OUT AND ABOUT

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14252, 28 December 1946, Page 2

OUT AND ABOUT

Railway Reservations

The Railways Department advises that as from December 30 and continuing until further notice, applications for reserved seats and sleeping berths will be accepted ahead of travel date up to 14 days at allotting offices and 16 days at nonallotting offices.

Tauranga Heads List

In the climatological table for the Dominion, Tauranga heads the list for the hours of bright sunshine experienced in the month of November, with 272.7 hours. Second-place honours were carried off by Nelson with 266.8 hours, 9 while-Blenheim was third with 247.7 hours.

Diving' Exhibition

At the conclusion of the diving events at the Boxing Day regatta in Tauranga an exhibition of diving was given by Mr Bruce Marshall of the Tauranga Amateur Swimming and, Life Saving Club. Mr Marshall is an efficient exponent of all dives and he is one of the club’s most arduous workers in this line. His dives were given with full confidence and the applause of the vast crowd was well merited.

Food For Britain

The monotony of the English diet was .referred to by Mr D. N. Chambers, Australasian vice-president of the Australasian Institute of Secretaries, who recently returned from England, in an address to representatives of the Auckland branch of the institute and representatives of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, London, and the Incorporated Institute of Secretaries of Australia and New Zealand. As a New Zealander, he said, he found the margarine unpalatable, and felt the actute shortage of fresh meat, sugar and milk. He urged his listeners to send food parcels, which were highly appreciated. Mr Chambers made a report on the negotiations in London for the merger of the three institutes.

Emergency Petrol Depots

Some doubts' as to ’ what constituted an emergency under the Motor Spirits Retail 'Hours Regulations was expressed by members of the council of the Automobile Association (Canterbury). Petrol can be obtained after hours from approved depots only in case of emergency, and it was decided, in an attempt to iilarify the situation, that a deputation, on which the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Motor Traders’ Association should be invited to be represented, should wait on the Labour Department so that some definition of an ©mergfency could be given.

Those Were The Days

A tribute to the durable quality of British products a century ago is a document turned up by an Auckland resident in the course of a springcleaning this year. It is a paybook of a gunner in the British Royal Marine Artillery, showing that he enlisted in August, 1825, over 121 years ago. The paybook is in an excellent state of preservation suggesting an almost imperishable life. According to the document a naval gunner’s pay in those days was 16/a month. However, the cost of clothing was in proportion, and in the list of requirements for the man’s kit, a greatcoat is listed at 10/-, a pair of boots at 12/- a .shell jacket at 12/0, and a cap at 4/1. Trousers range from 3/2 to 5/10, socks run to 2/-, and braced to 6d,

' Expensive Safety Pins References to the high cost of living in China since the inflation of the dollar was made by Miss Annie James, M.8.E., in an address recently in Christchurch. Miss James was describing some of her experiences as a nurse in the Foreign Missions branch of the Presbyterian Church. Before she left her hospital to come to New Zearland, Miss James said, she promised the nurses ' there that she would send them some safety pins as soon as possible Her promise proved difficult to fulfil, for in Canton safety pins were unobtainable, and in Hongkong if cost her 3 07- ror.a dozen. Miss James added .that an umbrella she purchased before she left China cost £ G