NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 271, 12 August 1938, Page 13

NEWS IN BRIEF

Land For State Houses

Cabinet approval of the following additional purchases of land for State housing purposes was announced yesterday by the Parliamentary Undersecretary in Charge of Housing, Mr. J. A. Lee: An area of land in Malone Road, Hall Jones Settlement, and Hart Avenue, Lower Hutt, sufficient for 21 houses; an area of land in. Calcutta Street, Khandallah, sufficient for two houses: an area of land in Walts Peninsula, Miramar, sufficient for 207 houses. Dr. Ada raterson Memorial Fund. Contributions to the fund for the establishment of a memorial to the late Dr. Ada Paterson have been received at a steady rate by the Dr. Ada Paterson National Memorial Committee, and the total now stands at £298/12/6. The amount acknowledged previously was £133/0/6. Anti-Aircraft Battery. Members of the 22nd Anti-Aircraft Battery, who were to have gone into camp at Trentham on Saturday for a special training course will attend daily at Fort Dorset instead, as the camp at Trentham has been closed because oi measles. Members of other units which were to have gone into camp at Trentham will also go to Fort Dorset.

Amazing Repertoire. Mr. Lawrence Tibbett. the American baritone, has probably the most amazing repertoire of any living artist, and he knows the words of every song and aria he sings o/f by heart. Thus he never has to depend on sheet music or a note book. Without the most recent additions his repertoire consists of 338 numbers. Of these 300 are songs, ballads and recitatives and airs from oratorio, and arias from grand opera number 38.

Storm-Water Culvert. Officers of the Wellington city engineers’ department are pleased with the manner in which the new stormwater culvert, which extends from Adelaide Road in the one instance, and from Jessie Street in the other, to the sea, coped with Tuesday’s tremendous downpour. This was the first major test the new culvert has been submitted to, and it did all that was claimed for it. In past years, when Wellington was visited by phenomenal rainfalls, serious flooding occurred round about the Basin Reserve, as the old culvert was not large enough to take the sudden inflow of storm-water.

High Cost of Building. “With the high cost of building today there is such a marked shortage of houses that it seems to me estate agents could profitably push the sale of building contracts on a commission basis,” writes Mr. L. J. T. Ireland, president of the Otago branch of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, in the first issue of the institute’s journal, which apeared this month. “Apart from Government and municipal housebuilding there are very few homes being 'built to-day,” he states.

Affixing of Number Plates. Notifications of the consent of the Commissioner of Transport to an amendment to be embodied in the new transport legislation permitting a motorist to affix his new number plates on May 31 was received from the North Island Motorists’ Union at a meeting of tli’e Automobile Association (Auckland). The old plates would also have to be carried in the vehicle on that day. The department pointed out that serious inconvenience in keeping the register of vehicles would result if two days of grace were granted in May, as was originally suggested, by the association.

Flooding Not Expected. Any fear that flooding in the Waimakariri River might be caused by rain and thawing of snow on Tuesday has now been dispelled. On Wednesday night the river had risen four feet six inches at the construction camp, but the river trust engineer, Mr. H. W. Harris, said that no further rise was expected and that no damage had been caused.

German Cleanliness. “The countryside, cities and houses in Germany are spotlessly clean and tidy,” said Mr. G. Jackson, when addressing the Auckland Bureau of Importers this week. - He added that it was an offence even to drop a cigarette end in the streets. Anyone detected doing so was liable to be fined on the spot by a policeman and ordered to pick up the article for transfer to a. receptacle provided.

Co-operating with Technical College. A service by city firms which he described as the closest form of co-opera-tion with the Christchurch Technical College .o far established, was mentioned in an address by the principal of the college, Dr. D. E. Hansen. Motorcar firms, he said, now sent to the college modern models of cars, accompanied by the chief mechanic of the particular firm, and these cars were completely overhauled by college students under the guidance .of the mechanic. The mechanic s time was paid for by the firm. Various firms were co-operating in this way, so that in time the students acquired a working knowledge of many makes of car. Many Motorists in Court. “We shall have to sit on Saturday mornings if this position continues, ’ said Mr. C. R. Orr-Walker, S.M., in the Auckland Magistrates’ Court when adjourning until a later date several defended cases involving alleged breaches of the Motor Vehicles Act. Two courts were occupied on Wednesday with approximately 200 cases, and the hearing before Mr. Orr-Walker of a number of charges brought oy the police extended to a late hour in the afternoon.

Pictures for a School. “We have always been picture-buy-ers,” said the principal of the Christchurch Technical College, • Dr. D. E. Hansen, in an address to the Canterbury School Committees’ Association this week. Sometimes, be said, he would say to the pupils: “It is time we gave ourselves another picture; what about bringing me a penny?" In some years £2O might be spent, mainly on originals by New Zealand artists. “We feel fliat there is more in them than in mechanical prints of works by great artists,” said Dr. Hansen.

Church Funds to Benefit. Seven bequests totalling £450 to various Church of England organisations have been provided for in the will of Miss Maud Nicholson, Mount Eden. Auckland, whose death occurred on July 14. She has left sums of £lOO to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and to the Melanesian Mission and of £5O each to St. Mary’s Homes nt Otahuhu, to the Order of the Good Shepherd, to the Church ot England Oi phans’ Home at I’npntoetoe. to the Brett Memorial Home at Takapuna. and lo the Central Fund of the of Auckland. The wlmle estate li. • been' valued for purposes ol probate . I under E6SOI).