General News

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23674, 26 June 1942, Page 4

General News

♦ Insulin Supplies

“Insulin supplies sufficient to last several months are held by the Health Department and wholesalers, and further supplies will arrive regularly every fortnight,” said the Minister of Health (the Hon, A. H. Nordmeyer), when the House of Representatives met yesterday. He was replying to an urgent question from Mrs M. M. Dreaver (Labour, Waitemata). The Minister added‘that diabetic patients were entitled to draw up to four months’ supply of insulin on one prescription. Supplies were stored by all public hospitals, and at various depots throughout the Dominion. It was not considered necessary that insulin should be held in first-aid posts and shelters, as this would immobilise large stocks and would lead to deterioration. —(P.A.) No Trace of Prisoner

, No trace has been reported of the prisoner, Richard Cecil Humphreys, aged 26, who escaped from custody by jumping from a ship in Auckland harbour early in the morning of June 13. He was being brought back to New Zealand after being extradited from Hobart, where he was captured after an escape from custody and a voyage across the Tasman in a stolen yacht. After his jump overboard in Auckland harbour, Humphreys was faced with a swim of 600 yards to reach the nearesKpoint of the shore. SOS 'by Pressing Button Every ship in the British merchant service must now carry an ingenious addition to its lifeboat equipment, in the form of a portable wireless transmitter by which anyone can send out a radio distress signal just by pressing a button. An SOS call is then radiated for two minutes over a distance of more than 200 miles, and the portable transmitter can repeat it 60 and 70 times at intervals of an hour. Long sustained signals are also given automatically so that rescuers cap take their bearing to pick up the lifeboat. The transmitter is fitted with a Morse key for a wireless operator. Although it weighs less than 501b. the transmitter is exceptionally strong, ‘and u a ship is sinking can be thrown into the sea where it will float without damage until picked up by the lifeboat. Out of 24 entries, the device has been awarded a prize of £SO by the Council of the Royal Society of Arts, London. Baby in Shopping Basket Much has been said about the shortage of perambulators in Australia and New Zealand, and there is no doubt that mothers in many parts of the North Island have had to consider improvising substitutes for the pram. A woman in Hamilton, however, has thought of an easy way. She was recently sden out shopping carrying an outsize basket, inside of which her three-weeks-old baby slept peacefully. Nose Rings for Bulls

The shortage of nose rings for bulls was mentioned at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Dairy Breeds’ Federation in Palmerston North recently, when it was decided to draw the attention of the Government to the situation with a request that an import licence be granted. Bull rings are made as a rule of copper _