NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 62, 10 September 1937, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Donation of a Shield.

A handsome kauri shield inlaid with a choice selection of New Zealand woods has been presented to the Hutt Valley High School by an anonymous donor for use as an interhouse competition shield. The shield will have on it the motto of the scnool, "Ad Alta," and will be studded with silver plates sufficient to cover 200 years of the school's future history. In addition to thanking the donor, the Board of Governors last evening expressed its thanks to Mr. Scott for the inlay worker, and to Mr. G. Alexander for the selection of New Zealand woods.

Illegal Interment.

■ A Maori pleaded guilty and was convicted and ordered to pay costs in the Magistrate's Court, Opotiki, recently on a charge of burying the body of Mihaka Perera without first obtaining a certificate as to the cause of death or an order to bury from the Coroner, says an exchange. The police said the case was brought with the object of apprising Maoris of their responsibilities under the Maori births and deaths registration regulations. <

Rescue by Girl Guide.

The efficiency of Girl Guide training was shown at Paeroa recently when Alice Campbell, aged. 15, rescued a companion, who was unconscious, from the river and successfully applied artificial respiration. A doctor upon arrival eulogised Miss Campbell's promptness and coolness. By adopting the correct methods of artificial respiration she had aided considerably in the revival of the girl.

Car Turns Over.

The sight of a pair of car headlights In a very unusual position near the Petone end of the Hutt Road attracted the attention of city-bound motorists at about midnight yesterday. The lights were dimmed, and appeared to be correctly aligned," but were vertical instead of horizontal. Investigation disclosed the fact that a large sedan car 'of modern type had gone into a skid and turned over on its side. The driver, who was the sole occupant, was uninjured. Damage to the car was confined to dents and scratches, and the car was quickly placed on its wheels again.

Facts About Mountains.

"If the top half of a mountain could be suddenly cut off it would tend to rise again," declared Dr. K. E. Bullen, lecturer in mathematics at the Auckland University College, in an address to the Auckland-Astronomical Society, reports the "New Zealand Herald." He said that, likewise, if a sufficiently great weight were placed on it, it would sink to an appropriate level. It could be shown mathematically, however, that the earth could not possess a mountain exceeding about six miles in height nor an ocean exceeding six miles in depth. Thus Mount Everest was close to the maximum height theoretically possible.

The Soviet Trials. , "The recent trials in the Soviet Union have perhaps assumed exaggerated proportions in New Zealand eyes. The theoretical attacks by the Trotskyite intellectuals have evidently succeeded in bemusing liberal opinion in New Zealand and England," said Mr. I. F. G. Milner, a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, who arrived in Christchurch on Wednesday, reports the "Press." He visited Russia and other parts of Europe when abroad. . He said that there was only too much evidence of Nazi espionage and sabotage at work in every country in Europe and overseas; It had worked with General Franco and the Spanish generals before the rebel attack on the Government, and obviously its energies were concentrated most thoroughly on the country which was the sworn enemy of Hitler's Germany. There was nothing in the trials of the Trotskyite saboteurs and.the general of the Red army to indicate anything in- the nature of widespread discontent in Russia today. Communist and Fascist Rule.

"It is common to lump Russia, Germany, and Italy together as countries under dictatorships where democratic and civil liberties as we. understand them are not supposed to exist. Nobody in Russia would deny that a dictatorship of the working class exists, but there is an essential difference between the Russian and Fascist forms of dictatorship," said Mr. I. F G. Milner, a New Zealand Rhodes Schoiar, who has returned to the Dominion, and arrived in Christchurch on Wednesday, reports the "Press." He said that the difference was twofold. In the first place, the Russian system had an' entirely different economic basis, being founded on common ownership of the means of production for the advancement of social welfare and not for the defence of the capitalist system. Second, the Russian dictatorship was purely provisional, pending the transformation of the antiworking class elements to bring them into line with the new Socialist community. He said that the new constitution for Rusisa, which was to take effect this year, had done much to swing liberal thought in England towards a favourable view of Russia.