General News.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19109, 19 September 1927, Page 8

General News.

. Written objections to the Tramway Board's proposed loans—£looo representing the Board's contribution towards the cost of improvements in Cathedral square, and £7250 for the purpose of repayments to general account in respect of the purchase of motor-buses —were to be lodged not later than the day preceding to-day s meeting of the Board; Up to Saturday no objections had reached the Tr&taway authorities. Mr Will Appkton, a prominent figure of the advertising world in New Zealand, will deliver a lecture on Wednesdnyj September 21st, at 8 p.nd., in the Chamber of Commerce Hall, under the auspices of .the Canterbury Advertising Club, 'i'he title of his address will De, "Is Advertising an Economic Waste?" Thti club on this occasion issues a cordial invitation to all business men and others interested to be present.

"Out knowledge, of the depths of the ocean aiid of the creatures living .herein is based on the magnificent reports on the voyage of the Challenger, which toured the world in 1872, and later tears dn a scientific mission. . ine almount of pager required for a single eopy of these reports is according to d rough estimate I made recently, about two-thirds of an acre and after allowing for figures and. Wanks. .the total length of printing is 200 miles Biit. the real importance of these majestic treatises cannot be estimated in this sort of jray"—from an address on animal life in the open sea, delivered before the W.E.A, Saturday night, by Mr E. W. Bennett, M.Sc.

Professor J. Spconer, a leading authority upon health problems involved in noise and the consequent rs tl => u > writing in "The Nation's Health recently, drew attention to a scheme tor setiflg aside the first Monday in December as VFatigue Elimination Daj, when public attention would be concentrated on the urgency _of eliminating preventable lioise. He has now submitted a report oikthe movement for the reduction, or prevention of,harmful n6is£ to the International Fatigue Committee of the American Society ot Industrial Engineers. The report is divided into-fifteen main points ana recommendations. He suggests that designers and constructors of machinery should ptty more attefation the balancing of rotating parts, particularly those runing at high speed, anpto the ntouittiiig of machinery otiantivibrMidfl itippovfe. Tlie JouMat" v- expresses t-hfe hope that science! will dfetifiMoifidjifieans of silen- ; hing pneumatic drills.

Objections to the main roll to be used at the general elections of members of the Tramway Board iu November, were to have been lodged last Thursday but none came in. Should Mr Sidey's Summer Time Bill become law, summer time will extend from the first Sunday in November, and standard time will come into effect on the first Sunday in March.

A motor-car crashed into a horse and dray at the corner of Durham and Gloucester streets on Saturday morning. No one was injured, but the horse received a cut on its chest. The Agricultural Science Club met on Saturday evening, Mr A. W. Hudson presiding. An address was given on experiments in the manuring of land and in the feeding of stud stock, by Mr B. Seth Smith.

To keep up with modern science one needs to know throe languages, English, German, and American, said Mr E. W. Bennett, in an address to the Workers' Educational Associatisn on Saturday night. Two valuable paintings hy Tan der Velden have been added to the art collection of the Canterbury Museum through a bequest of tlio late Mr Stephen Powell, who died recently. One of the pictures is known under the title of "An Old Fisherman."

/'The deepest part of the ocean is the Swire Deep, off the Philippine Islands, where the depth is 5348 fathoms—over six miles. If Mti Everest could be sunk in the sea in this part, it would be covered to a depth of 3087 feet"—Mr E. W. Bennett, lecturing to the W.E.A. on Saturday night.

"It's quite time we hail the .barrowmen back again," . said Mr C._ Pope, chairman at the meeting of the Canterbury Stone Fruit and Tomato Growers' Association on Saturday evening. It was decided to send a deputation to the City Council asking that barrowmen be permitted to sell fruit m the central area.

In the course of an address to the Agricultural Science Glub on Saturdaj night, Mr B. Seth Smith said that as the result of experiments, he was almost persuaded to believe that, witn soil of a stiff nature, in which complete drainage was prevented, perfect cultivation would sliow _as_ good results as would expensive artificial manures. Quite an ordinary-looking Maori is known in Wanganui as a real hero. His heroism lies in the fact that out of a small sum received as rent for certain native land ho supports lo relatives. He himself does no work, and he also finds living expenses for his wife - and six children, hiis aunt and her husband, his grandmother, his daughter-in-law's cousm, _ and several others whose relationship with the benefactor is even more complicated. Needless to say, says the "Wanganui Chronicle," the family lives cheaply. "The question is sometimes asked — why bother about worliis and shrimps and such things? The best and truest answer I know is a counter-question—-why bother about art and music?" said Mr E. W. Bennett in an address to the W.E.A. on Saturday night, on animal life in the open sea. "If the beahties of human creation have a rightful place in otlr lives, so have the beauties of Nature. Their study?is vastly important iii various ways from _ an economic point of view, but it is humiliating for the naturalist to have to "justify his work_ to those who are incapable of, appreciating the greatest values, bv failing back on the argument that the study has a bearing on the food and supply of fish.' "It seems rather ridictilous that we should have to sacrifice a few more lives before anything js done to^ removing centre-poles, remarked 6. Ileniiing at a meeting 'o±; the council of the Auckland Automobile Association; when a letberwas read from the City Council stitihg it was not intended to do away with • those poles until necessary finance was available. "Another accident occurred a few days ago when a boy was injured by a centre-pole. I am sure at least ten persons have beeii killed outright by centre-poles since they were erected, while nearlv 100 persons have been injured. Tfie day lias come when nt> main highway should be obstructed lit any way." It was decided to take no further action in the riieaniiine. * , Ono trapper at the Palmerston North waterworks reserve has caught 517 opossums this season, and his trill.* and the catches of two others in the Featherston district, who trapped nearly 1050 between them, are said to be-probably among the best in New Zealand. The man obtained the 517 skins says that he would have secured about 700 skins had the weather •conditions been finer. Ho averaged twelve or thirteen a night for the season. A Taranaki paper states that the campaign which ended with the closing of that district's season has sadly depleted the ranks of : opossums. On the Ponakai and Kaitahi Ranges alone ' the trappers licensed by the Egmont National Park Bcfard have secured approximately 2500 opossums, and at iliis season's ruling average, price of between 8s and 9s 6d a skiri, the total > valtte of the bag is over £IOOO.

"All flesh is grass, says the proverb. This is obviously true in a litefal sense in the case df green-leafers, arid as for the rest of us, well—a quarter of mtitton is only muttonised grass,after all. But all fist, which, according to some, is not flesh, is diatom. The production of diatoins, ininiite and indeed invisible plants which swarm in countless millions throughout the ocean, is the primary industry of the seas: The diatoms are the' food Of minute crustaceans, barely visible, and these in turn are eaten by shriffipsj and so on, until the diatoms are Converted into fish. Nor is this all, for, according to this argument, and terns must also be diatom. Asa even we humans have a small amount of diatom in our make up."—Mr E. W. Bennett, M.Sc., assistant curator at the Canterbury Museum, in a lecture on "Animal Life in the Open Sea," to the "W.E.A. on Saturday night. There is one angler in the Stratford district who lias not so much faith in human nature as he had, says the Stratford ''Post." And it is Ml through believing a fish story. This Sportsman was very anxious to gain the Acclimatisation Society's cup for the largest fish caught last year, and when lie landed an outsize in trout, he was naturally elated, arid had every intention of proceeding to the office of the secretary of the society to have it weighed. However, before he could carry out his plan he encountered a teller of fish stories, and was told all about the huge fish aonther angler had caught. It was a much bigger fish than his, and therefore he thought it would be useless to put his catch against it, so he took no further action. It was not untjl much later that ho suspected it was only a story. A visit to the secretary's office confirmed his fears, for no fish weighed in could ha/ve beaten his ciitch.

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