General News

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27307, 25 March 1954, Page 10

General News

* ‘Brains of the Country” “If you have any ideas that the politicians are the brains of the country, let me disabuse your minds immediately,” said Mr W. B. Tennent, member of Parliament for Palmerston North, to a Rotary conference at Wellington yesterday. “You have only to listen to some of the debates to realise that all the brains of the country are not centred in Parliament.”—(P.A.) Government Gained a House An 80-year-old two-storey wooden house with an unusual political history is now being demolished in Brougham street, New Plymouth. The house, now the property of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, was left to the New Zealand Government by Mrs C. L. Horne on condition that at the time she died there was a majority of Labour Party members in the House of Representatives. Mrs Horne died on July 27, 1949. In November that year a General Election resulted in victory for the National Party, but the Government still received the house as Labour was in office when Mrs Horne died. If Labour had not been in power then, the property would have gone to the Labour Party. Television for Bank Australia will have its first commercial television service and the fourth of its kind in the world in operation in November. The English, Scottish and Australian Bank is installing a service which will link the bank’s chief office in Melbourne with a branch office and ledger posting centre which will contain the ledger departments of the main office and branch. The service will enable customers *at the head or the branch office to examine their cheques, statements and other bank account documents on television without going to the ledger centre. The customer will be the only person able to see the televised document. Bank officers will also use the equipment to verify signatures and examine other papers in the ledger centre. — Melbourne, March 24. Clinical Lecture Theatre

The desirability of providing a clinical lecture theatre at the Christchurch Hospital has been emphasised at several medical conferences. The North Canterbury Hospital Board therefore made the request to Dr. C. A. Taylor, director of the hospitals division of the Health Department, recently. The board was informed yesterday that Dr. Taylor was sympathetic but mentioned legal difficulties in applying hospital funds for teaching purposes. His suggestion that a definite proposal be submitted has been referred to the medical staff for possible action. Colour Cycle for Directories

According to the Chief Post Office, the colour of the top half of the front cover of the telephone directory will be changed each time it is printed. In this way it will be obvious whether it is an up-to-date book. The cycle of colours will be red, blue and green. A complete series of New Zealand telephone directories runs to more than 530.000 copies. Auckland heads the list with 98,250; Wellington comes next with 76,480, and then Christchurch with 51,700. Iftinedin has 39,070. Jet-Propelled Helicopters

The Minister of Supply, Mr Duncan Sandys, stated in the House of Commons that Britain’s first jet-propelled helicopter had made is first flight in January. “The manufacturers have completed a small research helicopter embodying the principles of forward propulsion by propellers combined with vertical lift by rotors powered by jet engines at the tips. Development of this entirely novel idea has still a long way to go. It raises a number of new technical problems—among them the problem of how to reduce the noise to 'an extent sufficient to make it acceptable for intercity services,” he said.—London, M;,irch 24. U.S. General Visits N.Z. Gunners Lieutenant-General B. M. Bryan, the American general commanding the corps to which the Commonwealth Division belongs, recently paid a visit to the 16th Field Regiment’s truce area, reports the Army Information Service. He had flown by- helicopter from his own headquarters for a conference with the commander of the Commonwealth Division (Major-General H. Murray). General Bryan, a former artillery officer, took particular interest in the 25-pounder guns lined alongside the football field. The New Zealand method of plotting targets was demonstrated to him.—Korea, March 23. Ballot for Farms The successful applicants in a ballot conducted by the Land and Survey Department yesterday for farms in the Clanden farm settlement purchased from Mr H. R. F. Scott, and offered for servicemen of World War 11, were Mr E. P. Stericker and Mr H. A. Wilson. Twenty-five applications were received for the two blocks. Those who made application were required to hold A grade certificates for sheep and cash crop land in Mid-Canterbury. The first block of 490 acres has a sixroomed house, a cottage, woolshed and other buildings, and a capacity of 950 ewes and 300 dry sheep. The second, of 445 acres, has a five-roomed cottage and similar carrying capacity. Reception for Sportsmen A reception for the Canterbury All Black and cricketers in the New Zealand team will be given by the Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P.) and the City Council at the municipal chambers next Wednesday evening. The members of the Canterbury Rugby Union and Cricket Association, with their wives, will also be invited. The reception was being given as soon as possible after the return of the players, the Town Clerk (Mr H. S. Feast) said yesterday. The council had hoped to hold a public reception in the Civic Theatre, but it was already booked for the evening. . Cashmere Hospital Loan Half of the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s £500.000 (part three) Cashmere Hospital loan wHI come on the market next week. The chairman of the finance committee (Mr L.' Christie) told the board yesterday that £15,000 had already been subscribed and £13,100 <was booked, making an advance total of £28.100. It showed that the investing public was willing to support the hospital. Sale of Cool Stores

The New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board has bought the assembly sheds, cool stores, and handling equipment at Hastings, Motueka, Dunedin and Miller’s Flat, formerly owned by the Marketing Department, for £175,619. The chairman of the board (Mr Harry Turner) said yesterday that the Government’s interest in the cool store it erected in the harbour board shed at Nelson would be transferred to the board, which had also entered into an agreement for a long lease of the Government’s cool store at Riccarton.—(P.A.)