NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 112, 14 May 1930, Page 10

NEWS OF THE DAY

Prime Minister's Health. The 'Wellington Chamber of Commei'ce recently wrote to Sir Joseph 'Ward, Prime Minister, expressing sympathy with him in his'illness, and expressing a hope for his early recovery. A reply has been received from Sir Joseph .Ward stating that he was happy to say that he was daily improving, as the result of treatment at Botorua. Although he had not yet decided upon the date of his return to Wellington, he hoped 'to be back very'soon. - Fine Grain Yields. Yields of oats and wheat in Southland this season may be described as phenomenal (says the "Southland Daily News")- Not only is the return exceptionally heavy, but the quality ia high. Evidently rainfall and sunshine have contributed to unchecked growth, and no doubt' the increased use of fertilisers lias played its pait. ■ One hundred bushels of oats per acre has not been unusual, and in several cases' this has been exceeded. On one farm in the Otahuti district the - : return was 130 bushels per acre, andi on another, at Rakakouka 127 bushels. Oats should prove a very profitable crop this year, as owing to a shortage in Canterbury good prices appear assured. Commercial Education. \\ . , ' At a meeting of the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last evening a report was received from the Commercial Education Committee stating that the committee had considered- ttio suggestion, through the Associated Chambers, that, the conimeroial examination promoted by the Wellington Chamber last '.year should be extended- through them; bue it was recommended that for the i present the .Wellington Chamber should carry on with its examinations, leaving it open to any., of the other chambers of commerce, metropolitan or country, to • associate themselves with the Wellington examinations or to: act. individually in the matter! No doubt as these examinations became better established, a Dominion schome would evolve with co-ordination of examination dates, etc.,'which would suit both large and small chambers, and the oxperiencc gained should give data. Tlio report stated thatltho syllabus for the 1930; examination would, it was hoped, bo, issued' in Juno 'or July, and the .examinations would bo held about the .end of November, S . -

Belmont Gas Pressure. Householders in the Bclinont district who'arc troubled1 with a poor pressure of gas should very soon havo cause for complaint removed. The Pctono and Lower Hutt C4as Lighting Board -lias on order from England a governor to be used to give an increased pressure of gas in Belrnont. Five Peaks Scaled. < "The weather was brilliant, but we could have done with a little more snow," said a. member of .the Christcliurch Mountaineering and Tramping Club, relating to a "Press" reports the doings of a large party of members who spent tho week-end in the Alps. He said the mountains'wore remarkably tree of snow. No fewer than 31 members of the club left Christchurch on Saturday afternoon for Castle Hill, and on Sunday the following mountains were climbed: Mounts Enys, Cloudesley, Izard, Cheeseman, and Olympus. Some of the trampers reached the summit of all five. Members of the Christehureh Ski Club- wero engaged duringl tho week-end on the completion of the hut on the slopes of Mount Cheeseman. Helping Cripples. The assistance given to cripples in other countries was mentioned by Dr. Alexander Gillies in an address at the Kotary. Club yesterday., He said that Germany gave vocational advice -and training for the deformed; and a premium was paid to an employer training a cripple. There was also a law which provided that • every firm employing more, than 50 men must engago at'least 2 per cent, of disabled 'men suffering from least 50 per cent, disability. In" the United- States and Canada they had special jobs ear-marked for- cripples.'; At the Ford works certain posts were definitely reserved for cripples. In Detroit, in the Ford works, there were 9000 cripples .earning full wages; they included blind and legless. Flints for "Grinding Cement. /: Included in the cargo on tlie Bcgulus which left Westport recently for Tar'akoho were six tons of pebbles picked from the Granity to Ngakawau beach for grinding cement (states mi exchange). This industry has been going on for several years and many hundreds of tons have been shipped to Tarakohe and Milburn. : Originally the companies used European flints, but during the past five years the supplies have been derived from Westport.'Unfortunately, tho rearranging of-"the plants will do ,away with stone for grinding, tho substitute being steel balls. Infantile Paralysis. "Wo arc just coming into the problem of the products of the first infantile paralysis epidemic of 1916," said Dr. A. Gillies, orthopedic surgeon, Wellington Hospital, ■at a meeting of the Rotary Club yesterday. He remarked that we. had no record of how many cripples there wero as a result of that epidemic, but already a few pitiful examples of these cases had come to his attention. The unfortunate position of the cripple 'who had grown to adolescnce or middlo age without the capacity or habit of work ,-was imperfectly graspeji by many people. ' It might come as a surpriso that there waji no provision for such cases beyond temporary relief and precarious charity. How Footballers Do Good. When addressing Auckland Ro tartans yesterday, Lord Bledisloc, in emphasising the need, for cultivation of grass pastures, said there was an old and a true saying that the sheep had a golden foot, reports tho ''Auckland Star." Not only did its sharp feet tear up tho ground'and let the air in, but it also consolidated the soil. In England land owners had long been prejudiced against allowing their .fields to bo used -for football, but it was now recognised that the tearing up of the ground had a beneficial effect on subsequent growth. "Indeed," humorously remarked His Excellency, "I am not sure that land owners, instead of charging.footballers rent, should not pay them.to use the, ground."1 > Game Birds. Though making an excellent dish, tho Canadian goose is a contrary bird in tho eyes ,of sportsmen', for 'he is too wary. Mr. D. Hope, Curator to the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, estimates that there are three to five thousand geese on Lake Ellesmere, but not a great many of these find their way to the shooter's bag. They cannot be .tempted towards mai-mais, while they do not break up into small groups to fly across the.line of fire as ducks do, states "The Press." - Mr. Hope explained on ; V-Saturday 'that Canadian geese are migratory birds in their native- land,-which characteristic they retain to a,certain degree, in this their adopted country. In Canada they come down from the Arctic regions for ■the. winter, returning in the spring to rest.. In Canterbury they do not rest at Lake Ellesmere, but on the back country lakes, coming to Ellesmere in the autumn. They have thrived very well. "There will toot be much'doing among the ducks until ■ the weather breaks/ added Mr. Hope. • '.'The birds are plentiful on the lake. There are also plenty of swans, though not so many as there were years ago. Then the ducks.were so plentiful that sportsmen could fill, their bags without troubling about the swans, but thai;: is not so to-day. People have also discovered that they make quite a tasty dish." Beferring to quail, he did not think that they .were any more plentiful than last season, when they were very scarce. He knew of places in the riverbeds where they used to be found in fair numbers, but where to-day there were none. Stoats and weasels did much damage among the eggs and young birds. ' .'■ -