NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Begonias at the Gardens. Although the begonia house at the Botanical Gardens, has been open for some months now, the blooms are still very beautiful, and are well worth a visit. v This year the begonias have been ' admired by very large numbers of visitors, and have attracted much favourable comment. The begonia house will close about Easter. New Plymouth's Safe Harbour. Favourable comment on the shelter afforded to shipping in the harbour of New Plymouth was made to the chairman of the Harbour Board (Mr. C. E. Bellringer) by the commander of H.M.S. Laburnum when the sloop was in port at the end of last month. In mentioning the matter at a meeting of the board this week, Mr. Bellringer said that a particularly strong northerly gale raged while the' Laburnum, was in port, and the commander of the shin was surprised at tho calm tliat prevail* ed at the wharve^. The Worst Over? The view that the present depression is only temporary, and will soon pass, was expressed by Mr. H. W. Brodie, an overseas passenger, and manager of the Canadian-Pacific Railway Co., who arrived at Auckland.by the Aorangi from Vancouver yesterday. "So far as conditions in Canada and tho United States are concerned," he said, "the feeling in best-informed circles is that the worst is over, and that there will be a gradual improvement in business, which will be reflected in other directions." v The fact that New Zealand's name stands much higher in England than tihe name of Australia was commented on by Mr. James Burns, chairman of directors of the Burns, Philp Company, .also a passenger by the Aorangi. He says New Zealand is regarded as much more sane and sound in the' management of its affairs, and the : old confuadon between the two countries does not now seem to exist. Philosophy and the Barber. An indication of the changed conditions in post-war Germany .was given by Professor Blunt, in the course of a lecture at Christchurch. on Ober-Am-mergau (states "The Press"). "When I was in Munich I noticed that my barber spoko very good German, and that he seemed a well-educated man," said the professor. "It turned out that he was a Ph.D. of Lena University, and he remarked to me. 'Philosophy is all very well, but. there are no tips given for it. In this job there are plenty, and I am ; doing very well."' Cattle Injured by Dust. • The question of the great-nuisance and injury done to cattle on the farms fronting the main road through the Ngongotaha district was discussed -by the Eotoriia County Council (reports a local correspondent). A letter was received from a settler stating that already hundreds of acres had been damaged by dust poisoning the grass. Several farmers had been forced to leave the locality owing to their cattle refusing to eat the grass with the pumice adhering to it. A member of the council stated that cattle contracted tuberculosis from road dust. Mr. Ford /chairman) said metalling with pumice was a backward step, apart from the damage done to grass by dust. It was decided to ask the Department to investigate the position. Big-game Fishing Record. What may turn out to be the New Zealand big-game fishing record has been established by Mr. H. P. Evans, of Upper Burma, from the launch Naomi (states the Tauranga correspondent of the "New Zealand Herald"). In three full days' fishing and two halfdays off Mayor Island Mr. Evans hooked 29 swordfish and landed 11, the weights being irom 4071b down to 2071b. Scores of swordfish. were observed. The number of fish lost is not an unduly groat proportion to thoso captured, as Mr. Evans was fishing with a single hook and was fast trolling. '■ Had he been using a second, flying hook, as used by some big-game anglers, the number taken would certainly have been greater. Mr. Goodwill, of Taumarunui, while fishing off Mayor Island, also captured several swordfish and a large thresher shark. "Nowadays the Wit is Absent." The annual meeting of the Canterbury College Students' Association long ago ceased to be either a formal or an ordorly gathering, and last week's meeting at the' college was entiroly in the modern fashion (states the "Christchurch Times"). The serious proceedings were extra-mural. They had to be. It would have been impossible to conduct elections amid tho din and tumult, so the elections/ were held beforehand. Mr. C. H. Perkins prosided.' The seretary, Mr. H. B. Low, was understood to read tho annual report, but little could be heard of it. The tradition of noise at these gatherings is understood to have originated in a battle of wits many years ago, but nowadays the wit is (absent, and its placo is taken by the hurling-, not of jests, but of insults. Pepper-bombs supplant epi-grams,-mid chalk-bombs are substituted for eloquence. Applauso is expressed with motor-horns and whistles. This year, owing to tho noisiness of. the students', the meeting lasted only twenty minutes, mainly, perhaps, because the new'president did not relish, the idea of facing such tulcnt ;iml chalk.

Political Association. At tho committee mooting of the New Zealand Political Association held on Friday, the president (Mr. Edward ■Salmond) reported that over 100 new members had been enrolled in "Wellington during the past two or three weeks, and that tho total membership was nearly 2000. A Wind That Blew Good. An unusual case of January's northwest winds in Canterbury being of the greatest value to farmers is reported from Totara Valley. A farmer in the district, farming heavy land, had a fine crop of wheat which was laid, and, in the ordinary way, would have rotted. Tho winds, however, lifted it, and it .threshed more than 60 bushels to the aero of good milling wheat. A crop of wheat on a neighbouring farm threshed only a little over 30 bushels of fowl wheat, the crop having been ruined by the very winds which had been so beneficial to its neighbour. Our Educational System. "I feel mystelf rather a heretic and a reactionary in matters of education," stated Professor Blunt, at a meeting of the Parents' National Educational Union (reports the Christchurch "Press"). "Some twenty years ago, when I was faced with the problem of schooling for my small sons, I tried to find out something about modern practice in education, and lead all that I could lay my hands on. In tho end I became so confused by the diversity of opinion that I fell back on the 18th century, and on the classics. I remembered that Herodotus had said of the youngv Persians that they were taught 'to shoot straight, to sit a horse, and to tell the truth.' Those ideals, in modified form, would suit to-day. Add to them strict obedience, and the learning of certain fairly hard subjects weli taught, and I think a parent could bo assnred that his boy would fittingly take his place in the, world.." Women in Railway; Camps; • Speculation is rifo regarding the position of the women remaining at the railway camps between Gisborne and Waikokopu, says the "Poverty Bay Herald." No instructions have been received for the transfer of the women to the places where their husbands are now working, but on the other hand tenders have been called for the supply of wood to the camp at Bartlett's, and, judging from that, there is no immediate intention to remove the women. It is suggested unofficially 'in some quarters that the wives will remain at Bartlett's throughout the winter, except those ■who gradually drift away to join their husbands at their own expense. Quest for Gold. -An unusually large number of applications for claims and prospecting licences was made at the Warden's Court, Holiitika, on Thursday, indicating the renewed interest in the quest for gold. The Hokitika correspondent of the "Grey Eiver Argus" says that an objection -was raised to the new scale of fees for mining concessions. It was pointed out that an application for a small dam cost £2 12s in fees, including £1 Is licence fee and £1 for the consent of the Minister of Minos, after tho application had been fully inquired into oy. the Lands Department and the Warden.