NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 41, 16 August 1941, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Lights Must Go. Out. The Hutt County Council made it quite clear at its meeting yesterday that under tV E.P.S. regulations it could not tolerate lights which were visible at sea. Complaints, it was stated, had been made about lights from dwellings in Pukerua Bay. Plimmerton, and other areas being visible from out at sea, and it was decided that such offences would be inevitably followed by prosecutions. Clearing a Slip. The recent big slip on the old Paekakariki Hill road will take another ten days or so to clear, according to a report made to the Hutt County Coun- j cil at its meeting yesterday. Some | 3000 yards of spoil came down and completely blocked the road on the! Paekakariki side. The continuous rain might delay the removal of the spoil, it was suggested, and might cause further trouble. Too Near the Geyser. Standing a few feet too near the Arikapakapa Geyser at Whakarewarewa the other day, an Australian visitor, Mr. Peter Cronin, was splashed on the right ankle by a spurt of boiling water and the flesh was painfully blistered. It was his first sight of the thermal wonders of New Zealand, and, as he put it, an unforgettable souvenir. Kauri for Minesweepers. In reviewing the activities under the Timber Emergency Regulations, the Director of Forestry, in his annual report, refers to steps taken to provide kauii for the construction of minesweepers. "Arrangements for the supply of kauri for the construction of minesweepers," he says, "were concluded during the year. Stocks of suitable sizes were unfortunately extremely low, and for a great part of the material this, necessitated the selection and delivery of special logs from State forests to supplying mills." The British Spirit. The "carry-on-at-any-cost" spirit of British business people is exemplified by the attitude of a large London company which deals in typewriters. After a recent raid the company sent the following letter card to its clients: — "Dashed if they haven't got us again! Burnt out of 97 Queen Victoria Street, busted windows at 91, and now blasted out of Balmoral Buildings, with everything gone but our bodies and souls! With these and a couple of typewriters, in we go at 15 New Bridge Street, London, E.C.4, with a firm determination to stick to the old city to the end— and Victory! Telephone number will be advised —when we get one!" "Sea Travel Too Expensive." "Sea travel at present is altogether too expensive, and, I think, quite unnecessarily so," said Dr. G. Jobberns in a talk on transport to the Canterbury Geographical Association, reports the "Press." He was not referring specifically to wartime, but to normal conditions. "I would like to see shipping carrying the millions, not the millionaires. After all, a ship is- merely a vessel of transport to take us and our goods from one place to another. As long as we have clean and reasonably comfortable accommodation, that should be enough. There is no need to make a sea voyage a sort of social occasion, and in my opinion the lavish accommodation offered by many of our passenger lines is simply unnecessary. So if shipping after the war has to fight the aeroplane for passenger traffic it would be one of the indirect benefits of the war." Strange Conduct. / i An elderly man was admitted to the Southland Hospital as the result of a strange affair which happened in In- | vercargill on a recent night. A con- | stable had reason to remonstrate with a young man because of his behaviour. The elderly man interfered, but made, off in a hurry when the constable ap- j proached him. He sought refuge under the Otepuni bridge across Leven Street There was a fair amount of water in the creek at the time, and it was, of course, cold. When the man was told to come out of the water there was no response. Even the offer of some whisky did not have the desired result. It was thought that he might have, escaped from his unpleasant situation, j but to make sure a pontoon was secured by several men, and after a pull upstream they found the man standing numbed and exhausted up to his chin in water. He was immediately taken to hospital. j Whitebait in Grey River. The prohibition of whitebait fishing j in the Grey River, on the Greymouth side, from the railway station to the lagoon, is being urged by the Health Department, and it is understood that the Chief Inspector of Fisheries, Wellington, is being asked to take action, states a Greymouth correspondent. It is considered by the health authorities that whitebait caught from the Greymouth wharf area potential danger to public health, especially in the event of an epidemic, because five large sewers discharge into the river between the railway station and Blaketown. It is not suggested that the whitebait themselves are contaminated, but it is feared that some of the filth from the sewers might, in the form of small particles, find its way into the whitebaiters' tins. Even if the Inspector of Fisheries declines to take action in the matter, the health authorities will keep a close watch on the activities of those catching whitebait for sale, from the wharf, this season.