GENERAL ITEMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 13 September 1941, Page 4

GENERAL ITEMS

Daffodil Day Realises £BS 5/j The city was gay with flowers yesI terday when the Nelson Horticultural Society held daffodil day in aid of ' patriotic funds. The funds will benefit ; by the gross takings, £BS ss. The ! Horticultural Society expresses thanks i tc all friends who assisted. : No Permit for Paint Factory. The decision to prohibit the proposed erection of a paint manufacturing con-: cern near the station at Tawa Flat, as | it was considered undesirable for the , district, was made at a meeting yester- | day of the Makara County Council. It was reported that plans had been sub- j mitted, but that no application had yeti been made for a building permit. Flans for Industries Provisional plans for the soap-manu- J facturing and radio-manufacturing in- ! ciustries under the Industrial Efficiency ; Act are contained in the “Gazette.” j Quadruplets Start School Now well established in their new home, the, Johnston quadruplets started school at Timaru for the first time this week. The children, who are now seven years of age, are Kathleen. Mary. Bruce ■ and Vera. An elder sister will also at- : tend the school. Their father, Mr George Johnston, has begun work at 1 : the gasworks at Timaru. The arrival of 1 the family from Dunedin was delayed : ! until a suitable house could be obtain- : ed. • Licensing 1 of Sideshowmen l That the Canterbury Agricultural , and Pastoral Association was the only r major association that had not made by-laws dealing with the licensing of J sideshowmen was mentioned by the » president of the Royal Agricultural r Society of New Zealand (Mr L. J. Wild) when he discussed the question with 1 the committee of the association (re- } ports “The Press"). Mr Wild reviewr ed the history of the by-laws and the j objections raised to them by the New Zealand Showmen’s Association and f ! said the association was in too strong a - j defensive position as long as Canteri j bury refused to come in. 3 Concession Withdrawn s A former decision aof the Rotorua 1 Borough Council that employees on B territorial service should be paid the difference between army pay and their 7 normal wages was rescinded on the t motion of Mr T. A. Kusabs. who 2 -dated that the time for this concession had passed. In the first place it had 1 been designed to give an impetus to recruiting, but since men were now balloted for service there was no need s for monetary assistance. One council j employee, having been away for some “ j time on territorial service, had come i! back and drawn over £SO in back pay t j and then announced that lie had another v \ job, said Mr Kusabs. It was to prey vent a recurrence of this that the - ! council would be well advised to re:l j sclnd the motion.

A Film oil Resuscitation The possibility of having a film on resuscitation made with the help of the Department of Internal Affairs was ' j discussed at a meeting of the New Zen j i land Council of the Royal Life Snv ! ing Society. A letter from the Wei- ! I I ngton branch urging that the council I i consider this proposal stated that a; j harmful film of American origin deal-j j ing with resuscitation was being widely |G used by the Home Guard, the St. John p Ambulance Brigade, and Emergency S Precautions ami Voluntary Aid jti groups, and was wrong in every detail. | f< Members suggested that a film of this b type made under proper guidance si would be invaluable to such orgnnisa- - lions throughout the Dominion. It was [a agreed to approach the Government for U 1 assistance through the National Com - mittee of Swimming and Life Saving. ! d Waste Paper Collection v The collection of waste paper in !p Auckland has advanced to the stage p when the depots are handling 140 tons li monthly. About 75 per cent, is going to i: paper mills in the Dominion and the v balance to Australia. Patriotic funds ; benefit to the extent of 23s for every fc j ton of paper collected. c ! Fruit in Marlborough 1 ‘ ( . 1 Although it is yet early in the season, 7 indications in Marlborough orchards ij I are that a splendid crop of both pip L and stone fruits can be expected (states! the “Express”). Buds are plentiful and L I well-formed, and trouble is so far eon - j ! lined to powdery mildew and red I spider. The orchard instructor, Mr j D. J. Hogg, stated that the position t in respect of stone fruit was particular- j ly promising. Many crops had suffer cd !f extensively last year from damage in- 1% flicted on the buds by birds, and as i ] a result the production of some areas 1 was almost destroyed. This season, j however, the trees were showing the; benefit of this unexpected spell from i bearing, and if attacks by birds were j I not renewed there should be an excelI lent fruit harvest. He added that the | output of pip fruit was expected to i equal last year’s, which had been about i 10.000 cases over the estimate. ! I Willow for Baskets i A request for the setting aside of 30 * to 50 acres for the growing of osier ■ ! willow for basket making was received 1 !at a meeting of the Waimakariri River 1 Trust from the Disabled Soldiers’ Civil 1 Re-Establishment League (reports “The 1 Press”). The league said that an assured supply of willow for basket-mak- « ing was essential, and asked for sym- 1 pathetic consideration of its request. 1 The chairman of the trust (Mr F. W. 1 Freeman) said that the request deserv-j • ec. and would receive the trust’s sym- ; 1 pathetic consideration, but osier wil- j 1 lows must certainly not be planted in the riverbed, because of the rapidity j < with which it would spread and the j • danger it would create. The trust de- I 1 tided to obtain a report from the en- 1 gineer (Mr H W. Harris) on the sub- ‘ feet. 1 1 A Shaving Brush Problem 1 The difficulties facing importers un- 1 der present conditions are illustrated in an instance given by a Dunedin im- 1 porter, which, though it has its amusing side, is nevertheless typical of the : problems he is constantly being called > • upon to face. A London export house wrote to his firm, advising that it j had been informed that New Zealand had to import shaving brushes because j ci a shortage of bristles in the country. The importer approached the Customs j Department on the matter of obtain-;; ing a license to import shaving brushes, i but was informed that licenses for |, these articles for 1942 would be based j cn the 1941 importations. He was fur- | ther informed that in 1941, shaving j brushes had been a prohibited import i fiom all countries, including Great j Britain! Attacks by Termites As the result of inspections of properties in the Epsom and Point Chevalier districts by inspectors under the Termites Act, the presence of the Aus - tralian termite in five residential properties and five street poles has beep, detected, according to a report present- : ed by the Auckland city engineer, Mr j J. Tyler, at a meeting of the City I Council on Thursday (reports the' “Herald.” It was stated that native j termites had been reported in 70 pro- ; perties, 46 colonies being found in the j foundations of buildings and the remainder in fences and trees. Treatment i by poison dust in cases of attack by the 1 Australian termite was being continued j by the State Advances Corporation, and | appeared to be giving satisfactory re- . suits, but the effect of warmer weather > on the insects was awaited. On the total l of the buildings inspected to date, the j infestation was 5.75 per cent. A Beehive “Bomb” In an interview at Auckland Major- ; General E. Puttick. D. 5.0.. the new I Chief of the General Staff, who was 1 formerly second "in command of the New Zealand Division overseas and ! leader of the heroic rearguard coverl ing the evacuation from Greece, told , .i a story which illustrates that even | 5 modern warfare is not without its ,: humorous aspects. It is a story of 1 ' war as Walt Disney or some equally; t i talented cartoonist might picture it.’ [t shows, however, that individual in- [! genu it y can meet circumstances as j they arise. A village in Crete is the j locale of the incident and the principal I characters a group of Cretan soldiers, j a Cretan boy and a party of German - I invaders who had taken up a strategic • j position in a house from which they ! could not be dislodged easily. One of : 1 the Cretans had a bright idea. A boy was instructed and equipped, brought i • up to an uncovered part of the house j i | and assisted to the roof. He made his ■> j way silently to the chimney and | i j dropped down it—a beehive! It proved ‘ | a most effective “bomb.” and the Ger- - j mans evacuated the position. r ! j £ i Linen Flax Crop ’ £ Considerable difficulty has been met 1 1 ; with this year in securing the full ! ' i acreage required in Marlborough for , i the growing of linen flax, and at the moment the situation is sufficiently 1 ! serious to make it doubtful if the facv ! tory proposed to be built in Seddon e v/ill be proceeded with. A total of ,f | 2200 acres is required in the Blenheim 3 and Seddbn districts, and to date the il (contracts agreed upon leave a discrep- > i ancy of 1200 acres. 700 acres in the h ! Blenheim area out of 1200 required. - j and 500 acres in Seddon out of 1100 re--iquired. An appeal for farmers to ejgrow the crop in sufficient numbers to v : meet the requirements was made by d Mr E. P. Meachen. M.P., speaking by a ! telephone to the “Express” from Wel- - i lington. He proposed, he said, to call ! the attention of the Minister to the position by means of a question in the House of Representatives, but in the a meantime he wanted the farmers of n the district to know the actual figures, L quoted above. There was no need, he r felt, to emphasise the urgent need for the crop, the value of which, in war time, was well known. In the interests [j cf the district itself, too. there was a 0 : need for increased acreage to that now ! offering. If. for instance, only 500 acres , (1 ! cut of the 1100 required at Seddon jl j could be sown there would be no justi1P : ficalion for erecting the proposed new ,e j factory, and its loss w.uld be a serv ] ious one for the province. It seemed m ! clear, said Mr Meachen. that the far- >- i mers in Marlborough did not realise ie ; the position but he was sure that once i they did there would be an immediate j increase in the acreage offering.