A DESERVING CAUSE,

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20710, 7 May 1929, Page 8

A DESERVING CAUSE,

The object' for which a special effort, organised by the St. John Ambulance Association, is at present being made in our midst is one that should appeal strongly to the public as deserving of its support. It is to provide the funds that will enable the association to procure two new motor ambulances and to carry on for a period of years its system of district nursing. The value of the service that is rendered by the ambulance vehicles that are at present in use is hardly estimable. It is, of course, a service that is not confined to the city and suburban districts. The report that is produced at each monthly meeting of the executive of

the association relative to the use that is made of the ambulances is one which invariably shows that these vehicles have been engaged, in their mission of mercy, upon long trips into the country. And the effect of the constant wear and tear upon country roads, some of them rather rudely formed, and none of them expressing the last word in road construction, will be fairly generally appreciated. The desire of the association that it should be provided with two modern ambulances, the bodies of which would, we believe, be locally built, is one that may reasonably be said to be dictated by the actual necessities of the case. It should require .no words on our part to commend it. The service that is performed by the three district nurses whom the association employs is beyond all praise. It is a purely charitable service which it would be futile to attempt to assess in monetary terms. Among the philanthropic activities which are faithfully and un ostentatiously carried on in this community, it occupies a very high place. The immediate purposes for which the present effort is being conducted by the association are, therefore, of a character that should receive., warm support from the public.

Heated coal was being discharged last night at Port Chalmers from the bunkers of steamer Devon into a hulk moored alongside. Yesterday afternoon indications of the coal having heated in the bunkers were discovered, and an investigation was made. There were about 600 tons of coal in the bunkers. The work of removing .it was continued during last night, and ■ sufficient will be removed by this morning to disclose' whether it is actually on fire. The vessel has several thousand tons of produce on board which has been loaded at Bluff and Port Chalmers. It was expected that the Devon would be ready in the ordinary way to leave Port Chalmers late this afternoon to continue loading at Timaru, but the unexpected heating of the bunker coal will mean a delay of a. day or two at least. If the coal is found to be actually on fire, thg delay may be for a week or more. The installation of Mr R. S. Black as Mayor of the city for the ensuing two years will take place in the Town Hall at. noon to-morrow. The public are invitejfl to attend the ceremony. A special meeting of the council has been called for 5 p.m. to-morrow, when the personnel of the various committees will be announced At least four of the committees will have new chairmen, owing to Mr Black (Library Committee) having been elected Mayor and Messrs Douglas (Tramways), Hayward (General), and Larnach (Reserves) having ceased, to be members of the council, Mr W Tains, of Karitane, who has a very fine radio installation, states that he had a very interesting day on Friday Working om a short wave-length, the following stations were all heard distinctly on the loud speaker;—sSW, Chelmsford (Eng.) ■; PCL, Holland; .2XAD, Schenectady (New York); KDKA, Pittsburg; YK2ME, Sydney duplex telephony with Suva; VPDC, Suva; DOR, Germany; and RFM, Siberia. As regards Pittsburg, at 4.39 p.m., New Zealand time, the town clocks could be clearly heard striking-the midnight hour. Mr Taine says it is very interesting on Sundays to listen-in to the messages being sent from Schenectady to the of the Byrd Expedition. Every member receives a message, and some of the relatives of those with the expedition take the opportunity of speaking direct into the radio. Mr Taine picked up the information that the Holland station, has closed down for a fortnight front May 4 on account, of alterations. ’ ' Two cases of scarlet fever were admitted to and lour were discharged from the Dunedin and Fever Hospitals during the week ended at noon yesterday. Twenty-five cases still remain in these two institutions and the Wakari Hospital. One case of diphtheria also remains in the Fever Hospital. During the hearing of an assault case in the City Police Court yesterday the court orderly (Constable W. Harvey)) brought into the courtroom a young- man who, he informed the Bench, had been carrying information from the court to the witnesses’ room. The man, who stated that he was a brother of the accused, denied that he had told the witnesses any thing, and explained that he had been in court during the lunch hour, and ( was going back to work. “ The man’s action was most improper, and almost amounted to contempt of court,” remarked Subinspector Cummings. The magistrate (Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) agreed with the subinspector, and, pointing out that witnesses were kept'apart so that they could not know what was going on in the court, warned the man not to act in such a doubtful manner in future, and allowed him to go. Painless dentistry was mentioned on Thursday afternoon by Mrs Swabey, wife of Commander Swabey, in her address before the Women’s National Reserve in Auckland. She said that wherever her husband’s ship touched at the outlying islands the doctor and dentist went ashore and helped the people all they could. At one island the dentist removed 100 teeth in two hours, and as he had no anaesthetic with him he used coloured water. The natives said they had never had teeth removed’with so little pain. “ It is certainly not common for a man to marry a.rich woman in New Zealand and expect her to keep him in idleness,” said Mr Justice Blair in a written judgment, refusing an application by Alfred Jones, billiard saloon proprietor, of Hamilton, to be made a beneficiary under his late wife’s will. “Such cases have occurred, but they are rare. A man content to accept this unenviable- position loses caste among his fellows. Although before the passing of the Married Womans Property Act, a husband became entitled to his wife’s estate when he honoured her by taking her in marriage, this doctrine has received such a severe handling both by legislation and the trend of modern ideas, that it is doubtful if marriage by a poor man to a rich woman now gives him any moral claims on her purse. A man with any pride ’of his manhood would scorn to advance such a claim.” The applicant married Catherine Mildred Cummings in 1920. She was* a spinster aged 43. The applicant was a widower with seven children and the whole- burden of supporting him and bringing up the younger members of his family was left by plaintiff to his wife. Plaintiff procured from his wife advances of very large sums which he put into property iu his name. Deceased divided her estate equally between four brothers and three sisters, each approximately getting ‘ £IOOO, except in the case of one brother. The rest of the family were left no better 1 off than plaintiff. “ The husband if lie likes can work. He has years of work before him,” concluded the judge iii dismissing the’application with costs, ; “ The best thing that can be done by the poultry-producing concerns in New Zea- 1 land is to send a representative home to ■ England to explore the markets there,” said Mr, E. J. Ross, chairman of directors, at the meeting of the Canterbury I Co-operative Poultry Producers, Ltd., on Saturday night. “If the provincial asso- ■ ciations will not combine in this object' it might even be advisable for this com-; pany to take such a step. Even if there ’ is an expenditure of £SOO or £9OO incidental to the project, it would be more than a paying proposition-”

The Minister of Lands , (Mr G. W. Forbes) stated in Wellington that the Dominion Land Purchase Board was at present busy inspecting properties which had been offered to the Government for closer settlement. The .members of the board had just completed a visit to the South Island, and-they were now about to undertake an inspection of properties under offer in the North Island. The work would take some time, but the board was making good progress. Stating that he absolutely declined to sit with the council as at present constituted, Cr Milverton has resigned his seat on the Palmerston North Borough Council,' to which he was elected two years ago, and re-elected on Wednesday last. Cr Milverton has been a critic of tJie council since his election to this body. “I am looking forward to being able to fly from Auckland to Wellington by service plane on my next visit to New Zealand,” said Mr Graham Johnstone, a director of Messrs John Walker and Sons, Ltd. to an Auckland Star representative on Ihursday. Mr Johnstone spoke of the tremendous progress which has been made in aviation at Home, and expressed the opinion that New Zealand had made greater advances in this direction during the past year than any other dominion. He also referred to the use of fuel alcohol (made from molasses after the sugarextraction process), which, he said; had revolutionised speed motoring. In combination with benzine, the new fuel- gave splendid results in ordinary cars', and it was used'undiluted for track racing. This was the spirit which was used in the cars driven by Mr Malcolm Campbell and Sir Henry Segrave. , One of the sights to be seen during a visit to White. - Island is the gannet rookery, says Mr P. B. Peart, of Tauranga, who recently visited the island, in a letter ,to the Auckland Star- 1 There are. four. rookeries at the island, and one never tires of watching the birds. They are very tame, and no one ever molests them. The old birds have a formidable grey beak, yellowish head,, blue eyes, and white feathers except on the tail and part of the wings.. Their legs are black, arid have a green streak down the front and along the toes as if someone had used a paint brush on them. They have a very wide spread of wing, and are graceful flyers, gliders and divers. They live solely on fish.' The very young birds are covered with a delicate white down, through which their grey feathers begin to show. The old birds feed their young, and know them from hundreds of others. The young bird pokes and pecks at the mother’s beak, and cries as if begging her to open it. The mother bird at length opens her throat, ' and the youngster thrusts-its head down and feeds. This process occurs three or four times. When fed, the young bird-throws its head ,right back,-drops itswings, which quiver with delight, and : begins swaying its bead backward and forward, from side to side, all the time making a noise like a motor boat. One would think it was uttering a prayer of thanksgiving. This rocking motion goes on for from 15 to 20 minutes, sometimes much longer. A resident of ..North Sidney has made an amazing complaint to the Criminal Investigation: Branch, and as a result three men have been arrested on a - charge -of conspiracy (says the Sydney Morning Herald). The man told Inspector .Mackay, chief of the Detective Force, that three men accused him of being a criminal, and threatened him to such an extent that he handed, them all the money he .then had in-his: possession, and promised to. pay .more., Accor ding to his story, this North Sydney resident was at Lavender Bay on a recent Saturday, when, a stranger accused him of being a criminal. The accusation had- hardly been made when a heavily-built man appeared on the scene and introduced himself as a detective. “It’s my. duty to investigate. these things,” said the bogus detective. “ I want-to have a'word with you.” At this stage-a third; man' appeared and- stated that he, too, was a detective, and the trio “-investigated”; their -victim-- until they announced '■ f themselves quite', convinced, that he' was a criminal. “ You’re a ‘ crook,’ ” they said. “ You ought to be shot, but / all. we can .do with you is to see that you go to gaol." They then took hiin to his home, and said that they ■would search.it for evidence. The three of. them appeared so convinced of his bad character that there appeared little chance of his retaining his-'freedom. They threatened and, bullied Him. Then, when ho pleaded with-theril, they became slightly less harsh and said that if he had some money—a. lot of- nfonoy—they would forget their duty and allow - him to go free. The victim, allowed them to take all the money he had, and signed an “IOU” for a further amount. However, when the man calmly reviewed bis experiences, he came to the conclusion that the other three, rather than himself, were the criminals. So Detectives Sadler and Gorman were detailed'to investigate the case. With the assistance of Constables Cummins and Truman, of the North Sydney Division, they _ have been able to arrest three men, who were charged with ■ conspiracy. Bishop Bennett, the first Maori bishop in New. Zealand,, will arrive in Dunedin in June on his visit as a bishop to Otago. Prior to coming to Dunedin, Bishop Bennett will spend a short time in Christchurch; and Bishop West-Watson, in his monthly letter in the Church News, has the following reference to the matter;— “We shall all be anxious to give the Bishop of Aotearoa a hearty welcome when he comes on his visit to this diocese on May 25. He has promised us a fortnight, and though his first object is to visit the Maori people'in the diocese; yet the pakehas will want to see and bear and welcome him.' We are planning that lie should preach at Merivale on the morning of Sunday, May 26, and-at the cathedral in the evening, and that on Monday', May 27, there shall be a great welcome’ for him in one of our large halls. After that he will visit as many Maori centr-s as possible, and we shall try to arrange for visits to Timaru and Ashburton. Soulday the bishop hopes to visit the Chatham Islands, where a large number of our Maori people live.”

A special examination for proficiency and competency certificates will be held in the Moray :Place School, Dunedin, and st Balclutha School on Tuesday, May 14. Arrangements will be announced later for schools north of Waikouaiti and the Central Otago schools. Ladies will be pleased to learn that we have just, landed a fresh supply of Ilka Cream This beautiful cream at 2s pot, by post 2s 3d, is one of the finest for beautifying the complexion.—H L Sprosen, Ltd., toilet specialists and ■'bi'mists. Octagon, Punedin.—Advt See our Range of Electric Torches Prices from 4s 6d each. All Refills in stock.—Barth Electrical Supplies, Ltd. 90 Princes street. —Advt. Those desirous ot having electricitv m stalled in their houses should consult the Stewart Electrical Company, 171 Rattray street. Time payments arranged from 2s ‘id a week -Advt W. V. Stumer,’ G.A.O.C, D.S.O I optician. Consulting room, 2 Octagon Dunedin Most modern scientific equipment for sight testing.—Advt A. E J Blakeley and W B. Bagiev dentists. Bank of Australasia, corner of Bond and Rattray streets (next Telegraph Office! Telephone 12-359 —Advt Diamond Engagement Rings.—Before purchasing compare our values; large selection; superior quality -Peter Dick the most reliable jewellers, watchmakers and opticians. 490 Moray n'ace, Dunedin Advt.