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Evening Star, Issue 23059, 10 September 1938, Page 16

The ‘ Sports Special,’ with the full story of the llanfurly Shield game, the New Zealand cross-country championship, and all available sporting news of the day, will be sold on the streets to-night from 7 o’clock. Advice has now been received by the Finance Committee of the City Council from the Government intimating that the necessary Order in Council consenting to the raising of the Housing Loan (No. 3), 1938, has been gazetted.' As already reported, the term of the loan has been fixed at 25 years and the interest £3 per centum. The introduction of a further series of Government measures, including the Finance Bill, constituted the important feature of yesterday’s business in the House of Representatives. The whole day was spent in discussing the Public Works Statement ou lines which the Minister of Works admitted in his reply were fairly reasonable and rational. Mr Semple justified the heavy reading expenditure by reference to the higher standard of safety required through the tremendous increase in the volume of motor traffic, while backblocks roads were getting £13(5,000 more spent ou them this year than in the previous year. In order to complete consideration of the statement and the Works Estimates, the House sat after its usual hour of adjournment, but the attendance was sparse, Mr Holyoake commenting after 6 p.m. that £20,000,000 was being appropriated with only eight Government members present out of a total of 50. However, ho overlooked the fact that the majority were getting a meal preparatory to catching the night trains and the southern steamer at 7.30. The Minister of Works had left for the south, his Ministerial colleagues then sharing his duty of replying to the many questions regarding the votes on the Estimates. There was a short adjournment for a belated dinner, and it was 9.30 before the final vote was passed, the House adjourning till Monday afternoon to face the legislative programme, which it should have no difficulty in completing before the date fixed for the session’s end.—Parliamentary reporter. A draft schedule of the _ Reserves Committee of the City Council sets out the rota of performances to be given by the city bands during the incoming 3’ear. Each band is required to render five concerts, three in the Botanic Gardens and two at St. Clair, and receives a subsidy of £SO for such concerts. The six city bands participate, together with the Salvation Army Band, which gives its performances divided between the Public Hospital and the Talboys Home. Earth subsidence along the sloping faces of the Kilmog Hill have necessitated repeated repair work to the bitumen surface of the Main North road of recent months. And, too, over a section of it before reaching Merton from the south, considerable repair work is now in progress. A high-powered grader is at work, a length of two or three chains of roadway has been torn up by a heavy traction engine, and the grade altered. Both machines have been busy the past few days regrading and rolling. An empty drum with a flag attached and placed in the middle of the roadway some distance from operations gives motorists ample warning that the road is up and must be negotiated with care. Authority has been granted by the Works Committee of the City Council to the Post and Telegraph Department to install a telephone cabinet in Neidpath road at the angle of the street at the back of the footway on the frontage to a property owned by the council, subject to the cabinet being kept hard against the fence in order that no space is left at the back where persons could stand. The site is well lighted by a street light on the opposite side of the street. On the headland at Karitane, replica of the one at Matanaka across the water from Waikonaiti Bay, is an old cemetery. Here lie the early pioneers of whaling days. Many of the graves are without headstone and overgrown with grass. One headstone, however, attracts interest. It is that of a Maori, who died in August, 1899. Born at Punaterakau Pa, his age is not stated, but he must l have_ lived full many a ripe 'year, for the inscription states he was proclaimed local preacher for the Wesleyan Church in 1840' (the Rev. James Watkins was the misionary who arrived in that year), and in the year 1862 created a lay reader for the Anglican Church. This was Rawiri Tamaire Teaohikuraki, a member of the Ngatihnirapa tribe.

The Works Committee of the Drainage Board recommends that authority be granted to extend the existing sewer in Ravenswood road a distance of ‘125 ft to serve properties in Sea view Terrace, at an estimated cost of £365. Application is to be made to the Government for a subsidy of £2 7s 6d a man a week, and, if granted, will mean a saving of £137. The work will be a charge against the item for “ unforeseen works ” in the current year’s allocations.

The city organist (Dr V. E. Galway) will give an after-church recital in the Town Hall to-morrow evening at 8.15. Two items which are being performed for the first time at these rpeitals are ‘ Prelude and Fugue in B Flat Major ’ (Bach) and Air from ‘ Dido and yFneas 1 (Purcell).' Dr Galway will also play Schubert’s ‘Serenade’—lntroduction and Allegro (Uuilraant), suite, ‘ Scenes From Kent ’ (Fredric Wood), 1 A Sunset Melody ’ (Vincent), afid tho military march, ‘ Pomp and Circumstance’ (Cigar). The supporting artist will ho Air Allan Tregonning, solo pianist, who will play Chopin’s ‘ Scherzo in B Flat Minor.’ There will be no charge for admission. During the past three months considerable difficulty has been experienced in obtaining the full requirements of coal (reports the Gas Committee of the City Council). To obtain the best results in the gasmaking plant it is necessary to blend coal supplies in different proportions, and at present it is necessary to adjust the blend to the coals available. Every endeavour is being made to keep up the stocks, and the position to-day, though difficult, is not serious.

Karitanc Beach, rendezvous of many holiday-seekers throughout the summer months, received a terrific pounding from the ocean during the winter. Tons of sand have been swept to sea until a floor of pure peat has been revealed, and in this can be seen embedded many huge hardwood logs and stumps, some bearing the marks of axe and saw. Where they came from is a question many people in the locality are asking themselves. With the advent of warmer days and more temperate seas, changing currents are gradually reclothing the beach with its usual coating of soft white sand.

Tho Tramways Committee of the City Council reports that authority has been granted to invite tenders for a new rope for the Mornington line. A new rope was put into the lino on .Wednesday, August 17 last.

Public fancies, it seems, are developing even in regard to telephones. In its desire to cater for tastes, and to popularise telephones, the Postmaster-Gene-ral’s department has arranged for the supply of coloured instruments, which, after extensive tests, are guaranteed not to fade (says the Melbourne ‘ Age ’). The range is in green, red, and ivory, and it has become noticeable that the demand for green is greatly in excess of that for the other colours. The first batch of 850 of the new instruments is expected to arrive in Australia in November, but already they have been promised on order. Further supplies will be obtained later to meet the demand. Harmonising telephones, however, will prove a costly luxury in the home. The charge will be 30s in excess of that for the ordinary black hand-set instruments.

The Works Committee of the Drainage Board reports that authority has been granted to alter the positions of a number of mud tanks in St. Hilda, where the borough council is at present carrying out street improvement works by shifting the kerbiug and channelling and providing grass margins. The estimated cost of the work is £l3B, and by special arrangement with the St. Hilda Borough Council payment is to bo held over until after April 1 next. Australian industrialists have had their interest in the Spanish conflict quickened recently by General Franco’s advance on Alicante to seize the Almadeu mercury mines (says the Melbourne J Age ’). As is well known, mercury is a vital constituent in the manufacture of detonators and percussion caps, for the production of which it is used in conjunction with alcohol and nitric to form mercury fulminate. This metallic dement, however, serves in peace as well as in war, as it is used to produce ointments, medicines, felt _ hats, for the recovery of gold, the making of cgustic soda, dental amalgams, and mercury vapourlamps. In an address before the Australian Institute of Hefei gcratiou at Kelvin Hall, Mr R. P. Macleod, importer of mercury, stressed the fact that Australia depended to a considerable extent on the element. Australia; he explained, imported annually 60,0001 b of mercury, worth £30,000. The main sources of supply were Spain, Italy, and Soviet Russia. Spain had the largest mercury deposits in the world at Alicante, in the Alraaden mines, and from that field 40 per cent, of the world’s supply was procured. In view of the political differences, ,Mr Macleod thought it was doubtful whether Russia would export mercury if anything should . happen to the Almecla mines, and Italy was the only other large producer. The mercury deposits of importance in Australia were confined to two or three places, principally near Jamieson, in Victoria, where there were alluvial beds, but the area was not at present being worked. Traces were also found in Queensland, but companies were working them only in a small way.

The Finance Committee of the City Council recommends that the usual grant of £IOO ‘bo made to the South Islands Travel Association for the purpose of assisting the association in the work of attracting tourists to the South Islands. This amount will be a charge against the “ unauthorised ” vote. It is also recommended that three pages of advertising be taken in the association’s publication ‘ Discovery,’ at a cost of £25 a page, and that this expenditure be divided equally ainong the Tramways, Electric, and Gas Departments, as was done in the case of lust year’s publication. Some 15,000 copies'of this publication are printed and distributed abroad.

In the Police Court yesterday afternoon William James Rivers (Mr'J. P. Ward) defended a charge of driving a car in a manner which might have been dangerous to the public. After hearing evidence, Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., fined defendant £2 and costs (£2 Is 9d).

The Works Committee of the City Council recommends that the city engineer for the time being be appointed the council’s representative on the Town Planning Committee of the New Zealand Standards Institute. This committee is preparing a standard code of model clauses for town planning schemes as part of a programme for the standardisation of local body bylaws. Since October, 1936. Mr J. ,G. Alexander has been a postal member of this committee in his private capacity, and the council has now been, requested to make, an afficial appointment in order to come into line with the other main centres. Two alterations have been made in the programmes announced for 4YA tomorrow and shown elsewhere in this issue. At 3.45 the station will carry out a relay from the Caledonian Ground, whore eight bands wilj take part in the massed pipe bands display. In tho evening the religious service from the Salvation Army Citadel will be relayed, the preacher being Major Sydney Bridges and the conductor Mr A. Millard.

Ships navigating tho area in the vicinity of the Spanish coast, whether inward or outward-bound from the United Kingdom, are liable at times—as has been demonstrated recently—to be subject to more than cursory attention from Spanish war planes or ships. Isolated eases of bombing have been reported, and it is for this. —among other reasons—that vessels maintaining schedules from Home to New Zealand and Australia via the Suez. Canal route have adopted the precautionary measure of having gun mountings shipped on. a convenient deck ■ position, ■ The latest vessel to visit Dunedin with this feature prominent was the Rangitane, which left Port Chalmers this afternoon for Lvttelton. Recently the ship was structurally strengthened in the poop deck near the stern, and had fitted mountings for two guns—one 6in and one anti-aircraft. Two-thirds of the cost was homo by the British Admiralty the New Zealand Shipping Company paying tho remainder of the mounting expenses. This is by no means an innovation for either passenger or freight-steamers, as the majority of overseas vessels have gun mountings installed when they are built.

The railway station was a very busy place all morning, large crowds thronging the platforms to watch the arrival of the special trains from the south with hundreds of people for the football match to-day. As a result of the congestion on the south line the ordinary express from Invercargill reached Dunedin at 11.40 instead of at 11.25, and was despatched for the north about 11.50—25 minutes late.

Notification of Sunday services as enumerated below appear in our Sunday services advertising columns Anglican: St. Paul’s Cathedral, All Saints’. Presbyterian: First Church, Knox Church, St. Andrew’s, Musselburgh, St. Stephen’s, Roslyn, Kaikorai, Maori°HiU. Methodist: Trinity, Central Mission, Mornington, St. Kilda, Caversham. Dundas Street, Abbotsford. Baptist: Hanover Street, Caversham, Mornington, South Dunedin, Roslyn, Sunshine, North-east Valley, Green Island. Congregational: Moray Place Church, United. Church of Christ; St Andrew Street, North-east Valley, South Dunedin. York Placo Hall, Salvation Army. Playfair Street Hall, Christian Science, Thcosopliical Society, Spiritualists, Orange Hall, Strand Theatre. Eva strain—for eye comfort, for better vision, consult Stunner and Watson Ltd., opticians, 2 Octagon, Dunedin,—[AdvbJ