General News

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25554, 23 July 1948, Page 6

General News

Shorts for Women Not Favoured “A resolution to ban the wearing of short pants for ‘humanitarian reasons’ in the remote West China province of Sikang. was introduced in the district peoples’ assembly there,"' states an article in an issue of the China Press, published in Shanghai. The text of the resolution read: “Recently girls and women have been competing with each other in wearing short pants and exposing both legs to the public eye. This makes people s eyes feel unpleasant and their hearts feel fear. Some girls’ pants are only five inches long. They look like savages and are specially abhorrent to the sight. We in our lifetime have seen American and European girls wear these pants, but they always reacn to the knee and they wear stockings up to the knee, thus covering up their legs.” N.Z. Fish for Queensland Cutback Queenslanders will soon be eating New Zealand fish, 20 tons of which is consumed every month in Brisbane. The managing director of New Zealand Fish Distributors, Mr G. Etherington, is now in Queensland arranging the transport of fish from the South Island of New Zealand to places in Queensland as far as 400 miles inland. The fish is quick-frozen in New Zealand, shipped to Sydney, and railed to Queensland. A report from Melbourne indicates that the Victorian coast is becoming so bare of edible sharks because of intensive catching, that fishermen who used to catch them inshore now have to go 100 miles to sea. The Government will consider the closing of some shark grounds and the fixing of a minimum size.—Brisbane, July 22. Lake Ellesmere Outlet Efforts are being made by employees of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, under the direction of the chief engineer (Mr H. W. Harris), to reopen the cut from Lake Ellesmere to the sea at Taumutu. Work on the cut began shout a week ago, and the mouth was opened in the face of difficulties caused by a southerly change in the weather. However, the outlet has remained open for only one or two short periods, and the lake level has been little affected. The outlet was open for about 30 hours from last Sunday afternoon till early on Tuesday morning, when it was sealed again by shingle driven in by the sea. A further, attempt to open the cut will be made when the sea abates, and the Catchment Board’s employees are waiting at Taumutu till the task can be completed. If conditions are favourable, the cut may be reopened to-day. Shipment of Oranges A shipment of 5000 cases of Australian oranges arrived at Lyttelton from Sydney in the Fort Michipicoten on Tuesday. Unloading was started yesterday morning and oranges were available from retailers yesterday afternoon. There was also a small quantity of Australian pineapples in the shipment.

Link with Captain Scott A sword, cocked hat, epaulettes and C.V.O. Medal which belonged to Captain R. F. Scott have been received by the Canterbury Museum. They were sent by Captain Scott’s son in England through the New Zealand High Commissioner in London. It was agreed at a meeting of the Canterbury Museum Trust Board yesterday that a special exhibit of these articles be arranged at the museum. Captain Scott has a special association with Christchurch as a Christchurch firm equipped him largely with clothing for his Antarctic expedition, and his ship left from Lyttelton. Alleged Black Market in Lead A black market in the export of lead from Australia will hold up the building of brick homes if it is not stamped out, according to Sydney builders, who say that lead for damp courses, grease-traps, and roofing is practically unprocurable because secondhand dealers have cornered local lead supplies for export to New Zealand. The president of the New §outh Wales Master Plumbers’ Association (Mr H. Murphy) has advised the Minister of Trade and Customs (Senator B. Courtice) that dealers are buying lead products at higher than the fixed rates and smelting them into pig lead for export. The fixed price for pig lead is £22 a ton, and for manufactured lead £45. Builders allege that dealers are offering up to £6O a ton for lead on the black market and are selling it in New Zealand for £95 a ton.— Sydney. July 21. Insurance on Museum

The grand total of £41,910 as insurance coverage for the Canterbury Museum was described as “ridiculously low’’ by Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon at a meeting of the Canterbury Museum Trust Board yesterday. It was agreed that the position be investigated immediately .by the finance committee and that a report be brought down to the board. The blanket cover for exhibits was £20,000, Mr Mac Gibbon said. It was agreed that an additional temporary total coverage of £14,000 be arranged. * Refugees from Soviet , Twenty-eight fugitives from the Soviet arrived at Provincetown, Massachusetts. on Wednesday after crossing the Atlantic in 43 days in a 60ft ketch. The party consisted of 15 men, seven women, and six children. Twenty-five of them were Latvians, and there were also a Lithuanian, a Russian, and a Swede. They said they had fled four years ago, r ‘when the Russians started to move in and arrest all the people who did not sympathise with them.” The party spent three years in Sweden, where they purchased their boat. They then crossed to England and afterwards sailed to America.—New York, July 21.

Letter'from Germany Mrs Hilde Wohlers, of OldenburgHosteim, Behelfsteim, 4, British zone, Germany, has written to the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews) asking if someone in New Zealand, preferably a German or American, will write to her in either German or English. She says that until 1944 she lived in Berlin. Her husband was killed in Russia. She has a small daughter.