NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

No License to Export. Owing to the fact that a license for export cannot lie procured, one Auckland merchant has £.-)000 worth of baled scrap tin on his hand.*. The waste tin product is valued at £7 a ton, but it cannot be dealt with in Xew Zealand, and the custom in the past has been to send it overseas.

The King's Camp. A scries of bungalows grouped together to provide accommodation, for 200 students, and to be named "The King's Gimp," is the latest idea for a youth camp in Canadp.. In a brief description of the scheme yesterday, Mr. A. Sullivan, inspector of high schools for British Columbia, who arrived at Auckland by the Niagara, sa i,l the site, situated in the Rooky Mountains. had l.ccn presented by the Canadian Government. Jt was proposed" that next year the camp should be available throughout the summer for British Empire Souths and girls, and also for selected croups from the United States and other countries. The programmes for (he various groups would bo educational as well as recreative in character. It was expected the King and Queen would visit the site during their approaching tour of Canada. A Cat May Look. . . . It was not the real tiling that this cat looked at—only cinema royalty, but the audience were certainly amused, 'it happened at a city theatre last night just after the start of the main feature. A small black object was seen at the base of the screen—a small black object which soon resolved itself into the head and pricked earn of a black cat. thrown into relief against the screen's silver light. She (for her curiosity seemed to define her sex) then apparently thought that perhaps she was sitting a little too close, so she retreated to the front of the.stage. There she stayed for five or ten minutes. But curiosity got the better of her. Soon she again advanced right up to the screen, then rose on her hind legs, pawed at the sheet, and. satisfied that the objects which she saw were not real after all, retired gracefully. R.S.A. Official's Comment. .To arouse returned soldiers in making the question of defence a live issue. Dr. ,T. L. Frazerhurst, vice-president of the Xew Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, spoke strongly at the half-yearly reunion of the Paeroa and Hauraki Plain's branch of the R.S.A. at Paeroa on Saturday evening, reports the "Star's" local correspondent. At the request of the last annual conference, he said. headquarters of the association had made representations to the Government, but nothing had been, done beyond the issue of an appeal to returned men to enrol for home defence and to man the forts. The response to the appeal had been instant, but those who had enrolled for home defence were still waiting to be told what they were 1o do, and it was a strange state of affairs if it was the old soldiers who had to be depended upon to man the forts. They All Wanted to Learn. The growing tendency to co-ordination in city development methods overseas, and the desire of all to learn by the experience of others, was commented * on by Mr. S. G. Secular. Dunedin's city engineer, who returned by the Niagara yesterday after a tour of the United States, " Canada" and Great Britain. "In .America,'particularly," he said. "it was always 'What can we do for you?' rather 'han 'What do you want us to do for you?' They were most hospitable and eager to be of assistance." He found that they all had a knowledge of overseas developments and appreciation of them. When inquiring into one development in a big American city he was advised to examine the position in an English city, where he was told the development was much better. Again, in England he found the same eagerness. A high official of the Ministry of Transport demanded of him as he was leaving: "What did you find to criticise?" and "Can you suggest improvements?" They wanted that information and not praise.

To link Up Empire Schools. In an endeavour to establish closer touch between the great public schools of. England and the secondary schools of the Empire. Mr. F. B. Malim, until recently a master of Wellington College, Berkshire, will visit New Zealand, next month. He is making a tour of the Empire, for the Headmasters' Conference, and will arrive at Wellington from Australia about April 11: His itinerary provides for a visit first to Christehureh, where he will l>o the guest of the headmaster of Christ's College. Mr. R. ,JJ Richards. After visiting Waitaki and Dunedin. Mr. Malim will return to Wellington. Later he will visit Wanganui and will then travel to Auckland, via Rotorua. Mr. Malim'e stay in New Zealand will be less than three weeks. It will not ho possible for him to make contact with more than a limited number of headmasters hf secondary schools during his tour. He will be accompanied by his wife. Mr. Malim was educated at Blackheath School and Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1805 to 1007 bo was assistant master in Marlborough College, and for the next four years was headmaster of Sedbergh School. For ten years from 1011 he was headmaster of Haileybury College, and from 1921 to 1937 a master of Wellington College.

Bellbirds at Motuihi Island. The New Zealand bcllbird, which is unknown on some parts of the mainland, appears to be holding its own at Motuihi Island. There the bcllbird is restricted to the wooded end, of the island, but in one big grove of purinjL it is fairly plentiful at this time of the year. The bellbird's song appears to vary with the seasons, and in the late summer seems to be confined- to occasional single notes. English Aircraft Production. "At present I am putting up one of the biggest aircraft factories in the world," said Lord Nuffield at the dinner given in Wellington in his honour by Sir Charles NorwootL "I can assure you jio time has been wasted in building it, and producing aeroplanes in the shortest possible time. I will* not say- more on that subject. There is naturally so much move I could say, but many things are better left unsaid. England is still very busy and confident, and I should not have left England had I thought there was going to be war." They Saw the Fire. Packed streets did not prevent women from enjoying an uninterrupted view of (; oldie's timber mill fire. Blocked by lines of cars and surging crowds from getting near to the burning zone, they solved the difficulty by turning their backs on the blaze and watching it through their vanity mirrors. This was only one of the many amusing sidelights seen in the crowd. One man fought his way through the crush with a bulldog panting behind on a leash, and another tried to make his way through to the front while carrying a bundle of freshly-caught 6iiapper. Struggling Railways. The Canadian railways have been paying heavily in the }«ist few years for their slowness to appreciate the serious challenge of motor transport, according to Mr. A. McCulloeh. former chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railways, who arrived at Auckland by the Niagara from Vancouver yesterday. For a number of years he was general superintendent of a part of the railways system in southern British Columbia, an area where the scattered population and the mountainous nature of the country give the railways almost complete mastery in transport. In the prairies and eastern industrial districts, ho said, the results of road and rail competition make a different story. In the competitive viipo trains are being speeded up, and the standard of service raised to attract passengers and freights, but the railways are. in his opinion, involved in a most difficult struggle. No Taxis in Main Streets. Tn St. Louis, Missouri, there are no taxi stands in the main streets, stated Mr. S. G. Scoular. city engineer for Dunedin, when he returned by the Niagara from an overseas tour. All the stands are on back streets, but there are taxi telephones at intervals in the main streets, and if a ta.xi~is wanted the pedestrian merely uses the telephone provided and a taxi comes to him in a few moments. In a number of other cities there is the clock system of parking in main roads. There were clocks ami a red light at each parking space, and the motorist paid five cents for an hour's parking. That acted as a deterrent to unnecessary parking. He noticed also the increasing tendency to insist that all public utility services—electric wires and" so on—should be put underground. In some American cities only the actual lamp standards were above ground. Snip's Papers Left Behind. Important ship's papers, left behind by the purser's staff of the Matson liner Monterey through a misunderstanding, caused the delay of the vessel for about 15 minutes after she had left the wharf last evening. Representatives of the Auckland agents for the line, ' Henderson and Macfarlane, brought ashore a bag containing the shore mail and found important papers meant for San Francisco and Island ports underneath. No launch could be found at the moment, but a Navy leave-boat landing a party at the Admiralty steps was called into service. The Monterey was notified of the mistake through the cooperation of the Auckland radio station, and the naval hunch took the papers alongside. Appreciation of the co-operation given by the radio station and the Navy was this morning expressed by the manager of Henderson and Macfarlane, Mr. A. E. Playlc. Sir Julien Cahn's Gift to Hospital. The presentation of a gas and oxygen machine which is specially designed for the administration of anaesthetics in maternity cases has been made by Sir Julien Cahn to the Queen Mary Maternity Hospital in Duncdiii. Sir Julien Cahn has, for a considerable time, been interested in the work of maternity hospitals, and has given large sums of money toward assisting their activities in England. He is also a member of a committee which is specially interested in the provision of safe anaesthetic methods in maternity cases. When he came to New Zealand on his present tour with life cricket team he brought with him several hospital models of a specially designed anaesthetic machine, for use in maternity oases, with the intention of presenting them to institutions in need of them. Accompanied by Professor J. D. Dawson and Dr. John Fitzherbert, Sir Julien Cahn inspected the Queen Mary Hospital, and when he found that it was equipped with a portable model of the anaesthetic machine he immediately offered to give one of the larger models. for the use of the hospital, an offer that was gratefully accepted."