GENERAL NEWS

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32862, 10 March 1972, Page 10

GENERAL NEWS

Veterans all

Veterans will carry veterans tomorrow afternoon when about 20 vintage cars, driven by members of the Canterbury branch of the Vintage Car Club, take residents of the Rannerdale War Veterans’ Home for an outing and afternoon tea as guests of the Sergeants’ Mess at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Wigram. The oldest car will probably carry the home’s oldest resident, a man aged 96, and his 70-year-old son. (t will be the second time such an outing has been held for the veterans.

Third Friendship

The Civil Aviation Division’s third Friendship, purchased recently for $600,000 arrived in Christchurch on Thursday night at the end of a flight from Japan. The Friendship, which is part of the division’s calibration flight, but is intended as a V.I.P. aircraft, has gone into the N.A.C. engineering workshop where it will undergo modifications to bring it to the standard of the other two Friendships in the fleet. The aircraft is expected to be in use by the division in May. Signs of times Canterbury’s first metric road-signs, bearing such messages as “Springfield, 22km; Christchurch 45km,” were erected by Automobile Association (Canterbury) officers in the Darfleld area yesterday. From now on, all ;uch signs erected will show metric distances and it is anticipated that by 1976 all New Zealand signs will be metric. As most such signs will become due for replacement in the next four years, this will happen automatically. The general manager of the A.A. (Mr E. S. Palliser) said yesterday that the association would soon produce conversion charts, and put conversion sheets with all loose-leaf itineraries.

Starch from potatoes

Speaking to potato industry representatives at Lincoln Mr C. C. A. McLachlan, member of Parliament for Ashburton recalled a war-time attempt to make starch from potatoes in Canterbury. It was 1940, he said, and a year in which there was a surplus of potatoes. He believed it had been the first effort to make starch from potatoes in New Zealand and it had been done on the Mid-Canterbury farm near Barrhill which he now fanned in partnership with his son. “They proved that they could make starch from potatoes but the difficulty was that the process was not automated and the cost was too great.”

N.Z. appeal in U.K.

Five hundred British companies with subsidiaries in New Zealand will be approached for donations towards the building of Auckland’s partially-finished cathedral, the Bishop of Auckland (the Rt Rev. E. A. Gowing) said in London on Tuesday at the opening of the cathedral’s appeal in the United Kingdom. Before the opening ceremony ended at New Zealand House, four cheques, amounting to more than £lOO, had been given. — (P.A.).

Glass for nose

International wine-tasters have reached agreement on the shape of a new standard wine-tasting glass, according to the latest “New Zealand Standards Bulletin,” issued by the Standards Association in Wellington. The shape of the glass, officially termed “elongated egg” was chosen in preference to a tulip-shape favoured by some tasters, although the final decision is still subject to modification and the approval of the International Organisation for Standardization.

Herb garden The Canterbury Herb Society will build a herb garden at Mona Vale this year. The Mona Vale management committee has consented to the use of five perches of the grounds for the garde® There will be a paved area and paths laid out under a plan from the Lincoln College landscaping consulting service, and the society will provide the garden at no cost to the public. The secretary (Mrs W. Watkins) told the management committee that there was no herb garden in a public reserve in New Zealand.