NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 133, 29 February 1936, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Centenary Plans

It is expected that 14 mayors will attend the preliminary centenary conference with Cabinet Ministers at Parliament House on Afonday. In addition to addresses by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry aud the Alinister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, the Mayor of Wellington, Air. T. C. A. Hislop, will speak on the exhibition proposals, and the Mayor of Auckland, Air. E. Davis, will address the conference on the steps already taken in the Auckland province in preparation for the Centenary celebrations. The discussion on the general question is to be opened by the Alayor of Dunedin. Rev. E. T. Cox, and Air. E. H. Andrews, deputy-mayor of Christchurch.

Bankruptcy Discharges. Discharges in bankruptcy were granted in the Supreme Court. Mel llngton, yetserday, to Paul Stafford Rabone, formerly of Palmerston North traveller, and now a Wellington farmer, and to Humphrey Doig Thorpe, driver, Masterton. Mr. Justice Reed was on the bench.

Lorry Collides With Wall. Yesterday morning a motor-lorry collided with a brick wall in Buckle St., Wellington, and the driver, Mr. D. Fraser, 26 Alelbourne Road, a bootmaker, was injured. He received slight concussion and abrasions on his right hand and was taken to hospital by the Free Ambulance.

Air Mail from London. Of the air mail dispatched from London on February 9 the northern portion will arrive at Auckland by the Aorangi on Alonday. The Waikouaiti, which left Sydney for Bluff yesterday, carries.the South Island portion and the Wellington portion will be on the Afonowni, due at Wellington on Alonday.

Association of Refrigeration Honoured. It was announced at a recent meeting in Wellington of the New Zealand Association of Refrigeration that the association had been elected a corresponding member of the Internationa? Institute of Refrigeration by the council of that body, as a mark of appreciation of ite activities in furtherance of the science of refrigeration.

Presentation to Teacher. Ab a gathering arranged by the Home and School Association of Clyde Quay, Elizabeth Street, School yesterday afternoon, the Minister of Education, Hon. P. Fraser, made a presentation to Aliss S. E. B. Lea, infant mistress at the school for a long period, who has been transferred to Lyall Bay School. Appreciative reference to Aliss Lea’s services was made by Mr. Fraser, the headmaster (Mr. J. Rodgers) and other speakers. Before the gathering the staff of the school made a presentation to Miss Lea. Aliss Q. M. Hind has taken up her duties as infant mistress at the school in succession to Aliss Lea, The First Portrait.

Official visitors to the National Art Gallery yesterday afternoon were rather amazed to find*that in one respect the hanging committee had been forestalled. After inspecting several scrim-lined galleries the Prime Minister, Hon. Af. J. Savage, was ushered into a large apartment which Air. G. A. Troup explained was to be the portrait gallery. Mr. Troup had barely explained this to the Ministerial party, when someone declared that a start had already been made with the collection, on which there was a general laugh. The portrait referred to was a newspaper portrait of the Prime Alinister . himself—pinned “on the line” by one of the workmen.

Hospital Breakfasts. A report on breakfasts supplied to hospital patients has been made by Dr. A. R. Thorne, superintendent of the Wellington Public Hospital. In this 'he explains that the practice has been that where necessary special diets can always be obtained from '.he diet kitchen. In many cases eggs are ordered aud prepared in the ward pantry for the patients and there is nothing to stop ward sisters requisitioning, if any of their patients should require a full breakfast. He considers, however, that it would be undesirable to provide a full menu for the wards, as the routine, as, on medical grounds, most ot the patients do nob require so much nourishment.

Improvements to Clyde Quay. A scheme is contemplated for improving the approach to Oriental Baj in Clyde QUay. There is an extraordinarily wide footpath and cycle track, occupying nearly 50 feet of space alongside the corporation yards. From careful observation it has been established that this breadth is not necessary for the demands, and it is proposed that a strip of it shall be utilised in a more aesthetic way by the creation of lawns and shrubbery, which should soon grow high enough to hide the fence of the yard. Such an improvement does not go all the way with those who seek a fuller improvement of that locality and the removal of the destructor, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction.

Demolition Reveals Old Sign. As often happens when a building is pulled down, the demolition of the old Wellington Technical College workshops has revealed a sign which must revive memories for the older generation After being bricked up for many years there has been exposed on the wall of the adjoining building a large advertisement for Beeston Humber cycles Thirty-five or forty years ago, at the height of the bicycle craze, the Beeston Humber was the Rolls Royce of cycles. The name has not the significance to the cyclist of 1936 that it had in former times. The.Beeston Humber cost £3O, more than three times the price of a good standard machine today. The old advertisement names as the agents Inglis Brothers, Willis Street, a firm which later became prominent in the motor-car trade of Wellington. A Wonderful Gallery.

Among those present at the official inspection of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum yesterday was Mr. Sydney L. Thompson, New Zealand's gifted artist. Mr. Thompson, who is at present engaged on a painting of Wellington Harbour—a Harbour Board gift to the National Art Gallery—expressed the view that the new gallery was a wonderful achievement for New Zealand, “As far as I cau recall, I do not think there is any city with a million inhabitants in Europe which has so fine a gallery,” he said. “Of course that excludes the larger cities, such as Paris, Berlin, Rome and Florence, but there are many much larger cities than Wellington on the Continent which do not possess such a fine modern gallery as this one. It ought to mean a good deal to art—l sincerely hops it will.”