General News

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23718, 17 August 1942, Page 4

General News

——♦- Coupons Too Late for Campaign The coupons prepared in Wellington for use in'the comforts for soldiers drive throughout the Dominion will have been on their journey from Wellington to Christchurch a fortnight tomorrow, when the campaign in Christchurch will close, said Mr R. L. Ashley, secretary of the Canterbury Provincial Patriotic Council, yesterday. The campaign was to have opened in Christ-church--last Monday, but the coupons had not arrived and it was discovered later that they had not been unloaded at Lyttelton. In the meantime coupons were sent from Wellington by air on Tuesday and the campaign opened in the city at 2 p.m. By the use of coupons donors have a choice of 11 different sections to which they may. subscribe; the radio and telephone appeal made on Saturday evening drew donations to the general purposes fund. Houses for Miners Houses, which are 'being built for miners at Dunollie, Brunner, and. Taylorville, will be for sale or rent, according to the desire of individual tenaritsT' Officials of the Mines Department at Gieymouth said that the conditions'of sale will be similar to those that have been made in the past by the department to miners, a loan given by the department, and repaid by instalments at a prescribed rats for each Use of Bows and Arrows The council of the Canterbury Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals last week discussed the killing of pigs with bows and arrows. It was agreed unanimously that the society should strongly object to the practice and would, if possible, take steps to prevent it. Excursion To Tlmarn The excursion train from, Christchurch to Timaru yesterday carried 546 passengers, and 240 travelled from Timaru to Christchurch. - British Bicycles for Dominion New Zealand is to receive a share of the 300.000 bicycles which are to be made in Great Britain this year to meet the war requirements of the dojninions. Private advices received in Auckland, says the “New Zealand Herald,” indicate that the New Zealand quota for the second half of the current ■ year has been based on onetenth of the imports for 1938, an average year, during which 1 about 30,000 machines were brought into the country from the United Kingdom. The licences will, therefore, be for 3000 cycles, but it is by no means certain that the figure will he maintained for the first half p£ 1943. S increase In War Claims . The increase in the work of the war claims section of, the Social Security Department was indicated by an officer of the department when supporting a number of departmental appeals against military service before the Armed Forces Appeal Board in Wellington. In 1939, he said, the number of claims totalled 912; in 1942 they had increased to 5700. “When a soldier is discharged from the Army;’’ he said, “he becomes our responsibility, both in connexion with pensions and treatment." Fears Thrown Away Hundreds of cases of pears- were thrown away this year as a result of the stipulation that the minimum size should be 2&in, said the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association, in a note to a remit considered at the annual conference of the New , Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation in . Wellington. These pears, the association added, were a total loss to the growers, as well as the Internal Marketing Division, as they wodld have realised, in Coles and Nells, from 12s to 14s a case.' The Director of Horticulture (Mr W.. K. Dallas) said that in future pears of 2 l-16in would be accepted. Cartridges at 28s a Box So that he could shoot shags in his district to preserve the flihing for next season a Southland sportsman paid 25s a box for cartridges sold by auction recently. reported a member of the Southland Acclimatisation Society, last week. At 'the sanie auction boxes were sold at 27s and 28s each, and the.mem r her who reported the case suggested that these might be record prices. Houses for Returned Men Recently Mr ■ M. Moohan, chairman of the Rehabilitation Board, received an anonymous gift of £IOOO to be used at Mr Moohan’s discretion to promote_ the best means of providing housing and furniture for returned meirlbers of the armed forces. It was specified by the donor, however,'that portion of the £looo'should be spent bn prizes for a competition for the best type of house and for the purpose of producing high-quality mass-pro-duced furniture from New Zealand timbers, Mr Moohan has now received another gift of £250 from the associated cement companies of New Zealand to be devoted to the same purpose. Mr Moohan said that he had had discussions with the New "Zealand Institute of Architects arid the Director of Housing, and as a result conditions for the competition were being drawn up-and would be ready in a few days. What was wanted was not so much plans of houses, but construction details that would ensure the use of New Zealand materials to the maximum extent, at the same time increasing production at lower cost, without any lowering of the present standards. Railways Department’s E.P.S. Five fire-fighting trains are being constructed for the Railways Department’s E.P.S. When they are completed, in about a month, they will be located at Wellington, Palmerston North, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and will be available for instant dispatch to any place bn the railway where they may be required. Each train, will consist of a converted passenger carriage, housing a trailer pump and other standard fire-fighting and with accommodation for personnel, eight .firemen and two ambulance men. The trains will be kept assembled as complete units, to which the first available shunting engine may be attached when an alarm goes. They will be useful in dealing with burning carriages or bridges and may also be run into goods sheds if fires occur there.

“The once famous cedar forests of Lebanon and Syria have largely disappeared,” says Gunner J. C. McCrostie, of Invercargill, in a letter from Syria to his father. "During the last war the Turks covered the shortage of coal for the railways by cutting local timber, so that wide areas were cleared. Recently the two Governments (French and Syrian) have* undertaken reafforestation on large tracts of land in the mountains, especially at summer resorts, of which there are many. Private afforestation is subsidised, and Government nurseries supply the trees. I think about 300,000 acres have been planted out in the last two years, mainly in Lebanon and Latakia.”