NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 310, 31 December 1940, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Notice to Advertisers. The "Star" will not be published j to-morrow, New Year's Day, and j the offices will be closed all day. For the convenience of advertisers and others desiring to do business connected with the publication of the paper on Thursday, the public office, Shortland Street, will remain open until 9 o'clock this evening. Late Shopping Night. After the break entailed by the Christina i season, shopkeepers this week will revert to tlie customary late shopping night on Friday. Thus shops will be closed this evening, as usual, at 0.30 p.m., ami on Friday evening they will bo open until 0 p.m. "Mr. Speaker" in Training. Three months' military training with flip Second Hawke's Jsay Infantry H;<ttnjinn is to l)e undertaken by the Speaker of the House of Representative*, the Hon. W. K. Barnard. M.l\ for Xnpier. He will enter camp at Waiouru on January 0 with the rank of .sergeant. Mr. Barnard has abandoned his customary cycling holiday for this purpose. They Would Be Neutral. Alain Gerbault, famous tennis player and traveller, who has been staying in Pago Pago for several months, lias left for the smallest French colony in the Pacific. Wftllis Island, to be, as lie expressed it, away from the political dissensions rnjrinx in Krnneo mid French colonies. Wallis Island, with its half a dozen Europeans, wants to remain neutral in the present conflict, reports, the "HtarV Apia correspondent. i Beware, Leap Year! To-day, the last day of a leap year, is one of wonderful opportunity for "not qu' , so attractive' , spinsters, one of dread for handsome misogynists, and one of good business for retailers of ladies' hosiery. According to custom, to-day is the last day for four long years on which a marriage proposal can be pn t erly made by the feminine party to the action, and to-day, if the assaulted bachelor rejects tlfe offer, he is bound by custom to make the lady concerned a gift of a pnir of silk stockings. <!ood-looking bachelors should i>e careful to-day, and should perhaps go into retreat. There i» a silk stocking shortage. New Year's Day. The ancient custom of celebrating Sew Year's Day has become internationally popular. The first festival connected witH the welcoming of the new year is recorded to be that instituted by Nltnia, a governor of Rome, in 713 B.C. During the day he dedicated a passage to Janus, the Roman god of doorways, and so of all beginnings. January was established the first month of the year in 40 B.C. Howover, in England, until tlTe thirteenth century, the year was reckoned from Christmas Day. The date was then changed to March 2i», and later, in the sixteenth century, it was fixed at January 1, which ever since has marked the- commencement of the 3 r ear. The Commonwealth of Australia. To-morrow the Commonwealth of Australia is 40 years old, for on January 1, 1901, the States of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Mouth Australia and Tasmania declared by plebiscite their desire for a Federal union. Legislation is directed by the Federal Parliament, consisting of a Governor-General, who is appointed and responsible to the Crown, representing the King, a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate consists of 30 senators chosen for a six-year term. The House of Representatives consists of twice as many members as there are senators, the numbers chosen in the States being .in proportion to population. The Commonwealth governs Papua, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Admiralty Islands, and, in conjunction with New Zealand, the island of Xauru.

Appeal to Motorists. "Many putstanding instances have been noted lately of slovenly handsignalling by drivers, men as well as women. The necessity of a clearlygiven code of signals cannot be overemphasised," pays the latest road safety message of the Automobile Association (Wellington). "Curiously enough, although drivers are * sufficiently thoughtful to give hand-signals of change of direction, a large percentage has a etrango interpretation of the rules'. Obviously, such drivers have never learned to give proper signals. The good, safe driver knows the code of hand-signals, how to give them correctly, and when to give them. Safe drivers will give hand-signals, or automatic signals for that matter, in plenty of time before a halt is made or direction is changed; they will give signals to all types of traffic and they will give signals always as a habit." Power of the Oil Jet, The destructive potentialities of high pressure hydraulic machinery were mentioned by Mr. T. fJ. Beck, engineer to the Public Works Department for Canterbury; in a luncheon address to the Christchurch Business Men's Club. Mr. Beck was describing the hydraulic jacks which will drive the "huge steel tunnelling shields through the glacial moraine at Lake Tekapo. These jacke would operate at a pressure of ToOOlb to the square inch, not a particularly high pressure in hydraulic engineering, he said. Yet if the oil from one of these jacks was permitted to pass through a pin-hole it would emerge at 000 miles an hour, and if ten men stood in a line in the path of the jet it would pass straight through them like .a steel wire. These huge forces were readily controlled, and hydraulic machinery carried out, safely and easily, some of the most formidable engineering tasks. Rotorua En Fete. Rotorua is filled with visitors for the annual Xew Year carnival. This afternoon the judging of the children's fancy dress competition will take place, followed by "the procession of decorated vehicles. Attractive cash prizes offered by the Borough Council for different classes in the "procession have in previous years attracted entries which make the carnival one of the best known throughout New Zealand. The procession will conclude its march to the lake front in time for the ceremony of ushering in the Xew Year. This will be accompanied by the firing of rockets and flares. An attractive concert programme of European ami Maori items will be held at this point earlier in the evening. Water temperatures in Lake Rotorua, while making sport poor for fiuhermen, have attracted many bathers away from the popular Blue Bathe. The temperature of the lake water yesterday* 81 degrees, exceeded any sumifter.