News Of The Day

Northern Advocate, 27 September 1943, Page 2

News Of The Day

Schccl Basketball In the inter-school basketball competition, Hora Hora have won the junior grade, the bantam section being won by Whau Valley. * * * * Dominion Dav. Flags were flown on public buildings, today to mark the observance of Dominion Day. In seme schools the significance of the dav was dealt with by teachers, though there were not any special parades at Whangarei. u * * * Marsden Roll. The scrutinising of the Marsden roll is to commence this afternoon, and continuetqmcrrow. The official count will then be commenced, and this is expected to take about three days. Final figures should be available at the end of the week, when all postal and absentee votes will have been received.

Numerical Co-incidence When an elector asked the booth clerk at Kamo on Saturday what his number on the roll was, he was so surprised at the number told him that he asked the- clerk to j-epeat it. 'That is also my telephone number,” he stated.

* *•' * • First Echelon Anniversary Today is the fourth anniversary of the entry of the First Echelon of the Second N.Z.E.F. into training camp. It seems fully four years since those enthusiastic volunteers left their homes for training' preparatory to their departure to earn for themselves an undying name in the Middle East campaign, and today some of them are back with their relatives and friends, enjoying furlough after unforgettable experiences overseas.

Declining Birth Rate. Discussing the need for population in New Zealand and how it was to be met, Mr. H. I. Sinclair, in an address to the Dunedin Rotary Club, expressed the view that immigration was not the solution. Great Britain, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe, whose people would be desirable immigrants, would possibly require to retain all the people they had. The alternative was to fill our own cradles. The natural increase in population in New Zeaiand had declined from 27.21 per thousand in 1871-5 lo 9.16 in 19361940. An average family of three children was necessary under present conditions if the birth rate in New Zealand was not to be allowed to decline still further.

Religion In Schools “The anxiety of the teachers in regard to the moral training of the children reflects an anxiety which is being more and more widely felt,” both here and in England,” writes Archbishop West-Watson in the latest issue of the “Church News.” “The experience of the teachers,” continues the archbishop, “has convinced many of them that if definite religious teaching comes into the schools and some of them take a part in it careers may be prejudiced by preferential treatment in their selection. On the other hand, to teach morals apart from a basic faith that those morals are rooted in the basic constitution of men and women is to reduce them to matters of custom or convenience. We can make synthetic rubber without the use of the plant, but we cannot manufacture synthetic morals apart from faith.”

Taxation Compared High rates of taxation in Australia compared with those in Great Britain were referred to by Mr Arthur Whitworth, chairman of the Bank of Australasia, addressing the 109th annual general meeting in London. He described the new uniform income tax in the Commonwealth and remarked that taxation was on a very high scale, and was already more burdensome to those in receipt of substantial earned incomes than was taxation in Britain. There was little difference on an income of £2OOO, but an income of £3OOO had to pay £I6OO in taxation in Australia against £1462 in Britain, and an income of £IO,OOO had to pay £7874 in Australia against £6862 in Britain. On lower incomes the position was reversed. In Australia an earned income of £3OO has paid only £3l againist £66 in Brit ain, and an income of £SOO, £B4 against £156. New proposals no doubt had for their intention the checking of inflation which always arose wffien there was more money to spend on prime and general necessaries of life than there were goods to spend it on.

* * “Cooked” Soil.

A familiar sight at the present time in the tomato growing areas of Nelson are the columns of smoke which rise from the chimney stacks of the boilers which are working a ten-hour day supplying steam for the sterilisation of soil in the glasshouses in preparation for next season, states the “Evening Mail.'’ The principle of sterilisation is simple. It is the forcing of steam into the soil under pressure until the ground is “cooked” to a temperature of about 210 degrees. The process is repeated annually, and it has been found that soil in a glasshouse treated each year is still producing excellent crops after 16 years of planting. Formerly it was necessary-to replace the glasshouse soil at intervals with soil from outside. It can be safely said that glasshouse soil that has been sterilised will produce a 1 least double the crop of tomatoes compared with unsterilised soil. Experiments carried out by the Cawthron. Institute last season proved that if sterilising was missed for only one season there was a big difference in the size and quality of the crop. It was also found that seedlings grown in unsterilised soil, even though they were planted out in sterilised plots, showed poorer growth than those raised in sterilised soil.