NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 158, 1 April 1937, Page 13

NEWS IN BRIEF

Airmen’s Clothing Found

Patrolling the Makara coastline yesterday, searchers for the Western Federated (N. 1. Flying Club’s missing Gipsy Moth aeroplane, found further articles of clothing which are thought to be tile property of the two airmen, Mr. Arthur Smith, the pilot of the illfated machine, and Mr. J. Hamill, the passenger. Searchers picked up a scarf, shirt, two handkerchiefs and the canvas cover of the machine's engine.

New Blocks of Flats. The sum of £38.600 (contract prices) Is involved in the building of three blocks of flats in Wellington at the present time. Two of those blocks are in Oriental Bay.

One Bankruptcy in March. During March this year there was only one bankruptcy in Wellington and Hie number for the year up to yesterday was two. In March. 1936. there was also only one bankruptcy, but the number for the first quarter was three.

Unwelcome Interruption. There was an unwelcome interruption at tlio annual meeting of the 'Wellington Football Association last night, when a bottle was thrown from outside through one of the windows. Delegates made a dasli for the door, but the person responsible for the vandalism had beaten a hasty retreat. “A Red-letter Year” for Soccer.

“This is going to be a red-letter year in the annals of Association football in Wellington,” said Mr. IV. Duncan at the annual meeting of the Wellington Football Association last night. “It has been the dream of players and supporters for years to have an English visit, and at last it is within measurable distance of accomplishment. It is to be hoped that the players selected will be able to get right down to training so that they will be able to last the full 45 minutes without flagging.”

Mixed Cargo. The miscellany of cargo collected by a steamer in the Pacific Islands is illustrated by an inventory of the produce and other goods brought to Auckland tliis week by the Union Company’s motor-vessel Mattia after visits to Rarotonga, the Tonga group, Samoa and Fiji. Included in her cargo were 20,651 cases of bananas, 31 eases of mandarins, one case of oranges, four eases of mixed fruits, 26 cases of lemons, 76 sacks of coconuts, ten sacks of cocoa beans, three sacks of fungus, four eases of grapefruit, four bags of ginger, one teak log, eight flitches of teak, and 85 bags of hides. Chamois in Kangitata Gorge.

The prevalence of chamois and that in the higher altitudes in the Havelock region of the Rangitata Gorge was commented on by an Ashburton member of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club’s party which spent Easter in the district. He remarked that several herds of 10, seven, and five chamois and thar were seen, but deer were not so plentiful as last year. The activity of the deer-cullers attached to the Department of Internal Affairs was evident in the many dead bodies found. It was estimated that about 1500 had been shot recently in the district.

Tongan Medical Trainees. “These young men are winning the confidence of the people,” said the Rev. A. 11. Wood, formerly of Tonga, on his arrival at Auckland by the Matua, when referring to the work of Tongan natives who had undergone courses at the Central Medical School. Suva. Mr. Wood said that seven men from the Tongan group, now working in the islands, had been trained at the school, and four others were at present receiving tuition. Health in the islands had improved considerably over the past 13 years, although tuberculosis was still prevalent. The population of the group had grown from 23,000 in 1924 to a present total of 32,000. Shipping Dangers Off Spanish Coast. The Spanish civil war has had a serious effect on mercantile shipping apart from the danger of ships being shelled or mined while off the Spanish coast. The Benwyvis, which arrived at. Lyttelton on Tuesday for the first time, passed down the Spanish coast on her way to Gibraltar, and although she was not shelled, she was warned by wireless of a floating mine which was reported to be on the line of her route. Extraordinary care was exercised in sailing down the coast to avoid this mine. An officeii on the Benwyvis said that the civil war had resulted in all the navigation lights on the coast of Spain down to Gibraltar being extinguished, and extreme care was necessary for ships on this route. Although members of the crew were on Hie lookout for naval activities while the Benwyvis was on her way down the coast, no Spanish vessels wore sighted.