General News

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25092, 25 January 1947, Page 6

General News

• Danish Ship at Auckland The first Danish vessel to arrive in Auckland since before the war, the Danish East Asiatic Line motor-ship, Selandia, reached port yesterday from Scandinavia and Italy, via Bluff. The master of the Selandia (Captain P. Sorensen) was given a Mayoral reception. s The Fishing Rivers According to advice received by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. the condition of the fishing rivers at noon yesterday was:—Rakaia, Hurunui. Ashley, Waimakariri, Selwyn and Halswell, fishable. New Zealand and its Writers “Those who look for the arrival of a great New Zealand novelist would do well to remember that Dostoievsky was not inspired by a desire to describe or reveal the Russia of his time, but the heart and soul of men as he knew them; nor did Dickens write with the aim of giving us Dickens’s England,” said Mr Allen Curnow, speaking at the Training College to post-primary school teachers who are attending a refresher course in English. “A great New Zealand novelist will oe one who has forgotten that he is a New Zealander and remembered only that he is a man and an artist. It is so difficult for us to forget that we are New Zealanders.” Mentioning Katherine Mansfield. R. A. K. Mason—“our best of poets”—and W. D’Arcy Cresswell, Mr Curnow said that “it is a just and chastening reflection that with such writers New Zealand seems less the proud parent of gifted -offspring than the scarcely-: deserving recipient of a precious illumination—more precious because our land with its unusual beauties, and our sense of a shared life, lie otherwise almost wholly dark to our imaginations.” Small City Council Loan The consent of the Governor-General in Council to the raising of a loan of £9OO by the Christchurch City Council for the purchase of a pig dehairer is notified in the Gazette. The term is not to exceed 10 years and the rate of interest 3 per cent. Rail-car Breaks Down

Engine failure which developed in the rail-car from the West Coast last evening caused it to arrive at the Christchurch station more than an hour and three-quarters late. . T(he rail-car broke down while climbing the grade to the Otira tunnel shortly after 7 o’clock last evening, and had to be towed back to the station by an electric engine. There, another rail-car was attached to the damaged vehicle and the journey was completed after further minor set-backs at 12.14 this morning.

Congested Port With the arrival at Auckland yesterday morning of the Danish mptorship Selandia, six ships were anchored in the stream awaiting discharging berths for their cargoes from overseas. Although normal hours have been worked, on the Auckland waterfront for five days, delayed effects of the shorter working hours, are now being felt with the arrival of several ships from overseas. In addition to general cargo, the vessels in the stream have cargoes of sugar, phosphate, and paper pulp. Radio Equipment for Brigade

Experiments in the use of two-way radio communication between fire brigades and the Central Fire Station are being made in Auckland. If they are successful, radio-telephones may be installed in machines operating in the Auckland area, enabling them to keep in touch with headquarters. A tour of the city was recently made by officers of the brigade in an engine equipped with a radio-telephone. Whereas excellent reception was gained in some parts oi the city, blanketing by large buildings in the metropolitan area proved to be one of the major drawbacks. It is hoped, however, 'that further experiments will overcome this difficulty. Trials which have been carried out this week by two radio experts will be continued. Breaking-up of Old Steamer Sold to Mr F. Appleton for breaking up, the old excursion steamer Duchess will be towed from her moorings at Greenhithe to a berth at the Western Viaduct by the Marine Department this afternoon. The Duchess, which saw service in the Navy during the war, was formerly on the Auckland-Matiatia-Kawau run. A start will be made on her demolition next week “The New Zealand Thing” “The more we self-consciously pursue the New Zealand thing, in our criticism, in our teaching, in our writing, the less likely we are to attain the only thing that matters in New Zealand literature—the thing that is ours by origin and in substance and at the same time the world’s by its human and aesthetic significance,” said Mr Allen Curnow, in a lecture on New Zealand literature to post-primary school teachers, who are attending a refresher course in Christchurch. “Before we can possess our soul as a people we must lose it in that larger soul of mankind.”