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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 63, 10 February 1933, Page 6

A request received by the Christchurch Presbytery from the Council of Churches, recommending that a day of prayer be held on the first Sunday in April, has been forwarded to the General Assembly. The city property nt the corner of Colombo aaid Gloucester Streets, Christchurch, known as Carey’s Building, occupying one of the finest business sites in the city, has been purchased at a price understood to be in the vicinity of £40,000. “One would think, from the way that some people are talking, that the farmer had a. marvellous time in the years of better prices,” said Mr David Jones, in a recent address on the exchange question. “The farmer had a good time—and so did everyone else.”

“There are great possibilities in the Maoris of the Taranaki coast,” said Bishop Bennett the other day. “From this coast came the first missionaries of the rabe, and it lias been the birthplace of many men famous even in our short history. Sir Maui Pomare and Dr. Peter Buck are two whose fame is world-wide.” The Select Committee of the House of Representatives which is hearing evidence on the Government Superannuation Funds Bill and which adjourned in December last resumed yesterday. After a brief sitting, in which business mainly of a routinfe nature was considered, the committee adjourned .until Wednesday next.

It was stated at a meeting of the Te Aroha School Committee that a German machine gun, presented years ago as a war souvenir, had been found rusted and dirty under the school. The police had since confiscated it until such time as the committee saw fit to pay the 5s license fee. The committee decided to leave the gun in the hands of the police.

There were substantial increases in the totalisator returns at the jfew Plymouth and Dunedin race meetings yesterday. At both centres the win and place system of betting was operated. .The amount handled at New Plymouth was £7825 15s, which is £2414 5s more than for the corresponding meeting a year ago, when Cup day was very wet. The totalisator at Dunedin handled £17,336, compared with £14,058 10s last year. Professor G. S. Peren, principal of Massey Agricultural College, reported to the council meeting yesterday that 40 students had enrolled for the sheep and dairy farming course, there being 21 for the former and 19 for the latter. Last year there was a total enrolment of 32 for these courses. Enrolments for the dairy diploma and herd testing courses were being received, but the total number would not be known until the opening of the term.

The estimated cost of the Tawa Flat railway tunnel and deviation and related works is £1,375,000, according to a return presented to the House of Representatives yesterday, on tlie motion of Mr A. J. Stallworthy. The ['estimated tuost of completing the work already done is £195,000, and the cost of electrification is estimated at £277,525. The reduction in operating cost as a result of the deviation and tunnel is estimated at £20,480 per annum.

A somewhat similar ca.se to that of the sheep at Te Aroha whose teeth were covered with a casing of bright gold is reported from Ballance. Several sheep’s teeth, glittering with gold, were exhibited i,n Pahi'atua. this week. The sheep had been grazing on the property of a well-known Ballance settler. Gold is known to exist in various parts of the Wairarapa, and it has been mined, particularly in the Rimutakas and about Featherston, but it has yet to be found in payable quantities.

A pilot from a monoplane and his passenger who landed on the Waipa Racing Club’s course, at Te Awamutu, were disconcerted to discover a bull approaching them in most unfriendly manner and obviously intent upon an encounter. They hastily re-entered the machine and taxied to the far end of the field. The bull followed them, and the best way to avoid an encounter that might 'easily have ca.used serious damage to men and machine appeared to be immediate flight. The aeroplane was soon soaring overhead.

' “We feel that the time has arrived when a determined effort should be made to unify the grades of New Zealand lemons and grapefruit and to place them on the market under a uniform grads,” said the Dominion organiser, Mr G. A. Green, when commenting upon the citrus exhibit at the National Flower Show at Wellington. Mr Green said that standardised grades and packing were necessary, also systematic advertising. It was considered that grapefruit as a breakfast fruit was capable of -very largelyincreased sales, a.nd it was suggested that in the larger centres meetings of retailers should be held, when demonstrations could be given of _ the preparation and use of grapefruit.

Itelative to the report in the “Standard” of the discovery by the Red Cross Society in Russia of a child belonging to parents now resident in New Zealand, a “Standard” representative has ascertained that the parents reside in Foxton and that it was from there that communications were sent to the Minister for External Affairs setting forth the details. The matter was subsequently referred to the Red Cross Society whose investigations resulted in the location of the child and the issuing of the necessary passport. The parents found it necessary to quit Russia and in the trek .of 400 miles from. Siberia to the Chinese border it was decided to leave the infant, then only a few months old, to the care of others as the vicissitudes and privations of the perilous journey would probably prove fatal to the child.