NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 181, 27 April 1940, Page 13

NEWS IN BRIEF

Summer Time Ends Summer time ends officially at 2 a.m. tomorrow, when clocks will be put back half an hour. Clocks were advanced on September 24 last, when the six months’ period of more daylight was introduced for the 1939-40 summer season. Kangatira Sailing on Sunday. The Union Company’s express service steamer Rangatira will arrive at Wellington tomorrow at 6.30 a.m. ami depart for Lyttelton at 8.15 a.m. on a special daylight trip. She will leave Lyttelton the same evening after the arrival of the 7.25 p.m. train from Christchurch, arriving back at Wellington at 7 a.m. on Monday. Hutt County Building. Building activity iu the Hutt County has fallen considerably this year, according to the report of the building inspector, Mr. D. G. Joll, presented to yesterday’s meeting of lhe county council. The figures for 1940 are as follows, those for 1939 being given in parenthesis;—January, £.8178 (£7764) ; February, £11.647 (£21,105); March, £7461 (£16,590). 91st Birthday. The 91st birthday of Mr. C. Q. Hutchinson, Oaklands Road, Papakura, was celebrated yesterday. Mr. Hutchin son was born in Manchester and came to New Zealand in 1872 by lhe barque Chili, landing at Auckland after a voyage of 110 days. He later took up farming in the Auckland province, where he has resided ever since, with the exception of a year spent in Southland. He retired from farming about 20 years ago. Long-Standing Engagement. The harp and the trumpet had a long-standing engagement for the Day of Judgment, said Mr. J. Multon Murray, at the St. George’s Day celebration of the English Folk Association iu Wellington. It appeared that these instruments had the monopoly of the music of the higher spheres. Ou the same day as they fulfilled their long-standing engagement no doubt other instruments Mould be welcomed in another sphere. Large Wireless Set. A large 28-valve wireless receiving set presented by the Waikato Hospital Patients’ Sunshine League to the Waikato Hospital Board was officially handed over recently'. The set. which is connected with 150 beds in all parts of the hospital, cost £9OO to install. Of this amount £3OO was contributed by Lord Nuffield. Involved in tlie installation is- five miles and a half of wiring. Two programmes may be received by the set at one time. No Quorum Secured. For the fourth time in succession no quorum was secured at a general meeting of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce recently, only 10 members of the 15 required being in attendance. A notice of motion seeking to alter the number of a quorum for a general meeting from 15 to five has been before the chamber for several meetings, but so far it has not been possible to secure a quorum of 15 to deal with the motion-. Visitor Wins Wager. As a memento of a visit to the hack country of Southland, Mr. B. Lamont, a visitor to Invercargill from the United States of America, will take back with him a fine head of a boar. Mr. Lamont has shot many deer in America, and when he stated that he would like to return home with a head he M-as advised to visit the country near Lake Te Anau, where he might have a shot at wild pigs. A wager was made by a Southland man that the visitor would have no success, but he was obliged to forfeit £1 in cash because in the first hour of his visit Mr. Lamont obtained a very good head of a boar. U.S.A. Constitution. A change in the constitution of the N.Z.R.S.A. in the direction of making returned men from tlie present war eligible for membership is expected to be made at the annual meeting on May 1, probably as the result of the action of the Paeroa and Hauraki Plains branch in granting membership to a Paeroa bov who was home on leave from H.M.S. Achilles after the River Plate battle. Not only did the branch claim to be the first to enrol a man who had served in the present war, but, as the boy M'as only 17 years of age, the branch also claimed to have the youngest member of the N.Z.R.S.A. However, the enrolment was unconstitutional, for, while the boy had served in His Majesty’s forces overseas, he had not been discharged, so was not a returned man.