LOCAL AND GENERAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 15 February 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Anchor Company’s ferrv steamer Matangi experienced a somewhat rough crossing of the Strait during the night, wind and sea delaying the vessel’s arrival at Nelson till 8 o’clock this morning. The Arahura had a better trip in crossing to Wellington, arriving, at 5.25 a.m.. which is about the usual time of arrival.

One morning last week Miss Nancy Webber of the French Pass performed a notable feat in swimming across the tieaclierous waters of the Pass, from the mainland to D’Urville Island in tlie time of 17 minutes. The distance across the myrow stretch is not so great, but strong currents arc experienced there, and such a feat could only be attempted in the few minutes at the turn of the tide. As it was Miss Webber was beginning to bo carried by the current at the end of her swim.

Last week-end the Bishop of Nelson (Dr. Sadlier) and the Rev. Donald Haultain, vicar of All Saints, visited the French Pass. The Bishop, who had not visited (lie Pass for a number of years, conducted a service on Sunday afternoon. The Rev. Mr Ilaultain was on his quarterly visit to the district which is worked, from All Saints parish.

Showroom bargains at McKay’s sale ! Ladies’ silk and wool jumpers, sleeveless and short sleeves, formerly 9/11 to 29/6. now 5/11 to 19/6.*

Regret that opportunity for providing for the establishment- of a Court of Criminal Appeal was not taken by the Government when introducing the Judicature Amendment Bill recently, is expressed in the “New Zealand Lav Journal.” The views of prominent Wellington barristers in support of sue; a legislative provision are quoted In the journal. It is stated that there probably would have been no dissentient voice had the question been raised of conferring on judges of the Supreme Court a jurisdiction similar to that exercised in relation to criminal appeals by the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England', and by several of the Empire judiciaries.

The swearing-in last week by the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, of Mr W. B. Rainey, of Wellington, as a notary public, directs attention to the fact that behind such an appointment there is a wealth of old ecclesiastical and legal customs. The appointment is made under the seal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, through the Master of Faculties in England, who issues a notarial faculty, or authority, to practise. A jtext-liook on the subject states that there is good reason to believe that the office of a notary public has its origin in the civil institutions of ancient Rome. In England notaries were originally officers of the civil and common law and acted by Imperial and papal authority. Of their first introduction into England there is no authentic record. “The functions of an English notary are not defined by any statutory provision or rule,” states a treatise on the office and practice of a notary, “but generally speaking, a notary public may be described as an officer of the law appointed by the Court of Faculties, whose duty it is to attest deeds, contracts, and other instruments that are to be used abroad and to give a certificate of the due execution of such documents, which certificate, if duly authenticated by his signature and official seal, is accepted in ajll countries where notarial acts are recognised as proof of the acts done in his presence and attested by him.” To-night at Trafalgar Park the Regimental Band will give its final performance before leaving for the contest. Both the band and 2ZR require many more sixpences to achieve their objective. It is confidently anticipated that given a record attendance this evening, by Saturday the 18th instant the 10,000 sixpences will have been obtained. The Model Aeroplane Club will make free flights during the evening. Boys are well provided for with a tyro race and adults are assured of an excellent evening’s programme combined with the prospect of finding the treasure —a return trip to Christchurch by Newman’s limousines. Several side shows and a sweet stall will add to the evening’s attractions. The band will be accompanied to the Park by the Nelson Silver Band and the Nelson Pipe Band. With reference to a paragraph dealing with German owls, which was published recently, and which stated that Captain E. V. Sanderson, of the New .Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, had reported that the Otago and Southland Acclimatisation Societies had refused to co-operate with other societies in the payment of a bounty on the heads of German owls, the secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society states that at present the society is making inquiries about these birds as to the damage they are doing, and whether they should or should not be exterminated. Letters have been sent to all branches of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union in the Otago district, and the society is waiting for the replies to come in from these bodies. Of the seven replies re. ceived to date, five are in favour of the bird being left alone. |

Seventy-three unemploved single men are now in camp near the Glen Wye station, on the Lewis Pass route (states the “Grey Star”). The aecommoda tion of this camp is becoming taxed, and if more men are offering another camp will be established further up the valley. The present camp has a good garden of about three and a-half acres attached to it, and men are detailed each day to attend to it. All work being done on the formation of the road is on the southern side of the Hope River. The engineering survey of the road is approaching completion. A survey party of four has been engaged on the work for some considerable time, and the party is now in the vicinity of the Lewis Saddle.

An order-in-council has been gazetted consenting to the New Plymouth Borough Council’s raising £553,000 on the instalment repayment system. The money is to be used to repay loans maturing on Ist April. The rate of interest is to be not more than 5£ per cent, arid the loan is to be repaid in 26 veais by equal half-yearly instalments calculated at a rale of not more than £3 Js per cent, on the amount of the loan. It is stipulated that the council shall not contract to pay any instalment outside New Zealand, or to pay brokerage at more than one-half per cent, on any sum borrowed. \

In the House of Representatives yesterday Mr H. E. Holland gave notice to ask the Minister of Mines whether in view of the fact that the British Navy was entering into contracts for the supply of oil which was procured from coal by low temperature carbonisation, and that smokeless fuel and various byproducts were being obtained in England by the same process, he would take steps to secure the establishment on a permanent basis of low temperature carbonisation works in the principal lmnjnrr centres of both North and Soutn islands, states “The Mail’s” Parliamentary reporter. “It is stated that the British low temperature carbonisation process produces from every ton of coal about threequarters of a ton of semicoke, about 5000 cubic feet of gas, and 18 gallons of tar, which is converted said Mr Holland. “The cheapest kind of coal is used in the process and there is a big demand for its byproducts. ’ ’ Asked by a “Grey River Argus” reporter whether he had noticed any appreciable improvement in the timbei trade since the rise in the exchange rate a prominent sawmiller stated that as far as he could see there had yet been no improvement in the trade, and the fact that two boats were to load over a million feet for Australia towards the end ol the month could not be construed as an improvement. His opinion of the matter was that the Government was causing such an unheaval with exchange rates, sales taxes etc., that Hie merchants were afraid to place orders, in case they got let in in some direction.

They were swapping “mean man” stories aboard the Rotorua express the other day. Presently the man in the corner said: "I was travelling from Lyttelton to Wellington a while ago In the smoke-room after dinner a well-dressed stranger asked me for a ‘Till ” I handed him my brand new pouch. Later, feeling inclined for a whiff myself, I ventured to remind this chap that he had not returned my pouch. He had the nerve to tell me he had given it back ‘long ago.’ A barefaced lie, of course. But I couldn t prove it. The pouch was full of New Zealand toasted tobacco. I smoke nothing else. I'here’s no tobacco like Cut Plug No. 10. And as I couldn’t get any cn the boat, I had perforce to wait for my next smoke til) I got ashore. Doesnt’ always pay to be too obliging, does it?” The tobacco mentioned by this passenger is one of the four famous toasted brands, the other three being Riverhead Gold, Cavendish, and Navy Cut No. 3*

The increase in the petrol tax, dearer oil, tyres, and replacement parts have added quite substantially to the cost of maintaining passenger motor services, an official of one of tho main transport companies remarked to a “Post” reporter, but at present the companies are unable to pass the additional charges on to the public, as is done in most other businesses, as they cannot bepart from the conditions laid down by the Transport Licensing Authority. He could not say what was the general opinion among operators of passenger service cars, but there would be no desire to increase fares if it could be avoided. Applications for renewals of licenses and for new licenses had to be lodged yesterday and would be considered in about a fortnight's time, and probably those opeia tors who wished to amend their fares would set out the new position in making their applications. There could not, at any rate, be any change in fares till the applications were considered by the licensing authority. On Monday Mr D. McPherson, who carries on a Nelson-Westport freight service, had a lucky escape from being carried down into the Bulier river when his new truck left the road at the Newton end of the Bulier Gorge near where the earthquake uplift is shown on the load. The truck left the road and came to a stop just off it in thick blackberries with the front of the heavy vehicle pointing down a sleep slope to the river. Ic is understood the soft nature ol the side of the road was the cause of the vehicle running towards the bank.

The largest sum remitted to London by any local body in New Zealand immediately before the 25 per cent, exchange rate came into operation was sent by the Wellington City Council (states the “Dominion”). The amount was £BI,OOO, and this effected a saving to the city of approximately £II,OOO. As the old rate was 10 per cent.., the additional 15 per cent, on the basis of £llO really amounted to a saving of 131? per cent. Similar action was taken by Auckland and Invercargill, but the sums were not nearly so large. When the exchange first went up ten per cent., considerable sums were remitted to London by the Wellington City Corporation in anticipation, and large savings were effected, but not on the same scale as when the 15 per cent, increase was anticipated. The money is required in London to meet interest and sinking fund charges, and the moneys were remitted by the banks on behalf of the City Council as soon as they became available.

“I think it may be said that the greatest educational advance of the twentieth century has been the discovery of the child,” said Mr N. T. Lambourne,. Chief Inspector of PrimarySchools, in ail address, rin Wellington on primary schools reorganisation. “For hundreds of years nreviously the child had been regarded by its parents and its teachers as a little man or a little woman, and was in some respects treated accordingly. This was especially so in regard to his education, although some very enlightened educationists, Froebel and Pestalozzi, for example, disagreed with this opinion, and established schools in which little boys and girls were taught as children, not as pocket-size adults.”

Patrons are reminded of the country dance to be held at Riwaka next Friday evening under the auspices of the Riwaka Croquet Club. Popular competiI ions, good music and home made supper will be the order of the evening.

A Central Otago orchardist has forwarded a recipe for an earwig poison which, he informs the “Otago Daily Times,” is being used with so much success in the orchards where regular dressings are applied that the pest has been almost exterminated. The recipe is:’ Sodium fluoride '2oz, treacle soz, glycerine 2oz, hot water one pint, bran (wheaten) 21b. The directions for making the poison are: Put the fluoride of sodium in the hot water in a tin or porcelain-lined vessel and stir with a wooden stick until dissolved. Then add tlie treacle and glycerine and stir until they are thoroughly mixed with the other ingredient. Put the bran in a clean petrol tin and sprinkle the above solution over it gradually, stirring it well with a wooden paddle so that the brail becomes saturated with the liquid Let it stand, covered with brown paper, and after sundown put about a tablespoonful on the ground round the truiirc of each tree and do the same in any place where the earwigs are plentiful under a piece of board or a bit of old packing, as earwigs like to congregate in, dark places. If the process is repeated for two or three weeks the earwig population will be found to be very much reduced. The poison is useful foi preventing the pest from riddling the leaves of cabbages when they are planted out in the spring, and it may be advantageously tried round clumps of Iceland poppies and hollyhocks, to which flower plants earwigs are very partial. If hedgehogs are in the o-arden the poison will not do them any harm. Sodium fluoride should be easily obtainable from the local seedsmen, and is not very expensive.

“In visiting Australia and New Zealand cities and towns, I have been struck by the remarkable degree of advancement obtained in the comparatively short period of settlement in the two Dominions,” remarked Mr David Geddie, of London, discussing with a “Poverty Bay Herald” reporter bis impressions gained on the early stages of a world tour. Mr Geddie is assistant manager of the Bank of New South Wales, and naturally is interested in the countries where the capital of that, institution is largely invested. This is the first occasion on which he lias toured in either Australia or New Zealand, however, and his experiences have been in the nature of a revelation. While the cities and towns have impressed him with their modernity, on the one hand, lie has noted that the areas of uncultivated lands in both Dominions are very great, more particularly, of course, in Australia. “One has to see and travel in the commonwealth to realise How small a proportion of the available primary resources have been exploited, and what remains to be developed,” said Mr Geddie, discussing this aspect. “Ifm great part, of the country is me my scratched, and yet its productivity is amazing.”

Clearance bargains in ready to wear bats at McKay’s sale, formerly 10/6 to 25/-, clearing at 2/6.* Floral Rayon Frocks, sleeveless and short sleeves, formerly 14/6, now <.7/6 at McKay’s Sensational Sale.*