NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 303, 23 December 1941, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Holiday Arrangements In accordance with custom the Auckland Star will not be published on Thursday next, Christmas Day, or on Thursday of next week, New Year's Day. The main office on the Shortland Street frontage will remain open for the receipt of advertisements until 7 p.m. to-morrow and on Wednesday of next week. No Cuckoos by Request The scene was a suburban backyard. The perspiring householder was digging a slit trench with the dogged persistence of one who will do or die. A neighbour wandered over and watched him labour. An Irritating silence developed, broken finally by the neighbour. "Building yourself a little nest, eh?" he remarked amiably. The householder glanced up in disgust. "Yes," he agreed pointedly, "and there aren't going to be any cuckoos in it, either" —and bent to his labours once again. Some of Them Woke Up Attendances of E.P.S. workers "at their posts in response to the early morning test alarm in Auckland to day were by no means 100 per cent. Actually, at most of points of assembly tne muster ranged from 20 to 40 per cent of the team personnel. Talking in club after the all clear" was sounded, members in one post near the city where the houses are adjacent to an exceptionally busy traffic route found that their team was a well-balanced blend of late and early risers. Those present represented all the early risers, though but 40 per cent of tne team, and they knew tnat another 40 per cent comprised men who were habitual late retirers, likely to be first on the scene in any alert between midnight and 3 a.m. but deeply asleep thereafter. Another interesting point that emerged during the exchange of experiences was that in practically all cases this morning, when the warning came shortly after 5.30, it was the housewives who first stirred from sleep and gave the alarm to the male inmates. In one worker's home the wife, accustomed to rising at a 7 a m. factory whistle, rushed hurriedly to the electric range with a sense of having overslept until she noticed that the clock seemed to have Btopped a little after 5.30. Then sh-2 woke up, and gleefully woke her hu? band and sent him about his R.P.S. 1 business.

Hospital Visiting An announcement was made by the chairman, Mr. Allan J. Moody, at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board last evening, that it was proposed to allow visitors to the Auckland Hospital on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Blood Transfusion in Army The work of a Base Mobile Refrigerator Unit, which is the centre of all blood transfusion work in the Middle East, is described by Major D. T. Stewart, formerly honorary medical adviser to the Canterbury branch of the National Blood Transfusion Service, in a letter received in Christchurch. The issuing of dried blood serum and plasma, the liquid remaining when the red cells of blood have been allowed to settle, to military hospitals is one of the chief tasks of the unit. Both plasma and serum are invaluable in the treatment of shock and hemorrhage, but the serum has been found less bulky for use with field ambulances and advance units. The use of blood itself is very limited, because it will only keep for three weeks, and deteriorates very rapidly when transported. The giving of blood is a popular service with men of the forces. When they have given one transfusion they are allowed to remain off duty for 24 hours, and are issued with a small bottle of stout. An Orgy of Betting Taxation amounting to £46,746 was collected by the Government from the totalisator betting at Riccarton and Addington during Carnival Week. It is the highest amount (says the Press) ever collected from that week of racing. In addition, the Social Security Fund and the War Expenses Account would benefit considerably from the tax of 2/ in the £ on the wages of the many employees of the Canterbury Jockey Club and the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club and the catering firm of P. Burke and Company. The betting was the heaviest since 1921. It totalled_ £484,007, a sum only once exceeded in the history of Carnival i Week. The record investments were made in 1920, when all soldiers had; returned and gratuity money was in' circulation and the country was enjoying a boom not since repeated. The betting in 1920 was £496,930. Even in the prosperous immediate post-war year of 1919 Carnival Week speculation was not so heavy as this: year, when the nation is at war and! many thousands of men are overseas or on military pay. The invest-, ments in 1919 were £478,702. *