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Evening Star, Issue 24919, 17 July 1943, Page 4

Believed to be the first Maori triplets to .attend the same school in New Zealand, three boys recently began their education at Maugere Bridge School. They are Peter, Paul, and David Gerrard, aged five. Their teachers find it difficult to distinguish the children apart, especially as they dressed alike. For purposes of identification, the initials P, PL, and D are worked on their jerseys. They are universal favourites at the school, but the teachers had ,isome difficulty at first in keeping a watch on all three. Two of them could always be found together, but the third had invariably, disappeared.

" A warning that the discovery of any object that could be a bomb should be immediately reported to Army area headquarters was issued by an Army officer at New Plymouth after the discovery on a beach of i a smoke bomb which had obviously been tampered with. Such bombs are used by the Air Force at sea for navigational purposes, the officer Usually they, sink, but when-they float they are likely to come ashore. Although they are/ not particularly dangerous, they are equipped "with detonators, which could cause considerable damage if they were set off.

In war time enemy agents lurk in the most unexpected places and in Britain especially, it is not safe to speak of any service matters, no matter how unimportant they may seem. This point is strikingly illustrated in the picture 'Mr Davis,' now showing at the Regent. In this most convincing story a number of scraps of information of an apparently trivial nature are picked up by various Nazi agents and sent to Berlin where the whole story of a Commando raid on the coast of France is pieced together. As a result, the enemy defences are made ready, and although the raid is successful, the loss of life and equipment is far greater than it need have been. After seeing this picture everyone should come away with a firmer Tesolve than ever to obey the slogan, " Don't Talk." .Speed in transferring wounded men from battle lines to hospital ships and the use of the new sulpha drugs have reduced the mortality rate for war wounded in the Pacific fighting to a level . never reaqhed before, states a report by Lieutenant George Crile, of the U.S. Navy Hospital near Auckland, Of four thousand wounded men treated and transported by a hospital ship operating in the Solomons war zone only seven succumbed. Many of the nieYi had been badly wounded. The casualties representee! alm'ost every type of injury, including those resulting from machine-gun and rifle bullets, shell fragments,' severe burns, skull fractures, penetrations of the chest and abdomen, and infections. In most cases the danger of the injuries was speedily minimised by almost immediate transfer from the battle line to the hospital ship. About two-thirds of the wounded received first treatment' at base and field hospitals ashore before reaching the ship. " " Into simple wounds sulfathiozole was sprayed and a pressure bandage of elastic webbing was applied," _ the report stated. " A patient with a through and through wound of the leg or thigh was usually able to be up and walking four or five days from the time of the injury and the wounds were healed in a week to ten days. We have not seen a singlecase of infection develop in a patient treated in this manner."

Regulations are to gazetted shortly providing for warrents of fitness for private cars to cover a period of 12 months instead of the present sixmonthly period. Warrants for- commercial vehicles and ears for which petrol licenses are issued will continue to hold good for six months only. No increase in the testing fee for the 12-monthly warrants is proposed., This information was obtained in Christchurch and was confirmed by the Commissioner of Transport, Mr G. L. Laurenson, who made it clear that the 12-monthly warrant would apply only to private cars which were operated on petrol drawn through coupons. Mr Laurenson added that he expected that the regulations would be gazetted shortly.

The Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, Mr W. W. Mulholland, announced last night that Mr H. Briscoe Moore, an official union nominee as a Meat Board candidate, had voluntarily withdrawn his nomination with the agreement of the Farmers' Union. This had been done primarily to assist in promoting the projected fusion of the Farmers' Union, the Sheepowners' Federation, and other producer organisations, the union having been satisified by Mr F. C, Johnstone that its policy of co-opern-tivo ownership and control of freezing works woitW be safeguarded.