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Evening Star, Issue 25750, 25 March 1946, Page 4

Three of the fleet of minesweepers constructed for the Navy in New Zealand during the war have been sold in Auckland to Sydney buyers. The three vessels have been converted as, fishing trawlers and two of them will be towed to Sydney by the Government steamer Matai next month. The police are investigating the theft of £233 in money and postal notes from the safe of the Tokoroa Post Office (Auckland). Registered and outward letter mail was opened and the contents of some of the letters were removed. The postmistress, Mrs P. R. Register, locked the office at 5 o'clock on the night of the theft, and on the following morning she found the main door jammed from the inside and investigated at the back, where the thief had gained entry by breaking a window. Mrs Register telephoned the postmaster at Putaruru,'_Mr A Saba, and he communicated with the local police Constables Dunn and Cotter, of the Putaruru Police, went # to Tokoroa and are pursuing inyestigaj tions. The Tokoroa Post Office is 70 to 80 yards from the nearest house. Of the'money stolen, £43 belonged to the Tokoroa Lawn Tennis Club and £9 was the property of the postmistress.

'At the anniversary celebrations of the Early Settlers' Association on Saturday afternoon, when the chairman (Mr'W. 11-' Brugh) asked how many real early settlers there were at the gathering—those who came to New Zealand before December 31, 1868— there was a response from 12 persons. At the other end of the scale there was present a baby who was a sixth generation descendant of Otago pioneers. They were accorded musical honours.

When asked in court at Auckland why he had brought action in tho Supreme Court instead of the Magistrate's Court, a' witness responded that he thought the Magistrate's Court was influenced by politics. " 1 am not going to hear that," said Mr Justice Cornish. "No court in this country is affected by political considerations. Tho subject is closed."

There were a few exciting minutes on Queen's "Wharf early on Friday afternoon (the ' N.ew Zealand Herald ' records) when crates of cheese in a refrigerated truck were found to be infested with mice. The cheese was part of a shipment being loaded in.the Port Line motor-ship Port Macquarie for the United Kingdom. No sign of the mice was seen when the first sling was being loaded but four crates showed such evident signs of having been attacked that a ship's officer on duty at. the hatch ordered their return to the wharf. In the meantime the hunt was up at.the truck and on the wharf. The waterside workers, who joined- in the protest against loading the cheese, were chasing mice and killing them. However, the battle was a brief one, and after the truck, with nearly two dozen affected crates, had been moved away the waterfront returned to normal. The presence of mice in refrigerated cargo is - extremely rare. A shipping official stated that he could only recall one or two minor instances in recent years.

A request that anyone who had any interesting information such as old diaries, etc., which would throw additional light on the people and the conditions of life in early Otago should get in touch with Miss Pryde, secretary of the association, was made by the president (Mr W. R. Brugh), at the Anniversary Day gathering of the Otago Early Settlers' Association on Saturday. This was wanted for /the history of the province, which was to be published in the centennial year, 1948. It has been suggested to the committee, Mr Brugh said, that if space would permit either now or later rooms typical of the early days might be prepared for exhibition, such as a kitchen, a bedroom, a parlour, or a miner's hut. Ho asked that if, any members had any of the accessories which went with such rooms—articles which perhaps they were thinking of doing away with, they should send them to the association. Tho blast walls which were erected in the Queen's Gardens when the danger of enemy attack became imminent were in. process of demolition to-day. A firm of contractors has undertaken the task and is making quick work of removing the nine-ton slabs of concrete. First, the walls were pushed'over by a tractor on which was mounted a jib-crane. They were then attacked with a pneumatic drill and broken into smaller pieces, after which the crane lifted them onto a truck for removal. The weight of these massive pieces of masonry became apparent to the onlookers when they crashed down, the ground vibrating as though in the throes of an earthquake.

Someone has had tho moral courage to ask the meaning of the mystic letters G.I. so generally associated during the war with our gallant American allies. I shared his ignorance for a long time (writes our London correspondent) , though making the not altogether incorrect guess that _,their origin must be akin to the British Army's nickname of Tommy Atkins. For G.I. stands for General Issue, a reference to the various items of American equipment served out to American lads on their enrolment. The frequency with which we have talked of G.I. brides has led to the facetious suggestion that wives were included with the clothing and accoutrements served out to the men. A few of,the G.l.s would seem indeed to regard them in a wider sense as coming under the generic description of impedimenta of war! Turpentine fumes _ which became ignited from a gas ring at the premises of Messrs James Wren and Co., Stafford street, caused an outbreak of fire this morning which slightly damaged the building and the contents of the varnish room. The City Fire Brigade was called at 11.19 a.m. During last week 23 new enlistments for J-Force were received at the headquarters of Area XI. Tho total number from the area at the close of last week, was 551.