Auckland yesterday with sugar from San Domingo. Raked stem and graceful lines are in marked contrast to the bluff old-type freighter. The Teesbank. which is one of the fleet of Andrew Weir an I Company, experienced minor engine trouble when picking up the pilot in Rangitoto Channel yesterday, and she was compelled to remain at anchor for about an hour. On completion of discharge here she will load phosphate at Nauru or Ocean Island for Australia under charter. Harbour Traffic. The Nortlicote Borough Council wrote to the Prime Minister recently drawing attention to what it regarded as the danger and inconvenience of the ferry service in bad weather such as was experienced on Friday fortnight. The following reply was received at the meeting of the borough council last night from the Hon. F. Jones, acting for the Prime Minister: "I am in receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, and desire to thank your council for the information therein in reference to the recent experiences of passengers travelling 011 the harbour ferries, This will be borne in mind when the question of alternative access for passenger and vehicular traffic to the North Shore is again before the Government for attention." Greetings by Telegram.

The Christmas and New Year greetings telegram service of the post office has become so well established that it appears to be making inroads on the time-honoured Christmas card. During the recent Christmas and New Year period the number of greetings telegrams lodged throughout the Dominion was 380,502, representing an increase over the previous year of 38,880. This was a rise of 11.38 per cent, both in volume and revenue. There were 311,033 Christmas greetings and 69,479 New Year messages. It was in 1933 that the Post Office made its Christmas and New Year telegram greetings service more attractive by providing appropriate "received" forms in colour. The result was a remarkable increase in the traffic, which more than doubled next year. Greetings telegrams are not confined to the Christmas season. Telegrams containing birthday greetings, congratulations and suchlike communications are delivered by the Post Office on attractive forms and in special envelopes all the year round. A& a further development of this facility, it is now proposed to provide the sender with pictorial forms on which to write such special telegrams.

The Inns of Oxford. There are few places which capture so completely as Oxford does the atmosphere of goodwill and good cheer which conies at Christmastidc. To-day Oxford can offer the visitor a rare hospitality, a hospitality 6piced with the ancient tradition of a city which has entertained kings and commoners through centuries of renown. It is a tradition of good living. In the merry days of the late seventeenth century, if we are to believe Anthony Wood, the 370 inns of the town were weil patronised. Intellectuals liked to mix their polities with port, and coffee houses were profitable concerns. When a man died, he won a fitting epitaph from the wags, like the Fellow of All Souls: "Here lyes Doctor Sergeant within these cloveters, whom if the last trump don't wake, then crye oysters." But in those years the traveller to Oxford from London had to endure a two-day stage coarli journey over rough roads; and then, according to an old advertisement, the journey was only "performed if God permit." A reference, presumably, to the abundance of highwaymen. Today the visitor to Oxford has only to face the prospect of a pleasant journey by car or train. The highwaymen «re gone, and in those friendly old inns which offset the severity of the grey colleges one can enjoy the hospitality of another oge. Links With France. The many links between France and New Zealand were referred to by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, who presided at the State luncheon to the commander of the French training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, Captain Paul Auphftn, and a number of his officers, in Wellington. Mr. Nash spoke of Britain and France as two of the greatest democracies of the world. The value of the contributions ■that French nationals had made in past centuries to the world's well-being in the arts was stressed by Mr. Nash, who went on to trace the association of Frenchmen with New Zealand's early history. Mr. Nash quoted from a letter sent by Captain Hobson to one of his lieutenants when Captain Lavaud arrived in New Zealand with French immigrants in 1840. "We have, a French ship here commanded by Captain Lavaud. a straightforward honest man direct from France." "We have some straightforward honest men with us again to-day direct from France," added Mr. Nash. Captain Auphan expressed thanks for the good wishes extended to his ship, and his country, and said France would never forget the sacrifice during the Great War of British soldiers who slept their last sleep in his country. He wished New Zealand every prosperity. With his officers Captain Auphan then drank to the continued friendship of France and New Zealand.