LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4834, 16 April 1936, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

There is a big scarcity of experienced machinists for clothing factories in Dunedin. Plenty of labour of a certain kind is available, but skilled operatives are very scarce. One company recently had 30 vacancies and could not fill them.

A suggestion that formal school text-books should be abolished and that the money that would be spent on them should be used for building up well-stocked school libraries was made by Mr. G. Jobberns, lecturer in geography at the Teachers’ Training Coliege, in an address to the School Committees’ Association, Christchurch.

When 12 Wellington couples who arranged to be married by the registrar of marriages arrived for the ceremony last week they were tactfully reminded that confetti must not be thrown in the office. Some difficulty had been experienced on previous occasions by the amount of confetti thrown in the office and building, and notices were recently put up prohibiting its use. The wellwishers of a couple who were recently married by the registrar obeyed the instructions, but they created an even greater nuisance—they used rice.

A correspondent of the London Daily Mail states that exporters have hopes of an increased trade in British butter with the United States, and that during a recent week-end about 300 tons of New Zealand butter were sent from England to America, following a rise in price from 37 cents to 39 cents per lb. in New York Britain re-exported to America last year about 127,000 cwt. of Britishproduced butter, and there are hopes of surpassing that figure in the present year. It is said that Germany and France also are in the market for British re-exported butter.

A New Plymouth motorist who drives a car that has started willingly every day for the last two years was surprised the other day by the car unexpectedly refusing to answer the most persuasive demands on its mechanism. When the starter failed the crank handle was brought into commission. The tank was found to contain benzine, the carburetter was flooded, and all the other conventional remedies were tried without avail. A breakdown truck was summoned, and when the mechanic failed to start the defaulter, it was towed to a garage. There it continued an enigma for expert mechanics until one of them in the process of sliding between the wheels saw a potato effectively stopping the exhaust pipe.

“When you have been in charge of an exhibition such as Titania’s Palace, for 10 years, and have visited many countries of the world, you soon find out many things about the inhabitants.” This, at least, is the opinion of Miss H. M. Leslie, who has been in charge of the Palace for 10 years, and one thing that she h s noticed about New Zealanders particularly is that they read their papers and know what is in them. Many times she has been asked by many different persons where a certain exhibit is in the palace, and she has found on every occasion that that article has been specially mentioned in a paragraph about the palace.

“It has been said in some quarters that the New Zealand Rugby Union is little more than a money-lending concern,” said Mr. L. Bull at the annual meeting of the Wanganui Rugby Union. After some discussion of the parent body’s financial position, the opinion was ventured that if all unions under debt to the New Zealand Rugby Union co-operated, they might be successful in an application for a remission of their obligations. A member said that at a meeting at Palmerston North it was suggested that the New Zealand Union might make a distribution of profits each year. Those unions subject to loan indebtedness would not participate in any actual cash distribution, but would have their loans remitted.

An Order in Council now allows New Zealand bakers to use calcium acid phosphate in small proportions as an “improver” for bread. Regulations have hitherto excluded the use of mineral improvers for New Zealand flour, hence it has been the practice to import, largely from Canada, what is known in the trade as “hard” flour. This, when mixed with New Zealand flour, has provided the gluten content necessary for satisfactory bread'making, New Zealand flour by itself and without added improvers having an insufficient gluten content. However, with the use of calcium phosphate allowed, importation of hard flour will no longer be necessary, and bakers believe that the quality of the bread will be improved, the price cheapened, and more employment provided in the wheat-growing industry. This question of mineral improvers for long has long been one over which differences of opinion have existed. The lapse of time will show what benefits are derived from the amended regulations as regards its use.

The local Crippled Children’s Fund committee acknowledges the receipt of a third donation of 19s 6d from the Railway Social Club.

A very cogent reason for anticipating more liberal treatment from the Government for returned soldiers was given by Mr. S. P. Day, president of the Franklin Returned Soldiers’ Association, when speaking at the annual meeting of the Pukekohe branch. Before the election there were only four returned soldiers in Parliament, he said, but now there were 20. He thought it probable that the aspirations of ex-servicemen’s organisations would now receive more favourable consideration.

Support for the proposed compulsory levy was forthcoming at a meeting of the committee of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association from sever/.l woolgrowers. It was stated that farmers were more inclined to favour the proposal now that about three-quarters of the proceeds of the levy would be used for propaganda. Speakers explained that in the past a levy had been opposed, as those desiring to impose it were inclined to allocate too large a proportion of the funds to research. In expressing his-support of the levy, now that propaganda was the main object, Mr. E. Hay said that growers were willing that some of the money raised should be spent on research, but they felt that much better results could be obtained at the Torridon research station, England, than in New Zealand.

A compliment that might have, been more happily expressed was made to two speakers by the Rev. L. M. Rogers, Moderat r of the Christchurch Presbytery. The speakers had for some minutes been speaking in favour of a motion of protest against the existing methods of teaching philosophy at Canterbury University College. . The Presbytery was in accord with their arguments and Mr. Rogers, in placing their motion before Presbytery, said that the arguments adduced were certainly proof of the need for better philosophical teaching at the university. There was a roar of laughter from members, and the Moderator added to it the expressed hope that the compliment might be taken in the sense in which it was meant.