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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 190, 13 July 1936, Page 6

The exhibition of Titania’s Palace in Invercargill closed on Saturday, the total attendance during its season being 14,626. In order to conduct the operations of the Waikato Hospital Board during the current year, £59.744 4s 4d is required to be found. Of this amount, the Government contributes £27,690 2s 7d, and the 24 contributing local boies the balance, £32,084 Is 9d.

The reorganisation of the district nurse system in the Waikato Hospital Board’s district is being undertaken by the Health Department. There are 14,000 Maoris in the hoard’s district, and every endeavour is being made to reduce the incidence of sickness among them. A controvery has arisen in New Plymouth regarding the site of the proposed new post office. It was pointed out at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce that, if no agreement was reached, New Plymouth’s post office would be placed lower on the urgency list of the department, and possibly the town would not obtain a new building for a number of years, and the chances oi obtaining a new courthouse might be affected. With the ages of his five children totalling 326 years, and with over 130 descendants, Air Thomas Took, of Giaudelands, celebrated his 95th birthday last week. His youngest child is 56, a.nd the eldest 74. Mr Took was sent to New Zealand by Sir James Fergusson, father of the former Gov-ernor-General, to fdl a position as stockman on the Gordon Estate at Cambridge. He is in full- possession of his faculties, and one of his proudest memories is his friendship with Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous preacher. He has been a staunch Baptist for years.

A sum of no less than £133,058 10s was recorded on the totalisator for the Wellington winter race meeting. The increase over the figures for last year’s winter meeting was £28,770. While motor-cycling at Tokomaru on Saturday, Mr I>. White, a farm labourer, aged 21 years, fell from liis machine, sustaining injuries to his body which necessitated liis removal to the Hospital. His condition to-day was satisfactory. The centre of the very slight earthquake which was felt at Palmerston North last Thursday evening was apparently in the Bay of Plenty as Opotiki has reported the most severe tremor for three years. Whakataue, Rotorua and Gisborne all felt the earthquake in lesser intensity.

Considerable damago has been done to the interior of St. Peter’s. Cathedral, Hamilton, by rain which has found its way through the window joinery and has caused the deterioration of the fabric and furnishings of the building and given an unsightly appearance to the walls. The secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society has received advice that a white heron has been on a property at Palmerston for the past tew days. An a.ppeal has been made to sportsmen and others that the bird should not be shot at or attempted to be shot at or molested in any way. “It would be well it we were to follow more often the example of the old Maori chieftains in their speech,” said Professor I l '. P. Worley at a gathering in Auckland. “They were dignified and logical, and their oratory was wonderful. I think some of our politicians have followed only the example of oratory.” Inquiries are still being made by the Palmerston North police into the circumstances connected with the death of the Chinaman, Sue Dick Kee, who died from injuries apparently received through being struck by a motor vehicle on the roadside near Te Horo on June 10. No date for the inquest has yet been fixed.

A denial that he had committed himself to the statement that drivers’ licenses should not be issued to persons under 18 years of age was given by the Minister of Transport (Hon. R. Semple) on his return to Wellington from Auckland on Saturday. He said that common sense had to be used, for a person under 18 years might be just as competent as he would ever be. “I am sick and tired of hearing witnesses tell me they were crossing intersections at 15 miles per hour, - ' said Mr 13. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington, when a witness in a collision case insisted that he was travelling at 15 miles per hour. “Probably 10,000 people have told me they had been travelling on the intersection at 15 miles per hour,” continued Mr Mosley. “I was not born yesterday. It’s beyond all reason.”

A daily, through connection of Auckland and Dunedin, with a suggestion that, if calls cannot be made at Wellington with aeroplanes suitable for a trunk service, Wellington should be served by feeder ’planes through Palmerston North and Blenheim, is proposed by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, in representations it has made to the Commissioner of Transport for submission to the Minister of Transport (Hon. R. Semple) for consideration.

A radio set donated by Pope Pius XI is being proudly' taken back to New Guinea by Bishop Besters, Vicar Apostolic of Rabaul, who passed through Auckland on the Monterey after his first visit to Rome for ten years. “When I saw the Holy Father he asked whether my people had heard him speak on the radio, and I said they had no chance to hear the voice of the ‘Great White Chief,’ as they call him, because they were too poor to buy a radio set, so ho gave me one himself,” the Bishop said. It was stated by Dr. M. M. Hockin, medical superintendent of the Waikato Hospital, at a meeting of the board, that there is a shortage of doctors in New Zealand. He said that there was one doctor short on the staff of the Waikato Hospital and he was having difficulty in filling the vacancy. The position should be relieved at the end of the year, when 60 students would have qualified at the Otago Medical School, he said. For some years past only 30 had passed through the school annually’, and this number was insufficient for New Zealand’s requirements. What Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Public Works and Transport, meant when he spoke of “scroungers” was explained by r Hon. P. C. Mebb (Minister of Mines) when speaking in Wellington. “1 know that some people have taken exception to Mr Semple’s words about ‘scroungers’,” said Mr Webb. “It does not matter how poolor how rich you are, but if you don’t render social service and are mentally and physically 7 capable of doing so you are a parasite. When Mr Semple spoke of ‘scroungers’ he referred to those men who would rather live on sustenance a thousand times over than accept a job at a higher standard than was ever paid before.” Representatives of the No. 5 scheme men employed by the Palmerston North River Board to-day waited on the board in regard to a proposal for full-time work for the board s employees. It had been pointed out at the last meeting of the board that if men were employed on full time only four instead of 14, as at present, would be required. After a discussion the chairman (Mr A. E. Manslord) was instructed to interview the Minister of Employment (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) in an endeavour to secure a larger subsidy to allow the employment of more than four men. The chairman is to report to a later meeting of the board.