General News

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30093, 29 March 1963, Page 10

General News

Dumb Beauties Mr J. McCafferty, Mayor of Toowoomba. South Queensland, today told 17 local beauties they were “dumb." Only a few of them, he said, knew the name of the local member of Parliament, who was also a Cabinet Minister, and fewer than half knew the name of the award recently conferred by the Queen on the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies (the Order of the Thistle). The girls were entrants in the city’s annual “princess” contest. "Beauty is a gift, but beauty and brains are apparently not well-presented this year," said the Mayor, chairman of the panel which selects the princess.—Brisbane, March 28. Cripples’ Home Adams House, the new holiday home for crippled children at 51 Lonsdale street, New Brighton, will be opened on April 6 by the president of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society (Sir Charles Norwood). The Mayor (Mr G. Manning) and members of the Adams family will also be present. The first children will be received about the middle of the month. Railway Signs The question of compulsory stop signs on branch railway lines which had been closed was considered by the council of the Automobile Associataion (Canterbury) last evening. The matter had originally been brought up by Mr T. D. Craig in a letter, said the general secretary (Mr E. S. Palliser), and a letter had been sent to the Railways Department. Dr. R. G. Mathieson said he thought the department’s policy was to leave the signs up as long as the rails were still in position. The council decided to wait the reply of the Railways Department. New Mountain Hut Men have been working at an altitude of 7000 ft levelling a site for a hut at Grand plateau, in the Mount Cook area. The building will be a base for parties climbing the main peaks, such as Mount Cook (12,349 ft Mount Dampier (11,287 ft Mount Tasman (11,475 ft and Mount Lendenfeld (10,503 ft The hut, which will be built by the Mount Cook National Park Board, will be of timber. This will be landed by ski-equipped aircraft or dropped.—(F.O.O.R.) New Workshop The Canterbury Sheltered Workshop Association’s new building in Antigua street will be officially opened on Tuesday afternoon by the Mayor (Mr G. Manning). Haitian Hiatus There is a hiatus at the Haitian Embassy in London, the “Daily Express” diarist reported. The British Foreign Office believes it a unique situation. Haiti, the negro republic in the Caribbean, has a splendid embassy—but not a single diplomat in it. No-one answers the doorbell, and the telephone is off the hook. The Charge d’Affaires, Maurice Casadeus, died after a bunion operation three months ago and has not yet been replaced. London, March 28. Bumper Crop A bumper crop of onions has been produced in Canterbury this season, helped by the dry weather over the last month or so. The onions have held well for harvest and there has been little neck rot, caused by wet weather, which ruined a great percentage of last year’s crop. Prices are well down, the retail price for a 91b bag being 3s. The dryness, however, has affected the supply of outdoor-grown mushrooms, the season having been the shortest for years. Long Walk A 50-year-old aborigine named Gilligan returned to Darwin today after a round trip of 800 miles, 400 of them on foot to attend a nephew’s initiation corroboree. During the journey he had to tfavel through country made impassable to vehicles by floods, and 'swim five crocodileinfested rivers. When he arrived back, he said: “My feet are sore and I’m hungry for a smoke.” Gilligan appeared to have lost about two stone in weight, but he regarded the whole thing as a holiday. As he was the maternal uncle, the ceremony could not go on without him. There are easier and more sophisticated ways of getting to corroborees. Two years ago an aborigine named Holden Adam chartered a plane to take him to one.—Darwin. March 28. A.A. Membership The membership of the Automobile Association (Canterbury) was 51,401 at March 28. a meeting of the association’s council was told last evening. Eleven veteran life members and 367 new members were elected to the association at the meeting. Five Fairs New Zealand will this year have display stands at five international exhibitions. They will be at the Melbourne and Sydney Trade Fairs, the Leeds Ideal Home Exhibition, the Fiera di Milano in Italy, and the Thessaloniki Trade Fair in Greece. Shark By The Ton A £20,000 cargo, 80 tons of shark, was recently taken to Melbourne from New Zealand. The shipment was 4000 carcases wrapped in plastic and stockinette and 4000 fillets packed in cardboard boxes. The fish, caught between Coromandel, the, Hen and Chickens, and Mercury Bay, were school shark 3ft Irng and weighi.ig an average of 221 b.