General News

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25936, 17 October 1949, Page 6

General News

Goldfish on Cricket Ground Spectators watching the cricket at Hagley oval on Saturday morning noticed a seagull making heavy work of flying against the wind while carrying in its beak an object which looked almost as big as itself. Eventually it gave up the struggle and dropped a large and well-fed goldfish on the grass. Presumably the fish had been captured in the botanic gardens. It looked much too big. £ ven for a seagull’s appetite. Nonchalant “A born humorist” was the expression applied to a Railways Department employee by a bus passenger who had a long wait, at the Fendalton road railway crossing. The crossing keeper walked on to the road with his “stop’t signal just as a bus approached the crossing. Another bus had to stop on the other side of the line and behind each bus were three or four cars. All the waiting bus passengers and motorists expected to see an express rush over the crossing, but were surprised when a hand-driven jigger with one man aboard arrived and stopped in the middle of the road. The driver raised a battered felt hat, slowly mopped his brow and gave a broad grin to the waiting motorists and passengers before he started again on his way to Christchurch. Rail-car Kills Horse A rail-car travelling into Palmerston ‘North on Friday morning struck and killed a horse at Whakarongo and was so badly damaged that it had to be hauled for the rest of the way by a locomotive. The passengers were transferred to a bus. The horse was being led by Mr E. Badger. No passengers in the rail-car were injured, but the driver suffered abrasions to a leg. Waxworks Problem A grave problem has arisen at Madame Tussaud’s waxworks show—they are running out of glass eyes, says the “Daily Herald.” London. Before the war they got the eyes (which have to be of a special shape, and take a whole day to fix) from Germany and Czechoslovakia. That source has dried up. and Tussaud’s, searching for a substitute, have so far failed to find one. Plastics are not brilliant enough. Most serious is the shortage of grey-green and grey-blue eyes. Recently most notabilities have been found to have eyes of those colours. They have been needed for 80 per cent, of the new models in the last 18 months, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Freddie Mills. Mr J. B. Chifley, and John George Haigh. Government Pays Officer’s Debt “No overseas funds are now available for cases of this nature and the debt owing the Swiss national who assisted the Hamilton officer to escape must be considered the officer’s personal liability,” was the reply of the Minister of Defence (Mr F. Jones) to an application to the Government by a Hamilton officer for £4O to meet a debt he incurred when he escaped from a German prison train in 1943. The officer was helped to get to Switzerland by a Swiss national living in Italy. Mr Jones later reversed his decision after the case was taken up by the Waikato Returned Services’ Association and the debt will be paid by the Government. Radio Station’s Power Increased The Gisborne radio station of the National Broadcasting Service, 2XG. was elevated to a new status at a function on Saturday evening, when the power was raised from .25 kilowatts to 2 kilowatts, bringing it into line with the other X stations at Timaru, Hamilton and Whangarei. It is designed to serve the district from Wairoa to East Cape. The new service was declared open by the Minister of Broadcasting (Mr F. Jones). — (P.A.) How Trade Wheels Move Here is an Amsterdam story for some of those people who still say that the European economic system does not work, says “Peterborough" in the “Daily Telegraph.” In the Eastern zone of Germany Ford automobiles are being sold. The parts of these cars nave been manufactured in the Ford factories in Cologne. They wore delivered fo France. French firms sold these parts to Czechoslovakia. where the cars were assembled and then exported to Russia. From the Soviet Union they got to the Eastern zone, which now tries to export them to the Western zone or to Holland. Rich Lead Deposits in Greenland Six British geologists who went on an expedition to Greenland have discovered one of the richest deposits of lead in the world. Lead has been mined in Greenland before, but not in large quantities. Now a site has been discovered which is estimated to contain more than 1.000.000 tons of galena, a mineral containing 80 per cent. lead. To Denmark, which owns Greenland, the discovery may be of great economic value. Conservatives’ Best Seller

Sales of the Conservative policy statement. “The Right Road for Britain,” have now broken all records for a party political publication. More than 4.000.000 copies of the two versions have been distributed. Many have been sent free to party organisations, but more than 2.500.000 have been sold direct to the public. The short pamphlet version, at one penny, has sold more readily than the full, sixpenny edition. Such massive public interest has much heartened the party leaders. Nail Shortage in Auckland Builders in Auckland are experiencing a shortage of nails, but manufacturers say that it is only temporary, and normal supplies can be expected soon. One firm expects so much nail wire from overseas before Christmas that it will be difficult to find storage space for it. The present shortage is attributed to the lower output of nail wire in Australia caused by the recent coal mines strike, and to the effect on supplies from the United Kingdom of Government priorities.