GENERAL ITEMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 5 August 1941, Page 4

GENERAL ITEMS

Nelson College's War Record “Another old boy. Acting-Squadron Leader lan Richmond, has been awarcl--1 ed the D.F.C.,” said the Principal of ' Nelson College, Mr H. V. Scarle, in his j monthly report to the Council of Govi ernors. “This brings the number of ' old boy decorations to nine—six D.F.C.’s* one D. 5.0.. one Croix de Guerre, and one Air Force Cross. We J already have the names of 600 old boys | on active service, but the list is by no means complete.” Cheese Factory’s Record. The Cape Egmont Dairy Company, by increasing its output of cheese to 1324 j tons last season, lias established, it is {thought, a record not only for Taranaki | but also for New Zealand, for the i output of a factory under one roof. Whaling Record. The tally for the Perano whaling ! party for the first two months ol the present season is 67, no fewer j than 47 being accounted for in July. ; constituting a record or any one inonth (states the "Express" >. The , weather up to the past week lias been {altogether favourable, and the whaler: have experienced a particularly busy time. | Shortage of Wrapping Paper. The managers of the Dunedin dairj ! factories announced last week tha' Lowing to the shortage and high cost o; . wrapping paper, the packing of buttei 1 into Jib blocks is to cease immedi lately (states the “Otago Daily Times”) This measure has been in operation ii ; i the North Island for some considerable time, Dunedin being the last town U [ make the change. i A Matter of Degree. , | That the mind of the Sierra Leon; ‘•native is not so dark as his skin wo ' i illustrated by an incident when ; i | troopship carrying New Zealander j! called there. Leaning over the rail j ,; Maori soldier, watching a native divin; 1 from his sampan for pennies, act dressed him affably in the word ?; ‘Hullo, darkie!” His discomfiture a { the prompt retort. “Yo’s not so whifi yo’self!” greatly amused his comrades - Whitebait Season 3 The whitebait fishing season officially | opened throughout the West Coast oi ” i Saturday. Many fishermen took tq e ■ positions on the banks of the rivers :1! tut it is not expected that any substan- . j tial catches will be made for at leas some weeks. There has been an absence of severe floods during the win c ter, and it is considered by many ex - i perienced fishermen that this will hav< v Lad a beneficial effect on the spawning j and will have ensured a good season j Because of the restrictions on the im '■ ports of canned fish it is expected tha o | there will be a strong demand fo oi whitebait this year and the eannin. 0 factory at Okuru has already beei made ready for an early start. Ai .increase of almost 100 per cent, ha ' taken place in the price of whitebai r. netting, in common with other cottoi . goods, and only limited quantities ar . i available. cl l [t Bushman Scored ' Amongst the New Zealand woundei ■ captured by the Germans at the hos '* ;pital near Malemi. in Crete, and sub e sequent!y rescued by their comrade: is there was an irrepressible bushma: 3 from the King Country, who score' ■ rather neatly in an exchange of com f i pliments with a Nazi officer. The in lv cident is described in a letter horn c tiom another of the wounded mer V/hen the Nazi officer appeared, th | bush-whacker promptly started to giv I him “cheek.” quite regardless of hi n cwn helplessness, on what might b t- the Nazi's revenge. The German tol )e him to hold his tongue, and called hit a "sehweinhund.” “That’s Hun for pig i dog, isn’t it. Adolf.'” asked the bush * e I whacker. "Well, you’d appreciate th is compliment if you’d ever seen one < Ir our King Country pig-dogs bailing u , lt £ .n old Captain Cooker of a boar, te ' j times his own weight. That’s win 5 ~ we've been doing to you here in Cref to i. Sll 't it, Adolf?” The Nazi officer mu gr {have been, as the writer suggests, “n< ! such a really bad sort.” for he mere] . I told the stout bushman to “shut up ai Z 1 not try to be funny, or it would be tl of' worse for him”—or something to th; ■jo 'liecl in mixed German and English.

shortage of Typewriters Managers <>f Sydney typewriter com siiactions slocks of Canadian and American portable typewriters are almost i exhausted. They also say it is very j difficult to meet the demand for stan card machines. On the other hand, the manager of a company distributing English typewriters said more English typewriters were reaching Australia than ever before. Because of Commonwealth and State Government needs, his firm was unable to meet all the orders from private business; houses. It. was staled that. Defence de- j partments had bought nearly 3000 se-cond-hand typewriters. Another mana- | gcr said that the shortage of adding, calculating and accounting machines was even greater than that of typewriters. Business houses could not hire enough to meet their needs. I,airo ray-out Approximately £'2,000,000 was paid j out by dairy companies in the Waikato to suppliers on Thursday. Of this amount .C 1.422,243 was paid out by the , New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company. Ltd., to suppliers to the company's butter, cheese, milk powder, i and evaporated milk factories. The , payments represented surpluses on the 1940-41 season's operations. Measles Outbreak in Takaka Takaka is experiencing an outbreak of measles. Although the measles arc in a mild form, many people especially young folk in their ’teens, have fallen victims fo the epidemic. So far, school attendance lias not been affected to any extent, though a few children are among those suffering from the complaint. Giving Them Ideas. The proposition that it is not advisable to warn children not to commit acts of mischief which they would probably otherwise never think of committing was advanced by Mr A. Sharp at a meeting of the Invercargill Five Board (reports the “Southland Times' ). The acts in question were malicious false alarms of fire. The board had written to the Southland Education Board on the subject, and a reply from the Education Board read at the meeting stated that it would be pleased to forward copies of the Fire Board's circular to headmasters of town schools with a request that they I speak to pupils on the subject. The superintendent of the brigade (Mr F. [Simpson) said it was suspected that a ! recent false alarm had been given by a [schoolboy. Mr Sharp said that the | board had acted in good faith but he ; now doubted the wisdom of its action. A Friend of the Farmer ! A friend of the farmer is the yellow ! hammer, an introduced bird, which may 1 be seen in various parts of the Dominion, j including some of the cities and towns. An article in “Forest and Bird” monitions that the male yellow hammer is a ! handsome bird, golden yellow with beautiful brown and russet tracings and ! pencil lines on head, neck and shoulders. With each moult and year of I life he seems to get brighter in colour with the russet markings more defined. In food he is not particular, eating insects and their larvae, worms, cater:ls of all kinds and he is often blamed, quite unjustly, , for doing harm to grain crops because of the company he keeps in the winter months. He is a late breeder and sel | dom visits cultivated land except ir I mid-winter, when there are few crops ihe could interfere with. Yellow hammers are most generally found in rough gorse-covered uncultivated country. Ir the winter months, however, they art j gregarious and in company with spar- ; rows, finches, and others, come intc i settled districts. In New Zealand the> iare frequently seen in suburban streets ! especially in the early mornings. Mosl of the year they live among the gorse ; with which their yellow and russet colouring blends completely.