General News

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21733, 16 March 1936, Page 10

General News

Mr Howard Refuses a Post A hint that he had been offered and refused a post which would take him away from .his friends was given by Mr E, J. Howard, ■ M.P., at the railway servants’ smoke concert on Saturday evening. “The Prime Minister has been holding a job for me,” he said, “and I have turned it down. lam ready to serve the party-in any capacity whatever, but I could not bring myself to part from my old friends.' , New City Aerodrome The. Christchurch City Council is given permission to establish and maintain an aerodrome in Harewood by a proclamation in the Gazette. The site of the aerodrome, which will have an area of about 572 acres, includes parts of Orchard’s road and Dury road, and is bounded on the south by Coringa roM, on the west by Sinclair’s road, and on the north by Harewood road. An Unusual Cabinet “The present Parliament is the most unusual ever assembled in the British Empire,” said Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., on Saturday night. “One of the chief characters which make it so is that one-third of the Cabinet has been in gaol; but there is not one criminal among them. All went there in defence of the working class. They made their point and went gladly because they were fighting for conscience’s sake and for the working class.” Visiting Farmers Like Christchurch The visiting British and South African farmers left Christchurch on Saturday morning in two special carriages attached to the express for Invercargill. They were full of .enthusiasm for Christchurch and for Canterbury. They said they found the atmosphere of the city so pleasing that they would have liked to stay longer. They might have sacrificed their southern tour but that they did not want to miss seeing Lake Wakatipu. Installing the Mayor The installation of the new Mayor, Mr J. W, Beanland in the City Council Chambers tonight will follow a novel procedure to Christchurch. Mr Beanland will be invested in his office by the Deputy-Mayor,. Mr E. H. Andrews. After ordinary elections the Mayor is usually installed by the retiring Mayor, or the returning officer. But in this by-election the new Mayor is to preside over an already constituted council, and because of this it is thought proper that the ceremony of investing Mr Beanland should be done by the Deputy-Mayor. Activity at Aerodrome There was a bustle of activity at Wigram aerodrome yesterday, because of a great deal of through traffic. About 20 aeroplanes, which took part in the South Island air pageant at Dunedin, arrived and resumed their journey for the north, and the three aeroplanes of the Canterbury Aero Club which visited Dunedin also returned, as well as several Air Force machines, which took part in a mock battle, in, co-operation with the infantry and artillery. All aeroplanes that had passed through late last week had returned by yesterday afternoon. Telephonic Depth Indicators Several of the Wellington city reservoirs have already been equipped with a clever electrical device whereby, by dialling certain fivefigure numbers, from any automatic telephone, city officers can ascertain accurately, how much water is stored in the reservoir. The Wellington City Council proposes to equip other reservoirs with the same apparatus, at a cost of £250. Before the instruments were installed it was necessary for frequent inspections to be made, but the telephone indicator gives the same information in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost. Civil Servants’ Salaries A forecast of action by civil servants to obtain readjustment of their salary assessments was given by Mr D. Sloan, of the Post and Telegraph Department, speaking at the railway servants’ smoke concert on Saturday night. They were working, he said, for the establishment of an independent tribunal and for the assessing of salaries by a system of arbitration. They wished salaries to be assessed according to the services rendered instead of their being subject to political expediency as in the past. That would necessitate separate salary schedules for the various departments instead of the present system. A Political Forecast ‘‘Borrow, beg, or get hold of a wireless set for March 25 somehow, even if you have to put down Is and then pay no more,” Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., advised railway workers at a smoke concert on Saturday evening. A little later, appealing for solidarity among workers, he said. “You are going to be called on shortly to stand’ together more than ever in the past. The same thing as happened to Lang in New South Wales will happen here and that is then we will want to know who are our friends. Lesson for Grocers Yesterday was a striking lesson for pessimistic grocers. Not once but several times this year, the annual grocers’ picnic had to be postponed because of bad weather —not ordinary bad weather but floods and hurricanes that seemed to indicate strongly that the weather looked with complete disfavour on grocery as a trade. The picnic was finally. arranged for yesterday. On Saturday the forecast for the week-end seemed bad, the weather of the day itself was even worse, and it seemed as if the run of postponements was going to bring the grocers’ picnic into a by-word for heavy rain. But yesterday, in spite of all this, dawned clear and grew clearer and brighter throughout the day, and the weather made all the amends it could by giving ideal picnic conditions. Mixed Weather Canterbury weather so far this year has been remarkable for its vagaries. Days of sudden storms and heavy rains have been interspersed with periods of warm sunshine. Such a spell occurred during the week-end. Saturday morning broke fine and clear, and for a shorty time the day was as perfect as could be wished. Then the north-west wind, for which Canterbury is well known, sprang up and swept across the plains, driving great clouds of dust down the river beds. Till near the evening there was no change, and . then with the same suddenness the wind changed to the southwest and the temperature dropped many degrees. Rain followed and lasted into the night. Yesterday, however, was once again a perfect day and the weather was back to normal. Embargo on Barley Protests against the embargo on the importation of barley and the restrictions placed on the importation of pollard were made by a meeting of poultry farmers at Papanui on Saturday, and the protests were embodied in a message which will be sent to the Minister for Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin. The meeting took the form of a field day at the Utility Poultry Club’s premises at Papanui,. and there were present representatives of the Amberley, Kaiapoi, Rangiora, and various Christchurch branches of the New Zealand Poultry Producers’ Federation. South Westland Main Road The construction of the main south Westland road is proceeding as .rapidly as possible, said Mr R. Trevor Smith, engineer to the Public Works Department, Greymouth, after a tour to South Westland. The excavations for the piers and anchor foundations for the big suspension bridges over the Cook and Fox rivers are being proceeded with, so that the actual construction work will be in hand as soon as the reinforcing and other structural steel arrive." Road, formation between and beyond these bridges is being gone on with, and with the approach of winter, access beyond will be easier, allowing the work on the road to pro- * ceed. Investigations of the crossings, and surveys of the Karangarua river and Havelock creek are being carried out, to enable bridges to be designed. A small camp has been established at Bruce Bay, to enable the work on the road to proceed northwards from there. It is proposed to put in hand an investigation of the 50-mile stretch from Bruce Bay to Haast,. and probably a survey of the route will be undertaken, although as yet there has been no suggestion that this work will be put in hand.