NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 259, 31 July 1939, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Art Union Drawing ; The drawing of “Golden Dawn” art union is to take place in the Masonic Hall, The Terrace, Wellington, this evening, beginning at 5 o’clock. 50ft. Drifts “Near Wellington.” Listeners to an Australian radio news broadcast on Saturday night were surprised to hear that “heavy falls of snow continue in New Zealand,” and that “in the North Island, near Wellington,” three cattle musterers were trapped, but were rescued on Saturday by a party that made its way through 50ft. drifts. The place where the three musterers were really trapped wae Central Otago. Rural Milk-shakes. “Surely the rural resident is entitled to his milk-shake,” said Mr. W. R. Lascelles 'in the Court of Arbitration, Christchurch, during the hearing of an appeal case concerning tire terms of an award for shop employees. Mr. Lascelles contended that the award in its application made it impossible for country storekeepers to install milkshake machines, as attendants could not serve milk-shakes without a doubling of wages. “The rural resident, however, is under the advantage of being able to get his milk-shake straight from the cow,” remarked his Honour, Mr. Justice Callan. Overhead Wires and Trees. “The pruning back of roadside or overhanging trees by line authorities nearly always is crude in the extreme, unnecessarily severe and frequently liable to encourage insect attack,” writes Mr. M. R. Skipworth, a qualified forester, in an Institute of Horticulture bulletin on roadside beautification in New Zealand. “Where trees overhang from adjoining property, the line authorities may retort that the property owner should not allow them to do so, and also that he is served with notice before the linesman trims them, and thus could trim them himself, Very many pole line authorities, however, including the Post and Telegraph. Department, definitely fail to serve this notice. A certain amount of trimining is undoubtedly necessary, but there is no justification, and frequently no legal right, for the excessive slaughter so often practised.” Railways Praised. The efficient service provided by the New Zealand Railways, in spite of the limitations imposed by the narrow gauge and steep gradients, was commented on in Christchurch recently by Mr. W. T. Aldous, Bombay, who is on holiday in the Dominion. Mr. Aldous is general traffic manager of the Bombay, Baroda and Central Indian Railway. He said that the sleeping care were really comfortable, and considering the width of the track quite roomy. Compared with the speeds attained on the metre gauge lines in India, the services maintained were fast. In India a gradient of 1 In 150 was considered steep, but in some parts of the Dominion trains were hauled up grades of 1 in 30. ’The new rail-cars, which the New Zealand general manager, Mr. G. H. Mackley, had shown Mr. Aldous, were also fine vehicles. The company with which Mr. Aldous is asi sociated has about four thousand miles of track, and pays a dividend of 10 per cent.