NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 51, 1 March 1934, Page 10

NEWS OF THE DAY

Fewer^Bankruptcies; - ' i ;■ Bankruptcies ;ifc-Wellington for (the > first, two months, jof /"this year total only three, as,' ajja.inst. five for'the. same ■ two months last year. The figures aie as- follows: —January 1934, 1; February 1934, 2; January 1933. 1; Vebmaiy 1933, 4. , iGrades in Guilt. : There is a subtle distinction, between ;" heading rem" and "two-up." The .law—at-any rate in New South Wales . I —:says so. 3lr. Plynn, S.3L, at the 'Sydney Central Police. Court, fined 32 '■ men £1 eath for having played " two•;up" in-premises in'Bourke Street. Mr. '^Flynn said tliat in-the eyes of the law "two-up" Tj-as a more serious offence than "heading; 'em." "One- is an un-| lawful1 game- and the other a gauie- of chance," he said. A police prosecutor was afterwards asked to explain thej difference. "Two-up," he said, l'iht played -with a. ckip'—a. pieco of.woofdj on: which -the pennies ars placed—and in 'heading 'cm' the pennies we toss»>l from-the fingers." Maori Uprisings Recalled.. , The Government is to' provide Tj.cadstonfls for a number of unmarked graves of settlers- killed in the- llaori. ur/rflsings of 1860, according to advice- rece/i^ed by Mr. W. H. Skinner, Xew Plymoufc?i, from the Under-Secretary of Internal,, Affaus. Mr. Skinner has been in cornin-^nication with the Department on the su/oject-for some time, says the "TarauakiyHerald." The graves are at St. ila,ry'^ fend at Te Henui cemetery. At SI." Ulnry's the grave of llr. Harry Crinn. ivho -was waylaid on the Avenue RotM in 1860 by a ' marauding party of i/.'atives, and killed, is to be provided wifth. a suitable headstone. The other gr^.ve is at Te Henui ceineteTy, mid is a, common one of four persons killed at/Omata in the first outbreak of war Va March, 1860. Tho=e buried are :M>ssvy Passmoro and Shaw, and two boys, Wjte and Parker Tais grave will be marked with a headstone giving the- naiwoa of ' the four victims. The suitably commemoration of the graves of :/Saori War casualties, where they slHo unmarked has been an aetiicvemeji/t of which Mi. Skinner is justly pwj.ud. On several other occasions the Bepj t rtment of Internal , Affairs, on Mr. SfcV.nner's'recommenda- . tions,, has ,made /a/rrarigements for the provision of heafl/itones. : ,- "Fishing Rivali-w'at Chathams. A Passenger by the Chatham Island steamer Tees, iwhieh arrived at Lyttelton recently : from Waitangi, . stated Hiat there was. great competition in the Chatham Islands fishing industry as there were -fiW three rival parties operating, reports "The Star." 'There is one faciiory at Kaingaroa, one at Owenga, ai*l.the.South Sea stores her own catehf*!. The South Sea has eight ■launches aerating, six others fish for tjie Owen^x^factory^and four others for ;the^f actory a t Kaingaroa. On her way . to/'Lytte'hon the Tees passedthe South Sea bouail for the Chathams from Weliirtgton Vwth another launch in tow Alter the- disaster at Kaingaroa, when one of 'the fishing boats was lost and eleven !men were drowned, 'fishing was abandoned, but it is now being taken up.wK/h keen interest. The fishermen are r^jjorted- to be making good-money. A Sm/art Passage. He/r previous record of 30 ,days 17 I' 0"?, 3/ ,s,t eaming time .from Southampton to .Wellington was nearly bettered By the,- Shaw, Savill, and Albion Conipaa/.y's hner Tamaroa on the trip from bo?jthampton, which-finished yesterday ir«jrning at Auckland, reports the .Star." On the occasion of her former (best time the vessel's average speed f-was 15.24 knots, constituting a record i which stood for many years.- Until ■1 Tvithin: three days of portj'wheri a westerly gale retarded the,Tamaroa," her average for the trip.; had been, 15.26, ?- knots, and she then seemed ,to-have a good chance of lowering her record. Th& slower stage,' however, was sufficieritlv !' prolonged- to reduce the average specS for the voyage below the record speed. p As it was the passage from Southampton was made on the' present trip' in 32 days, the actual steaming time being 1 30. days 21 hours 6 minutes. The Pacific crossing between Panama and Auckland took- only 17 days 21 hours 23 minutes. The liner called at Pit- '■ cairn Island, -where she hove-to for an i hour. • .-.'..- i

University Year. j,Tlie 1934 University year will begin next Monday, when, new students of the Victoria College are required to interview the professors of various faculties for advice on the courses they propose to take. The first lectures begin next Wednesday. Vital Statistics. More marriages and more deaths, but fewer births, were recorded in"Wellington in Febraury this year as compared with the corresponding month ilast year. The figures- are as. follows, those for February 1, 1933, being in parentheses:—Births, 14S (160); deaths, 68 (58); marriage notices, 121 (103), including 34 (24) marriages by the registrar. ■ . Cherries from. Jerusalem. At Jerusalem, on the Wanganui Eiver, there is an area of forty acres of cherries, states "The Herald." Hitherto, very little, of the fruit from this area has been disposed of owing to the: difficulties and expense- in marketing, but it ii stated that.'next season active steps • will be taken-to marEet, the cherries and that they/'-will-be sent! down to Wanganui by lorry, for dis Ttribution. East year when the Gover-nor-General made a trip, down the ri^ier/ he received a box of these cherries at/, Jerusalem and pronounced them as) excellent. v"1"-. .- ■" •' More Tramway Apprentices. . With a view; to doing its share t»wards the. relief of. jnvenile employment, the Auckland Transport Bojard gave a committee power to'act in the direction of appointing to tha seirvice such number oif. lads a» was. thought fit,, provided the, total wages Involved \ did not exceed £250 a year. The* committee has empowered the manager to ; engage five additional apprentices iat the workshops r| whila two apprentices, whose; terms will shortly expire, may be replaced. Thus seven lads- "would be given employment (luring the current year. The chairman,. Mr.; J.. A, C. Allum, said that the steps taken wo/dld not involve any decrease, in the number of adult workers. Tribute to Composer. ■ A. tribute to the late Sir Edward Elgar, the eminent British.' composer, was made at last evening's meeting of the Wellington Harmonic, Society by ■Mb.. H. Temple, White. "He has always been, a very popular- comp/oser with tliis society,", said Wfaite. "I -don't think that there has be/en any -other composer drawn upon so. greatly. On two occasions entire pwogrammes have been devoted to his "works." There were about twenty ctf/the late Sir Edward's compositions the Harmonic Society's library, he <said. His death had been a severe Iblow to the world and to British music, "I consider that he is the leading British composer since the days of Pureell^and one of the leading contemporary' composers in the world," he. concluded. "Voluntary" 'Conversion. '■ ■ ,W,hen: the; Government put through its scheme foe 'converting existing 5J per cent, loams into securities bearing interest at 4 jier cent, stress was laid on the feature, that conversion was to be- voluntary- However, as the notification, was aeoojmpanied, by the gentle intimation tha^' those who did not choose to convert -would find' their stock subject to a taoc equal .to 33 1-3 per cent, the gieat majority of the holders throughout the Dominion and elsewhere lost little Itime in falling in with the plans of, tJhe Minister of Finance, the Auckland "Star," remarks/and a parcel of -Uje original 5i per cent, stock, due to mature in 1937, was offered for sale on the Auckland Stock Exchange. The hoider was willing to take £90 10a feij the £100 stock, but the offer failed! to attract any response from buyere. Had the holder converted" into 4 pwr cents, not only would hia interest retuun have been greater—it is now aboujt £3 13s per cent, per annum—bat iia cpuld have sold the stock readily at ab Ifcasfc £1 above par, irrespective of a*y; accrued interest. Sadar, Observations. ■ During last month Mr. G. V. Hudson, lo£ Karon; made solar observations on twenty-two days. He reports that the flisc was entirely free from spots on (six of those days, but on four of the spotless days faeulae were .detected. Five distinct groups of very, small aunspots were observed dnringvthe month, most of them being short-lived. No spot was noted which had. been observed during a previous rotation. The usual solar mottling was rather faint. These observations, he said, indicated that the sun's activity was still at a very low ebb, but it seemed likely' that the intense minimum- which prevailed' during many previous month's was now gradually giving place to ,a fresh eyele of solar activity. ■'■ :'■■'■ Auckland Buildings. ■■■ A feature of the -Auckland City building figures for February is the number of permits issued for dwellings (states an Auckland message). The total number of permits .issued last month was .105, representing a total outlay of £23,239. Included in these permits were 18-for dwellings. These returns are considerably in excess, of those for February of last year, which were the lowest for'about fifteen years. The 100.permits then issued represented a total value of £7785, and included five for dwellings. , During the past six. months'• close oh 10.0, new, houses have been erected or authorised in the city .area, comp.ared with less than half that number for the corresponding period of 12 months previously. Street Collection. '. - The street day. organised by the St. John Ambulance Association veslerday produced £132 2s G}d, an" increase of £23 5s 94d on the amount collected at the association's previous street day held two years ago. The receipts from the various stands are as follows:—Wairarapa Farmers' building, £6 Is 4^d; James Smith's building, £6 6s 10id; Vivian Street, £7 0s Hi; Y.M.C.Av, £9 13s, 4Jd; Bowen Street (Women's Auxiliary Free Ambulance), £11 0s B|d; D.1.C., £17 Os lOd; Courtenay Place, £7 19s 7d; Kirkcaldie and Stains,, £10 16s Sid; Corporal B. G- Fuller, (one.box), .£l6 2s i l-?' ■?•?;?•'" £23 3s; Bank of Nc-w Zealand (Mrs. Pow and helpers), £11 19s lOJd; Hataitai, £4 17s 6Jd. The chairman (Dr. J. S. Elliott), on behalf of the executive, wishes .'to extend grateful thanks-to the various helpers. A Dangerous^lnjlnence. - One of the'strongest and'most dangerous influences in the world today is that exerted by the makers of armaments and-munitions, said Dr "W. Williams, the visiting American journalist, in. an interview at Christchurch. Their agents'/are to be found in the nerve centres of Europe, waiting to seize on opportunities ■.to.inflame public opinion and thus -cause armed conflict. "It is. hardly possible to believe that men will actually plan war in order to make money, but that is the position today," he said. Although, he was not a pacifist in the ordinary sense of the- word, he did believe that there was no country .in-Europe wanting war today. There .was''no' public question which could not 'be settled by other means, but in all the capitals of Europe there was the nervous'tension of fear. The Treaty of "Versaill.es had made this worse than before 'the Great War, for it had changed the frontiers of Europe without consulting the people affected, and they had not settled down to the new conditions. Speaking of the Far East, Dr. Williams said that there was danger of conflict between the Soviet and Japan, but there again the possibility of war was accentuated by the actions of irresponsible individuals.