NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 60, 11 March 1944, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Clean People "I think we ought to regard ourselves as the cleanest people on earth—the Wellington water consumption averages 70 to SO gallons of water a head daily," said Mr. Will Appleton, chairman of the Wellington City Council's works committee, to the Houghton Valley Progressive Association.

Growth of Rotary In the course of a talk to members of the Wellington Rotary Club, the district governor for New Zealand, Mr. C. Taylor, Christchurch, said that there were at present 41 clubs in New Zealand with a total membership of 1914. With its 5222 clubs, with 220,000 members in the world at the end of 1943, when the Rotary movement was only 39 years old, who could visualise what its strength would be when it was 50 years of age?

Yachting Conditions For several successive week ends the prevailing wind has been either northerly or easterly. These winds are favourable to yachtsmen from the point of view of steadiness. Skippers of 14ft and 18ft unballasted boats, who prefer the squally westerlies which do not bring the sluggish chop of the northerly, however, had been hoping for a change of wind for this week-end, but races to-day were held in lumpy seas.

Forest of Thankfulness A suggestion that trees should be Elanted as war memorials was made y Mr. P. R. Climie, secretary of the Canterbury Progress League. Mr. Climie referred to an article in an overseas newspaper which stated that plans were in progress for a "Forest of Thankfulness" near that part of the Kent coast from which the armada of heroic little ships set sail for Dunkirk in 1940. He said the planting of trees appealed to him more than memorials in stone.

New Zealand Prison System "Anyone can see the very obvious defects in our prison system if they merely go through one of our prisons unofficially, or talk unofficially with those working in them," said Mr. Brian Knight in an address on prison reform at the Y.M.C.A. Optimists' Club. "Officially it is a different story, but the system as it stands is the great-grandfather of the very evils it is meant to curb. Prison is the culmination of faulty treatment which starts in childhood. Magistrates' well-intentioned threats against first offenders are hopeless. They don't help; fthey don't even hinder crime."

Meaning of a Million "We talk glibly of millions in these days, but I wonder if we have any idea what a million means," said Mr. B. J. Jacobs, president of the New Zealand R.S.A., in a speech at the annual reunion of the Invercargill R.S.A. "An idea of the meaning of a million may be gathered from the fact that since the birth of Christ there have not been a million days. Another 700 years will have to pass before there are a million days. You can check that up when you go home."

Hoarding of Meat Coupons A warning that it is most undesirable to hoard change coupons given by a butcher when the purchases do not work out to an even 3d is given in a bulletin issued by the Food and Rationing Controller, Mr. J. E. Thomas. To discourage this practice from developing, new issues will be made from time to time and the old ones declared worthless. The butcher also should bear in mind that every change coupon issued is a debit against his stock, and too many in the hands of customers may cause embarrassment. Sports Instruction by Film That all sports bodies should go ahead with the preparation of material to be used in sports instructional films when film was obtainable after the war was urged by Mr. H. W. Rogers at the meeting of the Canterbury Council of Amateur Sport. Mr. Rogers instanced the film produced by the Canterbury Hockey Association in co-operation with the Education Department as an example of what could be accomplished in this direction. The film had been in circulation only two years, but last year the number of teams in secondary schools had increased from six to 48 and in primary schools from 16 to 46.

Good and Bad Writers The opinion that doctors are the worst handwriters is not shared by Captain R. J. G. Collins, who gave an address on handwriting at the annual meeting of the Dickens Fellowship in Christchurch. Captain Collins said handwriting had an artistic basis, and should be legible and have ease and quickness of formation. "The civil engineer is usually the worst handwriter," continued Captain Collins, "for when taking notes in the field he is sometimes compelled to stand in all sorts of awkward positions. Doctors are not among the worst writers; some are good writers. The best are bank clerks, some civil servants, including railway and post and telegraph clerks and clergymen. The teacher spends much of his time at the blackboard and has to wri'e to a copybook style."