General News

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21993, 18 January 1937, Page 8

General News

North Island Roads The excellence of North Island roads was the subject of comment by Mr J. T. Smart, a Temuka business man who returned on Saturday from an extensive trip through North Island districts. Mr Smart travelled more than 1000 miles through the Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, and Wellington provinces. “The roads were really marvellous,” he said. “It appears that much more money is spent on them than on the South Island roads. There were few dangerous bends and the tar-sealed surface was excellent. There is no doubt that enormous sums of money must be spent on the roads. They are splendidly sign-posted, better even than in Canterbury. Travelling is comfortable and road service stations are very efficient. A Bush-Made Crane Among the many interesting things seen in the more inaccessible parts of South Westland by Mr G. H. Mackley, General Manager of Railways, on his recent trip through Big Bay and over the Eglinton divide, was a bush-made crane used by an alluvial prospector at the mouth of a river. Huge boulders covered the surface of the ground, beneath -which lay whatever alluvial gold might be expected. The stones were beyond the combined efforts of several men to handle. The way out was by a sturdy tripod with an iron peg at its apex. Resting on the peg and capable of being swung round on it was a 30-foot lever out of the forest, with its shorter end over the stone to be lifted. The lever was lifted as high as possible, and a chain slung round the stone was attached to the depressed end of the spar. The weight of two men on the lever, was ample to lift the stone, which was then swung round out of the way and lowered. Food Policy Advocated “Consideration of statistics covering the household budget of the quarter of the population with a family income of £6 a week or more shows that the weekly expenditure on food is 8s a person a week. The statistics show that for this expenditure an inadequate amount of protective foodstuffs is consumed, and the position is worse with the other three-quarters of the population,” said Dr. E. B. Gunson, m urging the need for a national food policy to the medical science, national health, and physiology sections of the Science Congress at Auckland. Infant mortality, defects of children, maternal mortality, and disease in the age group between 15 and 25 were all largely affected by faulty nutrition. Probably most of the ill-health from which the community suffered could be eliminated in the next generation if it were possible to ensure that every person in the present generation had a diet fully adequate for health. A nutrition research institute was needed, and _a food policy in which there was co-ordination between agricultural and public health interests. Smoke from Ngauruhoe Interest has been aroused in the appearance of a thin column of smoke rising from the crater of Mount Ngauruhoe, first noticed more than 10 days ago and now greatly increased in volume. There has been no sign of activity in this volcano for two years. The smoke was thickest on Wednesday, when clouds obscuring the view of the mountain parted, revealing a column of smoke of considerable volume rising from the western side of the crater. Residents who saw previous disturbances in the crater of Ngauruhoe, in December and January in 193435 and previous to that in 1928, are watching the mountain-top closely, although visibility has been obscured lately by mist and rain. Origins of Colour Vision The theory that the visual organ in early forms of life first became sensitised to the rays that could pierce the water beneath which the creatures lived was advanced by Professor J. Shelley, Director of Broadcasting, in a paper on colour vision to the education, psychology, anti philosophy section of the Science Congress at Auckland. Thus for aeons nothing would be seen except blues and greens, but with the evolution of land life, light more readily reached the eye and the visible ring of colour extended - toward the orange end of the spectrum. At the same time, sensitivity decreased since the light was much stronger than under the water. World’s Oldest Coins The most ancient coins in the world are not, as, commonly - supposed, Greek or Roman, but Chinese. Visitors to the exhibition of Chinese art at the Auckland War Memorial Museum see the world’s oldest coins made of bronze and resembling scarabs, belonging to the Shang-Yin dynasty of about 1750 B.C. In the same collection, lent by Captain G. Humphreys-Dayies and the Auckland Museum, are a “Pu’ or cloth money issued between 475 and 221 8.C., knife money issued between 670 and 221 8.C., a cowrie shell cut to serve as a token and dating back to the third millennium, 8.C., and perhaps most surprising of all, an elaborate bank note for 10,000 “cash” issued between 1368 and 1398 A.D. - New Zealand Once a Continent • “New Zealand was once of continental dimensions, extending from Antarctica in the south through certain Pacific islands to New Guinea in the north, and was never connected with, or populated from, the east coast of Australia, said Miss Joyce Allan, of the Australian Museum, in a paper to the zoology section of the Science Congress at Auckland. In . this way has been explained the reason why, in its fauna, though not very far distant from Australia, New Zealand bears a closer relationship to Lord Howe Island. New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, Fiji,’ and the Solomons than to Australia.”

Disappointed Tourists

Some of the many Australians who -made the excursion to New Zealand on the Marama have been very disappointed at the lack of opportunity of seeing the country’s scenery, according to a New Zealander who travelled from Melbourne by the Marama, which arrived last week at Wellington. “The Australians are not interested in the towns,” he declared. Hd added that there were oh board the Marama excursionists from all parts of Australia who wished to see New Zealand. The trip to Milford Sound was enjoyed, but the weather was bad from the Sound round to Bluff and Dunedin, and it was bitterly cold. However, he considered that the three weeks’ holiday, embracing Sydney and Melbourne, was one that New Zealanders should not miss. Australian Meteorites That stones sometimes fall from the heavens was demonstrated before delegates to the Science Congress at Auckland, when several Australian meteorites were exhibited before the geology section by Miss J. Bedford, of the Kyancutta Museum, South Australia.' The meteoric fall from which the specimens were recovered occurred near Henbury, in the heart of Central Australia. On the site of the fall there are 10 distinct craters, ranging in diameter from.2ooyds to 10yds, the results of the terrific explosive force generated on the impact. Among the hundreds of meteorites discovered in the region the largest specimen weighed quarter of a ton and it is estimated that the mass which caused the principal crater must have weighed 400 tons. Sea of Icebergs One of the perils to be met at sea was experienced by Mr A. S. Froggatt, president of the Southland Building Society, who has just v returned to Invercargill from a world tour. When the ship he was in was coming out of the Gulf of Newfoundland it was surrounded by a sea of icebergs. “There were icebergs, coldly beautiful, and strangely forbidding in their beauty, as far as the eye could see,” said Mr Froggatt. “They brought fog with them and for some time our ears were deafened by the incessant shriek of the fog-horn. The captain apparently gave the word to alter the course while we were in at lunch, for when We came out on deck again none of the great ice masses was to be seen.” Flying Ants at Auckland Flying ants, which were something of a pest last season to outdoor “workers and pleasureseekers in districts around Auckland, have again appeared. The bites of these insects are both painful and lasting in their effect, and when flying in swarms, as is their habit, they are a decided menace to motorists and cyclists, as they are liable to be caught in the eye and so cause accident. ; : ■ :