General News

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27576, 5 February 1955, Page 6

General News

Hotel Meals Up to Midnight Tourists and passengers arriving in Auckland by late aircraft will be served with meals up to midnight at a five-star plus hotel toward the end of the year. The City Council has granted permission to the owners of the Trans-Tasman Hotel to erect a cover-ed-in restaurant for late meals on the top of the building. The new restaurant will be supplementary to the existing dining room and will open at 8.30 p.m. It will cater for 150 diners, mainly guests in the house, but the management is seeking permission to take people from other hotels. A “measure of entertainment” may be provided. In a report to the council, the City Engineer (Mr A. J. Dickson) said dancing accommodation was being provided. Engine Trouble on Tasman Plane The Tasman Empire Airways DC-6 which left Harewood at 11.15 a.m. yesterday with 51 passengers for Sydney was back again within half an hour with a defect on No. 3 motor. The fault was noticed as soon as the aircraft became airborne, and after fuel had been jettisoned to reduce landing weight, it was back on the tarmac about 11.40 a.m. Passengers were given light refreshments while* the extent of the trouble was ascertained, and then taken into Christchurch, where lunch and dinner were provided at an hotel. The aircraft eventually left at 8.4 p.m. Primary School Musicians The Christchurch Primary Schools’ Music Festival Association, which annually holds a week’s choral concerts, will begin a new venture this morning in the training of primary school children to play musical instruments. About ,50 have already enrolled for work with the violin, ’cello, clarinet, flute, and recorder. Classes will be held at the Christchurch Teachers’ College under the leadership of the lecturers in music, Messrs K. R. Newson and R. Perks, assisted by music teachers. When sufficient competence is gained an orchestra will be formed and will rehearse after the group classes on Saturday mornings. In this way it is hoped to train children to play instruments at home, at school, at festivals, and in other organisations. Export of Monkeys Mrs Pandit, the High Commissioner for India in London, was asked by a deputation led by Mr Peter Freeman, a Labour member of Parliament, today, to prohibit the export of monkeys from India, according to “The Times.” The deputation claimed that of 100,000 monkeys sent through the London airport to the United States during the last two years, three-quarters were intended for experimental purposes and the rest for use in rocket research. —London, February 4. No Bid No bid was made when a property of nearly half an acre at the corner of Colombo street and Ashgrove. terrace was offered at auction yesterday. On the property are a four-roomed house and a stone and iron malt-house with a floor space of nearly 10,000 feet. The property is owned by a brewery firm. Export Meat Schedules Mr J. D. Ormond, chairman of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, said in Wellington yesterday that producers would be pleased to learn that it had been decided to continue with the publication of the meat schedules being paid by meat exporters. In future, these schedules would be issued to the press each week to keep farmers fully informed.—(P.A.) Technical College Extensions Education Department officials will be invited by the Christchurch Technical College Board to come to Christchurch to discuss proposals for building extensions. Members were informed that the department had asked for more floor plans concerning submissions made last July or August. “It is desirable on all counts that we should talk the matter over. We have been in correspondence too long,” said the principal (Mr D. W. Lyall). The Minister of Education had promised consideration in the estimates, said Mr R. Jones. “This is so important that preparation of complete plans should be authorised immediately,” said Mr J. E. Jones. Wastage of School Milk Concern at the increasing high cost of the milk-in-schools scheme was expressed in a letter received from the New Zealand Milk Board at a meeting of the Auckland Grammar School Board. The letter said there had been increasing criticism of the scheme, mainly on the ground of wastage. Large numbers of full bottles were seen outside schools, waiting return to the treatment stations. Headmasters were urged to pay closer attention to their daily orders. “No Parking Here” A big yellow “no parking” sign, stolen from outside the Brazilian Embassy in Mayfair six weeks ago and untraceable by the police, mysteriously reappeared in the ballroom of Park Lane’s swanky Dorchester Hotel, the /‘Daily Herald” said today. It just “turned up” among the floral decorations for the Cote d’Azure ball. The waiter saw it there and shifted it alongside the Ambassador’s table, where the Ambassador’s party was astonished to find it when they arrived for the ball. The sign read: “No parking here by request Brazilian Ambassador.”—London, February 4. Price of Jamaican Oranges An increase of 2d a pound in the price of Jamaican oranges is made in a price order issued by the Price Tribunal, which comes into force on Monday. Oranges will now cost Is 2d a pound; but the price of Jamaican grapefruit is unchanged at Is a pound. These prices apply to fruit sold in the four main centres and other cities and boroughs. Outside these places prices are id higher. Dignity Before Comfort Dignity comes before comfort with the Auckland City Council—even at the peak of the current heatwave. When the council met in the muggy atmosphere of the council chambers this week Mr G. F. H. Forsyth was quick to ask permission for councillors to remove their coats. The deputyMayor, Mr K. N. Buttle, who presided in heavy mayoral robes for the first time in the absence of the Mayor, said he regretted that he could not grant the request. “I know you are all uncomfortable, but you must remember that my degree of discomfort is a little more than yours,’’ he said. “Whatever we do we have to maintain the dignity of the council.” The council sat on in discomfort for several hours. Maintenance Orders in the Falklands Maintenance orders made in New Zealand may now be enforced in the Falkland Islands, according to a notice given in the Gazette by the Minister of Justice (Mr J. R. Marshall). A proclamation by the Governor of the Falkland Islands, on April 7 last year extended the Maintenance Orders (Facilities for Enforcement) Ordinance of September 27, 1921, to orders made by Courts in New Zealand. Reluctant Kiwi A kiwi from Northland, already with a reputation of fleet-footedness, revealed a reluctance to be consigned to the Wellington zoo on Thursday. Booked to travel by air, it was missing when keepers at the Auckland zoo, where the bird was in temporary residence, went to get it for the journey. Every available member of the staff was called out to search the grounds for the fugitive. The kiwi was still lying low when the Wellington aircraft departed, and the zoo authorities had regretfully to inform their colleagues in Wellington that the bird, for the moment, was not available. The Fishing Rivers According to advice received by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, the condition of the fishing rivers at noon yesterday' was:—Selwyn and Ashley, clear and fishable; Halswell, clear, subject to Catchment Board operations; Hurunui, unfishable; Waimakariri and Waiau, very dirty; Lower Rakaia, dirty and unfishable, above normal; Upper Rakaia, in flood. The weather at Lake Coleridge was calm and cloudy, and at Highbank calm and clear. The Ashburton Acclimatisation Society advises that the Rangitata and Ashburton rivers are dirty.