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Evening Star, Issue 24002, 29 September 1941, Page 6

The manager of a business at Mataura last week showed an ‘ Ensign ’ representative a warning received from his head office saying that spurious postal notes are in circulation and giving the points of difference between the genuine and imitation prints. So far no notes of the character described have made their appearance over the counter at Mataura.

The Finnish barque Pamir, claimed as a prize, was docked at Wellington on Thursday. Although a high wind was blowing, the Pamir was safely taken from her berth and, shepherded by two powerful tugs and -a Harbour Board launch, guided slowly across the harbour. The docking, the first in Wellington in which a tall sailing ship has been handled, was completed l satisfactorily’. The ship, which brought 4,400 tons of guano to Now Zealand from tho Seychelles, had not been docked since she was in Gothenburg, Sweden, at tho outbreak of war, and she was badly in need of overhaul and survey’. The Pamir is the first large sailing vessel to enter Wellington Heads for 17 years. She is a steel barque of 2,799 tons, built by Blobm and Voss, of Hamburg, in 1905. She has been in New Zealand waters several times, visiting Auckland in 1938 and New Plymouth at the beginning of this _ year. , The last large sailing ship to visit Wellington was the barquentine Hesperian, 1,100 tons, in February, 1924. Following tho announcement that Auckland now has its first girl telegraph messenger comes the discovery that the city also possesses a young woman whose job is to bread to suburban houses. She is Miss M. Shoebridge, a member of a St. Holiers bakery firm. Her two brothers are both serving in tho armed forces and she has taken tho place of one of them on a delivery van. Wearing trousers to facilitate entering and leaving the van, she is strong and fit enough to carry a large basket of bread from house to house and she says she has no difficulty in this or in any other branch of her work. She also confesses to a liking for her occupation, one of the merits of which in her eyes is that it keeps her out in the fresh air. The Empire Parliamentary Association, London, has invited a small delegation of members of tile New 'Zealand Parliament to be its guests for three weeks in November or December, or, if more convenient, early next year. The invitation was considered by the executive committee of the New Zealand branch yesterday and accepted for early next year. It is suggested in the invitation that , the delegation should comprise two prominent members, one from the Government side and one from tho Opposition. The personnel will bo selected later this year. —Press Association.

Prominent among the screen heroes of the present day is ‘ The Saint,’ from the novels of Leslie Charteris (says the ‘Southland Times’). Characters such as ho have won a large juvenile following, and in trying to emulate their screen idols, young hero-worshippers are apt to cause annoyance to members of the public. This fact was brought borne to an. Invercargill yachtsman recently. For about three weeks he has been preparing his yacht for the coming season in the Invercargill Boating Club’s shod at Pleasure Bay. At last the final coat of enamel had been applied very painstakingly, and the yacht owner had every reason to be pleased with his handiwork. The next day, when he arrived at the shed to continue work, he discovered that someone had forced Iris way into the shed by crawling under it and pulling himself up through a hole in the floor which had been covered from the inside by a fairly heavy piece of planking. The intruder must have been an admirer of this “ modern Robin Hood,” for adorning the polished hull of the yacht, in roughly fashioned letters, and preceded by the Saint’s figure, was painted the following inscription;—" The Saint—so what? ” la the opinion of the electric boards and supply authorities, meeting in Wellington, the 1935 Electric Supply Regulations, requiring reinspection of consumers’ installations every five years, should be amended to lengthen the period to 10 years. Supporting its remit, and a similar remit from Hawke’s Bay, the Grey Board said that in a widespread district the cost of reinspection was considerable, and its value was doubtful. Inspectors had gone into a house knowing that substandard apparatus was in constant daily use, but by the time the door was opened to them there was no sign of it. “So long as there is no bar to the sale by departmental stores of cheap equipment, it will bo used,” said tho Grey Board, “ and it is suggested that the consumer would bo better safeguarded by being allowed to buy only good appliances than by the enforcement of this costly rule.” The mobilisation of Territorial units on cadres established over the week-end at Burnham, Forbnry Park, and Wingatui will mean a big movement of 18-year-old lads to-morrow. Approximately 400 will go north to Burnham to join up with the Ist Battalion. Otago Regiment, the Otago Mounted Rifles, and the 3rd Field Battery, while 150 will enter camp at Forbnry Park, where the cadre of tho 2nd Scottish Battalion has been established. Another 150 will go into camp at Wingatui, the cadre base of the 2nd Canterbury Infantry Regiment. The cadres will bo established at these camps so long as the war lasts, but the units entering camp to-morrow will remain there only for three months. About 200 lads from Central and North Otago districts were in town over the. weekend being fitted for uniforms and supplied with equipment, and these lads will enter camp to-morrow.

Good progress is being made with improvements to tbo lay-out of the entrance to the Royal New Zealand Air Force Station at Wigram. A concrete retaining wall has been erected, and! on the western side of the main gates a by-pass has been made for visiting cars and taxis, eliminating hold-ups at the entrance. An extensive lawn is being prepared on the west side of the main drive, and when the work is completed the station will have an impressive approach. The comment made by Mr A. S. Richards, M.P., in the House of Representatives about the pair of women’s shoes which fell apart in three weeks, recalled a suprisiugly frank comment made by the manager of a city shoo factory when conducting a vice-regal party over the plant some years ago (says the Christchurch ‘Star-Sun’). His Excellency picked up a pair of lightly-built shoes, inspected them, and said to the manufacturer: “ They don't look very substantial, do they? ” “ No, your Excellency,” replied the manufacturer. “ They arc not meant to be.” On the sports grounds of Co public schools in England 3,500 schoolboys, aged over 16 years, have just been trained to start and operate tractors, to do all the maintenance work and simple adjustments and to manoeuvre them in a series of simple exercises, which reproduce the motions of ordinary farm work. The boys volunteered for the work.

Even allowing for the proverbial nine lives, the life span of the domestic cat cannot be very long and for one to reach the age of 18 years must be unusual. A cat of this age died in Auckland a few days ago. The owner, Mrs R. B. Williamson, of Benson road, Remuera, was given a 10-day-old kitten exactly 18 years ago, and, after living a vigorous and healthy life, it suddenly became ill and had to be destroyed. Only in the last few weeks did the cat begin to show signs of its ago. “During the year,” states the annual report of the Air Department, “ the Band of tho Royal New Zealand Air Force has played an important part in the air-crew recruiting campaigns. It has also been of material assistance to patriotic funds. On two tours of tho Dominion tho band raised approximately £30,000 for patriotic funds. Throughout its tours the band has been responsible for much favourable publicity for the Air Force.” “ It is wonderful the stories you can get a man to swallow so long as you make it impossible enough,” said Mr Justice Blair, when discussing in tho Auckland Supreme Court whether a witness could possibly have believed a very “tall” story that had been told to him. “ I have seen some remarkable stories swallowed,” he said. There were hard-headed business men that you could not deceive about prices, because that was their job, but if you told them you knew a man who could dig a hole in tho ground and get gold out of it they would put all their money in it, said His Honour. That was because they knew nothing about it. The validity of contracts for illuminated advertisements entered into before the emergency lighting restrictions were introduced is to be argued in tho Auckland Supreme Court shortly. Three claims for payment of rentals for such signs were brought in tho Magistrate’s Court recently and adjourned until a test case is taken.

The mayor (Mr A. H. Allen) has received from the Prime Minister (the lU. Hon. P. Fraser) a letter acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the resolutions carried at the public meeting in the Town Hall on Tuesday of last week in connection with the “ Doctors’ Bill.” Mr Fraser’s acknowledgment merely states that ho has carefully noted the terms of the resolutions carried at tho meeting. Mr Justice Kennedy has granted probate in the following estates: —Wallace Wilcock, of Dunedin, builder; William Leonard Tennet, of Dunedin, retired draper; Lilian Clara Smith, of Port Chalmers, married woman; Hugh Munro, of Alexandra, dredgeman; Leonard Charles Buist, of Dunedin, retired builder; Alexander Piric, of Milton, farmer; Arthur Littlejohn, of Dunedin, retired Civil servant; Howard Andrew Elliott Dotting, of Dunedin, schoolmaster; and Louisa Kenner, of Dunedin, spinster. Letters of administration wore granted in the estates of J ohn Black, Dunedin, butcher, and William Petrie, of Berwick, retired carrier.

The Prime Minister, Hr Fraser, has received a cable from Mr Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, conveying thanks for the exquisitely bound volumes of the series of centennial publications issued by the New Zealand Government, which Mr Mackenzie King says have just been forwarded to him from London by the Canadian High Commissioner, Mr Massey. “I am most grateful for a gift so valuable in itself and so memorable in its associations, both personal and as related to our two countries in this most momentous of all times in the history of the British Commonwealth of Nations.” Mr Mackenzie King added the expression of his appreciation_ at the pleasure afforded to his Ministerial colleagues in Canada by meeting Mr Fraser and hearing him speak while he was in Ottawa.—Press Association.

By now, the shining cuckoo (pipiwharauroa) will be arriving in the North Island from its winter resorts in Melanesia; it usually reaches the South Island in the first week of October, followed by the long-tailed cuckoo (koekoca) about a month later (says the Christchurch ‘Star-Sun’)- Both these have the same curious habit as their relatives in the Northern Hemisphere of laying their eggs in other birds’ nests and leaving the upbringing of their young to the foster-parents, a habit which the old country folk of Cumberland explain by a beautiful legend. They say that as Christ walked in the Valley of Jordan and, lifting up , His eyes to the hills beyond Jericho, gazed at Quarautana, the Mount of Temptation, He knew that the hour of his trial was nigh, and knelt to pray. At the sound of His voice, a great stillness filled the valley. The nightingales ceased their song, the kingfisher hovered above His head on silent wings, the river stayed its babble, an.l the rustic of the wind died away. Only the cuckoos worked on, carrying twigs and moss and lichen to their half-finished ucst. But when Christ arose and they saw the sorrow on His face, they dropped and cowered amongst the bushes, and when He had passed, they fled away to the wilderness, never again to build a nest or know the joys of mated life or the tenderness of parenthood. Sometimes, very, very rarely, the cuckoo will, it is said, commence to build a nest in imitation of other birds, only to abandon it half-finished when she remembers that evening hundreds of years ago.