General News

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28524, 1 March 1958, Page 12

General News

Hale At 102

Mr Solomon Zinsli, of Waitara, yesterday celebrated his 102nd birthday. He has not had a single day in bed in the last 12 months, can still read without glasses, still eats a hearty meal, and still enjoys a beer. “Eat, drink and be merry is the idea,” he said yesterday.—(P.A.) Enchanted With N.Z. His grey hair tousled, his feet bare, the world-famous playwright and actor, Emlyn Williams, yesterday sat in a shady St. Heliers garden overlooking Auckland harbour “swotting up” on New Zealand. “Isn’t it beautiful,” he said. “And those cicadas remind me of the south of France.” Tomorrow night appropriately for he Welsh-born actor —the eve of St. David’s Day, he opens an Auckland season of rtadings from Dickens.—(P.A.) Tropical Fruit The Matua is due in Lyttelton on Monday with a. cargo of 9000 cases of bananas and a limited supply of pawpaws, avocado pears, coconuts and egg fruit. Ugli fruit have been sold by retailers this week, but, as a representative from the fruit markets said, they were in “mixed condition.”- The fruit were transhipped from Auckland and held up at Lyttelton for four days. Museum Praised The Canterbury Museum would be one of the finest in the world when it was completed, said Dr. A. M. Bailey, Director of the Denver Museum of Natural History, who was in Christchurch yesterday after a two-month stay at Campbell Island on a natural history expedition. “I have watched the progress of this museum from year to year and I think Dr. Duff’s ideas are all working out well,” he said. Dr. Bailey said the Canterbury community had done exceedingly well in supporting the museum project. Rate Payments A sum. of £40,162 (compared with £36,786 last (year) is outstanding in the 1957-58 rate collection by the City Council. The amount paid before the imposition of penalty is 96.9 per cent, of the levy. The collection last year without penalty was 97 per cent. In the Heathcote County £42,138, or 95.6 per cent, of the levy of £44,078, has been paid, compared with 96.9 per. cent, last year. House Sold Flor £B3O A four-roomed bungalow on 25 perches at 343 Estuary road, South Brighton, was sold for £B3O at an auction on the premises yesterday. Bidding began at £7OO, rose to £BOO with two £5O bids, and closed after three bids of £lO. Fifty persons attended the sale. At another auction in Christchurch a brick building, at 141 Madras street, near Moorhouse avenue, was passed in at £6OOO. The building, of 2000 sq. ft., is on a section of 16 perches. Fishing Rivers According to advice received by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, the condition of the fishing rivers at. noon yesterday was: Ashley and Selwyn, clear and fishable; Halswell, clear and fishable, subject to Catchment Board operations; Hurunui, Waiau. Waimakariri, and Lower Rakaia, dirty and unfishable; Upper Rakaia, slightly above normal and dirty. At Highbank the weather was cloudy with strong northwesterly winds, and at Lake Coleridge it was calm, with light cloud.