LOCAL AND GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23868, 20 January 1941, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Post Office Conditions A report that members of the staff had fainted owing to the heat caused by tho huge glass dome in the new Hamilton post office was denied by the i chief postmaster, Mr. C. Clark. During j tho hot weather conditions were certainly trying, Mr. Clark added, but | that was not the experience of the post | office alone. Anniversary Day Holiday Because certain public holidays are i frequently observed not on the anni- | vetsary they intended to commemorj ate, but for the sake of convenience on ' tiie nearest Monday, there is still a lot of public confusion concerning the observance of the Anniversary Day holiday this year. The holiday will be observed not on a Monday, but on Wednesday, January 29. Boys Rescued at Milford When they were attempting to paddle their canoe up the creek at Milford, via Castor Bay Point, two small hoys overturned into tho water. In attempting to save the. canoe, they were carried out by a strong ebb tide and got into difficulties. Their plight was observed by three members of the Milford Girls' Surf Club, who went to their assistance and brought them to the shore. Work in Wool Stores The fact that at least 46 secondary school pupils have secured employment in Port Ahuriri (Napier) wool stores during the holidays .may account in some measure for the failure of tho proposals designed to make use of high school boys on the land to assist iarmors where there is a scarcity oi labour due to the war. The casual work is provided by six mercantile firms, and the main requirements oi the boys are assisting the classers and binning the wool. Fire at Southdown A room used for drying the clothes of the men at the Southdown freezing works was damaged by fire at about 9.30 p.m. on Saturday. The room was fitted with steam pipes, and at the time some of the men s clothing was drying. These garments were destroyed and the room damaged, but the fire did not spread. Three machines, one each front Croat South Iload, Onehunga and Mount Wellington, attended the outbreak and extinguished it without difficulty. First Battalion Parades The fourth monthly parade of the First Battalion, Auckland Begiment. since its three months' consolidated training, was hold at Carlaw Park yesterday. Owing to the hot weather the territorials drilled most of the afternoon without their tunics, as they have not been issued with summer uniforms. The battalion will hold a week-end camp on the Avondale Racecourse on February 1 and 2, when it is expected that they will train for the first time with their reinforcements. Stockingless Legs Silk stockings are losing favour in many Government and commercial offices in Wellington. Bare legs are now quite a common sight in the city during the working week, and, either through the application of the sun's rays or a special dye now obtainable, in many instances it is only by close observation that the absence of stockings is noticeable. "It was once the rage to go without stockings in tho summer because we thought bare legs fashionable," said an office girl. "Now some of us cannot afford to buy silk stockings." Visitors to Papakura There were many visitors to Papakura camp yesterday afternoon, when it was open for inspection for the first time since the Fifth .Reinforcements were mobilised. About 600 people travelled by a special train from Auckland, buithe road traffic was considered light and no difficulty was experienced in handling it. The weather remained fine, and great interest was taken in the changing of the guard, which was carried out with the assistance of the camp band. A number of the troops received week-end leave tor the first time since entering camp. London Under Fire "Everyone seems to be going about their business in a normal way," writes Lieutenant K. S. Harrowell concerning London early in November, "and tho old city certainly isn't showing any signs of cracking under the strain yet. 'Business as usual' is tho slogan, and it is being put into practice in a grand way. One example I saw was a shop selling A.R.P. requisites with a window blown in and a large notice displayed. 'Never mind this blasted window. Come in and buy your stirrup pump.' I'd bo willing to bet that Berlin is not nearly so cheerful these days." Maori High Schools Based on the need for education more of a practical than an academic nature, an experiment is to bo made in the east coast district this year by the Education Department, which has established three Maori district high schools between Gisborne and East Cape, to operate from the beginning of the school year next month. Several features new to the existing educational system are to be tried, tho main ones being instruction in house-building for boys and home management for girls. If the experiment is a success it may be put into operation in other parts of New Zealand not at present served by post-primai y schools. New Zealand Speech New Zealanders as a whole pride themselves on the purity of their English speech, and any notable visitor I who takes the same view is sure to he popular. The Cheshire Observer, howover, evidently gained a different impression from two Auckland soldiers it recently interviewed. "They proceeded," it says, "in their rich New Zealand accent, to compare things as they have found them over here with life and conditions in their native land." They were certainly authentic New Zealanders, for the paper records that "they left behind them an impression that New Zealand must be one of the grandest countries in the world." Photographers On Waterfront Polls of films were confiscated from three persons found taking photographs in the vicinity of the Mechanics' Bay air base on Friday. Numbers of persons discovered taking photographs around or near the waterfront have had their films confiscated by the wharf police during the holidays. Many of the offenders, who do not intend harm, but are ignorant of the Photography Emergency Regulations, 1939, have been holiday-makers from other parts of New Zealand, and some have been American tourists who Inn e wished to take photographs of the Matson liners in j port.. It' is forhicklei to take photo-: graphs oil any part of tho waterfront.' ov en on wharves which are not guardsu i by police or Harbour Board officials. Or j