General News

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30855, 14 September 1965, Page 16

General News

TV “A Curse” “I wish television had not been invented.” said Miss M. B. Howard, M.P., last evening when she was discussing the lack of interest in the local body elections. “We will have to rely on the newspapers,” she said. A few years ago there would be several hundred persons at a streetcorner meeting, she said. “We’ll get them again, but tonight I suppose they are at home watching their TV. It is the biggest curse of the century. I would not have it in my house if someone gave me a gold-plated one.” “Organ Pipes” Gone A lofty rock formation known as the “organ pipes” on the western face of Quail Island, in Lyttelton harbour, has collapsed recently through weather effects. About 50 yards wide and about 40 feet high, the “organ pipes” rose from a “console” and are believed to have been formed when cooling larva from volcanic action cracked vertically. The formation, known to yachtsmen and residents of Rapaki and neighbouring bays for many years, has dropped to the shoreline in a pile of rubble. Car Ferry A large outboard diesel motor, imported from the United States for £B5OO, has been fitted to a new car ferry which will service Waiheke and other islands. The ferry, a £9OOO barge, will be launched today. The five-ton motor has a retractable propeller, and its 160 h.p. will give the vessel a speed of eight knots. It will be named Port Kennedy as it will use the proposed new wharf at Kennedy’s point, on Waiheke Island. It can carry 15 cars, and later may also carry passengers.—(P.A.) No Compromise “I am an old timer and I would not stand on the same platform as a National Party or a Citizens’ Association candidate—l would rather be out of politics,” said Miss M. B. Howard. M.P., a City Council and North Canterbury Hospital Board candidate, last evening. She was referring to a proposal that local body candidates should go together to interested organisations. “I remember the old times, when there were no boots for your feet, when you were sleeping on bare boards,” she said. “I would not have anything to do with an anti-working-class man, standing on the same platform talking politics with him.” Hot Day Christchurch had its hottest day for more than five months when a maximum temperature of 72 degrees was recorded at the airport at 2 pun. yesterday. On April 3 there was a temperature of 73 degrees. Skies were cloudy and moderate northwest winds blew all day. At 6 a.m. the temperature at Harewood was 53 degrees. This rose steadily and at noon the temperature was 69 degrees. At 3 p.m. the temperature at the Botanic Gardens was 70 degrees. High temperatures were also recorded on the same day last year when a maximum of 67 degrees was recorded at the airport at 3 p.m. At 4.15 p.m. yesterday the temperature gauge on the Government Life building registered 73 degrees. Surgeons’ Talks About 80 New Zealand fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons are expected to attend their annual conference in Auckland next week. Mr K. W. Starr, of Sydney, president of the college, will attend. He will visit fellows in other New Zealand centres after the conference. Trauma will be the theme of the first day of the conference. All aspects of care of the injured from new techniques in resuscitation to the technical problems of dealing with specific injuries will be dealt with in papers.— (PA.) Awkward “A very bad mistake on someone’s part,” said the gas manager (Mr K. D. Walters) when he told the Lyttelton Borough Council last night that a lot of extra work would be involved because no provision had been made to clean above the gas-works retorts, the chimney base or furnace tunnel. The council decided to refer the complaint to the firm that installed the plant. New School Thirteen new primary and Intermediate schools will open in Auckland next, year—the biggest number in the Auckland Education Board’s history. Three will be intermediate schools. The new buildings, to cost £560,000, will open with 2500 pupils. The previous record was in 1964, when 11 new schools were opened.—(PA.)

Sir Campbell Wylie, the recently retired Chief Justice of Sarawak and Sabah, has arrived in Auckland where he and Lady Wylie will live.— (PA..)