ITEMS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 290, 3 September 1931, Page 11

ITEMS IN BRIEF

About People and Events NEW ISSUE OF STAMPS The annual report of the Post and Telegraph Department states that competitive designs have been invited for a new issue of postage and revenue stamps for the Dominion. The designs are to be representative of characteristic or notable New Zealand scenery or genre, or industrial, agricultural, or pastoral scenes; and the values will be in approximately 15 denominations, ranging from Jd to 3/-. A special board, on which there will be representatives of art as well as of the Government departments concerned, will be set up to adjudicate on tlie merits of the designs submitted, and a prize of £25 will be paid for each design that is adopted for a stamp of the new series. The issue of a series oi airmail stamps comprising the denominations 3d, 4d, and 7d has also jieen approved. The plates for the stamps are being manufactured in England.

Five Detectives Engaged. Detective Walsh, of Wanganui, has gone to help in the investigations into the Palmerston North murder. There are now five detectives engaged.

They Want to Go Home. “Hardly a week passes,” says Mr. G. Petherick, chairman of the Wellington Social Welfare Committee, “but we receive an application from people who want to return to England.”

Licensing Committee Meetings. As’ there was no business to be considered, the meeting of the Hutt Licensing Committee, which was fixed for yesterday, did not have to be held. The Wellington committee will meet on Monday next at noon to deal with several renewals and transfers.

Eaby’s Fall from Table. Owing to a fall from a table yesterday morning, the baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Calcinai, 1 Bolton Street, Petone, suffered, it is feared, a fracture of the left leg. She was attended to by Dr. Bakewell and conveyed to the hospital by the Free Ambulance.

Three Fingers Crushed. Caught in a rolling machine, the first three fingers of the left hand of Thomas Mutton, Riverside Drive, Lower Hutt, a painter’s apprentice, were crushed at about 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon. After receiving attention from Dr. Harding he was taken to the hospital by the Free Ambulance. “A Clear Case.” In pleading for clients in a will case in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr. H. H. Cornish said that, in the words of Lord Haldane, he considered that the testator’s intention must be viewed macroscopically rather than microscopically. “In fact,” declared counsel, “the testator’s intention is as clear as Mars’ perihelion.” Hawkers Numerous. A great many people are now hawking all fmanner of goods from door to door, an avocation contrary to the by-laws of the city, unless a license has been secured. People have no right to enter private premises on any manner of hawking business unless licensed to do so, and it is open to any householder to ask a hawker for his license, a reasonable precaution under the circumstances. “Wanganui City” March. Played for the first time at a band concert at Wanganui on Sunday night. Mr. T. Gray’s new march. “Wanganui City,” was well received by the audience, says a “Dominion” Special Service message. The tune has a catching swing, and the favourable comment which it has received from musicians and public alike has prompted the suggestion that it should be adopted as the march of the Wanganui Volunteer Regiment. Free Ambulance Art Union. The St. John Ambulance Association has been granted permisison by the Minister of Internal Affairs to hold an alluvial gold art union after the Cancer Campaign art union, which is now before the public. The object will be to raise funds for the purchase and maintenance of equipment for the free ambulance service in Christchurch. The first prize will be £2OOO nnd the total amount to be distributed will be £4OOO. Exchange on Fruit. The exchange in London meant 3/- a case to Australia on the apples the Commonwealth sent to the London market, said Mr. T. C. Brash at the fruitgrowers conference yesterday. That was to the disadvantage of New Zealand, he said, as it enabled Australia to sell at a lower price than New Zealand. In some ways it would be a good thing if New Zealand was in the same position as Australia. While the exchange was in Australia’s favour respecting exported produce, it operated the other way in regard to goods which came into the country. The Nightingale. Whether the nightingale has established a home in the Methven district is being discussed by residents, for the notes of the bird were clearly hedrd on Friday from midnight for nearly a quarter of an hour, states a correspondent of the “Christchurch Times.” Dr. W. H. McKee, of Methven, had just returned home from a late country visit when he heard the peculiar call of the bird. He states that there can be no disputing the fact of the similarity of the call. Constable Robertson heard a peculiar bird call earlier in the evening. New Zealand’s Stability. Pessimists should remember that the record of this country is good, its credit is high, and its proportion of gold, to currency is 120 per cent, as against the United States of Amer.ca 111.1 per cent, and Britain 41.8 per cent., said Mr. Albert Spencer in his presidential address at the recent annual meeting of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association. “The food-producing countries must he the first to feel relief, and with them New Zealand, with its favoured climatic conditions and natural wealth, should be among the first to benefit,” he added. A Bank “Run” of the ’9o’s. Thirty-eight years ago on Tuesday the now historical “run” on the Auckland Savings Bank set in, and scenes which have not been repeated in Auckland were witnessed. For one day—Friday, September 1, 1893 —the bank was kept busy paying out to hundreds of excited depositors who had become alarmed owing to a rumour that the institution was in financial difficulties. The panic . was met by a frank deference to depositors demands for payment, and by evening the money which had been so hastily paid out during the day was beginning to filter back to the bank.