General News

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22592, 23 December 1938, Page 8

General News

Children’s Supplement

There will be a special 24-page issue of “The Gay Gazette” and “The Press Junior” combined to-morrow morning. There will be no issue of “The Press Junior” on Thursday, December 29, and none of “The Gay Gazette” on Saturday, December 31. Weka Pass Road Preliminary work on the deviation at Weka Pass, between Christchurch and Waikari, is finished and the deviation is now open to traffic. For some days cars have been using both the old road and the new, according to advice received by “The Press” from the Public Works Department engineer at Rangiora (Mr R. Mclntyre), and both roads will remain open for some time. In the meanwhile the deviation is being graded, and the surface is being allowed to consolidate. There is no indication yet when the new concrete bridge will be started in the pass, but the plans are reported to be in hand.

Record Air Traffic A further increase in the record number of holiday bookings experienced this year by commercial air lines operating in New Zealand has necessitated Cook Strait Airways arranging for additional extra services between Wellington and Blenheim to-morrow. Although the majority of services have been more than trebled to-morrow, which will be the busiest day, three more trips will be made from Blenheim to Wellington and return. To-morrow will be the busiest day in the history of Rongotai aerodrome, and if the services are flown as scheduled, a new record will be established for the number of commercial aircraft using a New Zealand aerodrome in one day. The addition of three more services to Cook Strait Airways’ already enlarged programme will mean that 29 air-liners will arrive at Rongotai on Saturday, and 29 will depart. Of these machines five of the arrivals will be Lockheed Electras operated by Union Airways of New Zealand, Ltd., and the remainder Cook Strait Airways’ machines.—Press Association.

• New Telephone Circuits The Chief Postmaster at Christchurch, Mr G. Clark, announces that two additional telephone circuits between Christchurch and Greymouth have been brought into use. This makes a total of four circuits, compared with the old complement of two circuits. Such an increase will go far towards providing telephone users with a prompt service between Canterbury and the West Coast, and also between the North Island and the West Coast. The new circuits take a course through Blenheim and Nelson, which gives the advantage of a clear route when a break occurs in the Otira Gorge or elsewhere on the old route. With the use of the modern carrier-current system, the extra distance of the northerly route has no detrimental effect on voice transmission.

North Beach Bus Fares Advice has been received by the North Beach Progress League from the manager of the Christchurch Tramways Board (Mr H. E. Jarman) that the board cannot reconsider its decision to raise the return fares from lOd to Is. The league’s request to reinstate the fare to lOd had had to be declined with regret. The fares were discussed at a recent meeting between residents of North Beach and representatives of the board.

Prison Chaplain's Wallet Stolen

One of the victims of the pickpockets who have been operating in Auckland is the prison chaplain, the Rev. G. E. Moreton. While riding on the rear platform of a tramcar up Symonds street his wallet was filched from his inside coat pocket. It contained a cheque book, papers, and letters of thanks from prisoners; butmo money. It was found in a rubbish receptacle near the top of Symonds street. Mr Moreton was returning from shopping on behalf of prisoners about to be released. “I am still one of the world’s optimists,” he said. “I believe there is much good in the fellows who fall by the wayside.”—Press Association.

Workers for Farms

Already this season more than 400 public works employees have been granted leave on favourable terms for shearing, haymaking, and other seasonal work in the agricultural and pastoral industries. In making this statement the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. K. Semple, said that the indications were that large numbers of additional men would make themselves available for farm work in the new year. To give further assistance to farmers, the Minister said he was encouraging public works employees to help with haymaking and harvesting during the Christmas-New Year vacation in all districts where there was a shortage of suitable labour.

New Zealand Films in United States

Advice has been received by the Minister in charge of the- Tourist and Publicity Departxnent, the Hon. F. Langstone, that 16mm. films supplied by his department for visual training have been shown to approximately 8000 children in the States of Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Dakota, and Nebraska during the months of September, October, and November. This form of education, said the Minister, was much utilised in the _ United States of America and many universities and State education authorities were kept supplied with 16mm. films by the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department.

Not Telepathy After All

“I have been looking over these papers, and there seems to me a strange suggestion of telepathy about the way in which, after a lapse of six weeks, one lawyer suddenly decides to write to another, and does in fact write, on a certain subject, when at that very moment there is a letter in the post for him from the other lawyer on the same subject,” remarked Mr Justice Callan in the course of argument before him in the Supreme Court in Auckland recently, commenting on an explanation why an application to the Court had been delayed. “It seems like telepathy or television to me. One of the counsel in Court suggested that the explanation really was telephony; that the writer of the letter then in the post, suddenly informed by a third interested party of delay, had first communicated by telephone his intention to prosecute the matter and then had written the letter, and that the other lawyer, on receiving the message by telephone, had hastened to turn the information into a written reply. “Ah, that seems a plausible explanation,” remarked his Honour. One of the barristers engaged on the other side in the case admitted that his learned friend’s explanation accorded with fact, and his Honour smiled.

Building in Dunedin

Building has boomed in Dunedin this year. The total number of permits issued, and their value, constitute a record which will not be easily eclipsed. Up to yesterday 1003 permits of a total value of £800,284 were issued by the building surveyor. This figure is £222,681 in excess of the total at this time last year. This huge increase undoubtedly arises from the Government’s various housing schemes m different parts of the city and suburbs, and also from the boom in building in th& city itself, where many warehouses, hotels, and other public buildings have been either extensively remodelled or completely rebuilt. Before the depression of 1930-33, the year 1929 constituted a record in budding, the value*at permits issued amounting to £ 565,629. ihis figure stood unchallenged until last year; but from 1933 onwards the figures began to creep up gradually, until they passed the £500,000 total in 1937, with 940 permits issued. For the current year, during which more than £750.000 has been expended on buildings, the best month was January, when 131 permits of a total value of £166,385 were issued. November, June, and October were the next best months, in that order.—“ The Press” Special Service.