General News

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28872, 17 April 1959, Page 8

General News

Presto The Hospital Chapels’ Appeal Committee has been sending information about its forthcoming drive to raise £35,000 to build chapels at Cashmere, Burwood, and Sunnyside to all manner of organisations. Yesterday members thought the Post Office probably got as much amusement as the committee from one envelope, addressed to the Canterbury Society of Magicians, which was returned marked, “Gone. No address.”

Speed Restriction Because of the death of an eight-year-old schoolgirl after being struck by a car on the Main North road near Daniells road, 48 local residents signed a petition asking for the extension of the 30-miles-an-hour speed limit from Daniells road to the north side of the Styx overhead bridge. The petition was received by the Waimairi County Council, which decided last evening to send it to the Transport Department, together with the council’s “strong recommendation” that the restricted area be so extended. The petition said that traffic on this part of the Main North road was heavy at all times ( It was a rapidlygrowing district, where many young children cycled to school or had to cross the road to board buses.

Brief Talks The Prime Minister (Mr Nash) said last evening he was looking forward to having brief talks with the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) at Auckland on May 1. Mr Menzies will call at Auckland in the Orient liner Orcades on his world tour. He will leave Sydney for San Francisco on April 28. Mr Nash said he would probably have morning tea with Mr Menzies.—(P.A.) Museum Work Televised “Treasures of Pyramid Valley,” a film on the Canterbury Musem’s moa excavations made by Mr Roy Evans, of Christchurch, has recently been shown on television by the 8.8. C. The producers were particularly interested in the novelty of the discoveries. For the same reason the 8.8. C. is also likely to accept another film called “Kakapo,” Mr Evans’s record of the museum’s Fiordland expedition. Not Recruiters “It is not our job to be recruiting agents,” Mr Justice Tyndall, president of the Arbitration Court,, informed Mr T. Handisides, secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers’ and Related Trades’ Union, when the claim of wool scour workers for an increase in wages was argued yesterday. Mr Handisides said the industry could attract a better class of man if it paid a little more in wages.

Weather Blamed The recent warm weather is claimed to be the main cause of reduced trading on the Christchurch produce markets. Auctioneers are only awaiting the return of cooler weather for the situation to improve, and the present large supplies of the stable lines of vegetables, such as cabbages and cauliflowers, to diminish. Prices have remained static during the week, with little or no change from current values. Playing With Fire Awakened yesterday morning by his five-year-old daughter, Robin, running into his room shouting: “Look what Susan’s done,” Mr N. M. Miller, of Kamo, near Whangarei, discovered that Robin’s nightdress was on fire. He succeeded in beating out the flames, but had his right arm burnt in the process. Robin was unharmed and was able to go to school as usual. She explained that her sister, Susan, aged 2s, had set fire to the nightdress.— (P.A.)

Waimairi Housing A total of 8226 new houses was built in the Waimairi county last financial year, representing a value of £2,341,859, it was reported at a meeting last evening of the Waimairi County Council. Permits for new houses issued for March were 61. valued at £154,380. The average value of these new houses was £2843, compared with £2820 for the previous financial year. “The actual cost of building homes has not gone up to any great extent,” commented Cr. J. I. Colligan. “But you can’t get the same quality of door handles under this import licensing,” rejoined Cr. C. L. Austin.

2800-Year-Old “Book” A “book” more than 28 centuries old arrived at the Turnbull Library, Wellington, yesterday. The “book,” a slab of gypsum about 20ins by 12ins, and two inches -hick, is part of a biography of King Ashurnasirpal Assyria. About 879 B.C. the king built a new palace in the city of Calah, some 20 miles south of the modern Mosul. Records of the king and his deeds were inscribed on stone slabs and placed in several parts of the palace, and it is a large piece of one of these stones that has come to the library. Mr K. A. Webster, of London, a well-known collector of Maori artifacts, acquired the stone from the Montrose Angus Museum and presented it to the library The slab is inscribed with cuneiform characters of classical Assyrian, and was translated by the Asiatic antiquities department of the British Museum.—(P.A.)