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Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 5, 5 December 1931, Page 6

In his Avill, the late Sir C. P. Skerrett set aside a portion of his estate with directions to the trustees to invest it and. to apply the income to such educational charities in New Zealand as they might, subject to certain directions, determine. At a recent meeting, the trustees made the third half-yearly allocation of income as folloAvs: —Jubilee Institute for Blind, £ls; Wellington Free Kindergarten, £ls; Salvation Army, £10; Anglican Boys’ Homes Society. £ls; St. Anne’s Primary School, Wellington, £2O; Marist * Brothers’ Primary School (HaAvkestone Street, Wellington), £2O; Upper Hutt Girls’ Convent, £2O; Hastings Convent, £3O; St. Joseph’s Convent, Napier, £3O.

The Railway Department’s advertisement announcing particulars of cheap fares, also train arrangements in connection with Woodville races on 9th and lOtii December, appears in this issue.

The Niagara arrived at Sydney this morning from Auckland.

The scrutiny of the rolls for the Palmerston electorate is in progress, and it is anticipated that this work will be completed in time to allow the official recount to he proceeded with early next week. One suggestion for the relief of distress in Wellington is to provide all families on relief with a Christmas pudding and an offer has been made of the necessary labour t-o provide one ton of this foodstuff. A scheme has been formulated which it is hoped will reduoe to a considerable extent unemployment among young teachers during the next few years, according to a statement made by Mr T. B. Strong, Director of Education, at the breaking-up ceremony at the Teachers’ Training College in Wellington, yesterday. A Wellington paper states that a girl aged eight years was badly bitten and mauled by an Alsatian dog at Lower Hutt a few days ago. The child was so severely injured that she had to be operated on at once. The dog is stated to have torn her arm, the muscles of which were hanging from the arm. Her ear was also badly bitten.

“It is not necessary to have elaborate equipment for the acquiring of knowledge. What is required essentially is the will to learn,” said Professor J. Collie, M.A., Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, when speaking to the boys of Scots College, Wellington, yesterday. “This,” he continued, “overcomes other deficiencies and triumphs over various hindrances.”

“Somebody has written me an anonymous letter making charges against the unemployed,” stated the Mayor at the public meeting in the Opera House last evening. He added : “If anybody thinks that I am going to pay any attention to this he has made a big mistake. I am prepared to accept charges confidentially, but not anonymous statements from ' man, woman or child.” An interesting arrival at Auckland about the end of January will be the Finnish full-rigged ship Grace Harwar, which is on her way from Seychelles Islands to Auckland with about 3000 tons of phosphates for discharge at that port. She is a steel vessel of 1816 tons gross and was built at Port Glasgow by Messrs W. Hamilton and Company in 1889. It is very seldom that a large sailing vessel is seen at Auckland. The last “wind-jammer” to visit that port was the Finnish four-masted barque Olivebank, which arrived from Seychelles Islands on December 20, 1928. It is not generally known that there are young kauri trees growing in the vicinity of Palmerston North. On Gillespie’s Line there are two young kauri trees thirty feet high in the grounds of a property now occupied by Mr Howarth. The kauris, which were planted by the late Mr Gillespie many years ago, are healthy and are making good progress. In a few r years they will, no doubt, attract considerable attention. That the Manawatu soil is suitable for most plant life is exemplified in the presence of these kauris, natives of the Auckland district. There are also numerous New Zealand trees to be seen on the same property. It will be remembered that the late Mr Gillespie was particularly fond of trees and flowers and during his residence on Gillespie’s Line his home was always surrounded by the beauties of nature. Mrs Howarth is a daughter of the late Mr Gillespie. “The conception of money lying in the banks is palpably absurd. The banks no more nave all the money which they have received from their credit balance customers and not yet repaid than the British Government has all the seven thousand millions of money which it lias received from those who have lent money to it, and Wjho (or whose successors in title) have not yet been repaid,” says Professor Edwin Cannan in a recently published book. “The British Government has paid away the money as it received it, putting it into various undertakings, with the exception of a small amount of currency which they keep ready to meet any likely demands on the part of their customers; the banks have likewise paid away money as they received it, buying lands and buildings for. the conduct of their business with some of it, and investing or lending all the rest. Banks are thus not full of money as cloakrooms are of bags and umbrellas, but are institutions which facilitate lending and investment.”

Three curious pieces of stone, which inay possibly be relics of an ancient people, form part of the collection of the conservator of fish and game in Rotorua, Mr A. Kean. Two of the pieces, of which one is almost an exact miniature of the other, are shaped almost like solid pitchers. They are rounded almost as if they had been turned on a potter’s wheel, and, although they cannot have been devised as vessels, appear to have been fashioned by some human agency. They are of a shape which might have enabled them to be used as pestles, but are not in any w r ay similar to any known Maori utensils or tools. Both pieces are of a species of sandstone, and were found by Mr Kean in the Wairoa district at the bottom of deep deposits of river gravel, between 35ft and 40ft below the original surface; the places were they w'ere found were 25 miles apart. The third piece is petrified wood, weighing several pounds. This in itself would not be remarkable, but on both ends are cuts which appear to have been made with a species of axe. This piece was found with the larger of the two pestles, and from the depth at which it was found must have been buried for a very long time. “The post-war years have brought me exceptional opportunities of observing what inflation and collapse of currency mean to the masses,” Rev. J. H. Ruslibrooke wrote in the London Times recently, “For some years one of my chief tasks was the administration of relief funds amounting to mearly £250,000; land this involved many visits and the close study of conditions in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia and several other lands. The memories and impressions are indelible. I recall a day in Germany when at 10 a.m. I changed a £1 note for 1,100,000,000 marks. Next day, at 4 p.m., I obtained for a £1 note 1,800,000,000 marks, while a friend who waited two hours longer received 2,000,000,000. I recall an urgent, letter from the Continent concerning a proposed remittance of some hundreds of pounds for relief, begging that the sum should be sent not by cheque or in large notes but in the smallest possible notes, no that the English money might be kept until the last minute and changed only when the proceeds could be immediately spent. The amount was accordingly forwarded in 10s notes., and as thesewere changed the beneficiaries —distressed working people—literally ran to the shops to secure goods without allowing time for their money to lose such value as it had.”

Mother’s Gift.—Just arrived 100 seagrass footstools at the right prices. Made in strong cane and assorted colours of seagrass. We can offer you this particularly nice line at 5s lid each. Book early, vours now. Only at Collinson and Son, Ltd.—AdvU