NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 103, 25 January 1939, Page 13

NEWS IN BRIEF

Meteor Seen

A luminous, fiery ball, believed lo have been a meteor, was observed by riflemen on the Trentham range on' Monday morning travelling at great speed through the air at a height estimated to have been a few hundred feet. Mr. S. F. McLean, president of the Wellington Rifle Association, said that he saw the meteor at about five minutes to 10 o’clock, travelling between the firing mound and the butts. It was about 500 to GOO yards away and appeared to strike the earth somewhere behind the Wi Tako prison. It was accompanied by a pronounced swishing sound, but there was uo report. Infectious Diseases.

For the past week, 17 cases of infectious disease and live deaths —four from tuberculosis and one from cerebrospinal meningitis—were reported to the Wellington office of the Health Department. In the central Wellington area, four cases of diphtheria, three of tuberculosis, three of erysipelas, two of food poisoning and one case each of puerperal fever and cerebro-splnal meningitis, were reported; and in NelsonMarlborough there were two cases of tuberculosis and one case of diphtheria.

Telling the Manager. Mr. C. P. Hainsworth, general manager of the Centennial Exhibition, and Mrs. Hainsworth were driving past the exhibition site in Rongotai iu a taxi, when the driver turned and said knowingly, “This here's where the Centennial is to take place!” To him obviously the whole of the celebrations of 1939-40 centred iGund the exhibition. To Mr. Hainsworth it was merely another of the many occasions when knowledgeable folk, ignorant of his identity, put him wise to facts about the exhibition that even the manager did not know before!

Nursing Service Accommodation. Complaints of the lack of office accommodation for the Auckland district nursing service were received at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board from the lady superintendent of the hospital, Miss E. M. Nutsey. The patients attended by the three nurses often numbered more than 100, she said, and their work was seriously retarded by lack of facilities for keeping records and for sterilizing. Clerical work had to be done in their own bedrooms and they had to pack bags and make dressings in the casualty department, already grossly overcrowded, added Miss Nutsey. The matter was referred to the building committee with power to act.

Overhang of Cars. A warning that the police were now taking action against motorists who parked their cars so tlicrt the rear of the vehicles projected on to the footpath was given in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday by Sub-In-spector -J. A. Dempsey. Iu reply to a question from Mr. J. 1.. Stout, S.M., the sub-inspector said that for some time notices had been left for offending motorists and he had taken the responsibility of warning them, but he could not by that means reach the great bulk of motorists. The magistrate agreed that cars could not be allowed to overhang the footpath too much. Defendant, who was charged with obstructing the footpath, was convicted and ordered to pay costs only.

Sport in Japan. With the exception of cricket, the Japanese took part in the same sports as New Zealanders, said Mr. H. Ogasawaua, Osaka, when discussing his country in an interview in Christchurch on Monday. He said the American game of baseball was also very popular, being played all. the year round. Ski-ing and skating were also very popular sports, and there were a large number of ski clubs in North Japan, where there was ample snow for this sport during the winter. Mt. Fujiyama (12,391 feet), about 100 lo 150 miles from Tokio, was climbed by many persons, including tourists, during the summer, but was not safe for mountaineering in winter. Another much-visited place was Hakone, where the hot springs were on a much larger scale than those in Rotorua. Sea fishing was more popular than river fishing, the rivers in Japan being much swifter than those in New Zealand.