To Help Soldiers’ Wives.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 227, 23 August 1940, Page 6

To Help Soldiers’ Wives.

The Returned Soldiers’ Association’s scheme to help soldiers’ wives by working in their gardens and doing work that is too heavy for women has progressed well in Invercargill, 84 'homes having been visited. White ButterTiy Control.

White butterflies are.not likely to be so prevalent on farm lands this summer as in the last few years, according to an opinion expressed by Mr R. MeCillivray, Fields Superintendent of the Department of Agriculture in Christchurch. Splendid results had been obtained in combating the pest with parasites, he said. 1

Losses By Sheep Worrying. That the national loss, caused by dogs worrying sheep each year is in the vicinity of £IOO,OOO was an observation made by Mr W. Peat, chairman, at a meeting of the Wanganui Council of Primary Production. Mr .Peat moved that the registration of dogs be tightened up and that it he a punishable offence for dogs to be loose between the hours of sunset and sunrise. This was carried. Musical Ornaments.

A warning to young performers not to sacrifice the continuity and basic air of a musical composition because of the ornamental passages was uttered by Dr. Frederic Staton, after he had finished judging a violin section for children under 16 at the Wellington Competitions. “After all,” said Dr. Staton, ll if you had a frock, and went and put a lot of ornaments on it, you would let the ornaments be ornamentSj and not destroy the outapplied to the frock just ns truthfully applied to the forck just as truthfully applied to a musical composition, said the adjudicator. Valuable Vocation.

A remit urging that steps be taken to provide opportunities for crippled youths to learn the bootmaking trade in order that the art of hand-making of boots, especially the surgical type, might not be lost, was passed at the annual conference of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society. The remit was sponsored by the Wanganui branch. Dr. G. Adams, the mover, said that the makers of surgical hoots in Wanganui were not young men and when they retired, there might be difficulty in obtaining supplies. Other delegates said that the same difficulty had arisen in their districts

Primary Produce Prices. At the annual meeting of the Kairanga Dairy Company, yesterday, Mr J. Kyle moved that a recommendation be made that ovhen the guaranteed price is being fixed l>y the Government for the next term it should be set at such a figure that the. return to the dairy farmers shall bo commensurate with that received by other sections of the community. Mr Kyle emphasised that . the farmers did not wish to squeeze the last decimal point of a penny in the price for produce out of the British people, but he thought that due regard should be paid to the increased costs the farming community had to bear. The motion was carried.

War Finances. To date £2,515,145 has been received in interest-free loans and donations for war purposes. The donations ipclude £SO from the Manawatu Hunt Club. Louis XIV and Hitler. Sir C. Grant Robertson wrote recently to the London Times :—Louis XIV said of .the great war with England, “It is the last louis d’or that will win,” and we, not, he had it. Today it will be the last gallon of petrol that will win, and it will be we, not Hitler, who will have it. Arbitration Court Hearings. It is expected that the first of the applications for exemption from the general order increasing wage rates by 5 per cent, will come before the Court of Arbitration early next week. The hearing of the applications will probably occupy the Court fon at least the rest of the week

Shortage of Water. An unusually dry winter has been experienced at Raraparaumu, and owing to the considerably smaller rainfall beach residents are finding their water supplies muck lower than usual at this time of the year. In some homes dependence is being placed upon, the artesian supply as the tanks have become dry.

Fourth Echelon Quota. Advice has been received to the effect that Area No. 6 (Palmerston North and Wanganui) will provide 421 men for the Fourth Echelon of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force when it enters camp for training. The Palmerston North district quota will be approximately half of the total for the whole of Area No. 6. A Chaplain’s Devotion.

The following note appears in the Chelmsford Diocesan Chronicle: “Rev. J. F. O. Brown, formerly curate of Prittlewell, while serving as Army chaplain with the 8.E.F., was taken prisoner by tho Germans. During the retreat in Flanders he would not leave a number of wounded men who were too ill to be removed, and so was taken with them.” Fruitless Search.

When the Wanganui River steamer Ohura overturned in the Wanganui River, four miles above Pipiriki, on May 6 last, three men were reported missing. The body of one only has been recovered, and although a diligent search was carried out for some weeks after the accident and at various times since, no trace of the two other men could be found.

Safeguarding Recruits. “I want to protect these men who are going to the front and 1 want to be sure that their work is here for them when they come back,” said Mr J. P. 0. Skoglund at the sitting of the No. 2 Licensing Committee in Napier, when ordering tho suspension of a taxi-driver’s license until his return from the war. Mr Skoglund intimated that all taxi-drivers would he treated on the same basis if they joined the Army. Progress of Church Army. An increase from 16 officers, trainees and other staff to 37, 15 of whom are women, was announced by Captain S. R. Banyard (Dominion Director) in his report to the Church Army Board, tho annual meeting of which was recently held in Wellington. “At five years okl the Church Army in New Zealand can in no way be considered as either developed or capable of doing all that it hopes to do eventually,” added the report. Splendid Training. “I think the preventive work of the society is extremely valuable,’’ said Lady Galway, patroness of tile New Zealand Crippled Children Society, m opening the annual conference in Wellington yesterday. “The society is doing greit work in preventing potential cripples from becoming definite cripples and the vocational training given is splendid. Often, cripples when trained, will surpass the able;bodie<l. This is, I think, a very comforting thought.” The Seal of Hitler’s Doom.

The Archbishop of York, speaking at York Diocesan Conference in June, said that it was nob impossible that historians of the future, looking back, would say that the event which sealed the doom of Hitler was the defection of Leopold of Belgium, because it led to the collapse of France. The result was the concentration of the power of the British Army in defence of Britain itself, and there came the necessity that if Hitler was to go forward lie must attack this island, for which he had not the resources.

Social Security Funds. The revenue of the Social Security Fund for the first two months of the current financial year, April and May, amounted to £2,414,472, a substantial increase on the total of £2,124,353 received in the corresponding two months of last year. By far the largest item in the expenditure of the fund has been that lor age benefits, which in the first three months of the financial year amounted to £1,725',065 (£l,434,724). There are now 94,604 of these benefits in force, of a total annual value of £6,958,124. Fettered Curricula.

It was regrettable, hut not surprising, in view of the nieagre recognition given to it by the Public Service Commissioner and other employers, that so few pupils considered the acquirement of the school certificate worth their while unless they attempted University entrance at the same time, stated Mr E. J. Parr, chief inspector qf secondary schools, in his report tabled in the House of Representatives. He said that so long as this practice continued to be prevalent the curricula of secondary schools would remain unduly fettered by the demands of tho University entrance prescription. And So It Grows.

When, during the discussion in Wellington on file maintenance of the old Paekakariki Hill Road, a speaker suggested that one surfaceman would be able to keep the road in order, Mr R. A. Wright remarked that that was all very well. The one man would soon demand another to help him or to relieve him while he went on a holiday. Before long there would he two men, then several men, then an overseer, and then a motor-car for the overseer. “And/finally,” added Mr Wright, amid laughter, “you would have a whole department maintaining that road; and costs would not he as low as anticipated.”

300 War Ideas a Week. Every wees about 300 ideas for winning the war-—inventions, new designs, plans, proposals for new weapons of offence or defence —are submitted to the authorities in London. These are considered by a permanent staff of 900 experts, including the most distinguished scientists in the country and specialists in almost every branch of applied physics, chemistry, and engineering. This great staff, the Research Directorate of the Ministry of Supply, is primarily responsible for the design of all kinds of war munitions. It is also on them that we rely, not only for the prompt counter to any “secret” weapon the enemy may launch at us, but for the equally prompt recognition and development of new weapons.—Daily Telegraph.