NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 153, 30 June 1945, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Small Books

To the making of small books there is no end. A resident of Heme has a book which measures one inch by three-quarters of an inch. It contains English, Scottish and Irish songs with music, and each u S f llust rated with a picture. The book was edited by William Moodie, and published by David ? * s contained in a small case with magnifying glass. The Three B*s

Governmen t in recent decades nnl ! e fl ga^e en °ugh to tackle any one of the three B s,—bettine hnnw and the Bible," said M? J r £nrt eri M p -'oat0 at the Church of England Mens Society's deetine at whEHX, the diSsion wiich followed Mr. D. A Carr's andlt!^ 0 " n* 16 subject of "Church e °C P ot e term n WiU please ' N.Z. Exports

u the , ar New Zealand's P 0 population was the IS i„ m the Y°r ld and the Domvf one !° leading exportGutter, cheese, wool, lamb, and other pastoral products, states an j- OI V, ew Zealand in the Exporter." Before the war United Kingdom took 99 per cent £ eal , an< * meat exports, 97 per cent of the butter exports, and more than /5 per cent of all exports supplying m return more than 50 per cent of all imports into New Zealand. Children's Era

Forty or 50 years ago it was the age for fathers, and everything in homes was done with their comfort in view, declared Mrs. W. J. Metcalf, kindergarten principal, when addressing the annual meeting of the Hawera Plunket Society on the pre- . school child. In recent times, however, opinion had changed, she said, and it was now the age for children. Everything possible was done to make comfortable the lot of the child, who was now carefully studied. She believed that in time the pendulum would swing and the age for mothers would come. So great was the concern of mothers to see .that their homes were comfortable_for children that it imposed a great. strain on them. The lower birthrate of to-day Vmieht be partly dj»e to the much effort required to- raise children, successfully.

Houdini's Secrets Lost For Ever

Secrets of Houdini's seemingly miraculous escape tricks were lost for ever on June 13 with the death of his brother, Theo Hardeen, aged 69, who also was a great magician. When Houdini died in 1926 his will bequeathed his tricks and illusions to his brother, stipulating that Hardeen must not pass the .secrets on. No one has solved how the brothers bound or handcuffed escaped from inside locked trunks of in sealed chambers inside tanks or under water. They were the sons of the • late Rabbi Weiss, of Wisconsin. Digging Toheroas

Explanation of the reason for restricting toheroa diggers to the use of a spade not exceeding four inches in width was sought by Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., yesterday during the hearing of a prosecution brought in the Magistrate's Court by the Marine Department. An inspector said the size of the spade was limited because a larger surface would result in the killing of a greater number of toheroas each time it was driven into the sand. The normal procedure in digging for toheroas was to make one cut and then to enlarge the area by digging all round.

Gift Parcels In Pacific Disappointment with the quality of the patriotic parcels received by New Zealanders serving in one of the posts in the Pacific is expressed in a letter received in Auckland this week. "Well, after all this time," says the writer, under , date June 4, "we have had an issue of our second patriotic parcel, no doubt part of the 90,000 which have been sent to the Pacific according to the board. Most of the parcels have evidently been lying round in store back in New Zealand, or up in one of the islands. Some of them were packed back in 1941, and the contents of many were I useless. Out of four parcels received in our tent the four tins of cakes were mouldy, the tins of asparagus appeared flyblown, and cartons of fruit drinks were useless. A white handkerchief placed in each parcel was ruined by the rust from the tins. To my mind, and I think I speak for most of the boys, it is just a waste of public money, time and effort, not to mention the space taken up in the aircraft, which could have been used for fresh meat and vegetables. The parcels would have been most welcome as the food we get is not the best, and to receive them in such a bad condition was a big disappointment."