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Evening Star, Issue 24481, 16 April 1943, Page 2

At its monthly meeting last night I the Otago Harbour Board voted a sum j of £350 towards the amount of £58.000 proposed to be raised as Otago's quota for the 1943 All Purposes patriotic apI peal. in the biggest harvesting job undertaken in 'Southland this season—and ' possibly for many years—a large namI ber of soldiers are providing the bulk lof the labour. The task is the bring- ' ing in of 386 acres of linen flax grown on the Spur Head estate, near Dane. which is being developed by the Lands Department for eventual soldier settlement. The estate presented a scene of great activity last week, more than 50 soldiers being busy stacking linen flax. About 40 acres of the crop were brought in during the day. bringing the quantity harvested to' about L'lH) i acres, or half the total crop.

During recent weeks Tapanui has been invaded by an army of ferrets, upwards of 30 having been trapped in and around.the town (says the Tapanui 'Courier'): Several poultry keepers have suffered losses. Another animal that is getting far too plentiful is the hedgehog, which, though it destroys grubs and injects, is supposed also to take eggs and young chickens. It is almost impossible to trap rabbits about Tapanui. as every morning the traps are filled with hedgehogs.

Fishing on the Pomahaka Kiver recently at the lower end of the Kelso Gorge, Mr Charles Duncan landed a speckled beauty which turned the scales at lOilb.' The lure used was a purple grouse fly. This is the third large tish Mr Duncan has landed lately, he previously netting an eight and a five-pounder respectively. At the meeting of the Peninsula County Council yesterday it was reported that up to date the sum of £5,031 Is 2d had been received in rates out of a total of £5,102 lis 2d struck. The credit balance of the council amounted to £3.587 3s (3d. Those present at the meeting were the chairman (Mr J. J. Nyhon) and Crs D. Rutherford. J. Heliyer, R. W. Aitken. T. S. Edmonds, J. W. Harbrow, R. B. Habershou. N. Geary, and W. V. Sturmer.

At the conclusion of the annual meeting of the Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland last night Principal S. F. Hunter delivered an interesting address on the subject of the disruption of the national established Church of Scotland on May 18, 1843, and its relationship to the settlement of Otago. Principal Huntor dealt first with the events in Scotland which led to the sailing of the John Wickliffe and the Philip Laiug for Otago, and then discussed the disruption of the Church of Scotland, when one-third of its ministers, students, and teachers and nearly one-half of ite community and membership left the fold and constituted the Free Church of ScotlandHe traced the history of all the trouble between the Church of Scotland and the British Parliament, and the final union' in 1929, when the new Church ..of Scotland was formed. " 1 would like to say that I see the end of the war in Europe. I don't. 1 would like, to 6ay that 1 I see the end of the war in the Pacific. I don't," said the Prime Minister, Mr Eraser, speaking at a conference of the National Savings organisation in Wellington. " I am afraid the war in the Pacific will endure longer than the European war." he continued. " Therefor we can look for no let-up. We cannot preach any soft doctrine of the times passing and getting good immediately. There is no hope of that. We are just in the middle of the war, and we must carry on with all our efforts in the field of battle." ■ "No offer of, or request for, co-opera-tion has been received from the Second N.Z.E.F. Association either before or since the formation of that association,'' says the Dominion Executive Committee of the N.Z.R.S.A. in-a statement replying to the Dominion president of the Second. N.Z.E.F. Association, Mr'E. L. Thwaites, who said recently that the fullest co-operation had been offered, but the Dominion headquarters of the R.S.A.. up to the present had not shown that spirit of co-operation and help already shown by many of its branches, which were actively assisting and guiding the Second N.Z.E.F. branches. The statement adds: The R.S.A. has repeatedly told all me'.Tvbers of the Second N.Z.K.F. that it will look after their interests and try to be their " elder brother" while they are away, and since the war commenced the bulk of the. time of the Dominion executive and that of branch executives and the annual meeting of the Dominion Council has been devoted to the welfare of members of the Second X.Z.K.F. For instance, the R.S.A.. as long ago as May. 1941, had been rn increase in the mufti allowance. ft had opened wide its doors to returned servicemen and women of the present war, and already such members were represented on the branch executives and at, Dominion headquarters, while the majority of those returned from the present war had joined the R.S.A.—Press Association.

Operations at the new waste paper depot at the corner of Mcßride and Kin", Edward streets. South Dunedin. which is being conducted .by worojn members of the Waste Paper Brigade, are now in full swing, and, with the support of the business community and residents of'St. Kilda and SoutirDuiiedin, it is expected, that excellent results will be p'btained iii this important work of Salvaging waste paper and cardhoard. The elm inn flu of the Waste Paper Brigade (Mr D. 1\ Martin) said yesterday that residents were urged to co-o"°rate to the utmost, and. wherever possible, to deliver their paper to the depot. They should remember, however, that it was an offence against the city by-law's to leave the paper on tlie street. When the premises were not onen the key "ordd he obtained from Messrs A. H. B. Poulter and Co. Ltd.. opposite the depot. If waste materials could not he delivered, however, arrangements wold be made, for their collection. In th's connection, school children, under tha direction of the head master of the Road Intermediate School (Mr A. M. Davidson), were giving invaluable assistance. The city water supply is gradually diminishing as the prolonged dry spell nf weather continues, and the necessity for extreme care in the use of water is stressed by the city onp-ineer. This morning th" storage dnm« he'rl about 84 million callous.* compared with a capacity of 150 million gn'lons. As a precautionary measure the outlet valves have hen screwed down by more than half. There has heci a lo«* in the oast two weeks of over 90 million cal'nns. and the question nf further restrictions is being considered. An estimate of books read by patients in the Auckland Hospital over a period rt 21ve<"s was submitted bv the City Mission Hospital Library's Guild at its animal meeting last night. Anion* the favourite authors were writers of thrillers si'ch as T.esh'p Chnrteris. Dennis Wbcptley. and Sidney Horler. Also po"r''ir were se:' stories bv Laurie Long and Humphrey Jorda". Women writers of outstanding popularity were Join f};tf'—. Goorgc+te TTeyer, Anne Duffield. and Dorothy Sayers.

The secretary of the R.S.A. has asked the ' Star ' to issue a denial of a rumour that the ladies collecting for Poppy Day were told not to go near the wharves "on account of an alleged rough element there." This was emphatically denied by the R.S.A.. which reports that the ladies had been most courteously received, and that they were highly indignant about this unfounded suggestion.

" Buy a poppy, please." was the polite request made on the main strepts of the city and suburbs to-day bv the ladies assisting in the annual Poppy Day appeal of the Dunedin Returned Services' Association. The appeal commenced at 7 a.m . and before many hours had passed there were few people who were not wearing the scarlet emblem of remembrance. The response of the public on all sides appeared to he generous, and it would not be surprising if the £3.26-1 collected throughout tin- province last year is exceeded on this occasion.