NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

WEATHER FORECAST A deep depression centred near Auckland is moving southwards and • should be east of the Wairarapa tomorrow morning. A weak trough from the west is moving on to the South Island. Forecast until 5 p.m. Wednesday:— Light, variable winds, turning to moderate southerly by tomorrow morning. Weather cloudy to overcast and mild with occasional rain today but cold and showery tomorrow. Further outlook, showers continuing. Temperature at 9 a.m., 52 degrees. New moon, October 17. High Water.—Today, 5.5 p.m.; tomorrow, 6 a.m., 6.40 p.m. Sun sets today 6.28 p.m.; rises tomorrow' 5.50 a.m., sets 6.29 p.m.

Lead to Children. Everjj school boy and girl in Palmerston North will shortly have a National Savings Bank account as a result of an effort by the Commercial Travellers' Association, which, . "The Post's" Correspondent reports, has raised £150 for the purpose. No fewer than 3000 accounts are to be opened for the boys and girls, who will thus be encouraged to put away odd money for a very good purpose. More Patriotic Districts. Three more provincial patriotic districts—Northland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty—have been constituted by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) under the Patriotic Purposes Emergency Regulations, 1939. The new districts were previously subdivisions of the Auckland provincial patriotic district. There are now 14 provincial patriotic districts in the Dominion. The new districts, the boundaries of which have been specified by Gazette notice, function as from September 30. Awarded Scouts' Medal. His Excellency the Governor-Geihe-ral, acting in his capacity of Dominion Chief Scout, has awarded the Scout Association's Medal of Merit to Mr. Alfred William Allsop, District Scoutmaster of the North Wairarapa Scout District, for his good services to the Scout movement. Mr. Allsop has spent 25 years with the movement both in^ England and in New Zealand. On' one occasion, during the acute shortage, of Scoutmasters, Mr. Allsop acted as Scoutmaster of four different troops, so that they should not go out of existence through lack of help. Eecord in Fecundity? What is believed by men closely connected with farming to be a record in fecundity has been achieved by a Romney ewe on the farm of Mr. P. Wanklyn at Bayswater, Otautau, states the "Southland Times." On Thursday morning the ewe gave birth to seven lambs, three of which were alive. The heaviest lamb weighed 21b 15oz and the lightest 21b 4oz. Two years ago a Romney ewe on the farm of Mr. D. S. McLaren at Eastern Bush produced five lambs, and at the time that was considered to be a record. With Bow and Arrow. A suggestion that after the war increased interest would be taken in archery, particularly in hunting with the bow and arrow, was made in a letter from the National Field Archery Association which was included in the game committee's report to a meeting of the council of the Otago Acclimatisation \Society. The association asked if the society would have any objection to its including game birds and animals in its sport. The committee's report stated that after considerable discussion it was resolved to recommend that the society reply that it did not approveoOf the use of the bow and arrow for the destruction of animals or birds, the taking of which was at present covered by its licence requirements. The recommendation was adopted. Serpentine Deposits. "Plans are under consideration for the large-scale exploitation of the serpentine deposits at Mossburn," said Mr. G. H. Holford, B.Sc. (Agric), inspector of fertilisers, in an interview at Invercargill, reports the "Southland Times." In company with Mr. R. W. Willett, Government geologist, Mr. Holford made an inspection of the deposits on Thui'sday. . Mr. Holford said that the indications were that there were hundreds of thousands of tons of serpentine in the deposits. A question that was being investigated was whether the serpentine should be processed at the superphosphate works or on the spot at Mossburn. One proposal was that central manure-mixing plants should be established at Gore and near Invercargill. It was now known that high-grade serpentinesuper could be made outside the superphosphate works. It was suggested that it could be made at mixing plants in Southland and other ingredients added. If this were done production costs would be lower and there would be a big saving in rail transport. Unlike super or lime-reverted super, ser-pentine-super contained magnesia and cobalt, two elements known to be lacking in many .Southland soils. Mr. Holford said he thought that Southland soil conditions would respond well to modern phosphatic fertilisers that were not known before the war. Tribute to London's Courage. Recently the Mayor (Mr. Appleton) expressed in a cable to the Lord Mayor of London the good wishes of the people of Wellington and their admiration of the fortitude and wonderful spirit of Londoners under the blitz and again under the attack.< of robot bombs. Mr. Appleton carried the matter further at the meeting of the City Council yesterday afternoon when he suggested that the council should submit to the conference of the Municipal Association next month a proposal that the local bodies of the Dominion should combine in an offer to the City of London to rebuild pne of the historic halls or should otherwise set up a permanent record of admiration of the spirit of the people of London. Councillor W. H. Stevens said that recently one of the- Empire's greatest musicians, Sir HenryWood, had died; he thought that an offer to assist in the rebuilding of Queen's Hall, where the late Sir Henry Wood had given many of his most noteworthy performances, would be of double significance. Mr. Appleton replied that consideration had already been given a similar proposal at a recent meeting of representatives of musical societies who had been called together to discuss a musical festival to mark the end of the war. The council wholeheartedly approved the proposal that the matter should be referred to the Municipal Association with a view to combined action by New Zealand local authorities.