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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 10, 9 December 1932, Page 6

To-day is the anniversary of the surrender of Jerusalem to Lord Allenby, which took place on December 9, 1917. That was the 34th occasion on which Jerusalem had fallen before an invading army.

The igniting of a quantity of dry grass in Church Street West, behind the railway engine-sheds, about 5 o’clock last evening, was responsible for the Palmerston North Fire Brigade being called out. The outbreak was easily controlled and no damage resulted?

A two-year-old child, Barry Soundey, son of Mr and Mrs E. W. Soundey, of Stratford, went into the wash-house, where he placed one end of a rubber tube in a copper of boiling water and " began to suck the other end, causing a stream of boiling water to be syphoned through, which severely scalded his mouth, throat and face.

An extraordinary example of wasteful unemployment expenditure is disclosed in the case of the Otahuhu High School playground improvements, which so far have cost nearly £3OOO to construct (says the Auckland Herald). It is estimated that another £2OOO will be required from the Unemployment Board’s funds to complete the work, making a total of £SOOO. Yet local contractors state that they would have been pleased to do the job for only £SOO. “There is at least one part of New Zealand where the prevailing depression does not penetrate,” said Mr J. S. Jessep, deputy chairman of the Unemployment Board, on his return to Wellington from a visit.to Otago. “The gold diggings of Central Otago may have lain dormant and neglected for many years past, but they are fast coming back into their own. Dotted all over the district are groups of miners industriously wresting from its ageold repository in the earth the only commodity at a premium in the world to-day. Gold was always valuable, of course, but a.t to-day’s price of nearly £6 10s an ounce it stands at an almost unprecedented price.”

The Wellington City Cquncil’s right to draw artesian water without limitations from its bores in the Hutt Valley was confirmed by the House of Representatives yesterday, when the Wellington City Empowering and Amendment Bill was approved in so far as the action of the Legislative Council in striking out a restrictive clause was concerned. When the Bill was first before the House, Mr W. Nash secured the insertion of a new clause which he said aimed to protect the Hutt Valley local bodies against the drawing of artesian water without their consent. The council, however, threw this clause out, and when the Bill was reported back yesterday Mr Nash moved without success for the reinsertion of the clause.

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A free ambulance service for small animals injured on the streets has been started in Auckland.

A Mercury Bay fisherman is sending an experimental shipment of cooked and salted crayfish to Hong Kong.

The recent band contest at Masterton resulted in a loss of approximately £32, which will be reduced by £l2 owing to guarantees by several citizens.

Petitions in favour of a deep sea port in the Sumner estuary signed bv nearly 14,000 people of Christchurch and Canterbury have been presented to Parliament.

A small dead turtle which was found lying among some rocks at Dunedin was one of a consignment brought by the steamer Waikouati from Sydney early last week. It was found that two were dead and these were thrown overboard.

While a bushman was engaged in bushfelling at Rangiahua (North Auckland) a tree fell across his leg, almost severing it. He was conveyed to Kohukohu, a journey of two hours, and after receiving first aid was taken by special launch to the Rawene Hospital, where the leg was amputated. The final word in regard to the Gisborne clock tower in so far as the Government is concerned has been spoken, the Postmaster-General, Hon. A. Hamilton, having advised the Borough Council that it is estimated that the work would cost £9OO, which sum the department was unable to find.

To commemorate the life work of the late Mr Thomas Joseph Ward and the benefits the city of Wanganui received as a result of his untiring efforts, a. bronze bas relief memorial has been erected at the Wanganui Observatory in Cook’s Gardens. The late Mr Ward founded the observatory in 1903 and was director of the institution until the time of his death in 1926.

Mr L. E. Brasting, an employee of the Public Works Department, had one of his hands badly lacorated by a grey nurse shark when fishing off Grant Island, near Mahurangi Heads. The shark, after being hauled to the deck of the boat, made a leap at Mr Brasting,, who was standing about ,7ft away, and snapped one of his hands in its jaws. Mr Brasting was taken to Warkworth, where a doctor put 15 stitches in the wound.

Small birds are attacking oat and barley crops in the central and eastern districts of Ashburton County, where the heat of the past few weeks has brought the heads to within an ace of maturity. Great flocks of sparrows may be seen settling on the crops, and they have eaten a great deal of oats and barley. A handful of stalks taken from a barley field on the outskirts of Ashburton showed only the husks. The birds had taken every grain. Following operations in other parts of the Thames district Messrs R. Bell and T. M. Hovell have for some time carried out extensive excavations at the old Maori pa, Matatoki, the scene of many fierce native battles in the early days. A member of the Auckland Museum staff recently visited the scene and took back a collection of 572 articles, including stone work, adzes, sinkers, fern pounders, bowls, grindstones, a quantity of greenstone, many musical instruments, skulls, and tattooing implements. The collection is possibly the largest ever discovered in New Zealand.

Proposals for the afforestation of the sand dune coasts of Wanganui and adjacent districts were approved at a public meeting in Wanganui, when a report on the subject was received from the State Forest Department’s ranger Mr J. R. Field, and it was decided that a representative deputation wait on the Government and the Unemployment Board with a view to .having the scheme undertaken. Quoting from the report, Mr D. Dustin, chairman of the Wanganui Development League, said that the approximate cost of the scheme would be £SBIB, while the ultimate value of, say, 500,000 trees would be £250,000. Honour was done this week by a gathering at Wellington to Mr Roderick Macßae, who ha? retired from the State Forest Service after putting up what is probably an Empire record —perhaps even a world record — in reafforestation. He has personally supervised the planting, under the State Forest Service or the Lands Department, of more than 200,000 acres of trees. Since his arrival in this country, about 30 years ago, he has probably planted two acres for every acre that tho most energetic deforester before him has denuded. Mr MacRae was presented with a number of gifts which had been contributed to not only by public servants but by the executives and officers of private afforestation companies and other private persons from Dargaville to Bluff. In addition to life membership of the New Zealand Forestry League, Mr Macßae has been elected an honorary life member of the Institute of Foresters. This honour he shares with Sir Francis Bell, Professor Kirk, and Dr. Cockayne, F.R.S.