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Evening Star, Issue 22671, 10 June 1937, Page 10

New Zealand’s Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) has been granted a full-page picture and a place of honour in the Coronation issue of the ‘ Bystander.’ Following a short biographical sketch, a caption continues: “Savage rivals Roosevelt as one of the most personally popular of elected Government heads. He takes a very kindly view of life, is a slow and deliberate speaker in public and private,' is never hilarious but enjoys and stimulates others’ hilarity. Ho is a bachelor.”

The perfectly obedient servant, ono who will do exactly as lie is told, not ono jot less, not a tittle more, is a jewel. No doubt such a servant is the kind of whom employers dream, , but seldom sec. Tho Postmaster-General has on his staff such a servant. In the middle of April a resident of Melbourne wrote a letter to his daughter in Brisbane. The letter got to Brisbane, but did not reach its destination. A month later it was returned to the writer through the Dead Better Office. It had been properly and clearly addressed, and the man wl*i wrote it sent it to the Deputy Postmaster-General, stating as letters and telegrams similarly addressed had been safely delivered before and since the sending of tho “ dead ” letter, also goods sent by steamer and carrier, he thought that another attempt should be made to deliver the letter. A request was also made for an explanation for the failure to deliver it. Last week a post office official called at the home of the addressee in Brisbane and made inquiries concerning the letter now in Brisbane for the second time. He showed it to the lady concerned, but he did not _ hand it over. •• I have no instructions to deliver the letter,” the inquiry official said, and he took it away again. The department still has the letter. Probably the proper moment has not yet arrived for somebody in high authority to extend his instructions as far as to require the much-travelled letter to bo placed in its owner’s hand.—‘ Age.’ Mr Nangle, who for many years has occupied tho position of Government Astronomer of New South Wales, is endeavouring to get tho globe of the earth altered, in order to enable Australians to sing a song that used_ to be popular some time ago, ‘ I’m Sitting on the Top of tho World.’ He contends that we are no more upside down on the south side of the earth than the people who live on the north side. For this reason, ho desires that globe makers should alter the globe and place Australia on the top side. There is something of the psychologist (says the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne 1 Age ’) about the astronomer, for he urges that the knowledge, that Australia is down under gives Australians an inferiority complex. English astronomers and English globe makers will have none of it. But why argue? Why not revert to the original method of fixing the poles, which were east and west, and then push the globe aside, and lay the whole thing out flat? It might not be scientifically correct, but it would abolish that complex of which Mr Nangle is afraid. If the Government has its way (it does not always get it), there will he a big change in passenger transport during the next year or so (writes tho Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne ‘ Age ’). Despite tho fact that £8,000,000 is invested in trams, it is now suggested that they arc to be •gradually eliminated, and motor buses with Diesel engines and trolley buses that are operated by electricity from an overhead wire will take their place. It is more than likely, however, that the Government will extend the electric railways, thus taking from the road many of the transport vehicles. Although the buses were practically wiped out during the Lang regime, when thousands of busmen were thrown on a community already overloaded with unemployed, they have gradually been working their way in under Government regulations and control. The commissioners have now three big branches under their ' management, each needing expert control, and the main thing aimed at is a prevention of overlapping. The bus transport is more needed for places that have had no means of transport except by travelling miles afoot. This may have been all right in the days when the horse coach was the chief means .of conveying people, but to-day, with speed mounting- up and dusters of population waiting to be conveyed, there is no reason why tho most easily handled transport should not he utilised and people picked up at their front door.'

The monthly meeting of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children’ was held in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, on Tuesday, when there were present: Dr M'Kinnon (in. the chair), Mesdames Aslin, Downing, Todd, Miss Buneiman, Mr Moir, mid the secretary (Miss Goe-Smith). fhe secretary’s report. was read. Several cases had been dealt with during the month, in which it was stated aien on sustenance and unemployed re.ief were spending a considerable por;iou of their money on drink. The society is grateful to the Labour Department for forwarding the wife’s allocation direct to the secretary of the society, from whom it is uplifted. This, at least, prevents the husband from wasting on drink the money which should go towards the upkeep of the home, wife, and children. When it comes to recording the Coronation, it is only to be expected that English newspapers and magazines should attempt their utmost to portray the pomp and pageantry of the ceremony. In three of the leading illustrated. English periodicals’ Coronation numbers, which arrived in Dunedin today, artists and photographers have excelled themselves. The ‘Sphere,’ ‘Bystander,’ and ‘ The Illustrated London News ’ are all gravure productions, containing beautiful and striking examples of ’English craftsmanship. Represented in the numerous illustrations are such artists as Fortnnino Matania. R. 1., John St. Holier Lander, R. 0.1., Edmund Brock, R.A., and Henry C. Brewer, R. 1., while prominent in the wash drawings are Montague B. Black and S. Spurrier. The Dunedin public will.be afforded au opportunity of viewing these special issues, as Messrs Arthur Barnett Ltd. (to whom the magazines were consigned) will place them on exhibition in their lounge. The periodicals came by ail’ mail, the postal cost amounting to £7 17s 6d.

“ I am not surprised at the warmth of the welcome attended to me,” said the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. W. Lee Martin), at the annual meeting of the South Island Dairy Association to-day. “ I am an Otago boy,” said the Minister, “and I was married in Dunedin 43 years ago today, and my mother was married here on June 11, 1861.” The Minister’s remarks were greeted with applause. The problem, “ where do fish go in the winter time? ” has evidently been solved by the deep-sea trawler Hananui, which landed a record catch of 195 cases of choice fish at Port Chalmers this morning. The catch included blue hake, which are very rare, terakihi, kingfish, moki, groper, and numerous other varieties. A large quantity of the catch was on view later in the day in a Princes street shop.

So great was the crush at the Winter Show yesterday afternoon that four children who were in danger <- being' trampled by the crowd w lifted into the pen occupied by a Shorthorn steer. Neither the children nor the steer appeared to object to this method of creating a “ mixed exhibit,” though it was evident by the remarks of some of the more timid onlookers that they considered this method akin to that adopted in the mythical story, emanating, of course, from America, of the man who, encased in an inflated rubber suit, tell out of a window and bounced so high and! .so continuously :that ho “ had. to bo shot to save his life.”-

The Postmaster - General (Mr Jones) received a private deputation this morning representing the residents of Anderson’s Bay concerning the necessity for improved postal facilities in that district.

The Postmaster-General (Hon. F. Jones) assured a ‘ Star ’ reporter this morning that there was a feasible explanation to the complaint, voiced in our local columns yesterday, that he had been inao/essible by telephone. A Minister of the Crown, said Mr Jones, had always a telephone installed for his more or less private use when he was on an official visit, but there was also a telephone which could be used by members of the public and others who wished to communicate with him on business matters. _ Both these instruments had been installed on the present occasion, but, unfortunately, the current telephone directory was in print before the Ministerial rooms came into use. The numbers of both these telephones are, however, _ available in the usual way —by a ring to the exchange. The chief postmaster (Mr M'lsaac) added to the above explanation by expressing regret that the reply stated to have been given to our enquiry—that it was not permitted to disclose the Minister’s number to the public—should have been given. Evidently, said Mr M'lsaac, some over zealous official was at fault.

To keep down the toll of the motor the Kuringai (New South Wales) Council, which specialises in parks, having the great Kuringai Chase within its boundaries, proposes to build a road that will go from its own civic centre to the coast at Newport, to carry four different kinds of traffic—“ hikers,” “ cykers,” motors, and horses. Each of these will have a road to itself; hut so far tho penalty for a motorist leaving his road to speed down the “hikers’ ” specially laid down road has not been settled. This (says the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne ‘ Age’), is the alternative to building elevated roads for pedestrians or underground tunnels for motor traffic; or specially constructed roads like railways—hedged off—where speed would have to be regulated by lights and signals.

Mr Justice Kennedy has granted probate in the following estates; — John Mahoney, retired farmer, of Dunedin ; William Newcombe Ford, retired farmer, of Pembroke; Christina Campbell Rennie. widow, of Milton; Annie Christina Black Waters, spinster, of Dunedin; Mary Ann Wood, widow, of Tokarahi; James Laurie Gardiner, company manager, of Dunedin. A letter of administration has been granted in the ©state of Joseph Lindsay, farmer, of Otekura,

A Wellington Association message reads: At the annual meeting of the Trustees, Executors, and Agency Company (Dunedin), Mr G. R. Ritchie, referring to interest rates, is reported to have said that it was believed that there was very little money offering for the State Advances Corporation issue of an unspecified amount for seven years at 3| per cent. The chairman of the board of directors of the corporation, Mr A, D. Park, says Mr Ritchie is not in a position to express an opinion as to the response to the corporation’s issue any more than the corporation would be in relation to the internal management of the company at whose meeting he spoke. Mr Park added that if Mr Ritchie’s intention was to create the impression that the corporation’s general lending rate of interest, at present 4J- per cent., was facing a prospective rise, then he desired to announce that such was not the case.

It was most disappointing to find from the grading returns that the quality of cheese produced in the South Island had declined badly, said the chairman (Mr N. H. Meredith) at the annual meeting of the South Island Dairy Association to-day. , A drop in the proportion of finest grade from 61 per cent, in 1932 to 29 per cent, last year was a serious matter, and in his opinion called for immediate investigation. In connection with the subject of quality he thought the Department of Agriculture should seriously consider the establishment of a research laboratory in the South Island, or-failing that the services of a competent officer should be available to deal with the problems which were continually occurring in the process of manufacture of both butter and cheese. Now that premium were being made for quality, it was important, he thought, that the- South Island should have equal facilities for solving its problems with those provided in other parts of the Dominion.

Two first offenders for drunkenness were fined £l, in default 48 hours’ imprisonment. by Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., in the Police Court this morning. One of them had £72 2s 3d on him when he was arrested last night. “It was very fortunate that he was taken in charge,” commented the magistrate. “ Yes, he was in a had way,” said Senior-sergeant Packer.

Eye strain—for eye comfort, for better vision, consult Stumer and Watson Ltd., opticians, 2 Octagon, Dunedin.—[Advt.] It was the 7th (Dunedin) Company of the Boys’ Brigade that furnished the guard of honour for the Governor-General at Ross Home yesterday. The Waverley Boys’ Band (mentioned in our report) was not present.

The Arbitration Court will sit at Christchurch on Monday to hear the waterside workers’ dispute. Assisted by Miss Audrey Kirk and Miss Edna Koy, Dr V. E. Galway will again be heard at the organ in the Town Hall on Sunday evening next,