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Evening Star, Issue 25677, 28 December 1945, Page 4

Housewives will need to remember that shopping facilities will be of rather a mixed nature over the coming week-end. "Butchers, for instance, will be open to-morrow but closed on ’Monday, while grocers will bo open both to-morrow morning and Monday, hut with no late night on the latter day, and drapers'will be closed to-mor-row and open on Monday until 9 p.m.

The heaviest Christmas season m memory. This is the opinion of those post and telegraph officials who have had long experience in Dunedin, and the pressure has not yet been relieved to any great extent. Yesterday was another hard day for postmen and postwomen, as well as for those handling mail matter inside', and a heavy consignment of second class mail, matter which has just arrived will keep them still at top speed. In the telegraph department, too, the business handled greatly exceeded that of last year. For the week ended December 24, 10,667 telegrams were despatched and 9,809 received, as compared with 9 701 and 8,080 respectively. The letters put through the pipst-marking machine for the, week ending December 22 numbered 464,600 as against 378,100 for the same period last year. Another interesting return shows that for the five days, December 17 to 22, 24,750 pennies went through the stamp-vending machines in the vestibule of the Central Host Office. An Association message reports that graves in the Sydney street cemetery, Wellington’s historic burial g r °und, have been desecrated recently. They include not only the graves of some pioneers, but also the memorial to the late Mr H. E. Holland. Crosses and tombstones have been pushed over and smashed. The group of statuary above Mr Holland’s grave has not been damaged, but it bears unmistakable marks of having been climbed on by a person or persons wearing black boots. Anxiety for the safety of the yacht Astral, bound from Redcliffs to Picton, was caused when a dinghy was washed up at South Bay, Kaikoura. At noon yesterday the (R.N.Z.A.F. station at Wigram received requests from both the Police and Navy Departments to send an aeroplane to Kaikoura to search for the yacht. A machine was despatched shortly afterwards, and returned later in the day after a fruitless search. Advice was received in Christchurch late in the afternoon, however, that the Astral had arrived in Picton on Christmas Day. The yacht which was manned by four residents of Redcliffs, left for Picton on December 21. It has been established that the dinghy washed up at Kaikoura had no connection with the Astral.

Six cases of whisky and 16 boxes of cigars were pillaged last week from West Coast consignments. A consignment of 15 cases of whisky by a Greymoutli firm to Hokitika last week was interfered with and only nine cases reached their destination. The cigars were taken from a shipment of cigars from Wellington to a Greymouth tobacconist.

Though the break in the weather which occurred on Christmas Day, and continued throughout Wednesday and Thursday spoiled the holidays for those planning outdoor excursions, the rain which fell was the finest gift the Gisborne district could have wished for (states an Association message). The rainfall recorded at the weather station for Christmas . Day and Boxing Day totalled 1.35 in." The jubilation of tlie farmers and those responsible for the supply pf water to the borough was not shared by tlie holiday-makers, who set out in hot weather for the beaches and for country resorts on Christmas morning. They returned cold, and in many cases drenched with rain, early in the afternoon.

Patrons at the Taranaki Jockey Club’s Christmas Meeting at New Plymouth on Wednesday .who held totalisator tickets on horses which finished close behind the placed horses listened anxiously for the sound of a siren, which the club intended to use for tlie first time in Taranaki to warn the public of any dispute involving a dividend (says the ‘ New Zealand Herald ’). As no decisions were disputed the note of the siren was not heard. Several times in recent- months at race meetings in various parts of the country altered placings of horses after the judge had hoisted his numbers cost, hasty bettors hard cash because of tickets thrown away or destroyed. Although the responsibility is on the investor to hold totalisator tickets until a payout is completed and they are obviously worthless, the Taranaki Club decided to use a siren to prevent unnecessary loss to investors.

Found by Mr !R. J.. Edgar, of Seadown, on Christmas Eve, in a clover ■paddock 10 chains from the nearest water, and two miles from the sea, a queer specimen of fish lias been excitihg considerable speculation both upon its origin and on its species. The fish, which has been preserved in formalin by Mr S. Goddard, of Tennika, is about sin long. Something the shape of a bully, though of a lighter colour and witli a slim, tapering tail, its most noticeable feature is a balloon-like swelling of the white stomach, which extends from its nose halfway down its body and projects some distance on each side. The fish was still fresh when found and was evidently not long out of th 6 water.

Messrs W. Mechen (a member of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club) and It. Warburton (a member of the same club, and also of the West Coast Mountaineering Club) left Christchurch by aero'plane on'Christmas Day for Jackson’s Bay, and will attempt to climb several virgin peaks in the Arawata River district. The territory they hope to cover includas the seaward end of the Haast Range, and the range between the Waipara branch of the Arawata and the main stream. They also intend to climb in the northern end of the Olivine Range on the western side of the Arawata. Much of the high country in this territory is practically unknown. A survey of the area was made 60 years ago by the late Mr Gerhard Mueller (a former Commissioner of Crown Lands for Westland) and the late Mr Charles Douglas. Since then, however, little has been learnt of the territory. In the same year, 1885, Mr Douglas mare a reconnaissance survey, but many of his valuable records have been lost.

Displaying grim, if perhaps unconscious, humour, the Income Tax Department has continued to send out tax assessments right up to Christmas Day, with the result that some householders, happily opening their - holiday mail, have been confronted with the unwelcome document among an assortment of more orthodox Christmas greetings (states the ‘New Zealand Herald’). The department has reached names in the alphabetical list beginning with M and N, and taxpayers in these sections are among those whose Christmas high spirits have been dampened by demands which always prove higher than were pessimistically expected

A further instance of the manner in which the New Zealand wife of an American may find difficulty in answering an action for divorce has been reported by an Auckland solicitor, following publication last week of a case with certain similar features. The solicitor stated that he had been unable to ascertain if the divorce held good in New Zealand. The New Zealand wife of an officer in the American merchant navy received, without any warning, but surface mail, a copy of a bill of complaint in divorce filed by the husband in Alabama alleging that she voluntarily abandoned his bed and board on the date when his ship was last in New Zealand, and since when she had had no opportunity of joining him, the solicitor added. Attached to the document was a clipping from a newspaper headed “ legal notice,” and informing the wife that unless she filed an answer by a certain date she would be taken to have confessed. This time expired the day before she got the notice and the wife, who was destitute, was probably divorced by now and would doubtless receive no further maintenance. The solicitor added that he interviewed the United States Consul at Auckland, Mr J. C. Fuess, who said it was with reluctance that he had to say nothing could be done, as the divorce laws differed in each State, although notification in most of them was hy way of newspaper advertisement in ther State in which the suit was instituted. Charges of drunkenness and a breach of his probation were brought against William Joseph Bunn (57). a labourer, in the Police Court to-day. Seniorsergeant Hogg said that Bunn, who had been warned to keep away from a woman when he was before the court last Friday, had gone to hei; house last night in a drunken condition. On the drunkenness charge, Bunn was fined 10s, in default 24 hours’ imprisonment, and on the other charge he was remanded in custody until January 4.

A bag containing the takings of the Kilbinio cinema was snatched from the ticket office last night b.v a man who escaped.—Wellington Press Association.

According to a statemnt from the Otago Harbour Board, the overseas ship Reavelev, which berthed at the Birch stret wharf -yesterday, was not kept at Port Chalmers on Wednesday night because of congestion at the Dunedin wharves, but because the berth to which she had been allocated was temporarily occupied by another vessel. The Reaveley came in a day ahead of schedule, and she was kept at Port Chalmers for a night as a matter of convenience. Sales tax receipts for the month of October amounted to £1,312,287, which is £103,825 above the total for the previous month, but £17,687 lees than in the corresponding month of last year. The aggregate receipts from sales tax in the 10 months ended in October were £11,447,836, as compared with £11,432,888 and £10,111,635 in similar periods of 1944 and 1943 respectively. Rail passenger traffic, after Christmas Day, picked up again, and trains running on Wednesday. Thursday, and to-day have been fairly heavily loaded. After the week-end there was a distinct falling-off in numbers travelling. A ;zood many who stayed home for Christmas, however, are bent on spending the New Year away.

After this morning’s train for the north had been standing, overdue to leave, for several minutes, the railway authorities removed the Army carriage, and dispersed the 48 occupants, at some considerable inconvenience to. them, throughout the train. The action was attributed later to a mechanical defect. General comment was that it might surely have been possible to find the defect during the many hours that the carriage was standing unused at Dunedin. The train eventually started on its journey 27 minutes late. Although the number of land transfers registered in New' Zealand in October (3,614) was 414 greater than in September, the aggregate value (£3,289,872) was less to the extent of £423,970. Compared with the corresponding month of. 1944, the October figures showed increases of 637 in number and £341,728 in.value. In the 10 months ended in October, the number of land transfer registrations was 29,506, and. the aggregate value £29,412,379, as compared with 25,336 in number and £25,913,985 in value during the corresponding period of 1944. The increases shown are equal to 16.5 per cent, and 13.5 per cent, for number and value respectively. Mortgages registered in October numbered 2,298 for a total value of £2,166,045. Compared with September, these figures show increases of 192 and £242,188 for number and value respectively, while compared with October, 1944, increases of 303 in number and £273,461 in value were recorded.