NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 101, 2 May 1938, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Returning Soldiers.

'I o-nioiTow morning , will see tlie return to Auckland of a large contingent of soldiers. Shortly before eight o'clock a special train is due to arrive here, carrying the Aucklanders who attended the Anzae Day celebrations in Sydney. It is expected that about 400 men will travel by this train, but a large number will disembark before reaching Auckland. Good Fruit Season.

Two Hawke's Hay records will be broken as n result of the fruit export season now in progress. Firstly, ("'in total export from the province will be in the vicinity of 390,000 cases, as against the previous highest of 310,000 case's in the 19:J4 season. Secondly, the amount of fruit shipped through the port of Napier will approximate 100.000 eases, which is considerably greater than in any previous season. Church's Fortieth Anniversary.

Memories of 40 years ago were revived at St. Helier's yesterday, when special services were held in St. Philip's Anglican Church to mark the fortieth anniversary of the opening and dedication of the building-. At the evening service, when the preacher was bis (!race the Archbishop, there was a crowded congregation of 128, the. accommodation of the small church being taxed to the utmost. In referring to the anniversary the Archbishop said there had been n great change in the district, particularly in recent years, and that St. TTelier's should in the near future become one of the leading parishes in the Auckland diocese. The church was opened and dedicated on the morning of October 0. IS9S, by the late Bishop Cowie, there being 120 present. Afternoon and evening services were taken by Canon C. A. 1!. Watson, who w<is then a student at St. John's College, and by the Rev. P. S. Smallfield respectively. Stock Disease Theory.

The allocation that an excess of chlorophyll, or colouring matter, in the grass and a lack of vitamin F in feed might l>o a primp cause of facial eczenux in stock was advanced by Dr. O. B. Chapman, speaking at a meeting in the Town Hall last night organised l>y the New Zealand Women's Food Value League. Vitamin F was a eompnrativelv new vitamin. which was discovered in whole {trains. Dr. Chapman explained. Excellent results had heen obtained in experiments with a flock of 200 sheep in Auckland, of which SO or 00 head were severe sufferers. From ten to 30 sheep had been afflicted each day before the treatment wns applied, but the number had now been reduced to one or two, and there had been no further deaths. It was contended that chlorophyll had a tremendous affinity for fats, and an excess brought on an eczema condition. Vitamin F. however, had the effect of breaking down the chlorophyll when it reached the stomach and allowed it to be absorbed before it caused harm. Preacher on Education Act. Preaching from the pulpit of the Trinity Methodist Church, Wangiinui, last night, the Rev. Raymond Dudley vigorously denounced the Education Amendment Bill, on which <i special committee is hearing evidence. The preacher said the bill proposed to prohibit the i short religious service now permissible in the primary schools of the Dominion, and he referred "to the general trend of that legislation aa "anti-God." "Reverence of God is life's most supreme duty," he said. "Man cannot live by bread a-lone. The Prime Minister has often quoted those words of Christ, but it all seems to be a colossal bluff, and a. lot of mummery. What rightful places does God possess in the primary education system of our land? Wh(»re are "the schools where religious instruction is regarded as a right, and not a privilege? Where is one Minister of our Cabinet who is prepared to stand with Dr. Cyril Norwood, former headmaster of Harrow and Marlboroiigli, and now president of St. John's College, Oxford, and declare. 'Religion and education are bound together'?" Mr. Dudley said people of the world to-day lived in a machine age. a scientific age, even in an asfe of knowledge. l>ut they did not live in a wise age, because the secret of wisdom has been largely lost. The Font.

The minister admitted after the ceremony that his tactics liart been fundamentally wrong, but that was afterwards. The littl. boy, some two years oM, had been brought by his parents to be baptised, anrl with him had been broiijrht his little sister, only a few months old. This is where the minister blundered. He baptised the little girl first. The baby never murmured—much to the minister's relief, for hb was a yonnjj' man and unmarried. And then came the turn of the littlfi boy. Too old to bo lipid in the minister's| ■arms, ho was yet too short to reach to the; level of the font. A chair, therefore, was the, solution of thn problem—at least. si> every-, one thought. Rut the trouble was that when two-year-old stood on the chair, could sf" into the font, and tlie font was circular and full of water. Now. ho had seen his little sister sprinkled with water, and the nppnllins logic of the sequence of events suddenly flooded over him. His parents for some obscure reason of their own—and parents do the strangest things—had brought him hither to have a second morning; wash in the present of that queerly garbed man in the round collar. The young minister leaned forward to complete his task. Then did the lad find tongue. "N r -o-o!" he. expostulated, holilini: back. "X-o-o!"' "Yes," returned the minister firmly, flnd so it was. Nevertheless, the lad 'registered a jrrudfre aprainst being washed fit all, let alone being brought a long way to have the ceremony repeated by a stranger.

In Print Again. Sheep have played a prominent part in the news lately, and they appear in the news again to-day—Soo of them —bound for Japan by the Kozan Maril to-day. On the fore and nft decks of the ship special pens have been built and bedded with straw, and in these the animals await their overseas voyage. Besides the sheep, the Kozan Maru is taking to Japan 4000 bales of wool, much of which came from Xapier and Gisborne by the Pukeko.

Taxpayers' Gloomy Month. May has become in New Zealand a gloomy period, given over almost entirely to the filling up of forms and the paying of taxes. In the Prst place there is the quarterly instalment of Ilic employment levy of 5/ to pay, nncl a declaration of income other than salary or wages. On this amount 8d in the £ has to be paid, either in a lump sum or in instalments. Further complications are added this month by a demand for a "declaration of industrial and occupational status." Cars are required to be relicensed, on the usual multiplicity of forms, and motorists will find an additional impost in the increase of the thirdparty insurance rate from 17/ to £1. The linal task is the furnishing of a return of income derived during the year ended March 31, and as the inquisitorial demand for detail in these forms has in no wise abated, "the merry month of M«y" will run its course on a note of deep gloom. * Lean Time for Fruitgrowers. Growers of berries and small fruits around Auckland have experienced a difficult labour problem in recent months, and in some instances they have been compelled to market their crops at or below cost. An illustration was given by a city fruit merchant to-day, who said the t prices of 5d and Od a lb obtained in the mark'ets for cape gooseberries were barely sufficient to pay the wages of pickers. unless these were children. He explained tiwit the average picking by an adult for an eight-hour day on a good patch was 301b of fruit, and the wages were 14/ a day. This left the grower nothing to pay for boxes, cartage or the cost of cultivation, use of the land, manuring, planting and tending the crops. The position was similar for the majority of small fruite. all of which were unprofitable unless the prices were raised to what the public considered an unreasonably high level. Flood Sweeps Away a Lake. Lake Tehoe, a sheet of water between four and live miles long, three-quarters of a mile wide and 200 ft deep, situated at Ngatapa, about six miles downstream from the Mohftkft bridge on the Xapier-Taupo road, has disappeared, reports a Xapier correspondent. The lake was formed as the result of t lie earthquake of 1931, when the wall of the Tehoe (Jorire collapsed about a mile and a half upstream from the junction of the Tehoe River and the Mohaka River, to form a dam across the gorge which impounded the waters of the Tehoe River and led to Hie formation of the lake. It is believed Hint the waters of the lake ruse to such all extent (luring the phenomenal rninffill last Monday that the rush of water over the top of the dam became so groat that scouring set in and the d.-un eventually LNive way. The impounded waters then hurtled down the gorge to swell the already flooded Mohaka River, with the result that the traffic bridge over the Mohaka on the Xapicr-YVairoa road, which has withstood all ordinary floods for a long period of years, was swept away.

A Modern Noah's Ark. An interesting story of the 1031 earthquake is recalled by the disappearance last week through flood scouring away ;i natural dam of Lake Tehoe, in Hawke's Ray, which w<is formed over a valley homestead by an upheaval damming a gorge. After the damming of the gorge by the earthquake the lake begun immediately to form, and the water rose at the rate of 10ft a day. Mr. J. Carter was then living nt the homestead, and ho quickly realised that if the rise in the level of the water continued the homestead and woolshed and other buildings would soon bo submerged. lie thereupon cut through the piles of the homestead and woolshcd, and as the water rose the buildings were float yd shoreward. Eventually, when the water rose to its natural height, the buildings were <it the edge of the newly-formed lake, where they were placed on new foundations and have remained since. Barred by Floods.

Their way barred by the floods that, isolated parts "of Hawke's Bay last wick. Mr. J. W. Hely-Hutchinson, a London director of the I'nion" Bflnk of Australia, Ltd.. and Mr. P. Xi'wton, Xajiier branch manager of the bank, had an anxious experience. For five, days (hey were held up. and Mr. Holy- 1 Uiiu-hinson arrived in Auckland Inst ni.uht to join the Maripo«a to-day only after a protmcled journey by foot, ferry, taxi and trniu. They were on tlioir way by car nn Sunday. April 24. when they were trapped by floods mikl sli]is between Tanpoio fSoreo and Devil's Kllxiw. on the way to Xapier from <;i*bnrne. j,n<l were forced to spend the nijjht in the car. The following , <'ay they were able to make their way to the farm of Mr. and Mrs. ('. A. Siftvertson. nnd there they were hospitably received nnd acconnnodated for live days. Although they hoard radio inquiries as to their whereabouts, they were unable to communicate with friends because telegraphic communication liiitl broken down. When the sniliii<i date of the Maripowi came near they set. mil In make their way across country, past the slip, on a trek to the Kskdale River. The bridge was down, but they were taken across in an improvised ferry, and were then able to pick ii]) n taxi that carried them to Xapier and the train.