SYDNEY SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 139, 15 June 1939, Page 7

SYDNEY SCENE.

N.Z. MONEY REFUSED. RISKED LIFE TO SAVE DOG. ANTI-DIPHTHERIA CAMPAIGN (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 8. "New Zealanders are the best people in the world, but I would not advise anybody to go there looking for a job." This opinion was expressed by a painter, Allen Keith Charnock, who was charged in the Police Court this week with having stowed away at Auckland on the Aorangi. Charnock reached Wellington ae a stowaway by the Wanganella two months ago and after serving six weeks in gaol got a job at his trade. Then he heard that his wife in Sydney was ill and when he found he would not be able to work his passage back, locked himself in an empty second-class cabin in the Aorangi, where he was discovered when a passenger was transferred. He was allowed four months in which to pay a fine of £2 and £7 17/6, thirdclass fare from Auckland. He left the court with all the money he had in the world in his pocket—two New Zealand shillings, which nobody would change.

Cliff Rescue of Dog. | A Katoomba man. Harry Skeen, aged' 28, went down a 200 ft precipice in a bo'sun's chair to rescue a red cocker spaniel which had fallen over the cliff. Skeen, who is a member of the Bnsli Rescue Club, found the dog wedged between two boughs with its hind legs broken. It is owned by a woman whose son, an R.A.F. pilot, was killed in a test flight in England. He was to have accompanied the Vickers Welles,lev Bombers on their flight to Australia, and had given the dog, which belonged ito him, into his mother's keeping.

Week-end Adrift in Launch. A fishing party of five men spent an anxious week-end adrift in a disabled 2-' ft launch. They left Cronulla at midnight on Friday intending to return about noon next day. When they were ready to set out on their return voyage, however, they found that the engine battery was flat and one of them broke the starting handle. A gale blew up and drove them 30 miles out to sea and down the coast, but rigging up a makeshift sail they worked their way on Sunday back to within sight of Cronulla. only to be blown down the coast again as far as Wollongong, which is about 00 miles from Sydney. Meantime the Sydney pilot steamer Captain Cook and several Cronulla launches had ®oiie out to look for them, and a land search party had gone down the South Coast by car to search the sea with powerful classes. When the launch was discovered off Wollongonsr it was towed in. and after repairs came back to Sydney on Sunday night under its own power. ,

Immunising against Diphtheria. Some 200,000 children in New South Wales have been immunised against diphtheria, but there are still nearly 500,000 who should receive treatment, according to the Senior Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Wallace). If all these children were treated the Health Department l>elieve3 the disease would be wiped out as it has been in Canadian towns which have given a 90 per cent response to immunisation campaigns. To keep the disease permanently" in check, 00 or 70 per cent of the 50,000 babies who are born every year should be immunised as soon as possible after their first birthday. The immunisation campaign is being carried out through the municipal and shire councils, who have practica-lly all established treatment depots. Parents who can afford it are charged a few shillings, but in cases of necessity the treatment is given free.

Learns Flying In Three Weeks. A British lieutenant from Shanghai has created a record at Mascot aerodrome by learning to fly and becoming an advanced A elass pilot in less than three weeks. It takes most flying students between six months and a year. The apt flying pupil is Lieutenant Grigg. of the Seaforth Highlanders. He arrived in Sydney by flying boat on May 12 md on May 16 he had his first flying lesson. Six days later he qualified for his A license, and last Saturday became an advanced A class pilot. This means that he can fly with passengers. He said that because of the state of affairs in China, he had found that he could live learn flying there, so "hopped over to Australia." He is going back to China by flying boat to await transfer to rh-> British Army in England. Dole Increase Likely. The State Treasurer (Mr. Mail) announced this week that an increase in the food relief si-ale was InMiig considered. Since the last increase in

October, 193(5, the cost of living hiriscn about 10 per cent. The present weekly dole scale is: Sinple men, 7/<>: married men. 14/; married men with one child, 19/; with two children, 19/9; with three children, 22/!); with four children. 25/9. A family with two or more children is also entitled to child endowment payments of j/ a week for ea"h child. In addition, the 37,000 men now on relief are entitled to free medical attention and medicine, two issues of boots and clothing, additional milk for children between the ages of one and seven and for expectant and nursing mothers, and special foods for ailing parents and under-nourished children, including milk, vegetables and cod liver oil.

Rutherford Town Hall Ban. Despite an appeal by one alderman to uphold freedom of speech, the City Council finance committee yesterday refused the use of Sydney Town Hall for a relay from New York of an address by the American religious leader. .Judge Rutherford. This is the second time the Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society has had an application of the kind refused. It has been fighting such bans by sending vans around the suburbs reproducing lectures by Judge Rutherford from records through loud speakers. One of its

agents recently successfully appealed against a fine of 10/. A police court (magistrate had convicted him on a charge of having used loudspeakers for the purposes of announcing an entertainment, but Judge Curlewis, who said ho had tried to read some of the Rutherford lectures and could not understand them, held that religious talks did not constitute an entertainment.

School Cramming Inquiry. The Minister for Education (Mr. Druminond) experts to receive in a few weeks the report of a two-year departmental inquiry into the effects of cramming, homework, and the system of external examinations at school. He an iiounced tliis in reply to allegations by the secretary of the i'eacliers' .Federation that severe breakdowns in health, both among teachers and pupils, were rti-ult-ii'.— from the State's competitive education system. The teachers' secretarv mentioned the case of one woman who had been so worried by the system that she had suffered a nervous collapse and died. Commenting on the allegations, a Sydney psychiatrist said it was not too much to --ay that the system might cause a child who could not stand up to the strain to end up in the Children's Court as an uncontrollable.

Actor's Equity Warning. The Actors' Equity lias again warned girls to consult it before accepting anv theatrical engagements in the East. It states that bogus agents, who hold out promises of glittering theatrical engagements to ambitious girls to lure them away from home are more active in Sydney to-day than ever before. Especially in some of the Dutch East Indies and in the Malay States, white girls are so scarce that they are much sought after, and it is stated that many girls who have gone East to alleged theatrical engagements, on thoir arrival have found themselves stranded and

been driven by necessity into a life of degradation. The Actors' Equity is kept advised of reliable theatrical employers in the East who will always make inquiries for any pirl in doubtful eases. Lived with Body Four Days. It was alleged at the City Coroner's Court yesterday that a man had lived in a Darlinghurst flat for four days with the body of a woman he had murdered by cutting her throat. Andrew Leckie.j 4t>, was committed for trial. The woman was Laura Cuddihy, 40. It was stated that Lec-kie pave himself up to the police on April 18 and said the woman had gone to his flat four days before. They had had drink and he did not know what happened after that. He woke up in the morning and found her body beside him. The husband he had been suspicious of the relations between his wife and Leckie after a woman had told him something at a dance.