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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 297, 13 November 1934, Page 6

The Public Works Department has accepted a tender for the erection of a new hangar at Wigram Aerodrome which is being built as part of the Government’s plan for strengthening the New Zealand Air Force. The new hangar will be the largest and most up-to-date in New Zealand, 180 feet long by 90 feet deep built of reinforced concrete with steel roof trusses and corrugated asbestos roofing. The price is stated to be about £20,000.

During a discussion on the suspension bridge over the Manawatu River near Rangiotu and the possibilities of the Opiki route becoming the main highway between Wellington and Palmerston North, at to-day’s meeting of the Kairanga County Council, the chairman remarked that the _ Horowhenua County Council was not in favour of it, preferring that work on the No. 60 highway (via Fitzherbert) be pushed on. Cr Jos. Batchlar stated that that was his opinion also. In order to inspect suitable sites for an aerodrome in Levin, Mr Gibson, an engineer of the Public Works Department, who is assisting the Director of Aviation (Major Wilkes) visited Levin on Friday. Accompanied by the Mayor (Mr P. W. Goldsmith) and Cr. France, representing the Levin Borough Council, and Dr. Thompson, Messrs J. C. Milnes, F. Carpenter, J. Tantrum, and R. Kime, representing the Levin Aero Club, he inspected three proposed sites. Mr Gibson will report on his visit at a later date. The gardens in front of the new section of the College Street School are now looking particularly well and the rose beds prpvide a fine show of colour. On© bed has been devoted to noses. of more value than the common varieties, and they are now in their full glory. Irises in a row along the edge of the footpath are displaying their delicate blue and the whole section is decidedly pleasing in appearance. All the trees planted in the school grounds last Arbor Day by those who have held the position of chairman of the committee have made a good strike and are growing well.

There may be some things that have not changed in the East for 2000 years; still, it is remarkable that, in the valley of the Jordan, sticks placed in the earth for a technical purpose by the Australian soldiery 15 to 20 years ago still “stay put.” In Melbourne on October 21 the Chief of Staff to the Duke of Gloucester, Major-General Howard-Vyse, said that he had made many visits to Palestine since the war, and had been surprised to note how little the country had changed. The Valley of the Jordan had changed hardly at all since the days when the Australian Light Horse had ridden through it. At the bridge-head leading from Jericho across the Jordan into Moab he had even come across sticks left in the ground by Australian machine-gunners to give them their night-firing direction. Major-General Howard-Vyse was for 15 months Chief of Staff to General Chauvel, who commanded the Desert Mounted Corps.

Fifty-six applications were received by the Bay of Islands County Council for the position of engineer, which will be vacant in March by the resignation of Mr H. C. Blundell. Mr S. V. Clifford, of Christchurch, has been appointed as successor to Mr Blundell.

Tlie excellent weather of the weekend drew many people to the beaches at Turakina and Tangimoana. The water' was remarkably warm for this time of the year and many received their first touch of sunburn for the season. Fishermen report good catches.

Tivo rabbits at th-e Show at Christchurch made savage attacks, one on a woman and another on a girl, who had ventured their fingers inside the cages. Both sufferers had to be treated av the St. John Ambulance tent, and the girl will probably need to have her finger put into splints.

The recent influenza epidemic, which seriously depleted the staffs of Auckland business concerns and reduced school attendances, has now abated, although some schools, especially those in the city area, still have pupils away. School attendances in Palmerston North are still affected by sickness.

A prize winning cocker spaniel, owned by a West End resident, has fallen victim to the malicious attentions of a dog poisoner. The owner, who laments the loss of an intelligent canine friend, passes on the information so that other dog fanciers in the locality might take precautions. Experiments with the operation of a wireless set provided for the entertainment of passengers have been made on an Auckland suburban bus. So far the tests made in the city have not been satisfactory owing to the amount of electrical interference. The reception in the suburbs, however, has been good.

The Dominion jumping championship at the Waikato A. and P. Association’s Show was won by Clinker, owned by Mrs H. Scales, of Whakatiki. This horse won the Rocket Cup in the champion open jumping competition at the recent Manawatu Spring Show, repeating his success of 1933 at the same fixture. A whale estimated to be between 40 and 50 feet long was killed on the night of November 4, about 300 miles off Sydney Heads, when the liner Mariposa struck it on her voyage from Auckland to Sydney. The whale was seen about two feet under the surface of the water lying across the course of the steamer and only a few feet from the bow. The whale made no attempt to move, and it was struck heavilv.

Some doubt was recently entertained by the Kairanga County Council as to the powers granted rangers by the Impounding Act in respect of driving cattle to the pound after sundown. The matter was taken up by Mr J. A. Nash, M.P., and the position has now been clarified, it having been found that rangers possess the powers to drive stock direct to the pound at night. Appreciation was voiced at to-day’s meeting of the County Council of the action of the member for Palmerston North, the clerk (Mr N. I. Nielsen) remarking that one could always depend on a prompt reply to any request made to Mr Nash.

A recent result of Mr Upton Sinclair's promise to make jobs for all if he were elected Governor of California had been that people from other pax-ts of the country had entered the State in large numbers in the hope of finding work, and they were now presenting something of a problem, said Mrs W. A. Foss, a passenger by the Maunganui, which arrived in Wellington yesterday from San Francisco. The election campaigns had caused a great deal of interest, she said, and opponents of Mr Sinclair had been quick to parody his slogan, “End Poverty in Cahfoi’nia” (the E.P.I.C. plan), by making it “Easy Pickings in California.

In. outlining the preliminary arrangements made for the reception to the Duke of Gloucester at Palmerston North in January, Colonel J. H. Whyte, chairman of the College Street School Committee, informed the committee at its meeting last evening that school children would be accommodated in front of the band rotunda in the Square. It was reported by the headmaster (Mr W. A. Swinbourn) that the estimate of children attending the gathering from the College Street School was 77, but when enthusiasm increased later there might be easily 100 more attending. In view of the supervision required by the Education Board and the fact that a number of the teachers from the school would be away on January 4, several members of the committee offered their services as supervisors.

The fact that Massey Agricultural College is a University College, and not a research station was pointed out to a meeting of farmers at Forded last week by Professor G. S. Peren. He mentioned the _ fact because, in some quarters, the view was apparently held that the college’s work was solely in the nature of research. Furthermore, he continued, the college was not a Government institution, which had been made evident last year when a student had obtained a Rhodes scholarship. The enrolment of students at the college was increasing steadily, and there were 50 more students this year than last. Professor Peren stated. A total of 283 students had attended all classes last year. It was as much as the college staff could do to attend to the students without taking on research work, which could not be carried out beca.use the college had no funds for that type of work. In meeting retailers in England he had found resentment against people going into their stores asking for New Zealand butter and upbraiding the managers of the stores if it could not be obtained, said Mr G. M. Valentine, assistant-director of the Dairy Division, in addressing the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday. Mr Valentine said he had pointed o’ut that he was doing practically the same thing in. his visits to the executives of the organisations controlling the stores, but they had rejoined that he had authority ns a member of the New Zealand Dairy Division, whereas the others were private persons who pestered their managers. Those executives were men of business, and they resented the man on the street, whether he came from New Zealand or not, telling them how their businesses should be run. If they thought that selling New Zealand butter would be advantageous to them they bought it and sold it—if they did not they sold other butters.

Struck by bales of wool that were being carted through it on a lorry on Thursday evening, the top half of the soldiers’ memorial arch at the entrance to the Kohukohu (Auckland Province) wharf collapsed and most of it fell into the harbour. One marble.plate, bearing the names of about 50 soldiers, was smashed beyond repair, and several blocks of stone were damaged. The keystone of the arch, weighing about 2cwt., fell on to the bales of wool, the driver of the lorry, Mr D. Curee.n, having a very narrow escape. In addition to the stone work, some of the bales of wool were thrown into the water, and a length of railway on the wharf and a pontoon were damaged by tho falling debris. Buoys have been attached to the sunken wool bales to facilitate their recovery. The monument which was erected in 1927 at a cost of £SOO, bore the names of about 100 men of the district who served in the Great War. It will be an expensive matter to repair the damage. .