NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 42, 18 August 1939, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Pension Payments

The forty-first and final report of the Pensions Department, which has been absorbed by the Social Security Department, was presented to Parliament yesterday. The report shows that pensions paid in New Zealand increased from 110,015 at March 31, 1933, to 117,747 at March 31, 1939, and that the total payments increased from i £6,312,530 to £6,780.344. This represented an increase per hsad of population from £4 3s 2d to £4 Ss 3d. The largest, item was old-age pensions, which increased from £3.235.057 for 59.953 pensioners to £3,577,129 for 66.694 pensioners. War pensions came j next and invalidity pensions were third. Craft Centres for Cripples. Tha advisability of forming crafc centres for the purpose of employing I cripples unable to find employment I elsewhere was urged in a remit adopted at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society yesterday afternoon. A special committee is to be set up to report on the proposal to the next meeting of the society. In moving the remit, Dr. Leslie Will (Christchurch) said the object lof the proposal was to make some provision for those who, for want of a better term, might be called almost unemployable. Experience in other countries had shown that valuable work I could be done in the direction of fitting boys and girls to support themselves to some extent at least. Function of the Eyes. A statement that a person does not actually see with his eyes was made by a medical witness when giving evidence in connection with a damages claim in the Hamilton Supreme Court on Wednesday, states the "New Zealand Herald." The witness said the eyes were really the lens of a human camera, reflecting the image upon a compartment at the back of the brain, from which sight was actually registered. People, he added, had been blinded from a blow on the back of the head.» Australia's Proud Heritage. An unflattering but undeniably humorous definition of Australians was provided by the Rev. C. J. Tocker. convener of the Presbyterian temperance committee, during a farewell social given in honour of the Rev. J. H. Blanchard, an ex-president, and Pastor A. G. Saunders, a former member of the committee of the New Zealand Alliance, who are both leaving shortly for Australia. He understood, said Mr. Tocker, that in Australia Mr. Blanchard and Pastor Saunders would meet the people who had been described by some as the finest in tho world. He had also heard them described as the people who had been selected by the finest Judges in England. (Laughter.) Maori Bush at Pelorus. In a notice of question to the Acting Minister of Native Affairs (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) in the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr. IL. T. Tirikatene (Southern Maori) asked if' the Minister would instruct officers of the Native Department to investigate and give an estimate of the cost of establishing a timber mill in the Maori-owned bush in the Pelorus district. Mr. Tirikatene said that the area comprised from 2000 to 3000 acres of the best milling timber in New Zealand, and the establishment of a mill j would give work to a number of men, j and would reduce the cost of Maori housing in Marlborough and Nelson. There would be three million feet of timber available for sale and the revenue would pay expenses and royalties to the beneficiaries. Purchased Own Book. To purchase at an auction sale a book which actually belonged to her was the peculiar experience of a young woman in Dunedin the other day, states the "Otago Daily Times." Browsing through a sale room, she came across a copy of "Robinson Crusoe," a volume which she desired to possess, but as it was included among a lot of half a dozen other books, she had to bid for the whole bundle. When she arrived home she examined her "pig in a poke" more carefully and discovered one book which seemed vr.guely familiar. Her sudden suspicions were confirmed when, on opening the volume, she saw her name printed on the fly-leaf. The only possible explanation of the unusual occurrence is that the book had been "borrowed" some years before and had eventually found its way to the sale room, there, by a strange circumstance, to be purchased by its former owner. Hard-of-Hearhig Week. . Plans for the holding of a Hard-of-Hearing Week from March 9 to March 16 next year, during the Centennial Exhibition period, were mentioned by Mrs. G. A. Hurd-Wood at the annual meeting of the branch >t the New Zealand Hard of Hearing League last night. - The league would have a stall at the Exhibition, she said, and exhibits, photographs, and shields which were being supplied by leagues overseas, would be displayed. The Exhibition authorities had promised the use of the assembly hall for a Saturday in March, and it was proposed to conduct a Hearing Day on a large scale to allow the yjablic to see the work done by the league. A committee is to be formed to undertake the necessary arrangements. The Source of Inspiration.On Speech Day at University College School on July 28, Mr. Colin Gilray, headmaster of the Scots College, Melbourne, spoke of the potential danger ■of separatist opinion in the Dominions, states "The Post's" London cor-' respondent. He said that he was dis-l appointed to find that in the Old Country there was a definite lack of interest in Australia, the most British of the Dominions excepting New Zealand. In parts of the Empire there was a danger of the rise of separatist opinion, although he had found none in Australia or New Zealand. rhe Dominions were constantly sending to Britain for inspiration, as the centre of things intellectual and political, and | it behoved the people in Britain to acquaint themselves more fully with what the Dominions were doing. At the moment there happened to bo six Australian headmasters "let loose"' in Britain. He would like to see more British headmasters visiting the Dominions. Survey of Crippling Diseases. A survey of crippling diseases and the causes of disability is to be undertaken by the New Zealand Crippled Children Society. The following remit was adopted at the annual meeting o/ the society yesterday afternoon:-—"That the New Zealand executive promote a scholarship on such terms and conditions as it may consider advisable, the scholarship not to exceed £1000, and to be for the purpose of employing a doctor to survey <a) the prevention of crippling diseases, (b) causes of disability, (c) methods of treatment. fd) after care, and (c) placement, the award to be made by the executive in conjunction with the Medical Research Council." Another remit. adopted read: "That the sum of £1000 be allocated to the executive committee of the New Zealand Society for the purpose of arranging, in co-operation wilh the Department of Health, hospital boards, and branches of the society, travelling clinics with the object, of en-1 puring specialist advice for all crippled1 children, especially iq country district*," " i

Hospitals and Barbers' Poles. "I suggest that hospital boards have earned the right to display the striped barbers' pole," said Mr. C. Holyoake at a meeting of the Takapuna Borough Council, when the question of hospital taxation was being discussed, states the "New Zealand Herald." "In Iht olden days barbers used to display a striped pole indicating that they bled people. Today the hospital boards are 'bleeding' the people right and left, and I consider they have earned the right to display the barbers' pole." As Others See Us. A novel way of curing people of drunkenness has been in use for some time in the United States, according to a description given by Mr. 11. W. i Milner, general superintendent of the i New Zealand Alliance, speaking at a social function last night. When a man had had sufficient liquor to be making an exhibition of himself, said Mr.' Milner, a moving picture was taken of him, and later on, when he came to his senses, he was shown the film and could see himself just as he was. This method was effective in about 88 per cent, of cases.