General News

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28920, 13 June 1959, Page 12

General News

Companion Of Honour

Mr Nash is the third New Zealand Prime Minister to be made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, the others being Sir Sidney Holland, who was admitted to the order in June, 1951. and Mr Peter Fraser, who was the first New Zealander to become a member of the order. The order carries no title or precedence. but ranks after the First Class of the Order of the British Empire. Not more than 65 persons. whb must have rendered conspicuous service of national importance, are admitted to the order. The badge of the order is an oval-shaped gold medallion, suspended by a carmine riband with a gold border from the neck. The order was created in June. 1917. Realistic Souud Standing outside a radio shop in Cashel street early yesterday afternoon, a man heard the sounds of breaking glass and, seconds ■later, had an £BO stereophonic : radiogram, surrounded by the .remains of a £5O plate-glass window. lying beside him on the i footpath. Inside the store, a salesiman, attempting to place a radio jin the window, had accidently knocked the radiogram through the window. Both the cabinet and the mechanism were damaged. The window, which was insured, was replaced later in the afternoon. Dirt Clieap A Gloucester street petrol station has added another free service to the usual air and water. Beside the petrol station a site has been 'cleared for extensions, and a sign in the middle of the section offers “free earth." Money In Opals A potential 50,000 dollars worth of opals and opal rock lay scattered around a cabin in the Orcades yesterday, the property of Mr G. H. Phebus. a gem hunter from the United States, who is on his way home after seven months in Australia. Included among the stones was one of the largest opals ever found on the Andamooka field in South Australia. A green stone, it will be worth about 25.000 dollars when polished and cut into a matching necklace, bracelet and ring. Mr Phebus bought it from a miner for £350.—(P.A.) M.B.E. For “Fun Doctor” Mr Norman Tate, of Auckland, who has been awarded the M.B.E. in the Birthday Honours List, has. as the “fun doctor,” toured New Zealand schools for the last 50 years with his one-man juggling and piano-playing act. Mr Tate taught himself balancing and juggling and he started touring his act round the schools when he was 18. He is now 68. (P.A.) Present For AH Black A South African at present living in Napier, Mr J. M. Dewet. has a present for the man who is chosen as captain of the 1960 All Blacks to tour South Africa. It is a set of recordings and books called “Teach yourself Afrikaans.’ Mr Dewet had the set sent to him by the editor of "Tegniek Beperk,” a technical magazine published at Stellenbosch. A friend of Mr Dewet. the editor, sent the set —a conversation manual, a dictionary and three records—with the request that they be handed. on to next year’s All Black captain.—(P.A.)

Possible Outlet New Zealand may have a mar-, ket in. the United States for the inedible by-products of her meat industry—on mink farms. The superintendent of meat inspection in the Department of Agriculture (Mr I. G. Watt) who was recently in the United. States, says the inedible by-products of the broiler industry in the United States are ground up and used for mink food. Mink farming is a big industry, and the average mink farm uses up to four tons of inedible by-products a day.’ Mr .Watt thinks that with the heavy demand for mink food New Zealand might be able to build -up a market for such by-products. Malaya Force Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion which will go to Malaya at the end of the year, and who are now doing basic training at Burnham, will be reviewed at a passing-out parade bn June 25. They will go to Waiouru on June 30 to begin corps anti specialist training. New Wanganui Bridge The Minister of Works and chairman of the National Roads Board (Mr Watt) announced yesterday that tenders are being called today for the construction of the -new motorway bridge across the Wanganui river. The bridge will be of pre-stressed concrete with a semi-continuous central section of three spans, the first of its kind in New Zealand It will be used by vehicular traffic only.—(P.A.) Postal Indicators Postal district indicators—the familiar Cl, W2, E 4, etc.—may soon be dropned in the four main centres. A Post Office spokesman said ,the indicators were of undoubted value 25 years ago but the public lately had not been using the indicators to the extent hoped for. and rapid urban development had made extension of the indicator system difficult.—(P.A.)