GENERAL NEWS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6735, 11 October 1928, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS

At San Francisco cable states that the visiting New Zealand bowlers tied with the San Francisco Scottish in team matches, but lost on points by 66 tu 56. A youth of 10 years 'pleaded guilty in the Invercargill Magistrate’s Court yesterday to a charge of forging a withdrawal slip for £6 6s on the Post Office Savings Bank at Invercargill his name was suppressed and he was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. —P.A. The Manawatu Radio club (station 2ZF) continues to receive reports of excellent reception by listeners in Australia. The clarity of both music and speech is invariably commented upon. • The programme during the children’s session next Wednesday evening is to be contributed by the pupils of standard 5a of College street school! The first section of the annual Area 6B Defence rifle meeting was commenced yesterday at Hokowhitu whes territorials and cadets over the age of 17 years were on the butts. It had been intended to commence shooting in the morning, but owing to the gusty weather, it was judged better to postpone commencement until the afternoon. Various sections of the meeting will be continued on Saturday and Wednesday, concluding on October 20, when the prize-list will be available. That opossums destroy wild pigeon eggs is a fact vouched for by tho ranger of the Mount Egmont Park Board, who told the northern committee that tho marsupial was very inquisitive, and, though it did not eat tho eggs, it handled and broke them. Mr. W. H. Skinner remarked that on Kapiti Island, which was reserved as a bird sanctuary, tho opossum has also been found to destroy birds’ nests, and was being trapped out, whilst tho goats and sheep had also been exterminated. “If wo can get markers there should bd no difficulty in absorbing Britain’s surplus population,” said Sir William Glasgow', Commonwealth Minister .of Defence, at tho luncheon given in Auckland to Lord Lovat the other day. “Australia and New Zealand have the flush of their seasons about tho came time, and there is room for co-opera-tion between them to see the world’s markets are fed uniformly. If the control boards of the various industries would take the matter up, that would do a great deal to bring such #.n arrangement about.* ’ “ Thousands of men with bare heads and thousands of girls with bare legs—these were the two great surprises I received on my arrival in California,” said Miss Betty Eoss-Clarke, the actress, who appeared in New Zealand some time ago, on Her return to Australia from the States. Miss Clarke explained that, as most of the girls wore too busy to go down to the beach, artificial sunburn replaced the stockings, and, as a result, Miss Clarke _ declared that, as the climatic conditions were similar here, she would not be surprised to see the fashion take hold in the Southern Hemisphere. A motor accident which had dread possibilities, occurred at Kuku (near Levin) about 7 p.m. on Monday, when a lorry' belonging to Palmerston North, and laden with eased benzine, overturned. The vehicle was on its way from Wellington, and when it had reached a spot just on tho north side of the Kuku Church, the driver steered it to the side of the road in .order to give room for an approaching car to pass. The wheels skidded and. would not take the road again, the lorry then capsizing. Fortunately the benzine did not ignite, and the driver was not injured and was able to make his escape through the windscreen. Help was secured from Levin to recover the lorry, which was found to bo undamaged. With a c/ash of splintering glass and falling iron (says the Lyttelton “'Times’’), a largo section of a verandah collapsed in Lincoln road on Saturday evening, burying a girl, under the debris. The victim. Miss Jean Smith, of Spreydon, was admitted to the hospital suffering from a severe scalp wound and shock. Her condition is reported to bo satisfactory. The scene of the accident was a grocery store owned by Mr I. Hancock, at the corner of Lincoln road and Lyttelton street. A motor car, driven by Mr J. McLean, of Lower Eiccarton, was backing out of Lyttelton street when it struck and snapped the iron pillar supporting ■ tho verandah, Thc r mass of iron girders and glass came down, burying Miss Smith, who had been standing underneath. Tho car .was not damaged. The pillar was struck by the spare wheel at the rear of the car. In spite of the boasted high wages which tho American, workmen receive, New Zealand workmen, with their much lower wages, are really in a much better position. This is the view of Mr Spencer, president-of the Auckland Employers* Association,’ t who returned from a holiday trip to the United States by the Niagara. American workmen admittedly received phenomenal wages. Mr Spencer said, but this was countered by tho false standards of living in A ( merica. It was no uncommon thing for an unskilled labourer to earn •10 dollars a day—over £lO a week in Now Zealand money—but thefc were so many inducements to spend money on luxuries that he was no better off than he would be on a much smaller wage. Living was very dear, and clothes and ordinary household commodities were sold at easily double the price paid in New Zealand. “High wages and the pernicious hire purchase sysstem are ruining the American working man,” Mr Spencer said. “I sincerely hope that tho system will never be allowed to develop in Now Zealand to the same extent as it has been developed in tho United States. It is antounding the number and variety of goods that are purchased on this system under terms which are • apparently easy, buh which surely rob the working man of the money he so easily obtains.” Motorists a few years ago thought their tyres did well with a mileage of 5000; mileages of 10,000 and over are common.