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Evening Star, Issue 21879, 16 November 1934, Page 10

The promise of the apricot crop in the Teviot district this season is such as to gladden the orchardists and others into whose hands the fruit will pass. Mr, Jphn Bennetts, when in, town this week, said the trees are bearing abundantly, and that the only recent set-back tvas the effect of a recent hailstorm that subtracted the fruit in some of the orchards that had been sufficiently thinned by hand a week previously. Mr Bennetts added that the cherries in the Roxburgh gardens are beginning to colour nicely, and owners expect a good crop. Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., presided at a brief sitting of the Port Chalmers Court to-day. In the case of Florence Metcalf v. John Fletcher, the Magistrate declined to order defendant to pay the sum of £1 19s, as he had earned only £lO, since last June.

Apples are lasting well this season, the shops being well stocked with several varieties that not only look good but when tested with knife or teeth prove" perfectly sound. " Canterbury and Nelson continue to supply from their cool stores. . Strawberries are expected to come to hand freely next week. Citrus fruits are still available for all requirements, but lemons mav soon be scarce.

There is abundant evidence in Britain of the lifting of the depression, ajid no small, share in this can directly be traced to the activities of the various Bristol schemes in encouraging the putting in hand of work and improvements of all kinds. It is a noteworthy matter for; the public that refurnishing dwellings, modernising buildings, rehabilitating shops, planting gardens, and beautifying a city have a'distinctly therapeutic effect upon the discouraged public mind. Efforts designed to increase employment through such agencies confer benefit not to be measured by statistics alone. Such improvements, it has been said, are decidedly healthful. They do create employment to a considerable degree, but possibly, more important is the psychological benefit. If people look thinks over they will find numbers of small jobs to clo to fulfil their pledge under Dunedin’s more-work campaign. Time is now getting short, and the committee .urges all who have not already done so to fill in their registration cards and post them to the organiser at the Town Hall without delay. The railway working account for the four weeks ended October 13 shows revenue as £444,661, and expenditure £482,800. The total revenue from April 1 to October. 13, 1934, was £3,251,838, the total expenditure was £2,955,403, and the net revenue was £296,435. The totals for the corresponding period of last year were—Revenue, £3,049,603; expenditure, £2,743,147; net revenue, £306,456. ,

This morning H.M.S. Dunedin presented her usual appearance to passersby after the strenuous afternoon for tho children’s party yesterday afternoon. The slides and sports novelties were all dismantled early arid cleared away, and the decks were restored to their customary cleanliness after the tramping or many juvenile feet. Cricket matches scheduled for to-day are against a team of colts this afternoon, and this evening against, a team of Imperial exservicemen. The Soccer match was unable to be arranged. The vessel is to sail at 1 p.m. to-morrow, will rendezvous with H.'M.S; Diomede, and proceed to Auckland via Wellington. The executive of the Trentham scholarship fund (says a Press Association telegram from r Wellington) yesterday considered 444 applications for bursaries'for 1935. Forty-four applications were declined and the 400 awards made totalled, $4,338. This amount is greatly in excess of the amount available annually, but it is considered by the executive that even at the risk of shortening the life of the fund, it is better to meet the claims of children of deceased and disabled soldiers requiring assistance at the present time. Since the inception of the‘fund £60,591 12s 6d has been' 'applied to provide secondary education for children of deceased and. disabled men who served in the Great War.

• At the last meeting of tho Tuapeka County Cuncih the Transport Department (Wellington) forwarded a circular relating to the classification of roads in the county' and recommended that the council, should favourably consider the adoption of class 3 as the maximum standard .for its roads.' ' This it was pointed out would help, to keep road construction and maintenance costs at a reasonable 'figure: In .the discussion which ensued attention was drawn to the difficulty the- fruitgrowers in yarious parts of > the country met with in regulating their loads with exactness to conform to the regulations under class 3—namely, six and a-half tons — and the suggestion was that representations he made in that connection to the department'so that fruitgrowers would not be held up, and prosecuted for an unavoidably slight technical breach of the regulations.- It was eventually resolved, that class 2. of the regulations, providing for a' maximum of eight tons, would better meet the requirements of the fruitgrowers of Tuapeka County, and it was resolved to advise the Transport Board accordingly.—Lawrence correspondent.

The prices contract with the New Zealand Government for Samoan bananas has changed hands. 'Last year it was held by “ Turner and Growers,” of Auckland; This year it is secured by Radley and Frampton, of Christchurch. The change' will not make any alteration in the ports, of discharge. .

' There has evidently been some misconception .in regard to “ ,Sequah,” whose death in England has been recorded in several papers. The Southland ‘ Daily News ’ states that as a matter of fact the’ real’ “ Sequah ” is very much alive 1 , arid at present is on a visit to Invercargill, The person whose death is reported was one of . “ Sequah’s - assistants many, years ago. and never visited Australia and New Zealand. •

‘ Wellington residents and passingthrough traveller are beginning to realise what a great building the new railway , station there is to he. Exceptionally quick progress is being made by the Fletcher Construction Company with the structural steelwork, which is being erected at the rate of over fifty tons per Week, and the section already completed, although big enough to attract the gaze of passers-by, is approximately no more than a fourth of the whole structure' as planned. ■ The piledriving for the foundation is nearing completion, the contractors anticipating that the last pile will be bedded before the end of the year. The number of piles required is over 1,500, their total length about 50,000 ft, and by builders as well as lay observers it is considered a remarkable feat to do all that driving in the comparatively short time that the actual work has been in hand.

Pay envelopes contained, a ' little extra in the case ’of persons under the age of twenty when they collected their, wages to-day. ' This pleasant surprise was brought about by the. amendment to the Unemployment Act providing for the exemption of persons Tinder twenty from payment _of the wages tax on any remuneration earned on and after November 12. The concessions to elderlj* people with small incomes and the increased exemption to women, made under the same amendments to the Act, do not operate til May of next year. Last night’s . sitting of the No. 9 District Licensing Authority was unusually prolonged, the conclusion not being - reached ' till 1.20, this morning, the Authority' sits only periodically, and the .hearings of the cases are necessarily lengthy, but when, the chairman (Mr A. I. W. Wood) intimated yesterday afternoon that the board would sit in the evening to dispose of the remaining cases, those interested anticipated that they would all be able to leave in plenty of time to catch last trams. However, it was nearing 11 o’clock when the board decided to deal with the last application. When the Town Hall clock struck 12 one solicitor remarked that the legal representatives detained were - entitled to fees for an extra day.

Antique-lovers mustered yesterday afternoon at Park, Reynolds’s auction of grandfather clocks that have testified origins, and the twelve offered were all sold. Top price realised was £65 for the “ Andrew Brown,” constructed in Edinburgh, and the next in order of buyers’ valuing 'was the ‘‘ Andrew Dickie,” also *of Edinburgh make, it fetching £4l. The lowest price paid for the grandfather clocks was £l3 10s, and the little “ grandmother ” clock, by an unknown maker, was sold at £l6 ss. The most ancient of the twelve was made in 1721. The history of clockmaking- is not very certain as to dates and makers in the early invention, but there seems little reason to doubt that Gerbert, a distinguished Benedictine monk afterwards Pope Sylve'ster 1., made’a clock for Magdeburg in 996, which had a weight for motive power. A very old clock of the grandfather type, made at London in 1700, is owned by a Dunedin resident, and even now keeps precise time, although it was for years out of action owing to the loss of part of the movement whilst being overhauled.

Warm appreciation of the services rendered to the dominion by His Excellency the Governor-General (Lord Bledisloe) and Lady Bledisloe was embodied in a motion passed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand yesterday afternoon. Tlie motion was as follows; — “ That this General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church desires to express its deep appreciation of the services rendered to this country during their term of office by their Excellencies the Governor-General of New Zealand (Lord Bledisloe) and Lady Bledisloe. It has noted with extreme pleasure the keen interest of their Excellencies m everything pertaining to the material, moral, and spiritual welfare of the dominion. It expresses its regret at their impending departure, and entertains the hope that both may be long spared to continue their sacrificial labour for the glory of God and the good pf mankind.”

The postal authorities advise that the mails which left Auckland for London by the Aorangi via Vancouver arrived at their destination on November 14. Four new bridges over creeks between Lindis Pass and Omarama are under construction by the Waitaki County, and are to be completed early in January. At the present time the approaches and crossings through the creeks are soft, and motorists will have to exercise a certain amount of care in coming and going through. The secretary of the Automobile Association of Otago (Mr W. Sutton) told a reporter to-day that motorists would be put to a little inconvenience while the work was in hand, hut contended that it would be well worth while. .He also reported that a sum of money was being spent on the bad section of the road on the Cromwell side of the pass. This would be a much needed improvement and greatly appreciated by motorists. Motor traffic to Forbury Park on future race days will proceed via Prince Albert road*, Richardson street, and Plunket street, returning by Victoria road and Queen’s drive. Streets adjacent to tho racecourse, except Plunket street and tho northern side of Victoria road between Moreau street and the St. Clair end of the park, have been declared parking areas for race meetings, subject to the usual regulations governing the parking of cars. These matters were decided by a special meeting of. the St. Kilda Council last night.

Increased saloon charges were discussed at the annual meeting of the Dunedin Tobacconist Industrial Union of Employers last night, but nothing definite was decided upon. The prices now operating in Auckland and Wellington (Is 3d for men’s hairdressing, 9d for shaving, and Is 6d for razor setting) were favourably considered, and it is probable that they will bo adopted locally within about a_ week. A sub-committee was set up to inquire into the position locally, and to submit a: report to the executive of the union next week.

The City Fire Brigade turned out shortly before 7 o’clock last evening to extinguish an outbreak in the foundry of Messrs Wilkinson, Gallon Ltd., in Tewsley street, at the back of the railway station. The single-storied brick building was blazing furiously when the brigade arrived, but the fire was soon under control, and, although the pattern shop was badly damaged, the blaze was subdued before it reached the moulding shop. The cause of the outbreak is not known. The building and its contents were covered b.y msur ance. <

Eight members of a Wellington goldmining syndicate, E. N. Sutherland, R. C. Salmond, J. B. Williams, A. D. Kerr, J. Redpatb, H. E. Combs, S. G. Cresswell. and C. Richardson, are to pay £lO3 8s 2d to the former manager of-their mine, Charles L. Diamanti, as the result of a judgment given by the magistrate, Mr Page, to-day arising out of a claim by Diamanti for wages, disbursements, and damages in respect to wrongful dismissal.—Wellington Press Association.

The General Committee will recommend to the City Council on Wednesday night that as in previous years a grant of £lO be made to the Otago Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association as a contribution towards the cost of organising the annual “ learn to swim ” campaign at the tepid baths.

Pluriket Shield cricketers in New Zealand in future will be required to carry on without the facilities for quenching their thirst from a supply of beer in the dressing room.' At this week’s meeting of the Management Committee of the Wellington Cricket Association the chairman (Mr P. B. Broad) reported that in his discussions with the representatives of the other major associations at Christchurch last week he found that the delegates were unanimously in favour of beer being banned from the dressing rooms during Plunket Shield matches. -Members of the committee concurred with this view, remarking that usually only one or two players in a team wanted beer. While ,on the subject of refreshments it was mentioned that there was a tendency last season to overdo the practice ot taking drink? to the players on the field, and it was decided to exercise a measure of control in this connection in future in order to speed up the game.

Probate was granted by His Honour Mr Justice Kennedy this morning in the estates of Annie M’Cartney, farmer, Portohello; Thomas Maw, retired hairdresser, Dunedin; William Hoole, waterman, Dunedin; Jane Kirk, widow, Dunedin; Robert Alexander Duthie, secretary, Dunedin; Norman Beaumont, retired master mariner, Dunedin; Wilfred Ivanhoe Blakeley, farmer, Gimmerbiirn; William Comfort Packer, basket-maker, Dunedin; Samuel William Jarvis, master tailor, Dunedin ; Annie Maria James, widow, Waverley; Harry Shalders. farm labourer, Kakapnaka; Frederick William Stephens, mechanic, Dunedin; Mary Ann David, billiard marker, Dunedin; and Duncan Cameron, railway employee, Evansdale. Letters of administration were granted fn the estate of Daniel O’Connell, farmer, Seacliff.

The annual exhibition of the Otago Art Society at present being held in the Pioneer Hall is attracting larger attendances daily. The display is a comprehensive one, embodying a largo and varied collection of oil and water colours, etchings, and exhibitions of pictorial photography, representing many of the foremost artists of the dominion. There.is also an interesting collection of craftwork, and a number of architectural drawings provide further variety. The exhibition will be open daily till November 29. The Works Committee of the Citv Council has considered a request made by the South Dunedin Unemployed Association for the council’s support -,u its appeal, to the Unemployment Board for an extra day’s work per man until Christmas. The committee reports having communicated with the Unemployment Board accordingly. Don’t delay with eye troubles; they lead to other troubles. See the optician without delay. To give satisfaction is the ideal of W. V. Sturmer, optician, 2 Octagon, Dunedin.—r Advt.! In the letter of “ British Christian,” published, a sentence which was misprinted should have read- ‘‘After the captivity of Israel the names Jew and Israelite are used interchangeably.” At the Wembley Dance to-morrow night the music for the old-time and modern dances will be provided by. two bands, the Sports Orchestra and Scofield’s New Collegians. Those young and popular dance players the Majestic Trio will support the Peter Pan Dance Band in special dance numbed at the Peter Pan Dansant,' Concert Chamber, Town Hall, to-morrow night.