GENERAL ITEMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 20 June 1941, Page 4

GENERAL ITEMS

Public Trust Office Estates ot a value of £536,552 were reported and accepted for administration by the Public Trustee during the month of May, 1941. The total value of the estates and funds under administration by the Public Trustee on the 31st March, 1941. was £64.436,092, and the new business for the two months ended 31st May was £938.677. Grants of administration made by the Court in favour of the Public Trustee numbered 189 for the mon r n. During the month 1022 new wills appointing the Public Trustee executor were prepared on behalf of testators and lodged for safe custody, and 403 existing wills were revised to provide for changes desired by testators. The total number of wills now held in the Public Trust Office on behalf of living persons is 106,285. Roads for Army. That a portion of the expenditure on roads improved for the use of the Army should be met from the War Expenses Account instead of the whole being a charge against Main Highways Council funds was a recommendation carried by the No. 8 District Highways Council at the annual meeting in Wanganui (reports the “Herald”). The discussion centred round the spending of £61,000 on the road from Taihape to Waiouru Camp. Mr W. Doole, chairman of the Rangitikei County Council, said the military authorities should have contributed to work done at their request. “I agree," he said, “that some improvement to the road was necessary, but not such elaborate improvements as are being made.” “A Mouldy Exhibition” That the Hun is not always as efficient as he is painted is suggested by an anecdote in a letter from the Dunedin soldier after the retirement j from Greece. “Jerry was trying to strafe a cargo boat just off shore from us one day,” it recounts, “and each time he had passed over us on his way to ‘do the dirty’ by the boat, we’d hop out of the washout in which we were sheltering and lay the odds on his chances of success. It was a mouldy exhibition of bombing. In fact, they tried for hours without doing any material damage; but each unsuccessful contestant used to return over us and machine-gun hell out of our possie.” “Loan as a Sop” “I believe that the loan was meant as a sop to certain other members of the community whom the Minister of Finance desired to please,” said Mr W. Machin in an address when criticising the Government’s compulsory loan. Mr Machin quoted the loan as an example of what he termed a tendency to expropriation by trades unionism and its Government. He said he did not object to the compulsion, but thought it an immoral act to say to a section of the community: “You put your money in and you won’t get your interest for three years.” Shortly afterwards others were being exhorted to save by putting their money into the bank, at a comfortable rate of interest. I' was on the Auckland-Whangarei train A man looking like a “commercial” was puffing a very foul briar Facing him. another passenger was smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper Happening to look up. he notic'd that blackened briar, and said : “Pardon me T am a doctor and must tell you that pipe of yours is unfit to smoke. It’s saturated with nicotine. If you’re woe you’ll scrap it.” "It’s a bit strong.” admitted its owner, with a grin "but I reckon that’s the fault of my tobacco ” "Quite likely.” smiled the doctor. "But why smoke such stuff? Why not do as I do and smoke our New Zealand tobacco? You see, it's toasted and all but free from nicotine therefore quite harmless And it’s good!” The Dipe-smoker thanked the doctor, and said he'd act on his advice. He’ll be wise if he cioes Our New Zealand brands. Riverhead Gold. Desert Gold, Navv Cut No 3 (Bulldog) Cavendish, and Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead). are famous for purity, flavour and aroma. Bui look out for imitations! There are several about!*

Tea Confiscated Over generosity wasted the good in-i tentions of an Aucklander who thought | he would assist an English friend by j sending him a parcel containing tea, j now rationed in Britain. A cablegram j received from London yesterday by the 1 sender of the tea stated: "Regret kind present tea confiscated because exceeds two pounds. Your post office ■ ought to have informed you before accepting dispatch.” Australian Hospitality "Australian hospitality is marvel- I lous," a Wanganui soldier says in a letter home from Sydney. “The Aus- i tralians one meets here are strangely unlike those we seem to meet in New Zealand. They won’t let us pay for a thing, more particularly in hotels and restaurants. They take us for drives in their cars, have us home to their places for meals, and escort us to pictures, parties and dances.” He mentions that j among those prominent in entertain- t ing New Zealanders is A. A. Mailey, 1 the Australian googly bowler in the 1 days before the rise of C. V. Grim- j mett, who is a sports writer and car- j , toonist on the Sydney “Daily Tele- j j graph.” He says he "had such good i , times” on cricket tours of New Zea-1 | land that he welcomes the chance j to return something to New : Zealandei's. A Snake and a Tank. Anecdotes recounted by a Dunedin : soldier in a letter written in hospital 1 after the withdrawal from Greece sugjgest that there are lighter movements * j even in the thick of battle. He tells, . I for example, of the experience of one j who was in a hurry to get away from I a Hun bomber which machine-gunned | their “possie” after bombing a cargo , ship lying off shore. “He dived for an inviting-looking hole a bit away from us,” the letter says, “and landed on a six-foot snake. He reappeared like a rabbit with a ferret after it. ‘Take cover that man,’ an officer yelled. ‘Cover be damned. I'm not a snake-charmer,’ yelled the lad as he landed in on top of us.” In the same strain was the escapade of a despatch rider. He had a message for the P.O. and tore up to a tank, propped his | motor bike up, and was right up | against the turret before he realised I that there was an outsize swastika , painted on the side. The letter conI eludes the story thus: "He rejoined us j himself, but he didn’t go back for his j bike.” Library Service for Troops. j Returns submitted at this week's meeting of the National Patriotic Fund Board showed that to date the war j library service has supplied 94,121 j books and 96,728 periodicals to train- ; ing camps. Air Force and fortress stations in the Dominion, naval units, i transports, and for use also by the New Zealand troops at the base camps overseas. The officer in charge of the country library service, Mr G. T. Alley, also supervises the activities of the war library service. His statement for May showed that during the month the war library service made available for the forces 3224 books and 5117 periodicals. I

Proposed New Title for N.Z.E.F. A proposal that the title of the Second N.Z.E.F. should be altered to; Third N.Z.E.F. was submitted to the Dominion executive committee of the Returned Soldier’s Association at its meeting held recently. It was pointed out that this question had been dealt with previously, and that, in choosing the title of Second N.Z.E.F. the Government had given due consideration to the dispatch of New Zealand contingents to South Africa in 1899-1902. The deciding factors had been that the troops sent to South Africa were titled “Contingents,” also that though Australia had already dispatched troops overseas on four previous occasions it had been decided that the Australian divisions in the present war be called the Second A.I.F. The proposed alteration was not approved.

Milk in Schools It has been found in an analysis of the distribution of milk among Otagc schools, that of 55 country schools that receive milk, in 14 of them all the pupils accept the milk (says the “Daily Times”). This is rather surprising because it is natural to expect thal country children would have the opportunity of consuming as much milk ar they desired outside the school. The Pine Hill School, within the city limits yet in much the same position so far as the children are concerned, has 9E per cent, of the children accepting milk. On the other hand, only 50 per cent of the Dunedin North Intermediate School pupils take the milk ration. Power From the Cobb Reporting to the Marlborough Power Board this week in connection with the supply of power to Marlborough from the Cobb scheme, the chairman (Mr H. J. Stace) said that Mr-Robinson, of the Public Works Department, had met the Picton Borough Council and discussed the question of supply in a general way. Mr Robinson had also discussed the position with the board's manager-en-gineer and himself. “The position is that in approximately 18 months’ time if thev can get the material to build the line, we will have, it is hoped, current available from the Cobb scheme. There is a possibility that some of the material may be hard to get. and there is also a possibility that it may not be got for some time, but we hope those difficulties will be overc.me,” added Mr Stace In the meantime the manager-engineer i had been asked to make further investigations and report to the department Mr Robinson had said he was not in a position to go into details until more information as to the likelihood of the load in the district, and in regard to the drawing up of some agreement with Picton, was available. At present there was nothing definite. The manager-en-gineer was authorised to secure all the information desired bv the department