General News

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30635, 29 December 1964, Page 8

General News

Mail Today An accumulation of parcels and late-posted Christmas cards will comprise the bulk of the load for pastmen today when they resume deliveries after their four-day break. All post offices, the savings bank and motor registration branch will reopen this morning. 500,000 Calls The Seventh-Day Adventist : Conference dial-a-prayer ser-l vice received 1150 calls on December 24. This was 50! per cent more than usual, said the conference secretary (Mr D. R. Eliot). With an average daily number of calls ranging from 700 to 800 the service has recorded nearly half a million calls since its inception a year ago. Sharks Caught A number of sharks and dogfish were landed by a Cobden resident. Mr J. V., Keating, while surf-casting off! :the Cobden heach on Sunday afternoon. Four were sand sharks about four feet long, i They put up great fights before being dragged in. Ten' dogfish caught measured be-; tween two and three feet. Mr! Keating’s biggest thrill was a quarter-hour struggle with a nine-foot blue shark. The; shark bit its way through a steel trace and broke free) taking the trace with it.— (F.0.0.R.) Ketch Calls A three-year-old Dunedinbuilt auxiliary ketch is visiting Lyttelton on a voyage from Timaru to the Marlborough Sounds. Mr D. McLean, who built the craft, has onecrew member, Mr G. Linton.! She is the Crescent and is! 44ft with a comfortable beam; of 12ft 6in and a depth of 6ft. Mr McLean said he had no special plans but would ! leave Lyttelton when the j wind eased. TV Faults Television set faults apparently crop up like toothache—during holidays. Faultmen have been kept busy during the last four days attending to sets which let their owners down in time to miss the Christmas programmes. Some firms maintained a service throughout the holiday period. Others which reopened yesterday had to deal with an accumulation of repairs.