NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 177, 28 July 1944, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Where's George?

A chalk sign on the pavement in Customs Street West suggests one way of letting a friend or workmate know one's whereabouts. The sign reads: "In the barber's, George," with a large arrow pointing the barber's shop. Heavy Gas Consumers Among heavy consumers of gas in Auckland, the hospital, which uses up to nearly a million cubic feet some months, has a leading place, but even this figure is small compared with that of some industries. The glass works at Penrose, for instance, at times use up to a million cubic feet a week, and an Auckland biscuit factory has a demand almost equally great. Hotels and restaurants and producers of cereal foods also consume millions of cubic feet annually. Crumbling Cliff Face Using trucks and a mechanical scoop, City Council workmen are removing the spoil which has accumulated at the foot of the cliffs on Bastion Point, near. Mission Bay. These cliffs were trimmed back about ten years ago because of the danger to traffic through heavy sections falling, and have since continued crumbling more gradually. In the course of years many tons of spoil pile up at the base of the cliffs. Canadian Casualties Total Canadian casualties in the three Services from the beginning of the war to the end of May, not including the invasion of Normandy, were 37,673, namely: Army, total deaths 6793, missing 430, prisoners of war or interned 3629, wounded 10,837, total Army casualties 21,689. Air Force fatalities 4566, missing 2906, presumed dead 4517, prisoners of war 1479, interned 20, seriously wounded or injured 829, total Air Force casualties 14,317. Navy deaths 1146, wounded or injured 184, prisoners of war eight, missing 329, total Navy casualties 1667.

Medical Conferences Three conferences of medical practitioners will be held in Auckland during the next four months. The first will be in the middle of August for the purpose of post-graduate study in psychiatry, about thirty practitioners from the Auckland province being expected to attend. The second will be the annual New Zealand conference of the College of Surgeons, at the end of August, which last year was held in Christchurch, and the third conference will be for provincial practitioners interested especially in the study of gynaecology and obstetrics, to be held in November.

Misleading A display of women's pyjamas in a city window yesterday attracted many people. Prominent in the window was a notice telling prospective customers to save 10/ on pyjamas, with the amount in large figures. One elderly gentleman made the mistake of thinking the 10/ was the price of the pyjamas. "I thought it was a bit funny," he said. Actually the garments were selling at more than twice that price. Annual Holidays The Annual Holidays Act comes into operation on Tuesday next, August 1. Under it all employees who are not assured of holidays by award provisions are to receive at the end of each year's employment an annual holiday of two wedks at ordinary rates of pay. Those employed for only part of a year will be entitled to cash compensation according to the length of their employment. The groups concerned are mainly farm workers, gardeners and domestic servants. Every employer affected, whether farmer, business man, professional man, trader or employer of domestic labour, must keep a record of employment. Duck's "Block-buster" Ostriches are not common about Auckland, but the impression that one must be loose might, with pardon, have been gained the other morning by Mr. L. H. Taylor, of Walters Road, Mount Albert, when he walked down his garden to the duck run. In one of the nests was a duck egg four inches long and nine inches in circumference, and weighing 9J ounces. Mr. Taylor does not claim it as a record, but he contends it must come fairly close to it. The duck believed to have produced this "block-buster" has been laying norfnally and was apparently quite unperturbed by her prodigious effort. Adoption of Housing Plan

. Details of the cost of erection under New Zealand conditions of a home on lines identical to the latest South Australian building plan are being obtained by the housing committee of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce. The executive reported to a meeting of the cotfncil of the chamber that it had considered the plans and specifications of the South Australian Housing Trust. Further information was being sought from the trust, and the Sydney Chamber of Commerce had been asked to supply details of the operations and the limits of building societies there in regard to advances to home builders. Suggestions would be submitted at an early date regarding the provision of a large, number or homes in and round Dunedin. The meeting carried a resolution congratulating the City Council on its adoption of a housing scheme for pensioners.