The Holidays.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 21, 23 December 1938, Page 6

The Holidays.

• The “Standard” will not be published on Monday, December 26, nor on Monday, January 2. These days are being observed as the Christmas Day cad New Year’s Day holiday. The pubnc office will be open until 8 p.m. on each Saturday for-the cpnvemence of advertisers and the public. Compensation Award. An award of £6OO was made by the Compensation Court yesterday in an action brought by the Public Trustee against the Wellington City Corporation. The case arose out of the taking by the corporation of 14.26 perches of land for street widening at the corner of Clifton and Everton Terraces. The claim was for. £l2oo—£Boo for the value of the land taken and £4OO for alleged injurious' affection of the remainder of the property. Heavy Traffic.

L Reports from all districts throughout New Zealand indicate that passenger traffic during the Christmas and New Year holidays will be the heaviest that the department has been called upon to handle for some time, said Mr G. H. Mackley ((General Manager of Railways), in an interview, at Dunedin. Though the programme was not yet completed, the progress made during the year in the construction of additional rolling stock had enabled the department to cater for the business much better than previously. Comprehensive Insurance. v Discussing marine'insurance on dairy produce, the annual report of the Primary Products Marketing Department states that all butter and cheese exported from New Zealand and purchased by the department is protected by a comprehensive insurance contract, which covers the produce till 30 days after arrival in the United Kingdom. The contract also covers the cream and milk which' is made into butter and cheese intended for export, and which is indentifiable as such, from the time such cream and milk is received at the factory till the produce is place f.o.b. ocean steamer.

Railway Improvements. Further improvements to buildings, station and yard facilities have been announced for the Wanganui-Tara-naki railway district. A private tender has been accepted for painting the outside of 20 railway houses in Marton.

Exchange of Trout Ova. An exchange with the Internal Affairs Department of 500,000 brown trout ova tor a similar number of rainbow trout ova has been arranged by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The society will pay all forwarding charges. Poultry J in Demand.

Unusually high prices were made by poultry in the Wellington market yesterday. Ducks sold at up to 11s each and geese to 11s 6d each. Turkeys were in short supply and sold at prices equivalent to 2s a pound. Black hens and cockerels sold as high as 10s each. Ball of Fire.

During a storm at Westport early on Tuesday morning a ball of lire was seen to be dropping from the sky to the ground near St. John’s Church, in Queen Street, it' broke in mid-air. throwing a shower of bright lights over a wide area. The explosion was followed by a violent clap of thunder. Pukeko Eggs. “Apart from looking red and making custard pink, pukeko eggs taste just, like eggs/’, says Mrs S. U. 'Whittall, of Wanganui, whose aviary of about 200 birds includes a tame pukeko, known to the family as Rajah. Rajah lays her daily egg with regularity and nests just outside the kitchen window. Building in Dunedin. ,

Building has boomed in Dunedin this year. The total number of permits issued and their value constitute a record, which will not be easily eclipsed. Up to yesterday some 1003 permits of a total value of £800,284 had been issued by the building surveyor. This figure is £222,681 in excess of the total at this time last year. -

Saving Stranded Trout. An important undertaking of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society during the summer when streams, particularly the upper Selwyn, dry up, is the transport of live fish from a drying stream to one not affected by dry weather. The fish committee of the society reported to the council that in November 6000 fish were salvaged from the upper Selwyn and adjacent streams. Members expressed satisfaction that the cost worked out at only one-fifth of a penny for each fish. Housing Finance.

The Wellington City Council’s application to the Local Government Loans Board for sanction to raise a loan of £50,000 for housing and another of £IO,OO for the renovation of houses lias been referred back to the council. The board did not consider that the loans came within the scope of the Government's housing policy, under which money was being made available to local bodies at an interest rate of 3 per c«it. Fresh overtures are to be made by the council. Old Tree Cut Down.

Criticism of the action of employees of a [rower board in destroying a pohutukawa tree at Maketu, which, he said, was nearly 100 years old, was expressed by Mr H. Tai Mitchell when the Rotorua Borough Council was considering a letter from the Auckland Provincial Centennial Council in regard to the planting of trees along the Aucklaml-Rotorua highway as a centennial memorial. Mr Mitchell stated that the tree had been at the side of the main road and had been cut down during power-line extensions when a deviation of only 10ft would have saved it: River Protection.

. During the week a deputation representing the Palmerston North ltiver Board, the Palmerston North City Council, and ihe Kairanga County Council waited on tlie Minister of Public Works (Hon. IL Semple), in Wellington, with a request that the Government give some assistance towards the provision of protective works on the river where erosion is setting in at various points outside the board’s area. The Minister gave the deputation a sympathetic hearing, and arrangements are being made to increase tlie board’s area, when the Government will give consideration to providing material assistance for the required work. Money Refused.

A former Wellington resident, now living in South Australia, and on a visit to Now Zealand, said he received rather a surprise when lie arrived in Sydney last Thursday morning and endeavoured to change a couple of New Zeiland bank-notes. He tried at the bar of one of the big hotels first, be said, but there they laughed at him and told him that they were not prepared to change New Zealand notes or silver. Next he went to a bank, and there he found that similar instructions had been given. He explained that the reason for tlie timidity in Sydney was the experience that the people had had under the Lang Government. Conscience Pricks.

It is not only the Government that receives conscience money from people who have defrauded it, states the Christchurch Press. The North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society lias just received from London an English Treasury note for £1 (worth £1 4s lOd in New Zealand), which was sent to the secretary with a note, which stated, inter alia:—“The sender of this brief note spent four weeks in New Zealand during May and June this year. One day he was out rabbit-shoot-ing on the Canterbury plains, '* when some quail got up, and he shot two of them. As he is a Christian and has a conscience, lie feels that he ought to make reparation.”

Methods With Mosquitoes. “The best way to deal with mosquitoes and sandflies is to exclude them from your tent with netting, and when in the open to use the formula of members of the entomological section of the British Museum when collecting specimens in tropical countries,” states the Medical Officer of Health, in Christchurch, Dr T. Fletcher Telford: “The formula is for a mixture of equal parts of oil of eitronella and oil of eucalyptus, to which two drops of liquid carbolic acid arc added. This, smeared on the hands and face, will keep them away, hut may require occasional renewal. Care should he taken not to let this mixture get into the margins of the eyes,’' says Dr lelford. Unorthodox Farewell. An unorthodox form of farewell was tendered on Sunday last to Rev. Kenneth R. Small, vicar of Otorohanga, who is leaving for Holy Sepulchre Church, Auckland. Following evensong in the parish church, a public service was held in the Regent Theatre, at which the vicar delivered a most forceful and eloquent “Defence of the Faith.” The large gathering was representative of the entire district and provided a striking testimony to the esteem in which Mr Small is held by the community. Mr C. Hoston, headmaster of the District High School and a vestryman of the church, explained at the close of the service that the form of farewell, was in accord with the expressed wish of the vicar.