General News

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28056, 25 August 1956, Page 8

General News

Gale Damage to Royal Yacht The Royal Yacht Britannia has gone into the dockyard basin for an examination of her underwater structure to ascertain what effect the rough seas which she encountered during her trip to the Western Isles have had on the hull. Some of her plates art reported to be damaged. ’ The Britannia will leave Portsmouth on Tuesday next for Mombasa to bt available for Princess Margaret during her tour of East Africa.—London. August 23. General Manager’s Influence The general manager in a company was supremely important said Mr L. V. Phillips, addressing the 1956 “top management” conference in Wellington yesterday. Quoting Emerson’s statement that “an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.’’ Mr Phillips said the character of an organisation was largely a reflection of its leading executive. What Emerson said was wholly true, not in the sense that any institution bore the exclusive imprimatur of any one man’s influence, but rather that there was stamped upon its character and on t{ie character of those to whom he delegated responsibility, something of his own moral force.—(P.A.) Invitation to Soviet Scientists

Three scientists from the University of Moscow will be invited to visit New Zealand next year. At a meeting of the Senate of the University of New Zealand in Wellington yesterday the Chancellor (Sir David Smith) suggested that the scientists shbuld be asked to come for a three weeks’ tour. A delegation from the University of New Zealand will go to Russia this year, and the invitation to the Russians will be delivered by Sir David Smith.—(P.A.) ’ Opposition of Mars Rain and heavy cloud prevented members of the public seeing the opposition of Mars through the six-inch telescope in the observatory at Canterbury University College last evening The phenomenon, which occurs when Mars is opposite the sun, due north at midnight, and closest to the earth, will be observable—weather permitting—for four weeks. Interested persons may see it through the college telescope by obtaining tickets from the registrar of the college. The observatory will be open on Friday and Monday evenings from 7 p.m. Flight to Roxburgh Members of the Canterbury-West-land Electrical Contractors’ Association will fly to Roxburgh on Sunday by National Airways Corporation charter aircraft and go on a conducted tour of the hydro-electric installations there. The aircraft will leave Christchurch at 8.30 a.m. and return at 5.5 p.m., giving members of the association five hours and a half in Roxburgh. Anglo-Saxon Ring Three years ago Mrs Gladys Deeks dug up an old ring in the garden of her council house in Suffolk. She thought it was brass, put it in a drawer and forgot it. It has now been found to be an Anglo-Saxon ring dating from the ninth century, and Mrs Deeks has been paid £350 for it by the British Museum. There are only eight known Anglo-Saxon gold rings dating from the seventh to the eleventh century, and six of them are believed to be in Britain. The ring, a flat gold hoop, is decorated in panels, with stylised foliage and animals.—London August 23. University National Scholarships The number of University National Scholarships will be increased to 40 from next year. The Senate of the University of New Zealand decided this in Wellington yesterday. If funds are available, the number of University Junior Scholarships will be increased to 20.—(P.A.) Children’s Book Medals Novel features in the children’s book week exhibition in the Amuri Motors showroom are enlarged reproductions of three medals awarded overseas and the productions which have won them. The Carnegie Medal is given by the London Library Association to distinguished author-illustrators in appreciation of the contributions to literature of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. A recent winner. Mrs Eve Garnett, was lately in Christchurch The American Library Association gives the Newbery Medal each yeai for the best book for children in memory of John Newbdry. who first catered for children in his shoo at St. Paul's Churchyard in 1765. For picture books there is the Caldecott Medal, commemorating Ralph Caldecott, a nineteenth century illustrator of children's books, best known for his pictures ot John Gilpin’s ride.