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Evening Star, Issue 22879, 10 February 1938, Page 10

Mr- E. W. Anderson, the employers’ representative on the Second Arbitration Court, wishes to retire at an early date and it is understood that the names of Mr L. Alderton, barrister and solicitor,' of Auckland, and Mr A. W. Nisbet, secretary of the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association, will ! be placed before the Minister (Mr Armstrong), with whom the decision as to the appointment of a successor will lie. Wellington Press Association. The air mail despatched from Wellington on January 20 and Auckland the following-day arrived in London on February 7. • The phosphate ship Oakbank is being “ adopted ” by the Yarrowyale Public School,. Melbourne. Captain W. Forsyth is’ co-operating in the adoption. When a ship is adopted by a school a correspondence is inaugurated, the pupils usually asking all sorts of questions about the vessel, her passages, cargo, engines, equipment, officers, and crew. Such questions are answered by the master, officers, or crew, and reports of nautical experiences are highly prized in the school.

An interesting programme has -been arranged by the city organist (Dr V. E. Galwavi for his next after-church recital in the Town Hall on Sunday evening. Two of the items, 1 Fidelis,’ bv Whitlock, and ‘Toccata,’ by Mailly, will be performed at these recitals for the first time. Other items are ‘ Concerto in B Flat Major ’ (Handel), * Litany ’ (Schubert), ‘ Fugue in D Major ’ (Bachl. * Romanza in G’ (Beethoven), ‘ Nimrod ’ (from the Enigma variations, Elgar), incidental music to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream ’ (Mendelssohn) — (a) Notturno, (b) Wedding March. The assisting artists will be Miss Doris Wilson, who will sing ‘ Let Me Wander Not. Unseen’ (Handel), and Mr Leslie Dunbar, who will contribute ‘My Dwelling Place ’ (Schubert). There will be no charge for admission.

Four blue herons, the first, it is understood, ever seen in the district, have been observed for the past month in the vicinity of the Waitaki River, on the inronertv of Mr W. T. Dixon, at Tawai. The birds disappear in the day time, but at night roost high in the tall pines in Mr Dixon’s plantation. The blue heron is a tall and beautiful bird, marked with delicate blue on the back and wings, dull red on the breast, and white on the throat. Heavy penalties are provided for shooting this species.

Again yesterday two persons who had got into difficulties in the surf at St. Clair had to be rescued by life savers. The rescuers were Mr H. Devlin, the beach patrol, and Mr B. Isaacs, a member of the St. Clair Life Saving Club, both showing commendable speed and efficiency in their work. During low tide a sand bank some distance from the shore may be reached, but this is a risky undertaking because of the sweep of the sea in the channel between the bank and the beach, and bathers who are not thoroughly competent swimmers would be well advised not to attempt to make their way out to the bank. This is the last week for which Mr Devlin has been engaged as beach patrol, and consequently bathers will need to exercise even more care than ever next week. They should be particularly careful to bathe between the flags. .

One is inclined to expect snakes on country" racecourses, especially at Yarra Glen, where two were killed in among the spectators (says the Melbourne ‘Ago’). But yesterday (January 26) the fact that snakes haVe no partiality for courses was proved when a reptile was seen on the running track at Epsom —a metropolitan course—while the jockeys were going to the post. As the starter (Mr N. Wood) was passing the mile.post on his way to the barrier to send off a race, he caught sight of a “ four-footer.” Promptly alighting from his car, he borrowed a whip from a jockeys and killed the reptile. In the various gardens around Dunedin many strange freaks are reported from time to time, but one in Mr Thomas Beel’s carrot bed at North-east Valley is most unusual. It is.a carrot which has grown through a nail hole in a piece of horseshoe. The seed from which the carrot sprang had evidently come to rest immediately above the hole in the shoe, and as the plant grew it forced its way through, with the result that now a bulb about half an inch is on top, and below this the carrot is constructed to the diameter of the nail hole and then resumes its normal shape for the remaining two inches of its length. Nature was in a capricious mood when she designed a potato in the garden of Mr Watson at Mqmington which bears a striking resemblance to the features of that wellknown screen star Mickey Mouse.

While the Returned Soldiers’ Association found no difficulty in filling the steamer Maunganui to make the trip to Australia in April with ,692. members of the association to take part in the sesquicentennial celebrations of New South Wales at the invitation of the Returned Sailors’ and Soldiers’ League of Australia, there are still a number of vacancies on the Monowai, which is also available for the voyage. In a letter received by the local R.S.A. from headquarters this morning, it was stated that it should be emphasised that unless the Monowai’is filled with her complement of 655 she will not sail, there still being 150 berths to fill. Local associations were strongly urged to make a final appeal to members in an endeavour to complete the required complement. The War Pensions’ Appeal Board, comprising Sir Walter Striifger (chairman), Dr W. J. Porteous, and Dr G. Barnett, concluded- its Dunedin sitting this morning, and Sir Walter will leave for Christchurch to-morrow.

The South Dunedin Fire Brigade was called out at 1L39 this morning to deal with a grass fife near the Caversham tunnel.

“'The Dutch are charming people well worth getting to know; they are clever, they are good linguists, their ideals are much the same as those of the British, and whatever their views may have been in the past, there is now no doubt that they realise that the British and Dutch have interests in common- in the ■ East and that the two nations should pull together.” This is the view of Mr J. IR. Hopper, a. London shipping magnate, who is visiting Christchurch and who recently made a trip through the East. He was speaking at a meeting of .the Travel Club yesterday and he urged members to do all they could to establish cordial relations with the Dutch. The total permanent placements made by the New Zealand State Placement Service during the week ended on February 5 was 266. Casual employment was found for 275 persons and-tempor-ary employment for 208, making the total number of positions filled by persons recommended by the bureaux 749. The largest number ot permanent placements was made in Auckland (32), and Christchurch and Wanganui wee next with 21. Dunedin had the highest total of casual -positions for the week with 48. Auckland was next with 34, and Christchurch had seven. Temporary positions were found for' CO in Auckland. and the next largest number was 44, in Christchurch. The habit which many farmeri have of putting letters and official documents behind a clock was mentioned yesterday by one of the sub-enumerators for the census of the Waim'ate' district. “ Many farmers get the census firms, put them behind a clock,' and forgrt all about them,” he said. ■ “ When 1 was doing this work in Bluff 1 sent three forms to one farmer and finally J, had to go seven miles to see him. When I got there and asked him about then he produced the three from behinl a clock.”

Stamps worth more than £SOOOOO will he shown' at the anniversary philatelic exhibition to be held in the Town Hall, Sydney, during April. Ireinclude police prolection lay and night, lire insurance, and the tisiplay of the exhibits under plate-glass. The exhibition will be the largest eier organised in the southern hemisphere. About 400 collections will bo shown, one of which, from Victoria, comprises SO volumes, containing 5)6,000 stamps, altogether, more than 1i.000,000 specimens will he displayed. Overseas collectiois are* coming from England, the Unite! States, Canada, India,, the Argentina, Brazil, France, New JSejiand, and many other countries.

Further events on : Khe Empire Games programme are to ,-W« rebroadcast locally this evening. ,4YA has j arranged to re broadcast a description of the heats in the mile race at 5.40, while at. approximately 6.40 there will be a description of the six miles’ race. Between 11 and 11.30 p.m. the station will carry out a description of the boxing and wrestling events.

In the Police Court this morning, before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., a first offender on a charge of drunkenness was fined 10s, in default 24 hours’ imprisonment.

In response to the suggestion of the Director of Education that teachers should take classes out of doors and arrange a curriculum to suit the hot weather of February, teachers of the Normal School, Epsom, are conducting the first camp school in New Zealand in the Hunua Valley. Attending the camp are 80 senior boys and eight teachers, and the pupils are spending the first two weeks of their scholastic year doing field work in Nature study. During the evenings observational work done in the various' field classes is analysed and consolidated by class discussions, lecture, ■ and blackboard demonstrations. The head master, Mr G. K. Hamilton, said this morning that the scheme was proving highly successful, arousing much enthusiasm among the children and their parents.—Auckland Press Association.

The electric atmosphere which pervades Melbourne on a Cup Day is not in evidence in Dunedin on the occasion of its chief racing event. This morning the business of the city proceeded in undisturbed fashion, and the only indication of the imminence of an important sporting event was, perhaps, a deepening of the always serious mein of those seekers after “ good things ’’ who habitually congregate at a certain spot on race days: this and the fairly brisk business done by vendors of sports guides, and, towards midday, a steady stream of humanity making for the railway station. Out at Wingatui, of course, the carnival spirit was more in evidence. Quoting from its files of. 25 years ago (February 10. 1913.) , the ‘ Dominion ’ states: A lengthy journey from Dunedin to Auckland by motor oar was completed on Wednesday by .Mr and Mrs J. L. Passmore and Mr L. J. Passmore, jnn,, of Dunedin. The roads were good until after they had left .Napier on the way to, Taupo., said Mr Passmore. The road from Taupo to Napier was an absolute disgrace to any civilised country. From three to four miles the other side of Mercer the road was beyond all description. While the party was at Mercer three ears were towed in by horses. The state of the roads can be judged by the fact that out of four cars that arrived at Rotorua between Saturday night and 9 _a.m. on Monday, three had broken springs. 'Addressing a meeting of farmers at Taihape recently Mr J. Bartosh said that during his world tour he did not find any roads as bad as those in New Zealand. Even near Colombo, where primitive methods of road-making were in operation and workers used chiSels to obtain metal from huge rocks, the roads were better than the New Zealand highways. On the other hand he was firmly convinced that New Zealand lamb led the world, and the Dominion’s pastures were better'than any that be had seen in other countries, both as regards qualitv and sole of grass. Argentine beef, "however, was greatly superior to that from New Zealand and other lands and almost melted in one’s month. The streets in Germany were the cleanost in the world, and if anybody dropped a piece of paper or anything of t 1 inr nature in the streets he would be fined £l.