NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1938, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Domination of Scotland. "For over 700 years we have been trying to convince the Englishman that our country is our own," said Mr. J. O'Farrell, representing Eire, a member of the United Kingdom delegation to the British Commonwealth Relations Conference, when speaking at the welcome to some members of the delegation at Parliament Buildings yesterday. "Now there is another fight starting in the United Kingdom," added Mr. O'Farrell. "It is a fight by the Englishman to throw off the domination of Scotland —and I think it is likely to be a pretty hopeless fight." (Laughter.) Co-operation Between Boroughs. A tribute to the Mayor of Lower Hutt (Mr. J. W. Andrews) was paid by Mr. G. London, Mayor of Petone, at the annual ball of the Petone Free Kindergarten on Tuesday. Mr. London said that although there was talk of parochial feeling between the bor*wghs, Mr. Andrews had set an example to all in being above this, and co-oper-ating to the full in any movement for the benefit of the two borQughs and the Hutt Valley generally. An example was his practical interest in the move to have a memorial erected on the Petone beach in honour of the first settlers. Wet Rugby Season. What is probably the wettest Rugby season on record has concluded for the Hutt Valley primary schools. It wias impossible to finish the competitions, because only four matches were played. For six successive weeks the grounds were too wet to allow any play. The result was that what was practically an untrained team was entered for the annual toufnament among the Hutt Valley, Horowhenua, Rangitikei, and Taranaki primary schools. Hutt Valley came last, gaming one draw and losing two games. Never Seen an Aeroplane. When the schoolboys visiting the Hutt Valley for the annual primary schools' Rugby tournament were takten for a motor trip round the Marine Drive, it was found that four members of the Rangitikei team had never seen an aeroplane. Fortunately, the party arrived opposite the Rongotai Aerodrome just as a plane was leaving the ground, and the four boys had a close view of what was to them a wonderful spectacle. Some of the. Rangitikei boys came from schools that contained only a handful oi pupils. "Classics of the Future." "We dannot tell, really, what modernism is going to lead to," said Mr. Felix Swinstead, F.R.A.M., speaking to members of the Wellington branch of the British Music Society last night. "There is no doubt there are earnest musicians writing music at the present day that will become the classics of the future. Of course, you have got to be dead first." (Laughter.) Beethoven was hated for a long time, said Mr. Swinstead, and so was Wagner, and even Chopin's harmonies were thought at the period to be crude and rough. Musical Expression. The opinion that expression marks in printed music were very clumsy and were merely a very rough guide as to how the composer thought the piece should be played was expressed by Mr. Felix Swinstead, F.R.A.M., during the course of a lecture-recital to members of the Wellington branch of the British Music Society last night. He often wondered, said Mr. Swinstead, what would happen if poetry books had expression marks. Children would learn the poetry, look at the expression marks, and follow them without thinking what the poem was about. It would be a case of "follow the directions and you will be all right." (Laughter.) Increase in Recruiting. During the month of July, the number of recruits who joined the Territorial Forces in the three New Zealand military districts exceeded the. number of discharges by 227, according to a table prepared by Defence Headquarters. The number of new recruits in the three districts was as follows, the number of discharges in each case being given in parentheses:—Northern District, 113 (91); Central District, 217 (86); Southern District, 147 (73). From these figures it will be seen that the Central District, for which Wellington is the centre, had considerably the' largest number of recruits during the month. Electrical Goods. Greater official control over the sale of electrical goods was sought in a petition, containing more than 560 signatures, . from Palmerston North, which was reported on in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Industries and Commerce Committee. Petitioners asked that legislation should be passed to regulate the sale of these goods and to provide for the registra-1 tion of firms dealing with them. On the first point the Committee recommended the suggestion to the Minister of Public Works and the New Zealand Standards Institute for the purpose of developing standard specifications to be used for the sale and control of electrical appliances, consideration also to be given to the issue of a standard mark, on a voluntary basis, for the guidance of the purchasing public. On the question of registration, the Committee felt that whatever steps were necessary should be taken to ensure the .1 effectiveness of the wiring regulations. : It had no recommendation to make on a proposal that the sale of unassembled r wiring accessories should be presented. " . ,