NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1943, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

WEATHER FORECAST Winds turning to the south-east and freshening. Weather dull, with general rain today, but rain becoming intermittent tomorrow. Cool temperatures. The further outlook is for a temporary improvement. The Moon.—New moon, August 31. High Water.—Today, 7.58 p.m.;. tomorrow, 8.25 a.m., 8.56 p.m. Nurses' Rail Fares. Young Wellington girls who were training as nurses and had been transferred to the Otaki Hospital were finding it too expensive to pay the ordinary railway fare of 8s 6d to visit their homes in Wellington out of their salary of approximately £5 a month, stated Mrs. C. Stewart (Government, Wellington West) in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon. She asked the Minister of Health if he would request the Wellington Hospital 'Board to subsidise the railway fares of these nurses. Cat Family's Ordeal. "When unpacking a new motor one day, we were all very amused to see some American reinforcements jump out of the case—a cat and five kittens!" writes a member of the Middle East Forces to a firm in Wellington. "The kittens were in good order, but their mother was about done. The motors are usually covered in grease, but this one was licked clean; in fact, polished. After feeding them for a few days, they were all very frisky, and after a week the mother was in the pink of condition. At that time most of our freight came from America by air, and, according to the date on the case, Mrs. Cat and family had been in that case for three weeks." Hosiery Purchases. Amendments to the hosiery rationing scheme announced last night by the Food and Rationing Controller, Mr. J. E. Thomas, provide that until further notice fully-fashioned silk or art silk stockings marked "seconds" by the manufacturers may be purchased on surrender of two clothing coupons per pair. In addition all fully-fashioned black stockings may now be purchased with clothing coupons. Under the new arrangement, the. only stockings for which an X coupon is required are first grade and "mediums" in fullyfashioned silk or art silk in colours other than black. Opossum Revenue. The gross opossum revenue received last year by the Department of Internal Affairs was £7885 19s 9d, from which sum the Department will allocate £1600 to acclimatisation societies and similar bodies. The Wellington Acclimatisation Society's share would be £451 lis lOd, so it was stated at a council meeting last night, but members considered that the proportion given to the societies was totally inadequate, and it was decided to refer the matter to the North Island council for action to be taken. War Against Eels. Total warfare was declared against eels by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society at its council meeting last night, the main ground for hostilities being that eels are anglers' enemies as, when they are not engaged in actually eating trout, they are depleting trout food. On every angler's licence this year will be printed a strong indictment against eels with a view to stimulating the angler to serve in the front line of hostilities. All sub-committees of the society will be urged to put into operation schemes for eel destruction similar to that so successfully conducted by Pahiatua, which resulted in the destruction of well over 2000 eels in that district. This scheme embraced the giving of prizes to the local boys for the greatest number and the largest eels caught. It had resulted in keen competition and had cost the society one penny per eel tail above the first thousand. It was deemed to be money well spent, for "the greatest hope for better fishing is to kill eels and keep on killing them."