NEWS OF THE DAY

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 172, 24 July 1939, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Frostfish Discovered Frosty nights in the Bay of Plenty have brought reports of the finding of frostfish on the beaches past Ohiwa Harbour and at Ohopo in the last morning or two. Several fish were picked up before dawn on the Ohopc Beach recently. Anything to Say? Asked by the magistrate if lie had nnytbiug to say, the defendant, in a breach of traffic regulations case heard in the Magistrate’s Court at Napier recently, replied, “No complaint, your Honour.” “Possibly not, but apparently someone else has,” was the prompt eommnct from the Bench. New Pilot Launch Forty pilots a day in almost any weather is said to be the handling capacity of the Otago Harbour Board’s speedy new pilot launch which is being built at Port Chalmers. The vessel will be launched at the end of this month, after which her engines will be litted and she will go into commission in October. Referee Attacked Intimating that if the players who had jostled and pushed the referee, Mr. A. Boswell, immediately after the Paroa-Taucatua match on July 8 and again on the fololwing Tuesday evening, had been known they would have been stood down for life, the Whaka* tane Rugby (Sub-union strongly censured tho Paroa Club and officials for the actions of a number of its members. Record Potato Prices Record wholesale values for Ohakune potatoes at the Auckland markets have resulted in a retail price of 4il per lb. Ohakune potatoes were quoted at 12s to 16s wholesale for a bag of approximately 631 b., which is stated to bo the highest price recorded in Auckland. Southern potatoes aro also selling at high rates, the wholesale prico being J7s to 21s a cwt.

Soldiers’ Friendship. As concrete proof of the new friendship between Britain and Turkey, New Zealand returned soldiers are extending greetings to Turks with whom they fought during the Great War. The New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association has sent a message of friendship to Turkish ex-servicemen expressing gratitude for the successful completion of an alliance between the Empire and Turkey. Lost Fur

An Auckland woman was in a shop buying sonre clothes and had laid aside her fur while she tried on a garment. A little while later she went to pick up her fur and it had vanished. Anxiously the shop assistant questioned her, “Where did you leave it?” The customer pointed out the place on the table. 1 ‘ It may have been sucked through the window,’ said the assistant. “I will go down and have a look ” She ran down the stairs, and in the street she found a man beneath the window holding the fur and waiting for somebody to come and get it. Moral Re-armament

Messrs. Athol Williams, I. C. McPhail and Mrs. K. Mac Lean (Hawke’s Bay). Miss E. Midlcton, Messrs. R. Lyon, C. Watson, M. Lennon (Wellington), were visitors to Palmerston North at the week-end and were the guests of the Mayor and Mayoress (Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Mansford) on Saturday evening to put before some of the leaders of thought in the city the significance and application of moral re armament from their personal points of view. Miss Middleton, Messrs. Williams and McPhail returned recently from Europe where they spent considerable time in furthering the aims of the movement. Supreme Court Facilities A request to Mr. Justice Ostler to bring to the attention of the Justice Department tho need for better facilities for jurymen at the Auckland (Supreme Court was made by the foreman of a jury, Mr. 8. 8. Green, at the conclusion of a case.* Mr. Green said there was a lack of adequate seating for waiting jurymen, who were forced to stand among witnesses, which was not in the best interests of all concerned. Furthermore, there was uo place where hats and coats could bo deposited aud even in tho rooms where the juries met to consider cases there was not a peg on which to bang a hat. His Honour said he was

glad his attention iiad been drawn to the matter and he would pass on the jury’s complaint and recommendation for better facilities to tho head of the Justice Department.

Selling Not So Easy. “ It is not easy to sell goods with the former advocates of free spending now urging everyone to save; but the problem of replacing stocks sold is oven more difficult,” states an article in the July issue of the New Zealand Draper, Clothier and Boot Retailer. “No one knows exactly where he stands in the matter of supplies of goods, either from local or overseas sources.” Reserve funds overseas from the sale of exports had been disappearing rapidly, but not because the Dominion was importing too many everyday household requirements, for these formed only a small portion of the total imports, it continues. “In spite of this fact, the Government became panicky and rushed to stop almost all imports except their own requirements, and business has been thrown into the worst confusiou which has existed in our century as a British country. ”

Study of Maori With the object of teaching the structure and pronunciation of the Maori language, and ultimately giving proficiency in conversation as a means of better mutual understanding between pakelia and Maori, a course in Maori has been instituted at the Auckland Teachers’ Training College. Considerable enthusiasm for the course, which is being conducted by Mr P. Smyth, of the staff of tho St. Stephen’s College, Bombay, is being shown by students at tho college, fully ouc hundred of whom give up most of tho Saturday mornings to attend tho course voluntarily It is recognised that knowledge of Maori can bo of real and practical value to country teachers, whether they work in native or education board schools, as numbers of Maori children attend the latter. Tho lessons aro complementary to those already given at the college in Maori ethnology and to tho work of a study group, which is practising various native crafts.