General News

Press, Volume C, Issue 29599, 23 August 1961, Page 14

General News

No Half-Measures The Director General of the; Forest Service (Mr A. L.! Poole) brought a touch of unconscious humour to the hearing of the Royal Commission, on State Services in Welling-i ton yesterday. Answering a question relating to staff training, he assured the commission that forestry trainees “reallv went through the mill.”— (P.A.) Heavy Load Loaded with a 16-ton buc-i ket grab, a large articulated transporter had considerable difficulty in getting to its destination—the Heathcote portal of the road tunnel—yesterday: afternoon. The truck was unable to climb the rise at the intersection of Port Hills road and Bridle Path road. A small truck was first attached to the transporter, but no progress was made. A grader was later brought to the scene, and with, this attached to the front,’ and a large bulldozer pushing at the rear, the heavy load, made slow progress up to the works site, breaking a water pipe in the process. Unpaid Bill The Rector of 200-year-old ’ St. Peter’s Episcopal Church] in Philadelphia has sent the! British Government a bill for a church fence ripped down’ by British troops in 1778. It] amounts to 18 dollars plus about 760,000 dollars interest.; The Rev. Joseph Koci recalled; that in the winter of 1778. some of the British troops; occupying Philadelphia ran out of firewood, so they ripped down a wood fence around the churchyard. He produced minutes of the v stry ■ dated February 1, 1778, which showed that a Major Edward Williams, of the Royal Artillery, had written that the British Com-, mander, General Patterson,’ would pay a “reasonable al-! lowance” for the fence. ‘They’ never paid though,” the Rec-] tm- said. St. Peter’s wanted; to square its account with the! British so the church could start its third century next month with the books clean.— Philadelphia, August 21. Light Frost A frost of 6 deg. was recorded by the Weather Office at Harewood yesterday morn, ing. There was a lighter frost of 3.8 deg. at the Botanic Gardens. The weather during the day was clear and sunny,) but a moderate north-easterly; breeze kept temperatures I down, the highest tempera-; ture being 58 deg. at 1 p.m. ’ There were 8.7 hours of sunshine.

Fair Attendance Attendance figures for the Industries Fair were again doubled yesterday when 8090 persons passed through the gates—an increase of 4548 on the figures for the corresponding day last year.

Islands Fruit About 500 water melons from Raratonga will arrive in Lyttelton on the Matua today. The shipment includes green ginger, sugar cane and dalo from Fiji, and paw paws‘from Samoa. A small quantity of Cook Island oranges are expected to arrive in Christchurch markets during the week. Small Tuna Caught A small tuna was caught in the mouth of the Wakanui creek, in the Ashburton district, yesterday morning by Mr T. A. D. Wilson. The tuna, which weighed 111 b. was partly stranded in the creek mouth. It is the first time such a fish has been caught in the area for some time. The last one found in the district weighed 2741 b. Vegetable Supply There was a good supply: of vegetables in the Christ-’ church produce markets yesterday. Cauliflowers sold! from 18s a case to 25s a sack, ’ and Savoy cabbages were 14s 6d to 16s 6d a sack. Car- ’ rots sold from 2s 6d a case to 12s 6d a case for best I quality. Local glasshouse lettuces were 30s a case, and! tomatoes sold from 4s 6d to' 7s 6d a pound. Niue Island kumeras which sold for 44s a sugar bag in the market were Is 6d a pound in shops. Ballroom For Exams Permission to use the ballroom at the back of Government House, Auckland, for examinations and lectures will be sought by the Auckland University Council. Extra space is needed for the arts faculty. The 72ft by 40ft ballroom, the council was told by its new building committee, was rarely used.