NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1941, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

: Standard of Fitness j The view that there was a grave I; need for more active steps to imjibrove the health of the community llgvas expressed by the Minister of jHealth, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, ji|pt a meeting in Bayswater last eventing. He stated that of 162,000 men for the navy, army and air ttforce in New Zealand, 59,600 had *been found unfit for service. Of 5225 ipen examined for the navy, 1947 unfit; of 146,290 examined for ■ Bthe army, 53,045 were unfit; and of 111,350 examined for the air force ;jl|ft6l9 were unfit. Messengers •| An acute shortage of telegraph jfmessage boys in Auckland has de- ■ jfyeloped, due to the accelerated promotion of youths round 18 and 19, j fand the Chief Post Office is calling : ifor applications to fill 30 positions }; immediately. The question of the ; appointment of telegraph message ; girls at suburban offices to replace JDoys with experience who are called :i> into the main office is before the ' authorities. "The staff position is ?! becoming more difficult every day," llsaid an executive of the P. and T. i > Department this morning. II

[Penang On July 17, 1786, Penang, impor- | tant island in the Straits Settlements, ! was ceded by the Sultan of Kedah j to the British East India Company, i [At that time it was practically uninS ihabited, and was created a penal | settlement. From 1805 until 1837 Penang was the capital of the Settle- ; ments. Since 1867 the isand has | been under the administrative conJ trol of a resident councillor assisted |by officers of the Malayan Civil SeriVice. This Crown colony, which is of great strategic importance to ! Britain, is the centre for all the ■ trade of Sumatra and the Malay i Peninsula. J) Electricity Conservation The use of electric power in the Central Waikato Power Board disjtrict has been limited by the EleeI tricity Controller to an advance of , 81 per cent on the amount used last ; year. Mr. F. T. M. Kissell. the controller, expressed appreciation of efforts made to date to conserve telectricity, and reminded the board that the change-over from butter to I cheese, entailing greater use of hot water for cans, was a factor which would have to be taken into account. Mr. J. R. Ellis, manager-engineer, ~told the board that there was the {(greatest need for vigilant control, as ijthe demand was growing, and the aboard has appealed to users to observe economy in using power and light. (For H.M.S. Maori

If!. As the result of an appeal bv the ({Mayor of New Plymouth, Mr. E. R. ■! C. Gilmour, a presentation has been ■ made by Mr. and Mrs. S. Elliott, of ;lthat town, of two C. F. Goldie tetudies of old Maoris for display in the wardroom of H.M.S. Maori, prising out of the part played by the destroyer flotilla leader H.M.S. I Maori in the sinking of the German ; battleship Bismarck a R.N.V.R. man ; from New Plymouth, Lieutenant H. i ft. W. Higgins, now commanding the JiMelona, suggested some distinctive JMaori souvenirs for the warship's wardroom. The appeal was made Known by Mr. GTlmour. and the fresult is the gift of two fine Goldie Faintings of a Mivri man and u laori woman.

Loss of Camp Comforts Following the evacuations of Greece and Crete, the New Zealand troops in the Middle East have had to have much equipment replaced. Lieutenant-Colonel F. Waite, the National Patriotic Fund Board's overseas commissioner, reports that in addition to the pipe band's loss of pipes and drums, another band also lost its instruments, and the Kiwi Concert Party suffered a similar loss. There also seemed, writes the commissioner, to be an unappeasable hunger among the troops for books and radio sets. The number of radio sets lost in Greece was unbelievable. Scouts' Fine Example

A fine example of courage and endurance is given by the boy scouts in war-torn Britain, according to reports of their work received by the Boy Scouts' Association, New Zealand. ,In the front lines of the air battles they are taking their part, a part so large that even to catalogue the 175 different wartime jobs the scouts have taken on would require much space. Before the outbreak of hostilities scouts were intensively trained in many kinds of national service, with the result that thousands of boys were ready for duty as soon as they were wanted. Their work out of air raids has, to say the least, been diligent, while what they have done during raids has been nothing less than heroic, so that New Zealand scouts have a very high ideal to live up to. Liverpool Hospitality That Liverpool's hospitality to Dominion visitors seems to have been something out of the ordinary is indicated in a letter written by Private G. S. Cook, of the N.Z.E..F, to the Lord Mayor of the city, a letter which was reprinted in Liverpool papers. Private Cook said: "On behalf of the men of the N.Z.E.F who recently visited Liverpool, I would like to extend to you their sincere appreciation of the cordial reception given to them by the people of Liverpool. They have shown us many kindnesses—inviting us to their homes and parties, offering to help us in every way possible and even offering their scanty supplies of cigarettes to us. When we leave these shores the hospitality of Liverpool will remain in our memory. . . . May I say, 'Thank you. Liverpool. Good-bye, good luck, and God protect you.'" Emergency Fire Equipment Advice that motor trailer fire pumps were available under the Emergency Precautions Scheme Organisation was received by the Takapuna Borough Council at a special meeting last night in a letter from the Dominion Fire Controller, which also,asked if the council was prepared to agree to the conditions involving training of personnel, the housing and maintenance of the pump and the purchase of a few minor accessories. In the discussion which followed it was stated that Takapuna's quota of 15 E.F.S. personnel was already supplied except for two men. Since the conditions stipulated that trailer pumps could be used for ordinary fires at the discretion of the local superintendent, the council decided that its recent decision to provide an auxiliary fire trailer was now unnecessary, and agreed to the conditions on whirli the trailer pump would be supplied, i