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Evening Star, Issue 25674, 24 December 1945, Page 4

More than 50 boys entered the annual summer, camp conducted by the Dunedin Y.M.C.A. at Waitati on Saturday, these being the first of 120 who - will be registered for admission until the camp closes on January 2d. The attendance is the best that has been recorded at any camp conducted by the Dunedin Y.M.C.A. The camp, which .. is located . near the fish hatcheries at Waitati, 'offers excellent recreational facilities for young boys, and there is proper supervision. Electric power ensures an adequate supply of hot water and lighting, while the surrounding countryside offers unbounded opportunities for tramping and other outdoor activities. A swimming pi'ol is kept filled by an electric pump, while another pump maintains the domestic supply. .An ' outdoor chapel is set in a grove in the adjoining bush, and services will be held in this natural amphitheatre. The hoys attending the camp will spend from two to five weeks there. Some of them have been assisted by the (Rotary Club, which ha# taken an active interest in the project. Dunedin taxis are. being kept unusually 'busy this Christmas, while the peak activity is expected to occur this evening. Most cars were fully occupied last night, with train traffic absorbing many passengers. There was a continual inquiry for cars to-day, with numerous reservations being made for to-night and to-morrow. Some concerns are closing for a short period to-morrow at midday, in order to allow their drivers to enjoy Christmas dinner with their families. Two sisters, one of whom is Mrs R. J. McNeill, of Plimmer road,. Grey Lynn, Auckland, held the winning ticket in “ Prizes for Christmas ” art union, drawn last week. “ It’s just a stroke of luck, and at the moment we are too excited to know what we will do with the money,” said Mrs McNeill’s sister, who refused to disclose her name. A dress cutter employed in Herne Bay, she said they usually bought, tickets in each art union’, but this was the first time either had won a prize. Mrs McNeill’s husband is an electrician. The work of the Patriotic and Red Cross Societies was warmly praised by Sister Stella Poole, N.Z.A.N.S., who has returned to Invercargill. She said that as soon as a man came into hospital, he was given a supply of toilet requisites and the occupational therapy department had all types of handwork and hobby huts for the patients. Extra delicacies such as milk jelly and milk drink were also provided from these funds. The nurses also fully appreciated the clubs at Rome, Florence, Venice and Bari, where they could stay at any time.

There will he no publication of the ‘ Star ’ to-morrow—Christmas Day. Under arrangements made with the Mines Department, three open-cast coal mines in the Waikato district, the Kimihia, Glen Massey, and Glen Afton mines, arc to work throughout the Christmas holiday seasons. The object is to maintain supplies ofi coal for the railways during the holiday season while the underground mines are closed. The workers at the mines are to be paid overtime. The body of a newly-born full-time female European child was found in a vacant section in Taranaki street, Wellington, by a party of boys -who were searching for a ball. The police estimate that tin? death of the child, whose body was wrapped in cheesecloth and then in brown paper, had occurred only a short time before it was found, but no external marks of violence were discovered. A programme of music attuned to the Christmas season was presented on the Town Hall organ last night by Dr V. E. Galway to a large audience, which liberally applauded the city organist’s registration of some impressive works, notable among which were two Guilmant offerings—march on Handel’s theme ‘ Lift Up Your Heads, 0 Ye Gates ’ and an offertory blending two Christmas tunes—both in the composer’s most vivid and vigorous style, and both finely registered; a fantasia on ‘ Yeni Immanuel ’ (Harris), the lovely “ shepherd’s music ” from a Bach oratorio, the' Pastoral _ Symphony from Handel’s ‘ Messiah,’ and ‘ March of the Wise Men ’ (Dubois), a most unusual composition in which the guiding star to Bethlehem is fixed throughout by a sustained note high in the upper register pf the organ. Miss Elizabeth Galway was the assisting artist, presenting with grace and charm five carols, her father being the accompanist. The ‘ Evening Star ’ has received numerous cards conveying Christmas and New Year - greetings from readers, local bodies, and various societies and organisations, and heartly reciprocates the good wishes expressed. A new diesel-powered shovel, with a bucket capacity of a quarter of a cubic yard, is now working at the Halswell quarries, and is the first piece of new equipment to go into service in the Christchurch City Council’s scheme of mechanisation. The shovel will work at the quarry face, loading into special motor-driven dump trucks of several yards capacity. These trucks will replace the small trucks now in use, which arc pushed over rails to the ramp leading down to the crusher, and then l'.avo .to be man-handled back to the face. Much of the laborious hand picking-up of metal will be eliminated. The dump trucks are expected to be in use by February.

Aboard the troop train bringing the draft of servicemen and women to Timaru and the south on Friday were two Scottish sailors who had. managed to find seats aboard the train with a skill known only to men of the sea. They were celebrating a well-earned leave with plenty of liquid refreshment and were in an affable state of mind when the deputy-Mayor (Mr C. E. Thomson) and Cr It. Green boarded the train to welcome home the members of the draft from South Canterbury. Cr Green’s accent delighted the sailors who followed him around from carriage to carriage o’n the journey to Caroline Bay, delighted at having found a kindred spirit. The welcome to the troops at Caroline Bay was too much for one sailor who was all for getting off and investigating further. But wiser counsel prevailed. “ No,” said his fellow seamen, “ nae matter how tumultous a welcome we receive, we are going to Dunedin. It’s paradise, laddie. A town full of Scotsmen! ’

Smaller-sized atomic energy machines, occupying a space of a few feet, will shortly be available by the use of socalled easily fissionable substances prepared from uranium and thorium and known as U 235, U 233, and plutonium. This is the opinion of Dr E. Maraden, secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Dr Marsden pointed out that the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, had disclosed that Canadian investigators were working on thorium as the probable second basic material for developing atomic energy. In an address at Thames, Dr Marsden said it was unfortunate that the two atom-smashing machines "which the Japanese had constructed had been thrown into the sea by American Army authorities. He considered that one of these would have been of great use to New Zealand in the preparation of so-called tracer elements for use in investigating animal and plant diseases and in the treatment of cancer.

The sitting of the Police Court today was presided over by Messrs S. Owen and H. L. Gibson, sen., justices of the peace, who remanded in custody until January 4 James William Lewis (27),. a labourer, on a charge of the theft, on December 21, of two men's suits, an overcoat, a suitcase, two packets of tobacco, and 12 packets of cigarettes, of a total value of £42 12s 6d, the property .of Stan Yee Jeng Keng. Daniel David Miller Andrews was fined £1 on a charge of drunkenness, and he was remanded until January 4 for a breach of a prohibition order. A first offender, similarly charged, was convicted only. The water supply at the Chateau Tongariro has been so fouled with ash from Mount Ruapehu that all mental hospital patients at the Chateau were evacuated on Saturday to the Raventhorpe Convalescent Depot at Bombay (says the. New Zealand ‘Herald’). Preparations for transferring the Chateau patients to Raventhorpe have been in hand for some time, but the move has been hastened by a serious deterioration in the quality of the water. This is drawn from a stream fed by Ruapehu’s snow slopes, and recently it has been polluted by considerable deposits of ash which have been blown off the mountain. Ash has also interfered seriously with the efficiency of the Chateau’s power house, and has made other conditions increasingly unpleasant and inconvenient. Mrs T. H. Lowry, 0.8. E., made a new point in the 40-hour week controversy speaking at a girls’ prizegiving function at Napier recently. Stressing the enthusiasm shown by the Labour Government for the 40hour week having a uniform application, Mrs Lowry said that she had told the Minister, of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb)—and she would have Mr A. E. Armstrong, M.P.,,who was present, understand—that when , the,Government could make an electric cow and an electric baby then the mothers could have a 40-hour week. ,

Through the derailment of several wagons of an early morning goods train near .the Plimmertou station originating in the breaking of an axle, morning traffic on the main, trunk line on Saturday was disorganised for some hours, but no great material damage was done. The line was cleared just after 7 a.m., but the relief express from Auckland, which was due at 6.46, did not arrive until 7.55 a.m., and the ordinary Auckland express arrived an hour and five minutes late at 8.6 a,m.'

Thought to he the most valuable export order for stud poultry ever to leave New Zealand, 12 White Leghorns and 12 Australorps have been sent from Massey Agricultural College to a large poultry breeding organisation in tile United States. Of both sexes, the birds were sold for more than £IOO. The order, which was placed in New Zealand on a recommendation from Professor Lloyd., of the poultry department of. the University of British Columbia. Canada, specified good pedigree birds of unrelated stock for cross-breeding requirements. A shipment of poultry for the United States left Massey College in 1933. and others have been sent to several Australian States and to, the Pacific Islands.