NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 14 September 1940, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

| Wrkck Affects Shipping. ! Maoris on the northern coast attribute | to the Niagara wreck their inability to i catch snapper, rock cod and smaller j fish from the shore to the location of the Niagara wreck. Drought in on the incoming tide, fuel oil clings to the 1 rough parts of the rooks and to seaweed, and, as the tide ris?s, attaches itself to I the whole face of the rock. The oil is J fatal to all kinds of marine »itV\ and ,i the position is unlikely to improve I' until heavy easterly storms force the deposit high up on the beaches. j I Lady Galway Guild Work., ' j Need for continuing and increasing j I activities of the Lady Galway Patriotic ! ftuikl was stressed by the Mayor* of \ Auckland, Sir Ernest Davis, in com- ! men ting on a cablegram from London j expressing gratitude* for supplies of j clothing sent by the guild. Sir Ernest j said that as chairman of the Auckland i Provincial Patriotic Council he was gratified at the fine work of the many! branches of the guild in the province, j i Many people in London and elsewhere I had been rendered homeless; their need, j was great. Assistance should be given quickly. Only clothing in good condij tion had been sent, ami many garments for children had been included. Under Military Guard. "Boats on the Arapuni Lake approaching the dam and the Te Awamutu Road bridge will bo fired on,"! stated Lieutenant-Colonel T. H. Daw- | .son, otlicer commanding the guard of j vital points, in a letter addressed to the 1 ' secretary of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society and the electrical branch . of the Public Works Department. I Lieutenant-Colonel Dawson stated that' the military authorities controlled an • area from a point half a mile south of • the Pokaiwhcnua Stream to a point lib If | a mile north of the power station. All I Jlshermeu were warned that 110 approach I was permitted either from the eastern ! or western bank* inside this area. Control was also exercised by the military over an area 011 the Arapuni Lake headrace and spillway from the falls to a point 011 the lake at right angles ; to the outlet of Alngarth's Creek.

" "Can Take It." j I Writing to an. Auckland friend on r July 23, an Essex man who is in the | 5 London Defence Volunteers say£: "We * get the raids daily now, and arc used 3 to diving in the shelter and in and out j. of bed, but you can tell all in New . Zealand that we can take all that Hitler 5 or Goering like to send us. I sincerely 5 hope it will bo my privilege to meet > [ any German who tries to land here. The j > worst of it is the German airmen will [ not come down to their target, but keep ; > about three or five miles up and drop j 3 their bombs. When they meet the, j Spitfires and Hurricanes they just drop ' their bomb* and bolt. I have a big j 5 score to settle. The Germans killed | I my brother in the last war—that was ■> 23 years ago—and when I have bagged my 24th Hun I shall begin to feel satisfied. There are thousands here who feel 1 like T do. .So you see the German big j shot 'paperhanger* has quite a job on this time. Keep vour peckers up and i 5 don't worry about us." I j "Aussies" as Fossil Diggers. i j While Australian soldiers were dig- j ging a trench at the headquarters camp of the Australian Imperial Forces in Britain they unearthed a stone arch-! way estimated by local historians to be ! almost 1000 years old. The story of this ! discovery is related in a special dispatch from Kenneth Slessor, official corres-, pondent with the A.I.F. in Britain, and • released by the Australian Trade Com-1 missioner in Xew Zealand. "The threeI stone top of the arch is perfectly preI served, and the line of tho walled ! corridor approaching it can be clearly traced," says Mr. Slessor. "According to history books of the district, the arch j is almost certainly part of a convent built in OSO. Among flint and rubble j thrown up by the Australians' spades,' a number of beautifully glazed tiles; 1 have been found, with coloured patterns i i of crosses, fleur de lys and lions ram- . pant. These come from the walls, of ( cells, and others are unglazcd from ' floors that were trodden by holy feet' • almost 1000 years ago. The tiles have i been eagerly sought as souvenir* by the ! , Australians." ; Old-time Tokens. An unexpected contribution to tho waste reclamation drive in Wellington has been n remarkable collection, gathered together over many years, of the oncc popular and now long illegal shopping token coins. The donor suggested that the tokens have a greater valnft to collectors than scrap bronze, and the committee has sent them to tho Wellington Numismatics Society. There are about 200 of them. Most of them- are about penny size, but some are double the weight and more. They date from IS-m to" 1831, for soon after that they were recognised as a great nuisance among official coinage and were banned by law. The hotels had them for change oh "pints" (Imperial 20oz pints), good, in sufficient number, for more pints at the same hotel. Grocers, drapers, tailors, ironmongers, jewellers, a music shop, papcrhangcru, butchers and leather merchants of tho 'fifties to tho 'eighties contributed to the riot of unofficial coinage. The numismatist has his own ideas about the value of old coins, tokens and medallions. Therefore a number of this gathering of 200 token curiosities will, unless someone pays more than their real collection value, because this is a patriotic purpose, be worth their metal value and no more. The "Blanket Standard." : Interesting sidelights on the scarcity of cash in this country during the years 1833 to 1840. when the population outside the original Xew Zealandcrs com- ■ prised only a handful of officials, missionaries, whalers and deserters, were given by the Rev. A. B. Chappell in a lecture before members of the Auckland j Historical Society last night. The subject was "James Busby's Account Book," a record which bad been found above the ceiling of the old Waitangi Residency after tho departure of Captain James Busby, who had been British Resident at tho Bay of Islands during tho years mentioned. Tho book, now I among the cherished relics in the re- | stored Waitangi Residency, disclosed a J medley of domestic and official entries, said the lecturer, but it threw light on the currency and exchange of tho time. Cash payments were always small in ! amount, and mention was made of dolI lar payments, wlillo the labouring wage : of those times was revealed as 3/6 a day. Payment "In kind occurred most extensively in the records of the book, certain articles being used so frequently for exchange as to establish their'recognition as a sort of currency. Most pron6unced among these were blankets, and it seemed that New Zealand a hun-1 dred years -ago was on the "blanket I ..standard.. I