General News

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 7 August 1945, Page 4

General News

National Savings Last week 257 towns attained their quotas of National Savings. All the principal centres were again successful and in each of the 19 postal districts the full district objective was reached. In the Greymouth, CJamaru, Wanganui and Westport postal districts all places obtained their individual quotas for the week. The number of towns attaining their full annual quotas is steadily increasing, 23 places having already been successful. “Lancashire Maori”

At least 1000 people greeted Grade Fields at a morning tea reception given her by the Government at Parliament buildings on Saturday. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) and Miss Fields spent half an hour at the door of the reception room receiving guests, and she later took part in a Maori action song with the Ngati-Po-neke party, wearing a piu piu and feathered band round her head The formal welcomes by Mr Fraser and others were brief and to the point. Miss Fields said the gathering was one she would never forget. She said she was going to try to learn some Maori songs, but said her versions would be peculiar Maori —very Lancashire Maori. Kindly German Officer

Not all Germans were brutal, and at least one officer whom he met went out of his way to be kind, said Sergeant C. Mutch, of Auckland, who returned in a prisoner of war draft. After he had been captured a second time, he said, he was sent from Greece with a captured American air gunner, to a prison camp in Germany. The trip was to be made with a party of Italian soldiers in cattle trucks and the two prisoners had only singlets, trousers and thin jackets. As they were boarding the train a Cerman officer halted them and told them they would not be able to survive the cold. He then personally took them in his car to the Red Cross depot at Salonika, where he secured lor each man a heavy uniform, an overcoat and a parcel of comforts.

College Drive for UNRRA Clothing A driv:i to collect clothing for JNRRA was organised at Nelson Girls’ College, reported the principal ( Migs J. Stewart) at last evening’s meeting of the College Council of Governors. Fourteen cartons of assorted winter garments, most of them in excellent raoair, were collected, classified, listed and packed at the school, after minor repairs had been done by the dressmaking classes. In addition to this very satisfactory combined effort, each class had set itself to do something more, The girls were knitting children’s underwear and making quilts in the hope that substantial parcel would be ready to .-end away before the end of the term Worthy of special mention was the effort of the Sixth Form girls, who in little more than a week earned sufficient money to buy £5 worth of Vppj. which was now being knitted into various useful garments.

C. W. Lipscombe, auctioneer, advertises extended list of articles to be sold by public auction at the Mart, to-mor-row, commencing at 1.30 p.m., not 1.45 as previously advertised*

Men Herd Recorders Of the 72 herd recorders who have just completed their training course at Massey Agricultural College about 30 were young men. a contrast to the position during the previous five years of war, when enrolments for the course were exclusively by women. This year's trainees bring the total trained at the college since the inception of the New Zealand Dairy Board's scheme in 1928 to 852. Nelson Co’lege Old Boys Decorated The principal of Nelson College < Mr H. V. Sear.e) in his report to the Council of Governors last evening congratulated a number of old boys of the college who had recently been decorated. They were: Acting-Captain B. H. Ave,ing, M.B E.; Sgt. A. R. Burge. 8.E.M.; Major I. H. Fletcher, M.C.; F/O. B. W Woodman. D.F.C.; F'O. J. O’Connor, D.F.C.: and F/O. S. Lewis, D.F.C. Rare Fish Caught in Cool* Strait A curious fish caught on a ’Cook Strait groper fishing ground by the crew of a launch owned by Mr F. Delabarca, Eastbourne, has been identified by Mr W. J. Phillips, icthyologist of the Dominion Museum, as belonging to a species unknown till a specimen was caught in Cook Strait about 1927. At that tihe Mr Phillips gave the fish the name typhlonarke tarakea. The one caught recently is only the second specimen to be taken in Cook Strait, but in the meantime the fish has been taken by fishermen off Otago Heads. Like many other fishes caught in New Zealand waters, it belongs exclusively to New Zealand. The most interesting features of the fish are that it can give an electric shirk and that it is adapted for life on the bottom of the sea.

Arbor Day at Colleges Arbor Day was observed at Nelson College this year by the planting of 300 native shrubs in the school grounds. The principal. Mr H. V. Searle. in his report to the College Council of Governors. expressed the indebtedness of the college to Miss R. Richardson for allowing seedlings, to be gathered on !>er property. Arbor Day planting had been postponed for a week at the Girls' College, stated the principal, Miss J. Stewart, but it was intended to plant climbing roses on the Trafalgarstreet fence of the school, boundary. F*t Stock Prices Its intention to press for higher prices for the fat-stock schedules for the 1945-46 season to compensate for increases in farm costs not covered by present prices, is announced by the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board in its report for the year ended June 30. “It will be appreciated,” states the board, "that the increased weights in sheep and lambs which have resulted from the price adjustment secured by the board this season, aided by favourable climatic conditions, have tended to retard the schedule increases as compared with a season where lighter weights have been the rule. In other words, a greater carouse weight calls for a relatively higher wool pull before a ease can be made to increase the schedules. For example, on the basis of a schedule price of 91 d per lb, for North Island prime Down 2’s, a lid lb increase in the average weight would require an extra wool pulling of .181 b (or approximately 3d in net value). Compare this with a schedule rise of l-8d per lb on a 341 b lamb, which would represent 4fd a carcase.”