NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 168, 12 April 1941, Page 2

NEWS IN BRIEF

Supplementary Roll The supplementary roil for the May local body elections in Wellington will close at 5 p.m. next Saturday, April 19. The main city roll for the elections contains 55,568 names, compared with the 1938 main roll of 65.818 names, so that the purge carried out in the past year removed more than 10,000 names. In 1938 there were 10,218 names on the supplementary, roll, making a total of 76,036. Hungary Declared Enemy Country. By a Gazette extraordinary issued on Thursday Hungary has been declared to be an enemy country for the purposes of the Enemy Property Emer--gency Regulations, 1939, and the.Enemv Trading Emergency Regulations, 1939. Books for Students. A motion expressing concern at the manner in which the censorship “seemed to be interfering with the importation of certain books of use to students ’ was passed at the annual meeting of the New Zealand University Students’ Association in Wellington, yesterday. The secretary was instructed to make further investigations of complaints and report to the executive. Guardsman’s Muzzle Loading Musket. It is believed that the Marton Home Guard Battalion holds the record of Paving the oldest firearm in military use 'in New Zealand. Because of lack of service rifles, an interesting collection of firearms is seen at most of the parades, Sergeant-Major W. C. Whittington’s being a long muzzle-loading musket bearing the New Zealand Government military issue stamp, but undated. It is considered that this smooth bore musket must have been one of the first issued in New Zealand. Cycle Outfits Scarce. Any cyclist who is unfortunate enough to lose his trouser clips now has a really hard task trying to replace them. Import restrictions and the war have prevented any supplies coming from Great Britain, and there is neither the market nor the raw material for their manufacture in New Zealand. Most of the big cycle shops have already cleared their old stocks of cycle accessories, and pumps and outfits are among other necessities which are becoming practically unobtainable. Stones Rolled on to Beach. Letters from, three parents saying that their sons had admitted rolling stones down the hillside on .to the Makarra beach hare been received by the Makara County Council. The council was' recently informed that the conveniences on the beach had been damaged by stones and in one instance a person walking alojig the beach nearly been struck. The names of three iboys were taken and in consequence letters were written to the parents, all of whom advised that the boys responsible had been punished and that there would be no grounds for complaint in future. Expensive Insulator Broken. Evidence of vandalism was brougnt before the monthly meeting of the Hutt Valley Electric Power Board on Tliursdav when the board engineer, Mr. E. F. Hollands, displayed four large insulators- which had been broken bv rifle bullets in the area of Gracefield Road. Insulators of this type were hard to procure now, he said, for thev had been manufactured in France, and the cost to replace the four would be about £l6. Asked how he had decided that the breakages were' caused by bullets, Mr. Hollands said there were marks of lead shown on three of the insulators. _ In his opinion sportsmen who visited that area were responsible. Fogs 'Caused By Bush? The theory that bush brought fogs was advanced by Dr. F. V. Hildendorf In an address to the Canterbury Geographical Association on the changing landscape of the Waihola district. Dr. Hilgendorf disputed the theory that trees brought rain, but he said it was conceivable that bush brought fog through condensation of the atmosphere caused by the cooling of broadleafed trees. He recalled that the lighthouse at Cape Saunders, on Otago Peninsula, was originally built 500 feet above sea level. It was always in fog, and was shifted to a point just above the sea. The land was sold, and when the bush was cleared the fog disappeared from the hill on which the old lighthouse stood.

No Fifth Column in Java. v “There can exist no fifth column in Jara, because they have such efficient political research,” said Mr. R. Meyers, an. administration official from Java, who has come to New Zealand with his family for a few months, in an interview in Christchurch. He described the “political research” system of his country and said that the police there bad power, but good training as we.l. “If I was an alien in Java and you were a reporter seeing me you might meet an officer from the research afterward to ask what I had said. I tell you there can be no fifth column there now. In Holland they had democracy and they could not take steps before the war. In the Netherlands East Indies we have a democratic administration, but the police have the necessary power.”

No More Kingsford Smith Street. Work on the merging of Kingsford Smith Street into Rongotai aerodrome is steadily proceeding. At the Coutts Street end two fences of corrugated iron have been erected across what was Kingsford Smith Street, one on the building alignment and the other in a line with the rear boundary of the properties in 'Coutts Street, and at the Lyall Bay end there are barriers across the street. The aerodrome fence has been removed, and a start has been made on the removal of the strip of shrubbery on the eastern side of the street. The electric light posts have gone from the central lawn plots, and soon the plots will also disappear. Later the Exhibition fence fond outbuildings along that line, will be removed, considerably adding to the acreage available for the aerodrome and training ground. Training Tradesmen.

Approval of the New Zealand policy of catering for the development of competent all-round tradesmen by apprenticeship provisions, and then protecting such tradesmen by awards, was expressed in the Court of Arbitration by the inspector of awards, Mr. N. V. Dyett. He said the policy discouraged the growth of specialists in any one small section of a trade, labourers were sometimes employee for some months at welding work, and then let' loose on the community ar “welders.” Similarly there were what were known as “saw and hammer carpenters,” semi-skilled men who were employed by big contractors at nailing / on floor boards. “They used to be called ‘timber butchers,’ ” 'commented Mr. Justice Tyndall. The point he was making, said Mr. Dyett, was that ths country's award policy discouraged the practice of turning out partlytrained tradesmen by insisting that workers used as such be paid the rats for the fully-trained tradesmen.