NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 74, 24 September 1936, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Ambergris on Beach. A piece of ambergris weighing 25jlb has been found by Mr. G. R. McLeod, a resident of Babylon, near Dargaville, on the west coast near Mangonui Bluff (states a Dargaville correspondent). The ambergris was brought to Dargaville and deposited at a bank. Its market price is stated to be about 5s an ounce. A local resident who forwarded some ambergris to London recently for sale had the consignment returned to him, as there was no demand on the market for it. Gold Prospecting Schemes. Mr. J. S. Hunter, secretary of Labour, Wellington, and Mr. W. Bromley* of the Employment Division, Wellington, are on an official visit to the West Coast. According to a Greymouth report, they have been inspecting gold prospecting schemes. Whilst at Greymouth, they met the members of the now defunct Grey County Mining Executive and thanked them for their past services in carrying out the scheme in the past three years. On Monday Messrs. Hunter and Bromley left Greymouth for the Buller district. Accident While Skiing. While taking part in one of the Tongariro Ski Club's events on Mount Ruapehu on Sunday afternoon, Mr. B. Phillips fell and the point of one of his skis was jammed in his mouth (states, the "New Zealand Herald"). A subsequent X-ray examination at the Taumarunui Hospital that night showed that his jaw had been fractured and that a clot of blood had formed below one of his eyes. After the accident he took part in another race, but his face swelled and members of the club persuaded him to go to the hospital for attention. He is making satisfactory progress. Speed and the Mind. "The whole trouble is that the speed of the cars has outgrown the mental development of the drivers," said Mr. J. R. Haigh (president) at the annual meeting of the Southland Automobile Association, when discussing the increasing number of road accidents, J states the "Southland News." "The Minister of Transport can depend on support being given to him in his efforts to reduce such accidents," he said. "Individual motorists, by strict observance of the highways code, can do much to help in the matter. One is often placed in a position of peril by a thoughtless driver." The Port's Trade. The port's trade statistics for the month of August, when compared with the month of August last year, show an increase in the tonnage handled and a decrease in the shipping arrivals. The increase in tonnage was largely due to the import cargoes from British and foreign ports and also from coastal ports. Transhipments and exports to coastal and Australian ports show a small increase. Coal and oils in bulk both show a decline, I but timber imports have improved. The combined totals of the goods handled at the port amounted to 136,473 tons, as compared with 132,321 tons, an increase of 4152 tons. The total net register tonnage of trading vessels arriving was 287,698 tons, as against 296,331 tons. Summer Time on Sunday. Clocks on Sunday next are to be advanced by thirty minutes in order to conform with Summer Time, which will be operative from then until the end of April next. The effect/will be that the sun on Sunday will set at 6.22 p.m. instead of at 5.52 p.m. as would have been the case otherwise, thus extending the daylight in the latter portion of the day. Sunrise will bo correspondingly later, at 6.2 a.m. instead of 5.32 a.m., but that will not inconvenience nearly as many people as will benefit by the lengthened day. Officially, the change over to Summer Time takes place at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning: practically, as far as the majority of people are concerned, it will take place at a somewhat later and more convenient hour.

Trams Held Up. Upwards of twenty tram-cars bound from -various parts of the city and suburbs were held up for a short period a little before 9 a.m. today when the trolley-pole of a Newtown-bound tram caught in the overhead wires at the intersection of Cuba and Manners Streets. The car, which was turning up into Cuba Street, stopped across the rails, and before it could be moved on a line of cars extended east to the Grand Opera House and west almost to Willis Street. With the assistance of other trarmvaymen, the lines were cleared, and first the west-bound cars, then those going east got under, way again. Shortage of Apprentices. The fact that there are only ten male apprentices to the bespoke tailoring trade throughout the Dominion was stated in the Arbitration Court by the employers' representative (Mr. W. E. Anderson) at Auckland on Tuesday (states the "New Zealand Herald"). Mr.J Anderson was quoting the Labour Department's 1935 figures. Miss A. E. Cossey, representing the employees, added that seven of these apprentices were in Christchurch. Mr. Anderson was not able to give the number of female tailoring apprentices, but Miss Cossey said there were only about three in Auckland. In Mr. Anderson's opinion the team system, in which a journeyman has four female workers in his charge, was absolutely necessary to enable the industry to survive. Value of Physical Training. The importance of gymnastics and physical culture was emphasised by Dr. Hansen, principal of the Christchurch Technical College, at yesterday's conference of the Technical Education Association. He mentioned that the teacher in charge of physical culture at the Christchurch Technical College had recently visited Scandinavian countries and had been amazed to note the attention given to physical training there. One teacher had complained bitterly that only three hours a week for each class was given for physical training, whereas in New Zealand there was a tendency to consider half an hour a class a week sufficient. The same teacher had attended a refresher course in North Sweden, and there the leader, who had done the same exercises as the refreshers, was aged 65, and all the teachers were women over 40 years dt age. New Zealand had need to take stock of the position.. Physical training classes were resorted to as a means of raising the standard of fitness of C 2 men during the war, but it should not be left until times of national emergency to pay attention to physical . training either of school pupils or of adults. Misdirected Energy? Many hundreds of people gaped with | astonishment at, and otherwise expressed admiration of, the hundreds of stately daffodils which graced the exhibition benches at the flower show in the Town Hall yesterday. There seemed to be an incredible number of different varieties, and there was a natural tendency to praise the skill of hybridists in producing them. But not so on. the part of one old gentleman, not a disappointed exhibitoi-, who happened to be there. In fact he was audibly sniffing about the blooms, none of which, he said, rivalled in beauty the simple originals as devised by Mother Nature. "In vain will experimentalists strive to produce a more charming flower than those daffodils which filled their cups with tears for Milton's Lycidas," he remarked. "And why all this misdirected energy directed towards Moscowising the lovely English bloom —to achieving red cups and even red daffodils?" He added that he did not know what had possessed horticulturists. .If they had thought that they were improving upon Nature by breeding monstrosities they were much mistaken.