NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 270, 13 August 1942, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF

Minimum Fare Cars

The Wellington City Council has decided that the running o£ minimum fare cars will in future not begin before 5 p.m.

Manners Street Rebuilding. A joint meeting of the housing and town planning and the bylaws committees of the Wellington City Council willf be held this afternoon to consider the question of rebuilding in Manners Street. Rations For Infants. . A suggestion that coupons for fruit and honey should replace those for sugar and tea in infants’ ration books was to be taken up with the Government, it was stated at the Auckland provincial conference of the Plunket Society.

Dangerous Area. Due to the rather .precarious condition of the parapet of the warehouse premises of Ellis and Manton, damaged in the recent earthquake, the section of Bond ' Street between Farish and Lombard Streets has been roped off as a dangerous area. , .

No Pennant Play. In addition to the'three series of pennant bowling competitions which the Wellington Bowling Centre decided on. Tuesday night to abandon for next season, the junior pennant also will not be played. Thus there will be no pennant play in the Wellington centre next summer. Post Office Clock and Bells. ‘ Pending suitable arrangements for their installation in a new tower, storage of the clock' and bells, from the Wellington Central Post Office tower, now in course of demolition, is being provided by the city council. The clock and bells are the joint property of the city council and the harbour board. Potatoes are Luxuries.

“Cabbages and potatoes, which are imported; are an extreme luxury; potatoes cost 3d. a pound,” says John Gunther, writing of Paraguay, in his book, “Inside Latin America.” Yesterday in Wellington shops the only potatoes procurable were labelled 1/4 a pound. Potatoes are not such an extreme luxury in Paraguay after all.

Fatal Fall. _ A man, aged 28, Maurice Oliver Braddock, fell from the fifth story window of a building in Elliott Street, Auckland, on Tuesday, and died on the way to hospital. He was not known to the staff in the building. He had been an inmate of an Auckland hospital for some weeks. His wife and child live at Grey Lynn.— P.A.

Pies For Toddlers. Travelling about New Zealand and watching food habits, in. public eating places, one got a good idea of “the dreadful food the people do eat,” said Dr. Helen Deem, medical adviser to the Plunket ■Society, speaking at the Auckland provincial conference of the society. It was a common thing to see toddlers demanding pies, and, not content with a pie, drenching it with spiced sauces. A.T.C. Sunday Panwles. The practice of holding parades of the Air Training Corps on Sundays was criticised at a meeting of the'Auckland Presbytery. Only boys from secondary schools attended such parades, it was asserted, and they could equally well carry out their training on Saturday afternoons. It was stated that the objection of the Presbyterian Church to Sunday parades had already been brought to the attention of the I’rime Minister, who had replied that the representations made would receive his consideration.

Dive Through Window. A remarkable escape from injury was experienced by a serviceman who dived through a plateglass window in Auckland and landed on a footpath without a scratch. The man accidentally upset a table in a restaurant in Customs Street, and when approached by the proprietress, lie ran the length of tlie room, evidently intending to leave the premises. In his flight he missed the doorway and went headlong through the large plate-glass window. He was unhurt when he landed on the footpath. Schoolboy’s Death. At an inquest yesterday morning in Dunedin into the death of Robert Thomas Dow, a schoolboy, the evidence disclosed that he and several other boys were endeavouring to descend an 800-foot cliff at Smaill’s Beach, near the city, and were only a short distance i>ver the edge when Dow slipped. The coroner and police paid tribute to the courage of Sapper McFarlane, who risked his life to recover the body from the depths below. He was lowered over the cliff by police and military, and when 750 feet of rope had been paid out, a further length had to be joined.

Cost of Cycle Tyres. There had been no increase in the price of cycle tyres for two years, said Mr. K. A. Macdonald, representative of the Ministry of Supply on the national committee dealing with the allocation of cycle tyres and tubes, commenting yesterday on the opinion expressed by some dealers that new stocks might cost throe and a half times the price in the immediate past. No application for an increase had been made to the I’rioj Tribunal. Though no guarantee could be given about future prices, it was considered unlikely that any increase would be so great because for motor tyres the increase in retail price was only 41 per cent.

Invalid in Burning Room. Before the flames in a burning house could cut off the means of escape from his room in which he was lying, Mr. A. Henderson, aged 73, of Hawera, who has been bedridden for many years, was dragged to safety by his wife. Ignoring the clouds of smoke and flames that swept across the room, Mrs. Henderson brought her husband into the passage of the house and a passer-by, whose attention was attracted by the smoke, assisted her to take him to a neighbour's house. The fire had a strong hold on the building, but the brigade managed to confine it to the front rooms, which were severely damaged, as were the contents.

New Means to Hospitality. A record of the hobbies and peacetime occupations of visiting servicemen is being compiled at the information bureau conducted by the British-American Cooperation Movement at the Allied Services Club, ■ Manners Street, Wellington. By this means the visitors will be brought into contact with hosts of similar tastes, it is hoped. Not only individuals will be brought together, but also large groups of the visitors may be introduced to sports organizations and other bodies. A rota of about 70 women, mostly wives and daughters of members of the movement, provide continuous staffing for the bureau, which supplies all kinds of inforrnatiou'fo the men, and the movement provides hosts at the club also.