NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 117, 20 May 1939, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Ten Degrees of Frost.

An exceptionally cold snap was experienced in the Waikato on Thursday morning, 10 degrees of frost being recorded at Ruakura, four degrees at Whitiora, 3.8 degrees at Cambridge, and 4.5 degrees at Te Aroha, states a Hamilton correspondent. The ground was covered with a mantle of white until after 8 o'clock, the frost being the heaviest experienced this year. At Waihi a frost of six degrees was registered, this being the first this winter. Seashore Planting. Salt spray is damaging, ngaio trees which have been planted between Point Howard and Lowry Bay, and the Hutt County Council yesterday afternoon agreed to a request from the Wellington Beautifying Society to plant pohutukawa trees along the road to protect the ngaios. The trees are. to be supplied by the society, and the cost of planting is to be borne by the county. Giant Puff-balls. . Two giant puff-balls of the nonedible variety are at present on display at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, states the "New Zealand Herald" The puff-balls, which were found in the P^pakura Valley, measure 41 inches and 24 inches m circumference, respectively. The larger of the two, having been picked several days ago, has shrunk and turned a purplish brown, but the smaller growth is quite yellow and moist, with cracks appearing in its outer coat through which yellow spores can be seen clinging together. The shrinkage of the larger ball is due to the spores having dried and having been released in fine clouds. Miss L. M. Cr an well, botanist at the museum, identified the puffballs as a rare growth known as Calvatia. A Good Service. Pride in the fact that during the depression the Hutt County Council had not reduced its contributionuto the Wellington Free Ambulance was expressed by councillors at the meeting of the council yesterday afternoon. Councillors spoke in eulogistic terms of the service rendered by the ambulance, and agreed to a request from the superintendent of the Free Ambulance that the council approve of legislation empowering the Hutt County Council to contribute a sum not exceeding £150. Little Old Lady Passes By. A resident of Wellington who knows and appreciates the song about the "Little Old Lady Passing By" was walking along one of the city's streets yesterday when -he was hustled on by a push from behind. He attempted to increase his pace b^ut before he could do so received another push and stepped aside. To his astonishment he discovered that the person behind him was a little old lady, apparently nearing four score years, but still active and obviously in a hurry. Taupo Baths Scheme. , An assurance that the proposal to construct thermal baths at Taupo had not been lost sight of, and that the necessary plans and investigations are well forward, has been given to Mr A. F. Moncur. M.P., by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple), states a Rotorua correspondent. In a letter to Mr. Moncur, Mr. Semple stated that Cabinet approval had already been given to the work, and that actual plans for the construction of the baths building were in the hands of the Government architect and were well advanced. However, considerable preliminary investigation was necessary into the nature of the thermal water to be used and samples of water from the Kathleen Spring and the A.C. Spring were in the hands of the analyst. The question of water rights and easements for the passage of the pipelines from the springs was also somewhat involved, and was causing spme delay. Duck Nests in Tree. A reliable observer, writing to the Forest and Bird Protection Society from the Foxton district, says that , a grey duck built its nest some twenty feet from the ground, in a macrocarpa. Eleven ducklings were successfully hatched, and the puzzle was: How would the young birds reach the ground? Some people assert that,the parent bird carries the young ducklings down on its back. By good fortune, however, the process was . observed. The mother duck took up her stand at the foot of the tree and began calling her young, which, one after another, leaped from the nest and, with the aid of their undeveloped wings, landed gently alongside their mother. No. 11, however, refused to leave the nest, despite the mother's incessant calling. She evidently knew that eleven had to be accounted for, and continued her appeals. At last No. 11 took courage and jumped. Immediately the duck took her family to' a nearby drain. "Angel Gabriel is Chasing Me!" "I will let you into a secret, and I won't whisper it. The same financial advisers who advised Messrs. Coates and Forbes to do what they did in making wages cuts and dismissing thousands, advised us to do the very same. We positively refused to do it and went our own way to maintain the standard of living, the volume of purchasing power to further feed and house our people." This statement was made on Thursday night at West Spreydon by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) when he defended the Government's policy of import restriction and industrial building in New Zealand, states the "Press." "Under no circumstances will we reduce wages in this country—no matter what happens. The people have not got sufficient now. and I hope to see the day that they will get more of what the hands and brains will create. I have been fighting for that since I was a kiddy, and I am not going to turn my back on it now when the angel Gabriel is chasing me. We won't impose poverty on God's people for all the newspaper editors and political humbugs of this world when we know we have the richest resources in the world and food for all,"