General News

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22308, 24 January 1938, Page 10

General News

Grant for North Linwood School Advice has been received from the Minister for Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) that the Cabinet has made a grant for the purchase of land to extend the playground at North Linwood School. Many representations for the grant have been made for the committee of the school by the Hon. D. G. Sullivan (member for the district), and the area to be bought will increase the school grounds by almost an acre.

Visit of Queensland Motor-cyclists Six dirt-track motor-cyclists from Queensland will arrive in Christchurch soon to take part in a series of races at the Monica Park speedway. The riders, who have been selected from all grades, will first compete in events in the championships at Sydney, and will then come on to the Dominion, where they will stay about a month. The races at Monica Park will this season be conducted by the Auto-Cycle Club, Canterbury, which intend, if possible, to get midget cars from Auckland to compete at the meetings. State Houses at Dailington Tenders are now being called for a further group of 10 houses to be erected for the Government in Gayhurst road, Dailington, said Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., at the opening of the State houses at Spreydon on Saturday. Tenders will close on February 14. Mr Howard said that contracts were being arranged at the rate of 60 houses a week, and it was anticipated that the Housing Department would be able to work up to about 100 houses a week during the current year.

Memorial to Mrs E. R. McCombs One of the streets in' the State housing settlement at Spreydon is to be named after Mrs E. R. McCombs, according to advice received by Mr T. H. McCombs, M.P., from Mr J. A. Lee, Parliamentary Under-Secretary in Charge of Housing. Speaking at the opening of the settlement on Saturday, Mr McCombs said that he was very grateful to Mr Lee for the thought. Mr Lee had suggested to him that some of the women's organisations might be prepared to commemorate the memory of his mother by erecting at one end of the street a small tablet mentioning that the street had been named after Mrs McCombs.

Bad Roads in the South Canterbury motorists who undertook southern tours during the holiday season returned feeling proud of the state of highways in their province. Roads generally in Otago, Central Otago, and Southland are said to be very rough, and there are only isolated stretches of paving. A city motorist told a reporter that, after travelling on a sealed highway almost all the way from Christchurch to Dunedin, he found that the corrugations and potholes on the route to Invercargill and thence via the southern lakes back to Dunedin made motoring most unpleasant. After leaving Milton, on the way to Invercargill, he did not meet with any sealed highway other than through towns until he had driven 580 miles and reached Milton again on his way back. He did notice, however, that a lot of reconstruction work had been and was being done, notably from Dunedin 1o Invercargill and from Queenstown to Dunedin, and he was told that heavy holiday traffic had contributed to the bad state of roads after the New Year week-end.

A Midwinter Sunday A cold south-west wind and heavy showers of rain throughout the day and night combined to make yesterday a most unwelcome Sunday for Christchurch residents. Saturday had been dull and sultry, with a few heavy heat showers, but late on Saturday night heavy rain set m. and all yesterday it continued. Fires were lit. and hundreds who had made arrangements to spend the day at the beach spent it before the hearth, at home, in accepted midwinter fashion. In contrast to their day of comfort, however, competitors in the New Zealand surf life-sav-ing championships braved the elements in bitingly cold weather at New Brighton. Horses Still in Demand Plorses are still in demand on farms in Central Otago and Southland, judging by thenumbers seen working and grazing on holdings there. Most agricultural machinery is horsedrawn, few reapei-s and ploughs in use at this time of the year being driven by tractors. It is not uncommon to see up to 12 horses in a paddock after the day's farm work is done. Road construction work also provides an opening for horses in the south, more spoil being carted by horse and dray than by lorry.

Tours of Public Schoolboys The objects of the tours which some 20 parties of English public schoolboys have made to various parts of the Empire since 1927 were summarised in an interview yesterday by Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, advance agent for the next tour to New Zealand. An appreciation of the resources of the Empire, a sympathy which personal contacts alone could afford, with the problems of kinsmen and an understanding of Imperial history, geography, politics and economics were some of the advantages Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton listed. They could not fail to be of enormous benefit, he said, to young men, some of whom might shortly be entering Parliament, or Government services, or business, and all of whom would be active citizens of the Empire.

Barque Reaches Auckland After spending a fortnight on the New Zealand coast through light winds, the Finnish four-masted barque Pamir reached Auckland yesterday afternoon after an uneventful 72-day voyage from Astove Island, in the Seychelles group. On leaving Astove Island, the Pamir went south through Mozambique channel and took the great circle course through southern waters, until beneath New Zealand, which was reached in 59 days. Westerlies prevailed, and conditions were so good that the royals were furled only two or three times during the voyage The vessel reached Auckland in spotless condition, the bright paintwork, shining decks, and gleaming brass appearing strangely after the long voyage. The Pamir, which is commanded by Captain V. Bjorkfelt, will remain in Auckland about a fortnight, discharging 4500 tons of guano before sailing to South Australia to load wheat for the United Kingdom.— Press Association.

Flying in New Zealand "I am very pleased to see the development of air travel in New Zealand. In the Old Country it is quite a common thing for members of the staffs of business firms to fly to staff meetings, as part of their work," said Captain A. M. Hamilton, of the Royal Engineers, a wellknown New Zealander, who has been on furlough in the country for two months. Captain Hamilton and another New Zealander, Mr G. D. White-Parsons, formerly of Lyttelton, have designed a light aeroplane hangar, which is made of standard parts, and which can be quickly erected. Several of these new hangars have been put into use by the British Air Ministry.

All-Welded Bridge One of the most interesting new structures in Wellington is the new overhead bridge at Davis street, off Thorndon quay. This bridge is 240 feet long, the longest in Wellington city, and it is an all-welded structure without a rivet in it. The new bridge, which spans 19 pairs of tracks and space for four more, is supported on concrete standards, placed between the tracks. The approach to the six-foot footway is either by ramp or up steps at either side. The bridge is* now approaching completion. Only the space between the rail and deck of the bridge remains to be filled with finemesh wire netting.

"Permanent" Campers The statement was made at a recent meeting of the Hutt Park Committee that families of men who came to Wellington from Great Britain to work on the State housing scheme were now living in tents at the motor camp, as they were unable to find houses or rooms. Some suggestion was made that the firm who brought these people out to New Zealand had sent them to camp at Hutt Park, and Mr C. J. Ashton described this as "a piece of impudence." The secretary (Mr H.' Firth) reported that these "permanent" campers, comprising three families, would not be much longer at the camp. They would be asked to leave after the four weeks stipulated in the by-laws as the length of stay for campers had expired.