General News

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23918, 9 April 1943, Page 4

General News

Infantile Paralysis One case of infantile paralysis, that of a boy of 16,' was reported to the health authorities in Christchurch yesterday from the city area. It has been diagnosed as positive. A suspected case at Timaru was found to be negative. Two other cases under suspicion in Christchurch also proved to be nega- - tive. One was a boy of nine, and the other an adult woman. The primary school at Geraldine has been closed, and no children under 14 years of age are allowed to congregate at pictures or other places because of the case of infantile paralysis which occurred earlier this week. Soldiers’ Airgraph Service New Zealand troops in Egypt were busily engaged this week in writing their first airgraph letters and were pleased with the inauguration of the service, which will speed up letters between the. Middle East and New Zealand. The messages are at the low rate of 3d each. Many thousand airgraphs were filed on the first day for immediate dispatch.—(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) Duck-Shooting Season

The duck-shooting season in the North Canterbury Acclimatisation district has been fixed from May 1 to May 10. The season for cock pheasants, Californian quail, and chukor will be from May 22 to July 3. A Gazette notice says that no person in the district shall in any one day take or kill more than 10 head of Californian quail, 15 in all of grey duck, paradise duck, spoonbill duck, and mallard duck, 25 of black swan, three cock, pheasants, 10 head of pukeko, five head of paradise duck, 10 head of Canadian geese, and five head of chukor. In the Buller district, the season for grey duck and pukeko will be from May 1 to May 16, the bag limits being 10 head of grey duck and eight of pukeko. A similar season for grey duck, shoveller duck, pukeko, and black swan has also been fixed for the Grey district. The season for Californian quail and chukor in the Ashburton district will be from May 1 to July 31, the season for other birds ending on May 16. The short season has also been fijfed for shooting in the South Canterbury district. Dock Gate Launched An important engineering effort was completed in Auckland yesterday when a 270-ton gate for the Calliope dock was launched, Built by local engineers of, Australian steel, it cost £22,000. Work was begun last August. The length is 85ft, the height 45ft, and the width 13ift.—(P.A.). Variations in Temperature

Temperature recordings at the Magnetic Observatory, Christchurch, showed a variation of 42.4 degrees during yesterday. After a frost of 1.2 degrees, the temperature rose with a wind from the north-west to 73.2 degrees. The maximum temperature on Wednesday was 66.2 degrees.

Army Education Scheme

A conference of Arriiy education officers of the Northern Military District yesterday showed that in the first two months of its existence the scheme had been successful. It was reported that 1200 requests for courses, excluding professional studies, had been made. There were 56 enrolments in the university. The mobile library service was visiting more than 50 posts and in the first week 635 books and 832 novels and magazines were distributed. Three thousand books were distributed as a library stock to larger units. The officers reported getting excellent co-operation from unit commanders.—(P.A.) Italian Deserters

Thirteen out of 20 office files examined at random in a building in Tripoli dealt with charges of desertion in the face of the enemy by Italian soldiers. This is revealed by a Christchurch officer serving in the Middle East in a letter to his parents. "What ho! Musso’s vaunted 4,000,000 bayonets.” he comments. The building in which the files were found was the headquarters of the Tribunale Militare di Guerra del Commando Superiore, which is probably the organisation for conducting courts-martial. The officer also encloses a postcard map of the Libyan battlefield issued -to German troops. On it he has marked the routes along which he has travelled from the Egyptian border to Tripoli during his service in the Middle East.