NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1943, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY

Cabbages Given Away Cabbages were to "be had for the asking in Mount Eden on Saturday. A man drove a truck up and down Valley Road and handed out the cabbages with which it was loaded to passers-by. The reasons for the largesse, he explained, was a difficulty of disposing of them commercially. Rather than * allow the cabbages to be wasted he decided upon a free distribution. Waikaraka Park Ending a lengthy dispute with the Crown on the occupancy of Waikaraka Park, the Land Purchase Officer of the Works Department has advised the Onehunga Borough Council that he is prepared to recommend the payment of £560 to the council for loss of rental up to March 31, 1943, and from that date the sum of £350 per annum. The Department is to restore the park to its original condition at the expiration of the tenancy or pay compensation. Stalin's Birthday To-day To-day marks the 64th anniversary of the birth of Stalin. His father was Vissarion Djugashvilli, a boot operative and former peasant residing in the Georgian township of Gori. Named Joseph by his mother because of the near approach pf Christmas at the time of his birth, Stalin was intended for the Church. At the age of 14 he was sent to a seminary in Tiflis, and two years later he was president of the secret Marxist club in the heart of the seminary. From then on he was identified with the revolutionary movement, and, after meeting Lenin in 1905, became a close friend of the Bolshevik leader. The name of Stalin was adopted from a 'halfdozen other earlier aliases, signifying a "man of steel." Esperanto Library The Alexander Turnbull Library has completed the cataloguing of the Esperanto collection donated, through the New Zealand Esperanto Association, by Mr. George Gordon, of Christchurch, a Fellow of the British Esperanto Association. Mr. Bertram Potts, who arranged the transaction, states that the works consist of first editions, many of them long since out of print. Not only are there translations from many languages, but original books from famous writers in' the international auxiliary movement. In the collection are original manuscripts in Esperanto, from Mr. Gordon's own pen, embracing such authors as iDickens, Trollope, Hawthorne, Poe and Walter Scott.

Army Shoulder Tabs Three types of New Zealand shoulder tabs are now being worn by men of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force to indicate that they have served overseas. The black and white tabs are worn by men who have served in the Middle East, and the black and khaki tabs by men who have served in the Pacific forward areas with the Third New Zealand Division, and with the Eighth Brigade in Fiji. Red and khaki tabs, which have just been issued, are worn by men who have served in Tonga and on Norfolk Islands, and in Fiji with units other than the Eighth Brigade. Good Friend to New Zealand "I am not here to apologise for the Governor of the Bank of England, and I kno,w he neither needs nor would welcome it, but in view of the many unfair and ill-informed attacks which have been made on him I will just make this one remark," said Mr. Leslie Lefeaux, former Governor of the Reserve Bank, when replying to certain critics in an address to Wellington business men. "I know enough to say that Mr. Montagu Norman has consistently been a good friend to New Zealand, and I am sure that the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister as well could testify to his helpful and impartial attitude on the various- occasions on which they have sought his counsel and assistance." Not Fermented "It's not the grape Juice you use," said a member, amid laughter, when Mr. W. P. Spencer, at a meeting of the Canterbury Education Board, said it was news to him that grape juice was a preventive and cure for tuberculosis, as claimed by the New Zealand Women's Council for Liquor Control. A letter from the council advocated temperance lectures in schools, with special reference to the health-giving properties of fruit juices. Another member asked: "Where are you going to get the fruit?" Poisoning Wild Pigs, In an effort to check the"ravages of wild pigs in the King Country, the Government is supporting the organised poisoning idea. An Upper Wanganui settler said that already a noticeable improvement had been effected. Sheep carcases are placed adjacent to pig tracks, and the pigs absorb "the poison when they eat the flesh. Death comes swiftly. Large areas of pig-infested country are being tackled, and the work will help to restore productivity to some bush farms which were abandoned on account of the prevalence of wild pigs.