LOCAL AND GENERAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 January 1941, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

On account of war risks, to obviate chance of loss, degree examination papers of the University of New Zealand, completed last November, have gone no further than Australia for marking purposes. Some have not gone as far as that and are being marked in New Zealand. Ordinarily the papers go to England, but an airangement was made with the English examiners to have the papers marked this time nearer home. One result should be an earlier announcement of results.

Little support has been forthcoming for a scheme to place boys on farms during school holidays, and the Wairoa Young Farmers’ Club has now decided to abandon its efforts. There have been only seven replies to more than 100 circulars which have been sent out by the club. The purpose of the scheme was to give boys studying an agricultural course at Wairoa District High School an opportunity of gaining practical experience. In view of the lack of support, the club decided to abandon any future attempts to influence boys to become farmers.

A number of married men who enlisted for overseas service prior to the selection of men by ballot (states a report from Wellington) have not yet been called up. They are uncertain whether they will get their opportunity until all the single men have been through the ballot. Their opportunity, however, will come at an early date. Inquiries in defence circles show that it is expected that rrfarried men who enlisted and have not yet entered jeamp will probably receive their notifications within a week.

At the January meeting of the Blaketown Women’s Institute, held in the Blaketown Hall, Mrs. Longstaff presided over a good attendance. The motto, for the month was “Start the Year with a Smile.” It was decided to hold a picnic at Omoto. The competition winners were: —Raspberry jam, Mrs. L. Stewart 1, Mrs. Pike 2,; vase of flowers, Mrs. Condon 1, Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Messenger equal 2; thread a needle and sew a button on in three minutes, Mrs. N. Thompson. Afternoon tea was served by the hostesses.

Mass will be celebrated on Sunday next at Kokiri 8 a.m., Te Kinga 10.30 a.m. —Advt.

At a meeting held in the Karoro Hall, last evening, Mr. J. W. Hannan (County Chairman) presided ovpr 30 residents of the Karoro-South Beach area, who are desirous of forming a platoon of Home Guardsmen. The Area Commander (Brig.-General W. Meldrum) addressed the meeting, and pointed out the necessity for a Home Guard. Fourteen enrolments were taken at the meeting, and the following were appointed as a committee to seek further enrolments: Messrs J. W. Hannan, K. J. McKinnon, A. E. Rawlins, A. H. Seebeck, and T. G. Jamieson;

A tailored Suit or Costume is always a good foundation to any wardrobe; we can show you some perfect examples of these priced from £4 10/-. White’s Corner, Your Fashion Centre..—Advt.

Beds in Wellington maternity | homes have been reserved almost without exception for the next six months, and some hospitals are even taking bookings now for August ana September. The acute shortage of maternity accommodation, which began shortly after the social security legislation, came into operation, has been aggravated, it is said, by an increase in the. birth-rate since the beginning of the war.

Radio is being used in an endeavour to save the life of an injured seaman on an American motor-ship, which is on her way from Sydney to Balboa. As a result, of a call made, radio advice for treatment has been given from the Auckland Hospital. The American vessel is . the Clevedon, which yesterday sent a call, stating that an ordinary seaman had been injured by a fall to*the deck. Details of the necessary treatment were sent, with the suggestion that, if the vessel were diverted to Auckland, the injured man would be at once admitted to the Auckland Hospital.—Press Assn.

Though the Education Department has lost a number of male teachers because of military -service, there will be no difficulties in the staffing of schools when they reopen next month. The assistant director of education, Mr. A. F. McMurrie, said that the Department had a surplus of young teachers who had just completed their three years’ training and were available to fill vacancies. “We expect that for the first part of the year at least there will be a sufficiency of teachers for native as well as the other schools,” he added. “But there may be a shortage of male teachers towards the end of the year because of retirements and men being called up for military service.”

The stationery used by a gunner of the New Zealand Artillery in Egypt provided his parents with a thrill when, his letter reached them in Auckland last week, for it proved to be part of the “loot” of the Italian Army which has left so many little things behind it. Of excellent texture, the paper of both envelope and writing sheet, the latter of foolscap size, is blue tinted, and the writer says it is portion of a quantity of equipment captured from the enemy. Bearing Italian letter-head captions, which indicate that it was used for army orders, the stationery naturally had no place in British headquarters, and as useful souvenir material it became the “stuff to give the troops,” especially the letter-writing New Zealanders.

Superstition is often encountered in the realm of sport, and the number 13 is frequently regarded as unlucky in scores in many different games (says the Auckland “Star”). Seldom, however, is this belief in a “hoodoo” carried so far as in an amusing incident which occurred on a suburban bowling green the other day. At one stage of a game one bowler had amassed the total of 13 points, but instead of recording them on the board in the usual way, he was observed by the other players to mark his score as 12A in a determined effort to ward off the proverbial ill-fortune. Much to his own pleasure and the amusement of his companions, he was successful in the attempt, and took his score to 15 by convincingly winning the next “head.”

To-morrow, January 16, all dairy farmers throughout the Dominion are being asked to supply the number of cows actually milked in their herds this evening. The request for this information has come from the New Zealand Dairy Board and the scheme is part of the Board’s Herd Improvement Plan, now in its second year of operation. The chief object of this collection of data is to arrive at a practical basis for assessing the average production per cow for the Dominion, and to do this it is necesary to know the number of cows actually milked on January 15 on all dairy farms. Then from data collected from the 5,000 herds under Group Herd Test it is intended to convert this number of cows to the average number which would be carried on dairy farms throughout the season.

There is a popular conception that in war time, when many males may be killed, Nature automatically sets about restoring the balance —that the proportion of boy babies to girl babies is greater than in peace time. This ’conception may be correct, but it is not borne out by the New Zealand figures for the quarter ended September 30, 1940, the first quarter since the outbreak of war in which the full effect of any such tendency would be apparent. In fact, the figures show the contrary. For these three months the number of male births for each 1,000 female births was 1,026. This is lower than any similar annual figure during the past 40 years. Since 1900 the smallest number of male births for each 1,000 births has been 1,030, in 1917 and 1918.

Though it is over three months since the R.N.Z.A.F. Airspeed Oxford bomber with a crew of three was lost when on a flight from Hobsonville to Ohakea, the Air Force authorities still hope that the machine will be traced. Piloted by Flying Officer A. M. Major, of Auckland, with whom were Flight Sergeant S. B. Smith (Auckland), and Corporal R. B. Smith. (Wellington), the twin-engined monoplane left the Hobsonville air base at 11.45 a.m., on September 30. From then on nothing positive is known. A machine was seen flying in heavy mist and rain heading foi' the coast north of New Plymouth, and another report was that a crash had beeh heard in the rugged country inland. A most intensive search was made, without any result, but so that efforts may be continued even after so long a time, the Air Department is offering a reward of £5O for information which will conclusively establish the fate of the missing plane and its crew.

Once a civilian dons khaki his sense of values changes. Things which were of no importance before, suddenly become significant (says the Auckland “Star”). For instance, anyone who has talked freely with officers and men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in training in New Zealand knows that they resent any suggestion that Territorials should be equipped with 'battle dress. The old field service khaki is regarded as essentially a home defence uniform. A curious commentary on this comes from the heart of the Western Desert in a letter written by a First Echelon man. “We’have had to hand in our khaki serge,” he complains, “and have been issued instead with the new battle dress, which we have never had before. There goes our last distinguishing sign between ourselves and later contingents, all of which have arrived with battle dress.” Hence it appears that what is regarded as merely a home defence uniform . is held in high esteem in the Western Desert, as the distinctive “issue” of the earliest volunteers.