TOWN AND COUNTRY NEWS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 35, 4 November 1933, Page 17

TOWN AND COUNTRY NEWS

Items of Interest From All Quarters

To-morrow will be the 52nd anniversary of the occupation by armed constabulary and volunteers of Parihaka, a Native village near Mount Eginbnt. The force numbered about 1700, and the village was entered without bloodshed, and the Riot Act was read. The Maori prophet, Te Whiti, was taken prisoner, and Maori hostility to the Government was soon dissipated.

The folly of the Great War, or any war, was referred to by Sir Joseph Smith at a recent Auckland luncheon. The £8,000,000,000 which the war bad cost Britain demanded an annual interest of £200,000,1X10. “Even now there are two million workers in England Who toil night and day to pay the interest on tlie cost of the Great Mar. Every farthing that they earn pours out. of the country without the slightest benefit to England.”

The absence of a doctor delayed the start of the Hikurangi wrestling tournament this week for nearly half an hour, says the “N.Z. Herald.” Under the rules of the New Zealand Wrestling Council, no competitor is allowed to enter the ring unless a doctor is in attendance. Just as the Hikurangi tournament was about to commence, the doctor who was present was called away to attend to an urgent case. A message was sent by telephone to a doctor in Whangarei, about nine miles away, and he consented to attend. On his arrival the tournament commenced.

Advice bus been received by the Canterbury Automobile Association from the Greymouth association that the Otira Gorge road is again open for traffic. The road was damaged earlier in the year by slips and floods, and a good deal of reconstruction work has been necessary. Motorists are warned to exercise caution over culverts on the down grade to Otira. A ford at Peg Leg Creek, which is shallow in fine weather, has also to be negotiated, but it is expected that a.bridge at this point will be completed by Christmas time.

“Our Governor-General deserves the thanks of every New Zealander for his sound advice and the vital interest he takes in the promotion of New Zealand and the Empire’s welfare,” said Mr. Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association, at the annual meeting of the association recently, in commenting upon present world problems. “It is a sign of the stressfulness of the times that Archbishop Averill and others of our clergy are. courageously calling attention to the pressing need of combating the difficulties that afflict civilisation to-day,” he added.

According to Mr. G. 11. Holford, the country that is the greatest menace to New Zealand’s dairying industry is Australia. Mr. Holford, when speaking at a meeting of the Canterbury Progress League recently, said that Australia had from three to four times us much available dairying land as had New Zealand. Australia had never worried about dairy produce, because she made her money in wool. But now Australian farmers were taking an interest in the industry and in the’ last two years dairy produce exports had doubled. If this went on, it would bring a definite menace to New Zealand.

The Post and Telegraph Department at the present time is engaged improving the lighting in Christchurch telephone booths. Following complaints concerning the dull illumination in the boxes, the engineering branch of the Department carried out experiments, and devised means by which improvements could be made with safety, A grill which' obstructed a good deal of the light is being removed from the ceilings of the boxes and equipment, is being installed so that the light is not intercepted. Eighty out of about one hundred booths in the city and suburbs require attention, but it is expected that the work will be completed in a week or so.

The question whether a certain Auckland commercial company should be permitted to distribute advertising calendars among the pupils of State schools was considered by the Auckland Education Board at its most recent meeting, the matter being introduced by a communication from the headmaster of a Waikato school, who sought a ruling on the subject. “At a previous meeting of the board some member stated tliat advertising papers should go hrough the post,” remarked Mr. A. Burns. Members agreed that although tlie calendars in question were very useful and contained much valuable information they should not be circulated in schools. It was decided to notify the headmaster accordingly.

Small boys on bicycles are apt. to keep other people on the jump In Christchurch, says the “Times.” They are no respecters of tlie law or persons, as Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth, the noted American explorer, has learned. While walking in Cathedral Square lie stepped off the footpath to cross tlie road into Worcester Street East, and had no soonei’ done so than be bad to step back a pace hurriedly to avoid a diminutive boy cyclist who whizzed past his arm at express speed. An inch or so closer would have brought boy, bicycle and explorer down in a heap. Mr. Ellsworth looked after the boy and smiled in good Humour. The boy looked back and glared as though no man had a right to step on to the road on which he was cycling. He did not realise that he had come within a few inches of knocking down a noted explorer, and possibly delaying an expedition to Antarctic;!.

A geologist’s explanation of the origin of the Canterbury Plains was given by Mr. G. Jobberns, of the Christchurch Training College, in a paper read before the Philosophical institute recently. “The alluvial plains of Canterbury have been built out from the base of the mountains, thus taking the coast line right away from the mountain area,” he said. me Canterbury plain has been built out far enough to reach a former volcanic island and join it up to the mainland to make Banks Peninsula. This volcanic island had its deep valleys drowned by land-sinkings and it seems to have be£U subjected to movement differing from those affecting the rest of Canterbury. It has sunk altogether at least 700 feet, which suggests that it may be independent of the plains.

Greed and selfishness among nations and individuals were named as the root of all the troubles of the world at the ’ present time by Mr. Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association, at the annual meeting of the association. As 1933 was drawing to a close it was universally recognised that it had been the most momentous and trying year the present generation had known. Everyone would have to keep working and hoping, and continue doing everything possible to establish every suitable adjustment within their johit and several spheres of action. Mr. fepeucei expressed the view that the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, was deserving of the thanks of every New Zealander for bis sound advice, and for the vital interest his Excellency took in the promotion of the welfare of New Zealand and the Empire. Mr. Spencer also mentioned that it was a sign of the stress of the times that Archbishop Averill and others of the clergy were courageously calling attention to the pressing need of. combating those things’ which at present afflicted civilisation.

Ninety per cent, of the Otago farmers have accommodated themselves to the slump conditions to the extent of being able to carry on in a makeshift sort of way, but as a bod.v they are not relieved of anxiety, says the Dunedin “Star.” Many of them who are manging to make a balance as between income and outgo have reached that point by economies that are not economies—by curtailing expenditure on tlie upkeep of land, live stock, and buildings; and for that they will have to pay in the future. Nevertheless, most of those men are hopeful. In May of this year the world’s chart as to the prices of commodities fell to the lowest in modern experience. Since tliat mouth prices have improved. That improvement has recently had a check, but there is reason to believe that that check was only a flicker, and already there are signs that the upward move will prevail. That is the ground of the farmers’ hopefulness. If it is realised the toilers on the land may soon be able to resume proper maintenance and possibly get a little profit from their work. These remarks on the present position embody the replies to a “Star” reporter from a New Zealander who has peculiar opportunities of knowing our land and the men who work it.

To persons who study the evening sky, the spectacle in Dunedin on Tuesday evening last was of unusual Interest —so much so that some details supplied by Mr. W. D. Anderson are appropriate:—"Very seldom do we get such a view of the elusive planet Mercury, which is the nearest to the sun. As seen from Dunottar it was visible to the naked eye as late as 9 o’clock, when it set in the south-west, followed by Veniis two hours later. Other planets visible at the same time were Mars, Saturn, and the moon. Only once in a while can such a brilliant array of our neighbours in space be discei’ned simultaneously. Observations of Mercury are usually taken under difficulties because of the immediate proximity the sun. Travelling at some twenty-nine miles a second, this will-o’-the-wisp takes eighty-eight days to complete his circuit. His area about equals Asia and Africa. To the naked eye he appears brighter than a star of the first magnitude, and sparkles with a ruddy lustre, scintillating like a star. Viewed telescopically, he is found to pass through riljases like the moon. About once in six years lie comes between tlie earth and the sun, appearing as a small black spot on the solar disc. He will do so on May 10. 1937. and again on Novemlier 12, 1940.”

“Human nature is the hardest tiling of all to understand.” In tlie mood for philosophy. Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth, the noted American explorer, made such a statement to a Christchurch interviewer recently, when a conversation turned to people and their doings. The explorer, who declared himself a lover of sunshine; is going to sjiend, paradoxically, the next, two or three months in tlie frozen south. It was somewhat whimsical to hear a man. who will shortly make a trip to the land of eternal zero, saying that he could not understand why men lived at Campbell Island. “That’s a cold place,” lie said, “and the wool producing areas of the world are not so crowded that we are forced to use that little bit. No, I can't understand those wool men at all.” The explorer also said that it puzzled him why men went into the Canadian northwoods and cleared away a space in which to live, when there were large tracts of naturally clear land in much warmer climates.