NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 177, 29 July 1938, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

New Wharf Cranes. A new five-ton electric crane for th« Auckland Harbour Board has arrived from JMigland, and is to be .sot readv imuiediatelv ror use. Two similar cranes are on the way. and will arrive shortly. The cranes are to be placed on the Central wharf, which in future will be used by larger steamers than the coastal vessels which now berth there. Naughty! Naughty! At a meeting of the Ponsonbv Men's Social Club this week, the president nskc.l those who had been pupils at the Ponsonbv School to stand. A large number rose. He hen asked then, to Hie past him. and as thev with a strap wh.ch had been found l.v the workmen demolishing the old school. * The taws had been discovered pushed down one or the ventilators. Like a Comb. One of the local residents, who attended the meeting held at Orakei last evening to protest against the boat harbour scheme at Dkaliu Bay, described the proposed wavebreak, which is a feature of the scheme, as being like a comb across the ha v. and asked it could be stopped from being unsightly Promptly, amid laughter, came a reply from tie back of the room: "Vex, don't put it there. Pleasure Craft Owners. In the course of an address given at a iieetmg at Orakei last evening, when the pro:><>sed boat harbour at Okahu Hay was dis-"st-ed. the chairman of the Auckland Har--our Board. Mr. W. B. IWIow, said that most >t the pleasure craft in Auckland were owned •y poor lads. The statement caused laughter jnd dissent. Mr. Darlow said that it was a tact that th bulk of the Auckland boatincr lien were not' wealthy. Flood Waters at Penrose. Flood waters have caused a lot of discomfort to a number of residents in the Penose district, near the Great South Road The irea ,s subject to flooding, as it receives abater from higher levels in the vicinity. Jntil the water subsides, residents have to ira.de from the road to their homes and packng cases and timber are being used as improvised methods of approach. In some of the ow-lymg places there have been feet of water luring the past couple of days. Piano Technique-. '•'Nearly all the students I have examined iave been content to sit too high at the siano, said Professor F. G. Swinstead, pro■essor of pianoforte at the Roval Academy of Music, London, who is at present in Auckland ;ondiicting the examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. The Drofessor said that in such cases the tonal juality of their playing suffered, as tone was produced by leverage on the fingers and. not 2J2 18^ n ?v forwa J' d on the kevs > whi <* happened if the performer was too The deal was the variable piano stool, that could )e screwed up or down. Mystery of the Socks. Interest in the search for the inventor of Jie wind sock"—aerodrome navigational aid -is spreading. The search began when Imperial Airways received a letter from Vienna's Technical Museum asking who invented it ind when it was first used. Publication of the etter has now brought another' letter from a inember of an American aircraft firm, writing trom Holland. Previous memories placed the use of the wind sock as far back as 1884—in riftV matches in India—and it was suggested that even the bowmen of Cressy used something similar. Now Imperial Airways' latest etter, from A. .7. Kapteyn. of The Ha«nie branch of United Aircraft Exports (US\) suggests another use in even earlier times' For niany, many years," Mr. Kapteyn savs," the fishing smacks of Holland have all had wind socks on top of their masts. There are many old prints which show them. Their Jngin must date back more than 100 years" Perhaps it will be an artist, a collector, a fisherman or a sailor who will finally solve this mystery. The idea that the wind sock— w, as it is sometimes called, wind sleeve or! wind- cone—is a modern invention must it seems, be definitely abandoned. Measles Epidemic. The fact that people who have suffered trom some form of measles were returning to work in the city within three or four days, ind then infecting other people, was commented upon by Dr. T. J. Hughes, Medical Mficer for Health at Auckland. According to the Health Department regulations, he said, patients should be isolated for at least a Fortnight after the appearance of the rash. There were still a number of cases occurring. [t is reported, also, that the epidemic is still prevalent at Rarotonga, though few Europeans are affected. Because of the danger of spreading the disease in -the Cook Island etonp, the Matua, which returned yesterday, lid not make a call at Rarotonga before proceeding to the outlying islands. Round-trip passengers and members of the crew were not permitted ashore at these, and when the ship called at Rarotonga on the homeward voyage the passengers were permitted only to ma'ke'a two-hour motor drive about 'the island. Colonel F. W. W. Dawson, District Medical Officer of Health at New Plymouth, broke his round trio to stav at Ttaminnm,

Auckland Naval Base Uses. "The British Empire is well situated for naval bases," stated XeraP Chief Commodore Horan in an address in Wellington. "I have seen the efforts being made to make the Auckland base exactly suitable for what fe expected in the future. It has a dockyard and

new machinery, and I am very pleased at the progress. It makes me feel the Navy has a i>olt hole,' if necessary, and somewhere to work from." Katipos at Muriwai. The presence of katipo spiders has beer reported at Muriwai beach and at other places on the West Coast, according to the official journal of Mie Auckland Alpine Sports Club Ihese spiders, distinctive by a red dot on the hack, are the only venomous insects in New Zealand; and although there is onlv one recorded case of a bite resulting in death, serious consequences may follow if immediate ste|*= are not taken. According to the journal, the correct procedure to follow in the case of a bite is to ligature and scarify firmly the flesh to induce free bleeding, theii rub in raw cnnely's crystal*!, which neutralise the poison. The patient should be aiven sal volatile and brandy, and the ligature kept or for at least half an hour. Air Defence and Shipping. " How would the- Empire's lines of communication be protected in.'war time but bv the Navy? asked Commodore H. K. Hornii New Zealand -Naval Staff Chief, in an address in Wellington. Since the war the air arm had come into being. He did not know what it could do. It* potentialities could onlv be proved hy war. "On .Tune 2. 1917*. the steomd Wairuna was passing the Kermadec Island' when an aeroplane appeared." he continued • rt dropped a message, which was an ordei to stop. Tliflt aeroplane proved to be fron the German raider Wolf, and it is the first case I know of a ship being interfered witli or sunk with air co-operation. That happened within 300 miles of New Zealand, ami mav happen again." Neither Fossil Nor Oyster. Thought to be « fossilised oyster,*a shell found in a rock by a workman on the' Waitakf»re Scenic Drive was yesterday examined by Mr. AW. B. Powell, assistant-director of the War Memorial Museum, who stated it ha<l been fash.oned by lime, dissolved from a piece of shell and redeposited in a crevice in the rock. This action had given it the appearance of an oyster. Mr. Powell said that althotMi the specimen submitted was not a true fossil authentic remains of marine shellfish bad beet discovered in the rocks adjacent to where the specimen examined yesterday was found Well preserved fossils. * approxima tel\ 30.000.000 years old. had been found in the cliffs at Muriwai, in tlte upper part of the Henderson Creek and at Huia. Moorings for Flying Boats. Improvements in the flying-boat liarbom off Mechanics' Bay have been started by the Harbour Board. It is expected that it wil be used by Pan-American Airways before the end of the year and by the Tasman air mai service early next year. Workmen are now preparing foundations on the eastern rubble t : le deflector: these will oarry reinforced con crete caissons, on which a roadway will be built. The caissons will form an unbroker wall, and will project sft above water level The roadway will be 18ft wiele, with a suit able turning place for vehicles at the project ing end. The reconstructed breakwater. U expected to ensure an area of sufficiently ealrr water for the moorings of flving-boats. Heaw seas at present pour over the breakwater ii bad weather. Takapuna Rates— Arrears £15,000. The raising of a further loan for street works was keenly debated bv the Takapun* TSorough Council this week. The Mayor, Mr J. Ouiniven, said he himself was against the raiding of a loan, and he did not want am factions in the council over the matter. "The borough is in a shocking state; anyone wh< goes around a few of the back streets can see that," said Mr. G. Gibson. Mr. Ouiniven ele dared this to be due to lack of management Mr. R. White said tbe trouble was that the council would not buy inaterials. He mffvee that the council consider the raising of a loar for the relief of unemployment in the borough. If this was not wanted bv the rate payers, they could reject it. The Mayor. Mr T. M. Rollo and Mr. C. H. M. Wills considered that no loans should be raised until the out standing arrears of rates—€ls,ooo—were col lected. The matter was deferred until Marcl A Politician's Slip. The danger of misquoting statistics was illustrated in the House of Representative! the other night, when Mr. T. H. McCotnbs Labour M.P. for Lyttelton. was discussing the compensated price. He said the argument o the compensated price advocates assumed thai the price level, in the United Kingdom wai lower thaH in New Zealand, but this was not always so. He then referred to the pttymeni e>btained by New Zealand dairy farmers fo: butter. The payout in 1935, he "said, was lOd and if this were multiplied by the New Zea land wholesole price index of 1001, and divldee by the United Kingdom whedesale price inde> of 1151, the result was a compensated prici of 9J<L Mr. McCombs' mistake was in takinthe New Zealand index for "chemicals am manures," which was 1001 in 1935, instead o the index for all groups combined, which wai 1385 in that year. Had he taken the correct figure, he would have arrived at a prici around 1/.