General News

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 10

General News

O.H.M.S. Dr. Fuchs’s party arriving at the South Pole today received the first mail since leaving South Ice on November 24, says the United Press. For the New Zealander. George Lowe, who was with Sir Edmund Hillary on the successful Everest expedition and is now photographer with Dr. I Fuchs’s party the bundle of • eagerly-awaited mail included his income-tax demand.—New York, January 20. Mr Macmillan’s Collars Lady Dorothy Macmillan, the wife of the British Prime Minister, was delighted yesterday when she learned in Auckland that a present of paper collars, forwarded by a reader of the ; “New Zealand Herald,’’ was to be given to her husband. “He learnt to wear them in Algiers as a young man, and it is an old Navy custom,” she said. “He really does wear them quite often. They are worn first on one side, then turned over to wear again, and often he uses them for taking notes,” she said. She did not know what sort of collar he had on yesterday, but when he emerged from a press conference, she turned to the woman who had asked the question and said: “Not today; he is wearing a nylon shirt with collar attached.”—(P.A.) Strong Competition Apple and grape juices were first produced on an industrial scale little over ten years ago, according to the Banco di Roma’s Review of Economic Conditions in Italy. “These juices did not encounter much favour with the Italian public,” says the review, “especially grape juice, to which wine was preferred for easily understandable reasons.” Mutual Relief In the early hours of last Saturday morning a householder in the outer suburbs heard footsteps on his path and the stealthy opening of the back door. He crept quietly out of bed and grasping a walking stick moved down the hall and flung open the kitchen door He was greeted by a joyous shout from his son: “Dad, I’ve got School Cert.” The boy had cycled several miles into the city and back to buy one of the first copies of “The Press” printed that morning. Driving Faults In a report on the volume of traffic passing through Lyttelton during the holiday period presented to the Lyttelton Borough Council last evening, the borough traffic inspector (Mr H. G. Ablett) said that the driving generally was good. Contrary to all road safety education, however, there remained three types of driver whose actions were hard to understand, he said. The most common offender was the driver who persisted in driving on the white middle line. There was the driver who had the dangerous habit of driving with an elbow odt of the window. The third was the driver who would persist in “holding up the roof of his car,” with little or no thought for the driver following him, who could take it as a signal that the driver in front was atfout to stop. Blue Duck Photographed A student at Otago University. Mr R. T. Butler, of Oamaru, performed the difficult feat of photographing the rare blue duck recently. He was a member of a party of deerstalkers in the Pyke Valley and Olivine Range on the West Coast. The party had just pitched camp near Forgotten river when Mr Butler observed the duck perched on a rock at the edge of the river, 100 yards away. He managed to stalk the duck to within five feet, from which range he studied it closely before attempting to photograph the bird. Unfortunately, as the first exposure was taken the duck swam rapidly out to mid-stream and the second photograph was taken at a range of 15 feet. Whaling By Hand A Tongan whaler who still uses hand-thrown harpoons arrived at Auckland yesterday on a holiday visit. Mr Walter Cook, who is 56, said he had harpooned whales from 12 feet off, and sometimes while the boat was sliding over a whale’s back. His two whaling boats are propelled by sails and oars and he has 10 workers, including his five sons. Whales are hauled ashore and stripped of their meat which is sold at Is for 21b. His catch between last July and October was 17 humpback whales. Mr Cook said his father had taught him whaling and he has been chasing them since he was 16. In the off-season he goes shark fiishing.—(P.A. ) Russian As Subject Russian may be taught at the University of Auckland. Professor A. C. Keys, professor of modern languages at the university, told the teachers’ refresher course in modern languages at Feilding that Russian would possibly be being taught by the time the next refresher course was held. Russian. Stage I, was first taught in New Zealand.irr 1945 at Victoria College. It was raised to the status of Stage II and 111 in 1948 and to an honours subject in 1955 Waggons Derailed Goods traffic on the North Island main trunk line was delayed yesterday after a derailment near Erua at 4.30 a.m. The track was open again at 3 p.m. and no passenger trains were held up. The derailment was caused by a defective waggon of a goods train travelling from Taumarunui to Taihape. Six trucks left the rails and a short distance of track was torn up.—(P.A.)