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Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 221, 14 June 1930, Page 30

Rats have been known to select most unusual places in which to build their nests, but it is seldom that they make use of a motor-car in which to rear their young. A farmer who uses his ear only once a fortnight drove to Stratford recently. As be was about to leave his car in a street he noticed smoke curling up between the floorboards. He promptly searched for the cause of the smoke and found it in a rat’s nest which had been built on the exhaust pipe of the engine, and had been ignited by the heat of the pipe. The standard accommodation to be provided for married men on the railway construction works at Parnassus, on the. South Island Main Trunk line, is claimed to be superior to that erected for the men who were engaged on the Otira tunnel. Each will have a kitchen or living-room, washhouse and bathroom and two bedrooms. It will be lined throughout with artificial boarding made from wood pulp. A range, 12-gallon copper with frame and flue, and galvanised iron bath will be supplied to each family. No rent will be charged for the huts, which will cost from £l6O to £2OO each. Twenty-five carpenters are now employed constructing huts at the depot. The dpsign is such that it will be an easy matter to transport them to the various camps. The new huts for single men will be matchlined.