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Evening Star, Issue 24103, 26 January 1942, Page 4

An intimation that he was keeping paid up the weekly payments of any of his employees who had joined the national savings group and had since, proceeded to camp was given to a meeting of the Hastings National Saving Committee the governingdirector of a Hastings firm. Mr D. G. Begley, chairman of the . committee, and other members spoke appreciatively of this generous gesture and expressed the hope that now that the initiative had been given other employers might follow suit. For some time past the presence of wild pigs in the corporation’s plantations off the Taieri road has been reported, this being the nearest point from the city (some five miles) where they are to bo found. A' visitor to the Northern Cemetery on a recent evening received a mild surprise, however, when the unmistakable squeals of a number of pigs were heard in the bush Logan Park. It is thought ‘that they possibly made their way to the cemetery reserve from the slopes of Signal Hill.’ which would undoubtedly afford excellent sanctuary.

Machines from the Central Fire Station were summoned to a chimney lire in Stuart street this morning at 8.36. No damage was reported. Two residents of Waitara, Taranaki, were walking down the main street at midnight when a pedigree Jersey bull appeared on the street, and the pedestrians beat a hasty retreat through a fence. Frustrated, the bull rounded up a post office employee on his way to late duty in the telephone exchange and kept the exchange staff prisoners for soma time. The animal then charged a small motor car, and damaged the mudguards before tossing the car into a gutter. Climbing to the top of a cutting outside a fence bounding a paddock in which were two other bulls, the animal fought them fiercely until one of them launched a tremendous attack. Caught off its balance, the Jersey hull crashed on to the bitumen 40ft below. So severe were its injuries that it had to bo destroyed. A moon lily, known to be one of the few growing in Now Zealand, is flowering in a garden in Christchurch. The moon lily, mostly found in Australia, has a delicate, white, trumpet-shaped flower with a pale blue edging. The Christchurch specimen is growing in a hot, dry, well-sheltered section of the garden. An unusual feature about the plant is a small crisp pod formed around the base of the flower. This pod is full of water and keeps the lily from withering in hot weather. The flowers open on cool nights. The Mayor of Wellington, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, as head of the city Emergency Precautions Services, has stated that in future all who fail to comply with the order to draw blinds or curtains over windows of rooms used at night will he prosecuted. As “ dusk ” or “ dark ” are very indefinite times, the Wellington Lighting’Controller will, from time to time, state the actual time by which blinds and curtains in used rooms should be drawn. His instruction now is: Until the end of January draw your blinds at 3.15 p.m.

The longest trek which has been undertaken by an infantry battalion in New Zealand lias been made by a Territorial unit in the northern military district (reports the Napier _ ‘ Telegraph ’). It marched 65 miles in four days, covering 11 miles in the morning and six in the afternoon on each of the first three days and finishing on the fourth with 12 in the morning and two in the afternoon. Having already marched 30 miles in two preceding days, the unit covered almost 100 miles within a week.

Private J. K. Everest, who before the war was a well-known Waikato representative Rugby player and cricketer, is a prisoner of war in Germany at Stalag 306 XVIIID. In a letter to his mother, Mrs W. Everest, of 405 Highgate, Dunedin, which was written on October 12, he stated that he had then been a prisoner for four and a-half months. During that time each man had received four parcels from the Red Cross. They were “ really wonderful,” and each contained 16 articles of foodstuffs. Private Everest said there was a canteen in the camp at which the men were able to buy toilet gear, etc., but only a limited supply of food such as tomatoes and apples.

Hearing, in New Zealand waters, on the tiny radio of a fishing boat that Japan had invaded Penang, a Penang rubber planter is rushing to Singapore to pick up a rifle, states the ‘ Sun,’ Sydney. The planter was Mr J. M. Arbuekle, who was Ashing for sharks at Mayor Island, off the New Zealand coast, at the time. He packed up his Ashing gear, hurried back to the mainland, and secured a priority booking on the Transtasmnn flying boat. On arrival in Sydney he was looking lor another priority I'rom the Qantas Empire service in his eagerness to get home and take "up active service as a member of the Malayan Volunteer Defence Force. With him on the same flying boat were three others of the Malaya Defence Force who were on holiday with their families in New Zealand and whose homes appeared to have been captured or threatened by the Japanese. “ 1 fear that my 2,500acre plantation is gone, and I want to get back to Singapore to have a go at the Japs,” said Mr Arbuekle.

A fresh nest of white ants in a locality whore these pests were formerly found and dealt with at New Plymouth has recently been discovered. They are in a clothes lino post in a private property. The sealing up by the ants of their runways in the post was seen on the outside, and when some of this material was removed the ants at once set about repairing the broach made in the sealing material. Stops arc to be taken immediately to dose the nests with the poison which has proved effective. “ A few opossums like that would he handy in a blackout,” said Cr (.’. Flavell at the meeting of the Heathcoto County Council last week, when the county electrician reported that all electric supply in Cashmere had -recently been cut off because an opossum had short-circuited an 11,000-volt power line. The opossum contacted theline at the end of Rossmore Terrace, Cashmere. The effect was to put off all lights, not only in Cashmere, but, because the Addington sub-sthtion was affected, also in Sumner and Redcliffs. Another interruption of power, in Mount Pleasant, was caused by a rat. “ Cashmere would choose a -rather superior animal, like an opossum,” said Cr F. W. Freeman.

That the London Zoo has' lost nono of its popularity with those who can reach it is proved by the throng of visitors every fine day, states the London correspondent of the ‘ Manchester Guardian,’ but the strongest testimony is afforded by the steady, and growing success of the scheme under which friends of the Zoo adopt individual animals for the duration of the war. “ There are few who are not feeling the pinch of increased taxation, coupled very often with loss of income, yet the amount subscribed by the adopters of animals stands higher to-day than at any time. No fewer that 385 animals are provided for by adoption, the aggregate sum involved being about £3,400 a year. The adopters enjoy a certain sense of property in the animals they select and have the further satisfaction of knowing that their welfare is assured.” Ho says that Whipsnade (the country quarters _of the Zoo) also flourishes beyond belief, considering all the adverse circumstances.

Over the week-end a number of men who have been trailing with the New Zealand Army Tank Brigade in the North Island arrived home for a short period of leave. More than 300 came to Dunedin, and about 180 proceeded to South Otago and Southland, These men will return north by special train to-morrow. Next week-end a further batch of men from this camp will be on leave.

A farther draft of recruits numbering about 36 will begin training this week with the 17th Battalion National Military Reserve. These men are all genuine volunteers and have at least one child. They offered their services before the ballot of last week. The men will parade at the Drill Hall at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday to receive uniforms and other equipment. Training will be started on Thursday on the same conditions as apply to those already called up with this unit—namely, day training and a living-out allowance of 2s 6d a day. This procedure will continue until the full establishment of the battalion is mobilised about February 16, when camp training will start.

The “scorched earth” policy of the Russians, to defeat the advancing German armies a few months ago, has been emulated to some degree by Waikato farmers who had their hay spoilt by the persistent rain of a fortnight ago. The hay had lost its nourishing qualities, so the owners elected to burn it rather than go to the expense of harvesting and stacking. A number of farms round Hamilton have paddocks showing where fire was used.

When the Emergency Committee of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers’ Union met last week, a member expressed regret that the Government had not included the farming industry in the list of essential services recently published. In answer to a question, • the chairman, Mr D. H. Cockburu, said that farmers could rest assured that this important matter was being closely watched by the union’s Dominion headquarters.

A remarkably good performance was put up by members of the Flagstaff Battalion of the Home Guard yesterday. Each company marched' from its assembly point to its manoeuvre base, this, in the case of B Company, which assembled at the Garrison Hall, being a route of about six and a-half miles. The other companies assembled at Mornington Schoool and Caversham Hall, so that their distances were relatively shorter. Arrived at their base, the men tramped over more than three miles of country, and then they all marched home again. B Company covered in all about 17 miles on foot by the time the Garrison Hall was reached last night, and the latter part of the march from the Oval was at attention with fixed bayonets. Those who saw the men marching along Princes street did not imagine from their appearance that they were on the final stretch of a really heavy day, and possibly no greater tribute could be paid the men for the way in which they have responded to their training. “ Believe me, it was like being a kid again and receiving a Christmas stocking from Santa Claus,” writes an Otago soldier from the Western Desert in acknowledging receipt of two parcels (one from the people of Otago and the other from Canterbury), plus 10 packets of cigarettes and a tin of tobacco. After setting out in detail the very welcome contents of the parcels, ho adds: “ You people have certainly done your best for us, and we do appreciate it.”

The Commissioner of Taxes draws attention of taxpayers to the notification appearing in to-day’s issue that the due date of payment of income tax is on Thursday, February 12, 1942. Additional tax will accrue if the tax is not paid on or before March 5. The demands will be posted from the office of the Commissioner of Taxes on or about February 5. 1942. Demands must be presented with all payments, and it a demand has not been received the Commissioner should be communicated with.