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Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 2

The first woman to serve as,a juror in New Zealand (Miss E. It. Kingsford, of Takapuna) took her part in a trial before Mr Justice Fair on Wednesday afternoon at Auckland. When a jury was empanelled in the morning her name;was not drawn, but in the afternoon she was selected and no challenge was offered. Tho case on which she was engaged was, one in which a man was charged with entering a house and stealing money from it. A thrill was experienced by a prisoner of war in a Java camp when he picked up on his birthday a broadcast message from his wife, who is in Auckland. A post card, which was among the first batch to be received in this country from Java, reached his wife this week. It was dated December 25, 1942. The card stated that tho writer was in excellent health and had been thrilled by the broadcast message. His wife had sent it through Australia on the off-chance he might hear it, but whether he picked it up himself or whether the camp authorities passed it on to him is not known. Dr Galway, the city organist, furnished an attractive programme for his audience in -the Town Hall last evening. The recital opened with a spirited performance of Purcell's fine ' Trumpet Voluntary,' which was followed by the melodious entr'acte ' In Elysium ' from Gluck's 'Orpheus,' and an impressive presentation of Bach's majestic ' Fugue in D Minor.' The piece de resistance was Borowski's ' Sonata in A Minor,' an interesting composition of which the organist gave a finoly shaded interpretation. Other items which also proved popular were ' Caprice in G Minor' (Craekel), tho adagietto from Bizet's ' L'Arlesienne ' suite, ' A Spring Song' (Hollins), and 'Kiev Processional ' (Moussorgsky). The great value of swimming as remedial treatment for crippled children and other cripples is stressed in a report prepared by a special committee for submission to tho annual meeting of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association, which opened at Christchurch on Saturday morning. The committee recommends that the services of the association be offered to the Government in this aspect of its work of rehabilitating disabled servicemen, and that representations be made to the proper authorities that, where rehabilitation centres are being established for disabled servicemen, provision bo made for swimming facilities in tho form of tepid baths. All the bowling greens in the city and suburbs have now opened, and players are looking' forward to. a busy season, which includes the New Zealand championships to bo held here in January. Most of the greens are in excellent condition for play, and provided there is not too much rain the surfaces will improve as they are put to use. Games arranged by the members were held on the majority of the greens today, and one-day tournaments were played at North-east Valley, West Harbour, and Anderson's Bay. Seedsmen, 1 who are best, able to judge, say that the public has responded well to the call made to householders to grow as many vegetables as possible, and'that only the prolongation of cold and.wet weather has deterred the backyard gardener. Those who have not yet been able to sow vegetable seeds need not think they have " missed the bus," for Nature always tends to right her errors, and if seeds were planted when the weather settled and got warmer they still would grow satisfactorily Sometimes, in fact, those who sowed late got better crops than those who sowed early. The adverse weather has not caused anv shortage of .seedlings, for most of tlu'ir young lives are spent in frames out of roach of the weather, while there are reported to be ample supplies of seeds. The shortage of seed potatoes that existed a few years ago does not obtain this season, there still being ample supplies for sale.

From January Io of this year to October 20 (approximately nine months) 40,500 orders were received under the National Patriotic Fund Board's postal tobacco service for Christmas, making 77,000 orders in the 21 months sinco its inauguration, says an Association message from Wellington. Of the orders received this year approximately 28,000 were in respect to personnel in the Middle East and the balance for New Zealanders in Great Britain, Canada, and the Pacific area. As New Zealand troops in the Pacific can buy American tobaccos cheaply, relatives of men there wore advised not to send them tobacco or cigarettes unless specifically requested. The whole of the packing of the tobacco iparcels is done on tho board's premises by voluntary women workers, who day in, day out have put up a splendid performance. On some days the Christmas orders reached 1,000, and the women worked also at night. The greatest offender and the worst talker "was the loyal citizen who did not mean any harm, an Army intelligence officer said in a broadcast last evening. Hitler and Tojo did not employ spectacular methods to obtain information, but rather the slow and sure process of piecing together a little picked up here and there. What might be said bv a loyal citizen might bo sufficient to give the enemy a clue to what ho was seeking. Jt was therefore essential that the utmost secrecy should bo observed concerning anything likely to he of interest to the enemy. The officer, enjoining the utmost prudence, quoted from half a dozen letters, apparently devoid of information, yet between them furnishing the enemy with a good framework for a guess as to what was coming, " The amount of looso talk in this country is alarming," said tho officer. "This is no idle statement. Merchant' seamen who have risked their lives in bringing valuable cargoes across the ocean are staggered and angry at what they hear in a few days ashore in any one of our main ports, and rightly so. This idle chatter is simply playing into the enemy's hands. It has got to cease." Although a new Parliament has been elected, ' Hansards ' of the old Parliament are still coming to hand and the end is not yet (says the Auckland 'Star'). There is at least one more to come. It, is said that the younger generation do not read debates as the older people did, but some young people were recently urged to read the Legislative Council debate on the Land and Income Tax on pages 453 to 461 in ' Hansard,' No. 12, for a varied debate in concise form. There were only five speakers, but their views differed as widely as the poles. The outstanding speech was that of the Hon. J. A. Hanan, who said he had been in Parliamentary life for 43 years. In the view of some who have read the debate there have been few more thoughtful speeches delivered within the same space and containing, more choice phrases than that delivered by Mr Hanan in this debate.

When the Emperor Charles V. of the Holy Roman Empire, who was a' great linguist, was asked which language he preferred, he was reputed to have replied that when he addressed God he would speak Spanish; he would speak to ladies in Italian, to his horse in German, and to men in French, said Professor A. O. Keys in an address to the Auckland Creditmen's Club. English, it would be observed, was not mentioned, but to-day it was gaining ground as the most likely tongue to be adopted as the common speech of the nations.

In the Police Court this morning before Messrs T. D. Jamiesonand A. J. Haub, justices of the peace, a youth aged 18 years, whose name was suppressed, pleaded guilty to stealing four gallons of petrol, valued at lis 2d. the property of John Mill and Co. On the application of the police he was remanded until next Friday. Bail was fixed at £25. Mr J. S. Sinclair represented the acused.

The Supreme Court proceedings in the trial for manslaughter of John Patrick Alphonsus Corcoran .driver of the train which was derailed, with fatal consequences to 21 people, on June' 4, were to have been resumed this morning, but as the jury had at 1 o'clock not returned from their inspection, of the damaged rolling stock at the Hillside Railway Workshops, the hearing was adjourned until this afternoon. The City Fire Brigade received two calls shortly after 1 o'clock this afternoon as a result of automatic false alarms at the Btoslyn Woollen Mills and the tram sheds. On Saturday the brigade was called to the factor of the Crystal Ice Cream Company Ltd., King Edward street, where smouldering packing _ near the boiler had set fire to the ceiling. Only slight damage was caused. A chimney fire call', in Carroll street was answered in the evening. During the day an automatic fire alarm was received from the Roslyn Woojlen Mills. Common jurors summoned to attend the sitting of the Supreme Court at Dunedin to-morrow (Tuesday) are notified that their, attendance will not be required until Thursday next at 10 a.m.