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Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 8

When the contention that the temperature in Dunedin was normally lOdeg below that recorded in the North .Island was made by the mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox) at the opening of the new school at Caversham on Saturday afternoon, the Postmaster-General (Hon. F. Jones) interjected: “You have not been in Wellington lately.” The climate in the South Island was better, the mayor hastened to explain. There were more fine days and there was less wind and more sunshine, which made the south preferable to the north despite the lower temperatures. Dunedin has frequently been used as the port where Antarctic explorers bid farewell to civilisation, and an historic autograph album containing the signatures of those men was produced at the jubilee celebrations of the Otago branch of the British Sailors’ Society on Saturday night. The names range from the members of Captain Scott’s last expedition, including those of Scott himself, Edward Wilson, and Captain Oates, to those of Amundsen, Shackleton, Sir Douglas Mawson, Admiral Byrd, and Lincoln Ellsworth. Dr A. R. Falconer mentioned that when Scott was found by his comrades he was holding in his hand the Testament given him by the Dunedin branch of the society. Referring to the fund used until recently for the farm training at Flock House, in the North Island, of the sons of seamen killed in the war, Dr, A. R. Falconer, at the jubilee celebrations on Saturday night of the Sailors’ Rest, in Rattray street, said that after the war the sheep farmers of New Zealand had contributed a percentage of their profits of £2,000,000 to the fund as an indication of their indebtedness to the mercantile marine. What the speaker would like to see would be a central council representative of all the seamen’s missions in New Zealand administering the fund for the benefit of sailors. • Speaking later in the evening, Mr W. T. Wilson stated that the fund would be well utilised in helping the work of the various rests, and he hoped that the trustees would be influenced to bring this about. “ It is always a difficult problem for an education board to decide what best to do for present and future school needs,” said Mr Janies Wallace, chairman of the Education Board, at Caversham on Saturday. At the present time the Government and municipal housing schemes might upset the board’s calculations. These schemes would have a tendency to draw children from the central portion of the city, and small suburban schools might become schools of considerable size. The corporation’s Clyde Hill scheme would make a marked difference to the Caversham and Mornington Schools. The wings and parapets of the widened Anzac Avenue bridge are being built now. The _ work is progressing without interruption, but no date can yet be fixed for the opening of the bridge for traffic, which still has to make a deviation by way of Forth street.

The erratic parking of cars at night on the areas in the city is indicative of a streak of selfishness on the part of drivers. On the First Church area on Saturday night the cars were parked at varying angles. Tf they had been driven in to the kerbing directly headon room for another eight cars would have been provided. Motorists offend in a like manner on every area and on every night of the week.

The only No. 5 scheme group to start work with the City Council tomorrow is No. 252, which will meet at Gladstone road at 12.15 p.m. and go to. Campbell road. The Outrara-Middlcmarch road, which was blocked with drifts by Saturday morning’s snowstorm, was dear for traffic by last night. The grave social problem of abortion will be discussed by representatives of 50 societies at a meeting convened for to-night in the Council Chamber by the mayor. The discussion, which will be led by Dr J. B. Dawson, professor of midwifery and obstetrics, will be based on the recent report of the commission, presided over by Dr D. G. M'Millan, M.P., which heard evidence throughout New Zealand. “ It is considered probable that some public action will arise from the discussion,” said the mayor this morning. The Golden Gleam Art Union profits were evidently bigger than those from the art unions of recent months, as the mayor (Rev. E. T. Cox) lias received a cheque for £296, about £SO in excess of the usual amount to be distributed in relief. Radio station 2ZE. formerly owned by the Manawatu Radio Club and purchased recently by the Government, made its final transmission last night after being on the air for 14 years. The station is being dismantled by the Government and the equipment removed.—Palmerston North Press Association. Autograph books are becoming the nightmare, of the Springboks. When you mention the words, a pallor takes the bronze from the cheeks of the heroes who know no fear of flying, nailed boots, nr suffocating scrum. “ Autographs.” exclaimed nuc of them to a Wellington lady, “ please let us talk of sometbimr else. Autographs arc unspeakable. Wo endure them in bundles of 60 at a time in every town we visit. Sounds easy, but when you have to open and sign the 60 autograph books it seems like hard work.” Someone suggested charging a shilling for every signature, but the querulous Springbok shook bis bead. “ Not the kids,” be said, sadly. “ A shilling would bit them too bard. No, we have to do it. Somehow, even buying a rubber stamp floes not seem to mo like playing the game, J bar only signing pieces of paper.”

Who fired the first shot in the Great Wars' This was the question raised by Air G. Scott, a representative of the Ex-Naval Men’s Association, in responding to a toast at the annual reunion of the Old Contemptibles’ Association at the Veterans’ Hall, Christchurch, on Saturday evening. Mr Scott surprised his listeners by claiming that he was serving with H.M.S. Vanguard when it sank two trawlers six days before the declaration of war. “ Pve five brothers who were with the ‘ Contemptibles ’ in 1914, and I myself was in the Navy,” Mr Scott explained, “We put to sea in H.M.S. Vanguard on July 28. On July 29 we fired on and sank two trawlers, taking the crews aboard as prisoners of war. There was a lot of talk some time ago about who fired the first shot in the war,” he added. “It .was on July 29 that we sank these two trawlers, yet it was not until August 4 that war was officially declared.” Questioned lated, Mr Scott declined to tell where the action took place or to what nation the trawlers, belonged. “ There was no equivalent in Maori for ‘ dearest ’ and ‘ darling,’ and all that sloppy sentimentalism which you hear on the wireless,’” said Mr Te Ari Pitaraa in an address, ‘ The Mythopoetic Maori,’ at Christchurch last evening. Explaining that the Maori expressed affection more by song, he said that the one term of endearment was used for a person who had died. The pakeha was the converse of the Maori, he added. The pakeha met a woman at a dance. He started off at boiling point and finished, in a few years, in court, at freezing point. Fire slightly damaged the washhouse of a residence in Roslyn on Saturday afternoon, the City Brigade receiving the alarm at 5.15 and quickly extinguishing the outbreak. A malicious false alarm called the brigade to the corner of Black’s road and Carnegie street. North-east Valley, at 9.30 the same evening, a similar call being registered shortly after midnight from Maryhill Terrace, Mornington. The Roslyn machine dealt with a chimney fire at Highgatc at 10.36 p.m, on Saturday. •

Mr Justice Smith congratulated Wanganui district on the small list of criminal cases at the Supreme Court session, which opened to-day. There were only two cases, and in each a true hill was returned.—Press Association.

The task of signing autograph books is becoming a very serious one for the members of the South African Rugby team, and the position has become so acute that the New Zealand Rugby Union lias now asked that people will refrain from sending any further book_s_. At present there arc no fewer than 75 books awaiting signatures, and there have been so many requests for autographs that the members of the team cannot possibly fulfil them. “ T have not been to a European funeral. You simply walk in and walk out,” said Mr Te Ari Mitama, in speaking on ‘ The mythopoetic Maori,’ at tho Theosophical Hall, Christchurch, last evening. “On the other hand a Maori funeral is quite a business. In tho first place it involves money'. The first thing wc do when a Maori dies is rush off and buy about £SO worth of food for tho tangi.”

J3yo strain—for eye comfort, for better vision, consult. Slurnic: and Watson Ltd., opticians, 2 Octagon, Dunedin,—[Advt.j