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Evening Star, Issue 25180, 20 May 1944, Page 4

Between 8.30 p.m. yesterday and 7..10 this-morning the premises known- as Higgins's Stores, Waikouaiti, were broken into bv means of forcing a door with a blunt instrument. A small safe was carried away, but this contained no cash, the contents being principally bank hooks which are no use to any outside persons. Eighteen pairs of socks and about .'£lo worth of tobacco, cigarettes, and cigarette papers were, however, stolen. The detectives are inquiring into the matter. Furniture shops in Dunedin are to he closed on Saturday mornings commencing on May 27, this . decision being reached at a recent meeting of the furniture group of- the Otago Retailers' Association. It has been found that the amount of business transacted generally by retail furniture shops 011 Saturday mornings has been very small, and in addition stocks of furniture are such that a reduction in the selling hours would be advantageous to the trade. Further, it is felt that the retail selling hours should he reduced to conform with the 40-hour week observed by furniture factory, employees. ■ The attack on the wild pig population of Marlborough province continues steadilv under the* encouragement of the shilling a tail-'subsidy, with, perhaps, a little added influence from meat rationing, states the ' Marlborough Kxprcas.' In the financial year that ended 011 March 31. the Agricultural Department, Blenheim, paid out on 3.731- dead pigs.- Of these. Awatere Countv was the rooting ground of 1.041, TCnikoiira County 310. while Marlborough County "furnished 1.893 tails and the Sounds 400. Since the beginning of April approximately 400 more pigs from all areas have been accounted for,- and probably during the college vacation the tally will rise noticeably.

Au exceptionally high- yield of oats lias been obtained this season by Mr James Munro, of Seaward Downs. _ He .threshed. 7.2 acres of oats and obtained 225 sacks of grain, au average yield of 134 bushels an acre. The average yield of oats throughout New Zealand in the 1040-41 season was 43.41 bushels an acre.

" We may need a dictionary when Americans speak of ' rolling ' and the polico speak of ' booking,' said Mr Justice Callan during the hearing of :t case in the Supreme Court at Auckland. " For my education, what do you mean by ' booking ' ? " his Honor asked a detective who was giving evidence. .It was explained that " booking " meant putting in gaol and that " rolling " was stealing from the person. "We may all be talking American," commented his Honor. The falling birth-rate in the Dominion was discussed by Mr J. M. Bishop, retiring president of the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, at the annual meeting of the chamber this week. Among the reasons advanced by Mr Bishop for this decrease were: tho economic want, higher standard of living, or. selfishness of parents', making them unwilling to raise largo families; increased use of contraceptives, and increased resort to abortionists. Mr Bishop advocated a different outlook to mothers and better treatment by landlords and bus proprietors. " The problem of control of contraceptives must be tackled. A different outlook on the social status of the mother must be engendered and economic bars to raising a family must all be lowered. All this must be done urgently before it is too late, because the prospect, if inaction continues, is bleak indeed to behold, and the fruits of victory over our enemies will be bitter in our mouths," said Mr Bishop.

A method of catching rats or mice which she states has been extensively and effectively used in Australia is described by Miss A. A. Skipworth, of New Brighton, in a letter to the Christchurch ' Press.' Tho instructions are: " Fill a wash-tub three-quarters full of water. Place a piece of board 2in or 2Jin wide so that rats or mice can run up to the edge of the tub. In the end of the board insert a piece of fencing wire on which three or four cotton reels have been strung, and at the end of the wire, which extends out over the tub, place a piece of toasted cheese, meat, or other bait. When the rats or mice try to cross the reels to get at the bait the reels will rotate and drop the pests into the water." The writer adds that she has seen hundreds of mice caught iu this way in a single night. "I have often been- asked whether atrocitv stories were true," said the Iter. Hayden Mellsop, a repatriated missionary who was in the hands of the Japanese for three years after they had taken the city of Nanchang, in China, in an address at Waimate. " My answer has been that the stories gave a very incomplete picture of the hideous tilings that were done, when thousands of people were cruelly put to death." Stocks of ball bearings in the United States have been frozen, and will be released only on a most stringent priority basis, says a statement from the Ministry of Supply. The American War Production Board has already had to utilise distress stocks of ball bearings for electric motors in the naval lauding craft programme, and held out little hope of making supplies available for anything other than vitally . essential civilian requirements and the maintenance of most essential industry. Navy officials have indicated that heavy demands for spare equipment could be anticipated, and the industry was called upon to arrange production facilities to handle the-calk without delay. Manpower problems are now intensified and strategic materials for the manufacture and repair of electric motois are m short supply. ■

Although sextons had been issued with long black coats for wear m the conduct of their duties, soms of,them appeared at funerals in a yery" crude and untidv state, declared the Mayor of ChristcWch (Mr E. H. Andrews) at a meeting of the City Coined, states the ' Christchufch Star Sm.' It had been reported to him that icxtons had been seen at gravesides m' their shirt sleeves, with or without i hat, and with "dirty boots. The ccuncil regulations on the subject vreo not being observed. The chairman of (he Reserves Committee (Councillor J. IN. Clarke) agreed that black coats hal been supplied to sextons. There seemed to have been some laxity. The natter would be, seen to. ! ■

A chair which was made in Dunedin over 90 years ago by tho irst cabinetmaker,- John Hill, has bem presented to the Otago Pioneer Wohen's Memorial Association by Miss Ethel Macassey. The chair, which ispf New Zealand rimu. was made for Mrs Amelia Kettle, who arrived twojyears before the actual settlement o! Dunedin in 1848. Miss Macnssey's jmother, the first white child to be boii in Dunedin, was the daughter of Mrs Kettle.' Appreciation of the gift waj expressed, at the annual meeting of te association last night. i