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Evening Star, Issue 21683, 31 March 1934, Page 12

Tho West Harbour Borough Council has finished the tar sealing of the road from the quarry at Blade Jack’s Point to the boundary of the Port Chalmers borough, a stretch of about eight and a-half miles. It is a work of great public utility, ensuring residents against the plague of dust and making the road easy for motorists, and it is satisfactory to know that the undertaking is completed without burdening the ratepayers, since the operations were spread over a period of about four years, thus making the financing such as the borough can bear.

The word “ Easter ” has not in itself anything to do with the Resurrection. Eastre was the name of a Saxon goddess whose festival in April happened at some unascertained period to synchronise with the Passover. In the English Bible “ Easter ” is only once printed —in Acts xii., 4, in the narration of tho arrest of Peter by King Herod, who intended to bring the apostle out of prison “ after the days of unleavened bread,” which meant after the Passover. In all other Bible • passages tho Greek word that in Acts is translated as Easter is translated as' Passover, and the authorities say that Passover is its proper meaning. The Passover is the Jewish festival of eight days, commemorating the exemption of Israelitish families when the destroying angel smote the first-born of Egypt, commemorating also tlve departure of the Jews from Egypt. ; :.,.y L i>i ..s £gsj

In the case in the Police Court on Thursday in which a young man was charged with behaving in a disorderly manner, the magistrate (Mr H. W. Bundle) at first entered a conviction, but later decided to adjourn the case for twelve months, the matter to be brought up by the police at any time if the defendant misbehaved himself. People with money to lend are setting up their sign boards m various parts of the city (writes the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne ‘Age’). This is evidence that the tide of finance has turned, and that financiers, realising that stored up wealth is of little value nowadays, have decided to put it to work. But it is doubtful if many people will borrow money locally, since Melbourne money-lenders appear to be more generous to those who have got in difficulties. This week brought a striking instance of Melbourne generosity to light. A man who had a mortgage with about £6OO to run, and who had struggled on for about two years making the payments when they were due, came to the end of his tether, and communicated with the mortgagee, telling him that he could go no further, and with reluctance he would have to give it up. The mortgagee lived in Melbourne. He sent back a prompt answer to the man to call on a solicitor. He did so. and was handed the deeds of the property free of all encumbrance. The mortgage'had been wiped out. The story that is going round does not give any names, but some sort of a record should be kept of such generosity. At any rate the deed has put Melbourne one up on us, and it remains for someone in Sydney to do something equally generous for someone in Melbourne.

“ I never heard such bad language,” stated a woman witness who gave evidence before Mr W. R. M'Kean, S.M., in the Auckland Police Court, in a case in which an allegation was made against a young man that he had used bad language. “ You seem to know a good deal about such language,” commented counsel. “ What has been your experience? ” 11 Well, 1 have been married for forty-one years,” the woman replied. That one out of every three of the young men in Australia under the age of twenty-one could not pass a simple medical test, was the astounding assertion made by Major-general 0. H. Brand in presenting the trophies at the annual demonstration by the pupils of Mr Aaron Beattie in Central Hall. Recent access to official figures had brought home to him the seriousness of the position, stated the speaker. In hundreds of cases youths were debarred from taking part in sport because of physical ailments. Although the Commonwealth Government was no longer officially interested in the physical standard of its young manhood, it would be a fine Centenary gesture if a subsidy could be made available for recognised physical culture establishments. Many parents could not afford to pay the high fees necessary, and many children would make use of the facilities if available at lower fees. Any assistance in this direction would only be a fraction compared to what countries like Italy, Sweden, France, Germany, and Russia were doing to ensure fit nations. They were too inclined to rest on the reputation of the superb physique of the men of the A.1.F., but practical steps would have to he taken for the maintenance of that standard.—Melbourne ‘ Age.’ “ There is an ever-increasing tendency on the part of sections of trade and industry to run to the Government for legislation to overcome a particular problem of their own, instead of themselves applying their own energy toward finding a solution,” stated the annual report of the Wanganui Employers’ Association. “ This tendency to look to the Government for assistance is to be deprecated. Already the evil has manifested itself in a multitude of legislative enactments, which are having the effect of restricting and hampering trade and industry as a whole, until to-day the dominion is suffering from what has been aptly termed ‘ legislative indigestion.’ ” The Wolseley Hornet four-seater motor car stolen from Stafford street during Wednesday night was found at the lower end of Water street on Thursday. Three missing motor cycles have not yet been recovered. One is a 21 h.p. Ariel machine, the property of John St. Clair Cunningham, Tomahawk road; the second is an A.J.S., 3J h.p., No. 2,504, the, property of David Henry, Caversham, stolen on March 29 from Cargill road; and the third is a New Hudson, 2J h.p., No. 1,934, the property of Allan Crichton, stolen on March 29 from a garage at South Dunedin,

The whole metropolitan area—is working up for a plague of rats (says the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne ‘Age’). The depression and lack of funds appear to have caused the councils to curtail their activities in destroying rats, which work was undertaken with vigor for years since the visitation of bubonic plague. Whole terraces of houses are infested in places adjoining the city. The councils look to property owners to get rid of rats, and where ordinary efforts with poison baits and traps fail they are suposed to gas the holes and passages which' they make. The use of gas, however, would necessitate whole streets of houses being vacated, and if the council requires this done it would have to take over the work itself at a big expense. At one time it was customary to pay a bonus for their tails, but as a lot of the rats are tailless it is presumed that many of them were let loose to breed a race of tailless rats. To-day there is no organised method of ridding the community of them. But those who are spending money on relief work might consider voting some for the destruction of the pest before it gets too strong to cope with. The methods to be adopted could be decided by experts. One man claims that he cleared a whole area by catching a rat. dipping it in tar, and letting it loose. It proved better than the Pied Piper.

The transit of sheep and lambs over the branch railway from Roxburgh during the week (writes our Lawrence correspondent) was exceptionally heavy. Several “ specials ” were requisitioned, mostly with two powerful engines and with the consignments added of the ordinary daily train, no less than ninety wagoii loads of sheep and lambs were drawn, totalling 6,300 in number. The consignments were destined chiefly for North and South Otago, and for several centres in Canterbury, more than half the number going there.

‘‘ There is no doubt that the production of sodium chlorate in New Zealand is commercially practicable,” stated Mr W. J. Poison, M.P., speaking at the Counties’ Ragwort Conference in Hamilton. Mr Poison said it had been established that if the Government could reduce the cost of electric power sodium chlorate could bo manufactured in New Zealand at a price considerably below £25 a ton. He understood a was at present exploiting the commercial possibilities of local manufacture of the product. During the New Plymouth badminton season, “ shorts ” will be permitted on the courts of play. This was the decision reached at the first meeting ot the New Plymouth Badminton Club. Mr A. Scott introduced the question, the chairman. Mr St. Leger Reeves, saying that there would be no restriction.

Two Napier tenuis players had an unusual experience recently, states the * Herald.’ While engaged in a set, they were surprised to see what appeared to be a hrand-new tennis ball appear suddenly from the blue and fall in the centre of the court. A closer examination, however, disclosed that the “ball” was nothing but a whitebreasted catfish, fully distended with water, which had apparently proved too weighty a problem for the seagull that had caught it, and was carrying it home for its evening meal. The dole seems to be dying out as it came (a Sydney correspondent writes to the Melbourne ‘Age’). Of course, there are bound to be some people who will be sorry to lose the small amount handed out by the Government. They are the people with insufficient stamina or mentality to work, or people who have found loafing much more to their ideal of life than anything else. The dole was a heaven-sent blessing to them. It was like manna dropping down from the skies into their open mouths, always ready to receive it. This percentage of indigent and indolent people must he deducted ivhen the unemployment statistics arc compiled. Some interesting figures have come to hand from the North Sydney Council, where'l,4so men are employed on relief work under the Government scheme. Of these 1,220 have sent in a petition to the council declaring that the relief work system is superior to the dole. Of the 230 who prefer the dole, perhaps half of them are unfortunate in not being physically equal to the work allotted to them, and for whom the system of relief work does not provide proper occupation. North Sydney is one of the councils that has stuck to the relief work scheme without listening to the arguments that came with the change from the dole. The aldermen believed that work was a better sweetener of life ‘than idleness. The public works that have been accomplished under the scheme have proved the correctness of their contention. It is hoped to continue the -work until the end of the year. But before that time many of the men they have employed will have drifted into their right occupations. Other councils may not have been so fortunate, but relief work is telling its tale of recovery and the passing of the dole. The hundreds of art union ticket buyers who immediately search for a number ending in seven will no doubt be thrilled to learn that in the recent Golden Chance art union not only did the first prize ticket end in a double seven, but also every ticket winning £SOO, £2OO, £IOO, and £SO contained a seven in its digital make-up (states the Auckland ‘Star’). All of which gives food for thought of other possibilities. An eager statistician discovered that out of the 207 prizes there were just ninety-three ’ containing a seven—ten more than the average of each figure in the prize list. Nine tickets held double sevens, including the £2,000 winner; eleven tickets held two separate sevens, while only one, a £5 prize contained three sevens. However, twenty-two tickets ended in seven—again slightly more than the average for all the figures. The double-figure luck seems to have been, very prominent. Better than the nine double sevens were the eleven double fours (including the £2,000 ticket)' and the thirteen double threes. Then, again, there were the trebles. Only five different figures enjoyed combinations of three—1, 2,4, 6. and 9—there beiag three sets of triple twos. Four must be very lucky, having a double in the first prize, in addition to that double seven, also a treble in another ticket ,and even a quadruple. And if A 7444 (Milford) didn’t deserve more than a £lO prize, then all this digital luck business is, to quote the Yank, “qihoney goods.”

Notification of Sunday services as enumerated below appears in our Sunday services advertising columns: —Anglican: St. Paul’s Cathedral, All Saints’. Presbyterian: First Church, Knox Church. St. Andrew’s, Chalmers, Musselburgh, St. Stephen’s. Metho* dist: Trinity, Central Mission, Mornington, St. Kilda, Caversham, Dundas Street, North-east Valley, Abbotsford, Mosgiel. Baptist: Hanover Street, Caversham, Mornington, South Dunedin, Roslyn, Sunshine. Congregational: Moray Place Church, United. Church of Christ: St. Andrew Street, N6rth-east Valley, South Dunedin. York Place Hall, Playfair Street Hall, Christian Science, Theosophical Society, Spiritualist. Orange .Hall.

To-night the Palais Dansant, Moonshine Winter Garden, will hold a special Easter dance, and there is probably no better way of entertaining visiting friends than by making up a party and joining the merry throng of dancers. GoTJ prizes are offered for the lucky spots and Monte Carlos, and a free bus will be despatched to Cargill’s and Eorbury Corners after the dance. To laugh, to be gay, and catch the infectious rhythm of, the dance seems to be the aim of every cabaret party visiting the Cliffs Cabaret, Cargill’s Castle. For the past two months every table in the ballroom and also in the lounge has been booked before the cabaret has opened. The success of the Cliffs Cabaret has no doubt been largely due to the efficient management. The Castle Dance Band, under the direction of Mr Harry M’Clatchy, continues to delight dancers with its renderings of the very latest dance numbers, whilst two huge log fires in the ballroom keep all warm on even the very coldest night. Applications are invited for recruits in the Koyal New Zealand Artillery. Preference will be given to serving Territorials. Particulars are advertised in this issue. Save your eyes. Be wise and consult W. V. Sturmer (optician, 2 Octagon), thus conserving good vision for old age.—[Advt.J