Passengers For Overseas.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 82, 5 March 1938, Page 8

Passengers For Overseas.

Shipping companies estimate that 3000 JSiew Zealanders will leave via the port of Auckland for Great Britain and elsewhere during the season from January to May. At a conservative calculation this figure represents £360,000 to be spent on return passage fares alone. Industry Unrewarded. A 12-vear-old boy walked into the Bruce County Council ofiico and prodiicod a chocolate box filled to the top with white butterflies, states the Otago Daily' Times. “How much will you give me for these?” he inquired. “There are 172 in .the box, and I caught them all on my father’s farm just outside Milton.” But the pest has not caused the Bruce County Councillors to pay out butterfly “money,’ and so the lad had to leave without payment for his services. Recognition of Town Clerks. Recognition of town clerks as professional men on similar lines as doctors, lawyers, and accountants, under Act of Parliament, may soon be an accomplished fact. Mr Noel C. Harding, town clerk, Hastings and vice-presi-dent of the New Zealand Institute of Town Clerks, who returned from the annual conference of the institute held at New Plymouth, said that for a number of years the institute had been endeavouring to bring down a Bill to be known as the Local Government Officers Bill, which would recognise town clerks as professional men.

Bride Carried to Church. There is an old tradition that to ensure the success of his married life a bridegroom should carry the bride across the threshold of his house; there is another that the bride should walk to the church; but the residents of Beaconsfield, South Canterbury, recently were compelled to institute a new custom, when the bride had to be carried some distance along the unformed road-to the church. The principal parties in this case were not concerned with, the establishment of a custom, however, but had the course forced on them by the condition of the road, which at the time was in such a state that it was impossible to drive a car over it.

Outbreak Of Fire. When the occupants of a house at 28 Knowles Street were burning rubbish at about five o’clock last evening, the fire got out of hand. The Fire Brigade was summoned and extinguished the flames before they could spread to an adjacent fowl-house. Not Known in Germany. “New Zealand is not known in Germany,” said Miss H. Paterson at a meeting of the Justices of the Peace Association in Dunedin. “No one knew where the Dominion was,” she added. “In fact, they mistook the name for Holland, and remarked that 1 spoke English very well. Even when a map of the world was drawn, they knew of nothing beyond Australia.” Discipline in Schools. The education systems of America and New Zealand wore compared by Bt. Bev. F. T. Kelly, Catholic Bishop of Oklahoma City, during a visit to the Auckland Teachers’ Training College. He expressed the opinion that American schools were deteriorating through lack of sufficient discipline. It was a mistake, said Bishop Kelly, to neglect such subjects as mathematics, which disciplined the mind. Long Link of Concrete Road. Completion of a concrete anil tarsealed link of 100-odd miles of road from Auckland to the southern boundary of Waipa county is to be celebrated by a dinner at Te Awamutu on May 10, when members of the Main Highways Board will be in attendance. Shifts of 24 hours are being worked on a concrete bridge over the Mangapiko Stream, on the northern boundary of Te Awamutu borough, the one incomplete break in the stretch mentioned.

Papatawa’s Good Season. This season lias been the best in Papatawa lor the past several years, •the production of butterlat having been doubled in a number of cases. Some farmers are cutting three crops for ensilage and two crops o( hay—all in a few months. A field of turnips which was in excellent condition last week, to-day has nearly been destroyed by the ravages of pests which affect these crops. As in other parts of the Dominion the white butterfly is prevalent in the Papatawa district and has done a good deal of damage. Unusual Weapon.

Considerable curiosity has been aroused lately among those who have gone to Western Wharf, Auckland, to see the visiting French cruiser Jeanne d’Arc about the weapon borne hv the sentry standing guard at the stateroom of the commander, Captain Paul Auphan. Jn his right hand the marine supports something like a jieavybladed and decorated spear. This is a halberd, a weapon that was commonly in use in the loth and 16tli centuries and which was then the distinctive badge ot a sergeant. Now it is only occasionally used as a eremonial weapon, observes the Herald. State Housing.

To date the Department of Housing Construction has advertised 2772 houses and Cabinet has accepted contracts for 2200, stated the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, Mr J. A. Lee, in an interview yesterday. “The first tender was accepted by Cabinet toward the end of March, 1937. By the end of March, 1935, tenders will have been called for about 3000 houses,” Mr Lee said. “The number of employees engaged on the Government’s housing scheme continues to rise steeply and is in the neighbourhood of 3700. Those directly and indirectly employed number close on 8000.”

An Historic Organ. While the celebrations at St. Patrick’s Cathedral during the past week have been made more impressive by majestic music rarely heard- in Auckland, an important feature has been the part played by the historic organ, says the Herald. Originally installed in the famous Brompton Oratory, London, the grand organ at St. Patrick’s has been renovated in recent months and in volume and tone it has improved immeasurably. Besides playing in accompaniment to the choir the organist, Miss N. Ormond, has had to draw from an extensive repertoire of marches and voluntaries which have been among the many delights of the religious observances. A Baby’s Peril.

Noticing a perambulator in which his infant son was sleeping racing down an incline past the front of his store toward a creek, Mr Murry I’eddie, storekeeper at Otira, West Coast, was able to save the life of the child, but not before it had been immersed. The baby had been left asleep in the perambulator near the store. Mr Peddie’s eldest son, aged three years, moved tlie perambulator, whereupon it started its career toward the creek. By chance Mr l’eddie glanced up and saw what threatened to happen. He rushed in pursuit, but the perambulator reached the bank of the creek and capsized, and the baby was thrown into the swiftly-moving waters. Fortunately IMr Peddi© "\vns able to piilj the child out immediately, or it would almost certainly have drowned.