NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 228, 26 September 1941, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Grammar School Balcony By the expenditure of £300, the balcony of the assembly hall at the Mount Albert Grammar School has been strengthened and brought into use again after having been closed for a time through being regarded as unsafe. The work included the fitting of two new supporting columns to give extra strength. As the assembly accommodation was temporarily reduced by about 200, the reopening of the balcony is much appreciated by both masters and boys. Quick Work Business was promptly dispatched at the general meeting of the Auckland Employers' Association yesterday afternoon. The Mayor, Mr. J". A. C. Allum, president of the association, was in the chair, and, with clockwork precision, the report and balance-sheet were adopted and the members of the executive committee elected without a dissentient voice. No other business being raised by "anyone, the Mayor declared the meeting closed less than ten minutes after it had opened. Dyeing With Native Plants In response to inquiries about her remarkable dye exhibition, shown at llie War Memorial Museum recently, Mrs. Amy H. Hutchinson, of Hawke's Bay, has prepared directions for dyeing wool with native and introduced trees, shrubs, lichens or weeds. Her notes are published in a booklet issued in connection with the annual Cheeseman memorial show of native plants and flowers. The booklet contains a list of the plants used recently for dyeing, following up the experiments of Mr. B. C. Aston, of Wellington, and also a list of some 250 native plants, with their Maorior common names, their scientific names and the family to which they belong. A spinning demonstration, using wool dyed with native barks and lichens, is to be given during the exhibition. Appeal Board's Fast Work Probably establishing a Dominion record, an Armed Forces Appeal Board yesterday disposed of 100 appeals at Greymouth in five hours, states a Press Association message. Nearly 70 were by mining companies in respect of coal miners, all of which were adjourned sine die, conditional on the reservists joining the Home Guard within a fortnight. Warning was given by the chairman, Mr. F. F. Reid, that the obligation was on both employers and employees to notify the Director of National Service immediately if a man appealed for left his employment, or of his employment in the fiame industry changed, Mr. Reid jefcg said the obligation on both was abso- . iU J®» and failure t® observe the reeu- "***" h<!avy flne ° r .

Demand for N.Z. Timber The demand from Australia for New Zealand timber has become so strong that New Zealand timber exports could be trebled, providing the shipping space were available and the timber could be spared from local requirements, according to Mr. A. J. Seed, secretary of the Dominion Federated Sawmiilers' Association. Another feature of the timber industry at present, he added, was that England woi.'J take, without limit, all the Southland silver beech available. Big Railway Bridge , One of the picturesque features of | the Waikokopu-Gisborne sections of ! the East Coast railway, Kopuawhara i bridge, with its immense arched | spans, is nearing completion. An eight-storey building could be erected under one span without reaching the deck level. The last few days have seen the construction of shorter spandrel columns, rising from the top of the arch, to support the decking and rails. Each of the sections will be 20ft in length, and they represent the last stage in the construction of the huge bridge, apart from the laying of sleepers and rails and adding the handrails. Wellington's Chronic Problem Speaking of the housing position in Wellington as "tragic," Mr. Leslie Jones, at the annual meeting of the Real Estate Institute, said: "When the soldiers come back in numbers, Ido not know what will happen. It it difficult to supply the demand now and it will be a hundred times worse then. Also there are the civil servants who are being transferred in thousands to Wellington. They can't buy houses because they have left their homes in other centres let. They come to Wellington and spend more than they can afford in hotels and boardinghouses. We hear a lot about State nouses, but it appears to me that there is no possibility of the general public getting these houses. They will have to be kept for the soldiers. If they are not, I wouldn't like to be in the shoes of the Minister of Housing." Soldiers' Gift Cigarettes A further reference to alleged sales of gift cigarettes in the New Zealand Forces Club, Cairo, is made by Lieutenant-Colonel F. Waite, overseas commissioner for the National Patriotic Fund Board, in his latest report. "We have investigated some alleged sales," he says, "and never yet have we been able to get any evidence that the cigarettes in question were purchased over a counter at the club. The board and all patriotic workers in New Zealand," he adds, "must realise that we are as keen as anyone in New Zealand to get all the facts and stop the illegal sale of gift cigarettes. It is significant that at the three meetings we have held of the advisory committee of the New Zealand Forces Club, on which are two representatives of each unit of the N.Z.E.F., this question has never been raised." J