SYDNEY SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 109, 11 May 1939, Page 9

SYDNEY SCENE.

HERE AND THERE. DISCUSSING SEX PROBLEMS. ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCHES. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 5. The proposal this week by Miss Ruby Rich, one of the leading- members of the Racial Hygiene Association, that nreService meetings should be held at churches to discuss sex problems has met with a mixed leception by representative clerics. The Revs W. G. Coughlan (Anglican), a n « Horner (Congregational) and »• G. . Clauo-hton (Methodist) have approved of the idea, but this, of course is their own opinion only and does not commit their Churches in any way. Mr. Claughton said that somethhi ■ simihar was already beins done in his church, where he got the local doeco.- to! talk to youngp people. On the other hand the Rev. A. R. Ebbsi (Ang-lican) said people went to '.•lunch toj worship, and he would not coii«idor any-i thing- of the kind suggested by MWs Ri.-'l-.:' The Rev. Goo. Cowie (lYe-by'rrrian ) wnsj , also against the idea. He --aid siieli )>h> |blems should be attacked in tin; 3ioui".[? jlf the Churches took them uji it wo.ilil do more harm than good. > I Birth Control Clinics. \ \ J The acting-Minister of Health La*! , promised to o.iiMdcr a request by thej' Women's Advisory Council of the!' llen'ron Labour party for i he pst-'ibli-li- !' ment of (mi? birth control, jire-nat.tl tiiidj baby health tdiiiic-. and maternity no-pi ; ' tals. which would bo grouped tujrethuri in suburban area- and country towns.|: ;Tlic di'putation argued that as it ]ia<! -, Ijeen often >tated that the birth rate was declining and that Australia needed a. larger population, mothers should be ■ encouraged by being provided with the best possible conditions under which to jhave their children. Aβ far as the birth control proposals-vent, they were-only

asking: that the same facilities should be extended to working class mothers as were now enjoyed by the more will-to-do to enable them to choose the best time to have their children, both for their own and their children's sakes. Censoring Grave Mail. For many years travellers and others ■ have been leaving messages in a letter box erected by Uralla Council on the grave of the outlaw, Thunderbolt, who • was shot at Kentucky Creek, near Armidale, in 1870. When" the letter box dis appeared recently inquiries were made, and it was then discovered that the deputy-mayor, who is the schoolmaster, had removed it., pending decision by the; council. He stated that anonymous! '. letters villifying aldermen and * other! . leading townspeople had beeu found ini the box. Asked if the box would be replaced, jit*' ' said: "I don't see why it should Iμ. 11l ' seems to me that the time lias u>: stop extolling the supposed virtue's, of a . would-be murderer and hold-up man. All! [ it does is to build a psychology oi crimei . in young minds. - ' I Launch Disaster Claim. The harbour tragedy on February J : ' ! - last year, when tlio launch Rodney <ap-jl :'j.«ized while l'arewclling the American ;t 'cruiser Limi-eville, and J!) pus-enier.-;; 'wore drowned, was recalled in tin- j ] I Supreme O'lirt this ivook. when one of j j the passengers, Lorna Xagrint, ehiiimidi* 1 ,t:400 damages feu- personal injuries from 'the owner of the ves-i'l, Charles Henry 'Kosinan. The girl told the Court how !.<he and her M«tor, who was drowned. [Vera boili thrown into the water and !how. alter t-ho had come Xo the surface. { somebody clutched at her and pull?d her jdown ngain. Eventually she was picked Jup by a police launch. She told the I Court that for six weeks she had had I terrible nightmares, re-living the expetilence. and wakened up clutching the bed I sheets to save herself from falling. I Mi*. Justice Rich said he was satisfied ;»n the evidence that the capsize of the I Rodney had been occasioned by negligence and awarded Miss Xagrint £,20'jj find cost*, to be paid within three weeks.' otherwise he would make an order for! the appraisement and sale of the ship. Other claims are pending, but Rosman has been allowed to operate the launch i meanwhile as an agent of the High i Court Marshal, the launch being under ' arrest.

Flew to Airmen Son's Funeral. The mother of Corporal Gordon Peake, one of the three R.A.A.F. members who were killed in the Avro-Anson crash at Melbourne this week (the day after a similar crash near Sydney in which tour . were killed) flew from Sydney to Mel- • bourne to attend her son's funeral. "I ; am going by air so that I can be with > him quicker," she said. "I couldn't wait •togo by train or car. I still don't ■ question the safety of air travel, though . I know that accidents will sometimes ! happen in anything. "It is a shame thut rhc-f lad? should 'jgo like this, but I know t!;.ir what they '(were doing nm-t lie <!<>ne. (inrd'ui's one ■iiiubitiun was t<> serve with the -Air ■jKorce. He ju-t lived for that lii\\ Jt is gome coml'o. , r to know tliat ne die-i tli.' way he would have wi.-hed. !f ~>t had not been Gordon it would have been ■some oilier i.ul. and son,e. other rnnther'a (■heart would liave been hruken.'' j Paternity and Blood Tests. I Legislation io permit principals in hifliliafion c;i-i's to ajiply for blood testa was foi - esha<lowed in Parliament. Mr. JArkius (U.A.P.) said that Mr. Treatt '(U.A.P.) would move an amendmeat to that effect to the Child Welfare Bill. The amendment, he explained later, would permit a magistrate or Court to direct that the child, inother, or alleged father submit to blood tests; empower the magistrate or Court to nominate the doctor who would take the samples, and. the pathologist who would make the tests; provide for stay of any further I legal proceedings until the tests had I been made; provide that all expenses of the tests be paid by the applicant: allow the certificate of tests to te administered as evidence in any subsequent I legal proceedings concerning paternity.