NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 94, 21 April 1945, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Unexpected Reply

An instance of the simple humour so frequently encountered with Maori people was recounted by Mr. I. Prichard, who has been appointed to a Native Land Court judgeship, when speaking at a farewell at Waitara. . A native who in his day had been a prominent axeman, once entered Mr. Prichard's office proudly displaying an elaborate gold chain. When he left the Maori asked the time. This Mr. Prichard supplied, asking how it compared with the Maori's watch. The visitor beamed upon Mr. Prichard and replied unexpectedly, "Only te chain, eh." Motorists And Hotels The views of about 100,000 families affiliated with automobile associations in New Zealand (and said to represent at least 300,000 people) about accommodation in hotels will be represented to the Royal Commission on Licensing by representatives of the North and South Island Motor Unions. Drafts of information prepared for submission were read to the half-yearly meeting of the South Island Motor Union in Christchurch, and a committee representing both unions is now correlating material for presentation. Because the North Island Union proposed submitting detailed proposals, including some which were described as "Utopian," the South Island Union preferred to make its own recommendations, but after discussion it was agreed that the material should be so modified as to meet the wishes of both unions and so present a united view. "Shangri-La" "A while ago when I had a day off I was taken by a pilot friend on a routine flight he makes daily over the interior of New Guinea," writes an American Medical Corps officer to an Auckland friend. "He flew me over the place that the pilots call 'Shangri-La,' which is very close to the real thing. It is a deep valley surrounded by high mountains, far into the interior of the island, and there is no obvious entrance. In it lives a fine race of people, who are said to be taller and larger than the usual New Guinea native living along the coast and on the lakes around here. They have fine farms and well laid out homes, gardens and plantations, and their pattern of living appears from the air to be more agrarian and more advanced than the others we have seen. They are said to be cut off from the rest of the world, and though the local natives know they exist they are unable to tell us any details about them. I suppose they will remain cut off until someone descends to visit them from a helicopter, as there are no landing fields or lakes down there large enough to land a plane."

New Zealand Products

Clothes pegs, toys, plasticine, orockery and kid gloves are some of the articles that an Australian firm wishes to import from New Zealand. It has sent a trade inquiry to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce asking about the prospects of obtaining these articles. Another trade inquiry received by the Chamber of Commerce comes from Vancouver, British Columbia, where a former flight-lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Air Force wishes to establish a connection with anyone in the import and export business in New Zealand. Vocational Guidance "We are sometimes asked whether the genera] public is making use of the Vocational Guidance Centre," stated Mr. A. A. Kirk, district vocational guidance officer, in his report to the advisory council last night. "When I inform the council that from April 1, 1944, to March 31, 1945, no less than 13,108 people called on our officers for some purpose or other. I think all will agree that this gives convincing evidence of the part that our service is rendering to the community. One has to bear in mind, however, that the service of vocational guidance is not confined to the main office in Auckland. Most of the high schools in the province are also visited and if the number of interviews conducted during these country itineraries were added to the present total these figures would be very much closer to the 15,000 mark." Booklet Of Evidence Supplementary evidence given by the Newmarket Borough Council before the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government yesterday was contained in a neatly printed illustrated brochure, with a red cover carrying the borough's coat of arms. A foreword stated that the booklet was designed to cover matters of domestic importance such as the development of the financial position of the borough, the public amenities provided by Newmarket, "island municipalities" and their achievements, patriotic welfare and other incidental matters. This was followed by the statement: "In preparing this booklet the council has been influenced to some extent by the wisdom of the old Chinese proverb: A picture is worth 5000 words.' "It was claimed that Newmarket had fully justified its existence as a seperate entity despite its geographical situation, which had been shown to be relatively unimportant" said the town clerk, Mr. H. Wilson in presenting the evidence. "Its record is factual evidence of the advantages of decentralised local government control, as opposed to amalgamation, and that the ideal set-up is the compact borough" he added.