NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 74, 29 March 1939, Page 10

NEWS OF THE DAY

Scholarships Awarded.

Two Turnbull University Scholarships were yesterday afternoon awarded by the Wellington Colleges Board of Governors to Ivan L. Holmes, of Day's Bay, and Alan Miles, of Karori. There were four applications for the scholarships, which are tenable at the university for two years. Billeting of Children. It is estimated that more than 15,000 children will visit Wellington for the Exhibition, mostly between next January and April. A special committee is in existence to consider the problem of billeting the children, and yesterday afternoon .the Wellington Colleges Board of Governors appointed Mr. L. McKenzie and Mrs. Knox Gilmer to represent it on the committee. Honest in Small Things. Americans are amazingly honest in small matters, said Mr. John Aston, who has just' returned to Wellington j from a tour of the United States. In many places he saw newspaper stands between rival offices and in the top half was one paper, and in the bottom the other. In between was a slot for the nickel. All one had to do was to pull one's paper out, but all the time he watched these stands, Mr. Aston never saw anyone take a paper without putting in the nickel. Wheat Growers' Difficulties. Wheat is subject to a number of diseases and pests which add to the growers' difficulties. Amongst the diseases is "take-all," a root disease, the name of which is sufficiently expressive. Outbreaks of this have occurred recently near Rakaia and near Oamaru. Frost during the ripening period has a very deleterious effect on the quality of the grain, and unfortunately this year there have been early frosts in the South Island wheatgrowing areas. At Methven, for instance, on January 11 the grass temperature fell as low as 17 degrees. The Wheat Research Institute has circulated a bulletin which advises how best to use frosted grain. Fair Rents Act Definition. A tenement comprising a house, outbuilding, and 5£ acres of land, subdivided by fences into a four-acre paddock, a one-acre paddock, and the house section, has been held by Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in a reserved judgment given in the Magistrate's Court, to be not a dwelling-house within the meaning of the Fair Rents Act, 1936. The Inspector of Factories contended that a dwelling-house included all land used in connection with the house, but the Magistrate thought that the intention of the Legislature was to limit the operation of the Act to the typical building section which contained a certain amount of land around the house for lawns, gardens, and sites for the garage, wash-house, and similar outbuildings. Once land additional to the curtilage of the actual dwelling-house was included in the tenement it was outside the provisions of the Act, and his Worship held that the tenement in the case before him was not a dwellinghouse within the meaning of the Act, Over-loud Radios. Lord Horder, the eminent medical specialist, has been going closely into the bad effects of noise on hearing. As president of the Noise Abatement League he recently announced that that body had already embarked on a campaign against the unduly loud radio set, especially in residential quarters. "We hope," he said, "to get a Bill introduced which will make it an offence to use a loud-speaker so as to disturb one's neighbours—an offence which will enable Magistrates on conviction to suspend or take away a licence altogether. We are also considering the possibility of limiting the output of sets with too big a volume of sound." Referring to the aggressively noisy" motor-car, Lore" Horder said: "After we have discussed the sports model, which, because it cannot sound its hooter, opens its exhaust, we shall also discuss street musicians and hawkers. The silence enactment regarding motor hooters has had a much larger influence on hooter blowing in general all through the 24 hours than many people recognise." The State in Business. The selling by the Government of New Zealand's products of the soil, its scenery, weird wonders of the thermal district, and trout in the lakes and streams, was linked up with the present activity in industrial development during the hearing of a local body deputation by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) yesterday. It was stated by the deputation that the Government carried out the functions of local organisations in that it controlled the principal activities of Rotorua—scenic and thermal rights, gardens, swimming baths and pools, trout fishing, game shooting, and the sanatorium. Mr. Parry agreed that Rotorua was virtually a State town. The Government controlled many of Rotorua's activities, but an efficient council and a wide-awake Mayor attended to borough matters. With general and local government control Rotorua, its novel and magnetic attractions, had not been allowed to slip back. There had been in recent 'years a remarkable development in the thermal district from all standpoints, particularly in the improvements made in fabilities to enable the people to enjoy scenic wonders and beauties, fishing, and other sports, and in the bringing in for cultivation w'rie areas of agricultural land.