General News

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21715, 24 February 1936, Page 10

General News

An Exchange of Wheat In a paddock off the road leading to Waikuku Beach, where flood waters were feet deep on Thursday and Friday, sheaves of wheat in great profusion* were drying out in the strong sunshine yesterday. It must have seemed to many motorists who passed by that one farmer at least had not had all his crop swept away. But it is stated that although wheat was m stook in that paddock before the flood, the sheaves that were there yesterday were not of the owner's growing. His own crop, it was said, had been washed out to the sea, and the sheaves on his property yesterday came from other paddocks, miles inland perhaps, and the last of the flood waters left them on this man's land as nature's compensation for his original loss. It is stated that sheaves of wheat left together in the trail' of the flood have been made up of differing varieties. The task of determining ownership would be difficult. A legal opinion given last night was that the wheat in such a'case belonged to the farmers who grew it, and that the finder could possibly advertise its presence and invite claimants, who might find it difficult to recognise their own If it were not claimed, he could use it himself.

Reward for Service "I believe that we should regulate society so that the only claim to citizenship will be service," said the Minister for Public Wor"ks (the Hon. R. Semple), when speaking at the annual dinner of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers. "If a man or woman who is physically able to do so refuses to serve he or she has no claim. No man should dare to claim the right to live unless he gives the service he is capable of giving. If the system of society were based on service, we would be happier than we are to-day. I am speaking to men who have given service, who are the builders of a nation.

Solo Flying License in a Day

To the Manawatu Aero Club falls the distinction of having trained a pupil to fly solo in a single day. So far as is known this has not been achieved in the Dominion before. The task of giving instruction was in the hands of Flying-Officer G. M. Firth, instructor to the Manawatu Aero Club, formerly of Auckland, and the pupil was Putt Mossman, the speedway champion. A start was made at daybreak in the club's Moth machine, four hours being devoted to successive flights of from 20 minutes to half an hour. During these Mossman learned the rudiments of flying. Then a spell was called for about three hours, and Mossman again went dual making six perfect landings in succession. He then went solo and made a good landing, but was unfortunate in touching a fence with a wing-tip while taxiing in, causing minor damage.

Child Labour Abroad Appalling conditions of child labour in some countries were quoted by Mr W. R. Tuck, when addressing the Auckland Creditmen's Club on the work of the international labour organisation at Geneva. He said that in Rumania in 1932 it was found that children were exploited to sell vegetables under pain of a beating if they did not sell a certain quantity. In Hong Kong children were found working in factories, seldom less than 70 hours a week, for very low wages, or none at all. In India children of five years were employed for long hours. -

Future of Art "For life to be richer, a higher standard of artistic expression must be achieved, and one would naturally suppose that the ease with which modern engineering can move and shape the hardest materials would open up vast new fields for art, but instead of that we hear laments on all sides of the decline of art in the machine age," Professor Shelley, of Canterbury University College, remarked in an address to the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers in Wellington. He quoted Sir Alfred Gilbert as saying that joy in beauty as an instinct was being crushed by the wheels of machinery and forgotten in the race for wealth. Professor Shell~y, however, considered there were promising signs in many places. "I can see more hope for the future of art in the swinging curves of a stream-lined car than in the gaudy pageantry of a state coach," he said.

Slurring of Names That, many people, including witnesses in court cases, mumbled their own names so that anyone listening could not hear, was a fact commented upon by Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., in the Auckland Magistrate's Court. "It is a fact," he said, "that people know their own names so well that they think that everyone knows them, too. Many witnesses slur their names when giving them in the witness box, and it is quite impossible to hear, what they are saying."'

An Unorthodox "Stamp" An entirely unorthodox stamp fixed on one corner of a letter which entered one Auckland business house did not escape the vigilance of the postal authorities. The stamp was nothing more than a plum-coloured perforated piecz of paper resembling a stamp in shape and outline, and perhaps could have been taken for a genuine stamp at a distance. But the post office did not miss it,'and the "2d to pay" mark was stamped firmly below.

Ingenuity of Settlers There are many examples of ingenuity being used by the settlers in Southland to develop sidelines from which a satisfactory income can be earned. In one district a man with black'•.mithing experience secured a property under the Unemployment Board's scheme, and combining his work on his own property with blacksmithing work he has become well established. In another district, a settler with a mechanical turn has secured a fairly profitable connexion in the repairing of cars and tractors from neighbouring farms. One of the most striking examples of successful application ot ideas to the tenancy of a five-acre block is provided at Fleming, Waikaka Valley, by a settler, who took over the small block some three years ago and installed a few colonies of bees. In the first two years he secured a fair amount of outside employment in shearing, but his colonies of bees have increased to such an extent that he does not anticipate that he will now be able to spend much time off his property. He has close on a hundred colonies of bees, from which an output, of about four tons of honey can be expected.

Factory Amenities " 'Living conditions' include the conditions under which we work," said Mr H. E. Phillips, in a paper on the design of commercial buildings, read at the conference of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. "Apart from sleeping, a very large proportion of people's lives is spent at their places of employment." He added that recently factories had begun to assume a separate and characteristic form, as a result of the changed outlook on the whole question of working conditions. It was possible for architects, with the confidence and goodwill of industrial building owners, so to guide the erection of factories and other similar premises that the maximum of efficiency and economy could be gained, together with a large measure of aesthetic value.

Trout Fishing in Northern Lakes "There is a great divergence of views in Rotorua, Taupo, and Tokaanu, on the overvexed question of what should be done to improve the trout fisheries," remarked the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) at Wellington after an investigating tour of 10 days in the districts. "There did not seem to me to be any unanimity of opinion existing on any particular need or requirement, real or imaginary, among any set of fishermen and others interested in any one of these famed fishing grounds in the thermal territory. I met, either by deputation or personal contact, many estimable men; they all had suggestions—the lowering or raising of the lakes, the restocking of the waters, the feeding of trout, the erection bt groynes in the world-famed Tongariro river, the engagement of additional fish experts, the deviation of present access tracks to lake and river, the construction of new ones, and access rights generally—but not one suggestion tallied, or could be made to work in with the other.