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Evening Star, Issue 24915, 13 July 1943, Page 2

The Mavor (Mr A. H. Allen) acknowledges with thanks receipt of a donation of £4 from Mrs E.'E. Hall to the fund for the ' adoption " of Chinese refugee children, bringing the total up to £1,120 lis -Id.

■Particularly well known to New Zealanders among the draft from the Middle East that reached Wellington yesterday was Lieutenant - colonel (Bishop) Gerard, who was a prisoner of war in Italy from December, 19-11. to April, 1943.' He spent periods in nine different camps, where, he said, all managed to make the best of things. The food was mainly of tbe cereal type, With rice and macaroni predominating. The officers received 6oz of bread a day, and the soldiers'' rations varied according to the work they were doing. A little could be purchased from the canteens, but chocolate which would cost sixpence in New Zealand cost at least 3s. Figs were popular during the first season, but after that they were rationed. Bishop Gerard praised the way the representatives of the churches and the Vatican did what they could to improve the lot of .prisoners.- He added that the repatriation of prisoners was en-tirely-a matter for the detaining country to decide, but there had been suggestions that there might be more frequent exchanges.

Prolonged rain over the week-end and warmer conditions which melted the snow on the Ruahiue Ranges, resulted in i the Manawatu, Pohangina, and Oroua, (Rivers becoming flooded yesterday. All three rivers poured their surplus into low-lying farm lands. The Oroua River overflowed its banks in the Kopano area, and the eastern approach of a bridge giving access to Rongotea was scoured out, necessitating a long detour. This is the third flood in a fortnight which settlers in the lower areas have had to suffer.

Next of kin of prisoners of war in Germany and Italy have received large maps of Central Europe indicating in clear type the location of all the prison camps iu both countries. /.These are the gift of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society. These camps'—stalags, oflags, marla'gs, milags, and Juftlags—are spread but from the much-bombed Ruhr to Eastern Prussia and from the Baltic to Southern Bavaria and the border lands o'f Jugoslavia and Czechoslovakia; and in Italy they-are clotted all over the leg and foot bf that country.

A man aged 83 applied recently to the traffic department of the Auckland City Council for a driver's license. This is not the record for the oldest driver in New Zealand, a distinction Which probably belongs to Timaru, for k man aged 91 applied for—and obtained—a driver's license there. Cases of people in their seventies obtaining drivers' licenses ire not uheohlmori.' ' ■ '•;

A live trout, 12in long, was an odd visitor found in the side channel of the iriain street of Methyen, Canterbury, following the recent snowstorm in the South Island. It was beside a cafe. Evidently the fish had been forced up through a manhole of an underground water race which had been blocked by debris, and tlie water overflow was carried down the storm water channel.

The suggestion was made by the president (Mr P. W. Bi'een) at yesterday's executive meeting of the Automobile Association (Otago) that the island which has been constructed at the intersection of Bridgmah street and Anderson's Bay road to direct traffio into two lanes should be provided with sloping edges so that if a motorist hit the edge he would nob have the wheel jerked out of his hand, which could easily cause a serious accident. Mr Breen said lie thought the pests at the.corners should bo made of a substance which' had some " give " in it, rather than of concrete. At a meeting of the Dunedin-St. Kikla Patriotic Committee held yesterdav a question was asked regarding the £IO.OOO invested by the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council in the recent War Loan. In reply, the chairman, Mr A. O. Cameron, explained that tho 1943 AH Purposes Appeal included tlie sum of £25,000 required for the after-care of returned men. the £IO,OOO. represented .part of this sum, and would probaMy be badly needed in the years to come. Members present expressed the hope that this explanation would be given wide as they had heard a good deal of criticism in connection with the investment of patriotic moneys, which it had been suggested should ibe expended overseas. During a discussion at the Otago Rugby Union Management Committee meeting last night regarding injured players, instances were quoted of men and boys who had received bad knocks on the head and were allowed to continue playing, with quite serious consequences. It was pointed out that this question had been debated a few years ago and instructions had then been issued to referees that when a player had received a head injury he was under no circumstances to be allowed to remain on the field. The meeting last night decided again to remind the Referees' Association of these instructions.

Charges iucurred in sending money to New Zealander.s serving overseas hare been explained by a bank official. The limit of remittances that may he sent to any one person in 12 months is £3O in New Zealand currency, which is equivalent to £24 in Egyptian money or in sterling at the present rate of exchange. A further £7 10s was permitted to be sent within a limited period at Christmas as a special concession by the Government. Remittances cannot be forwarded through tho Post Office. All transactions are made through a bank, and aggregate sums are sent by cablegram from time to time by the Army Pay Office to its overseas headquarters, with the names of the intended recipients and the individual amounts credited. No additional charges are levied. Actually, at present the Egyptian pound is worth 6d more than sterling. In the Magistrate's Court this morning, before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M.. judgment by default, with costs, was given for the plaintiffs in the following cases:—T, and P. Milk Supply Company v. C. Evans. £2 6s 2d, for "•oods supplied; Wri&ht, Stephenson, and Co Ltd. v.. Mrs W. Avers (Christchurch). £9 ]9s lOd, for stock supplied ; and .). and J. Arthur v. F. B. Howell (Christehurch), £<3 Us 3d, for goods supplied.

Frosts of up to 30deg have been recorded in the Hakataramea Valley since the recent snowstorm. A foot of snow fell at Haka Downs and about three Inches at Hakataramea.

A young fur seal which lias been about the Bluff wharves for some months has apparently made his home there. Every day he is .to be seen ill and around the.wharves. Biperjs say that he will probably stay there until the next mating season* Britain's workers must have been specially gratified to read the American magazine ' Life,' which, declaring that Britain has outmatched everyone with her wits, says: " One of Britain's biggest contributions to the war has been her export of ideas, some ot them indispensable to victory. The list of BnYish ...inventions and technical .developments in., the last few years ,i$ amazing.'' ' Life > then goes on to show how Britain completely countered the threat from the German magnetic .mine by the invention of the " degaussing " 'apparatus, how Britain's Spitfire broke new ground iii the design of fighting aircraft, how Britain's Rolls-Royce Merlin engine remains the most highlv-developed liquid-cooled, power plant in the world. The magazine calls attention to Britain s inventions of a new tyno of delayed-action bomb, mine detectors, life-saving devices, a new kind of still, to make drinking water from sea water in lifeboats, and so forth. Britain s most spectacular development of all, says 'Life,' is radio-location, by means of which it is possible to locate ships and aircraft even through mist and cloud, many miles beyond the normal range of powerful binoculars. Thoughts of home are rarely absent from the mind of the soldier, whatever his nationality, on active service. A New Zealander. writing from somewhere in the Middle East, says: "We lose all count of days and dates here, and the other night when we went over to the Y.M.C.A. truck to listen to the hews, wo were reminded that it was Sunday when we heard, coming over the air, the deep tones of an organ and the congregation singing the hymn ' Rise Up, O Men of God.' It sounded beautiful and how inspiring! It brought back to me so vividly the Sunday evenings at home when we sat around the fire and listened to the services broadcast from English cathedrals. Shall we ever, forget those happy evenings: sitting there at the end of a perfect day: mother with her inevitable knitting and father with his book, and that svTeet, nutty fragrance of. burning logs?."-