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Otago Daily Times, Issue 21004, 17 April 1930, Page 12

The Council of Dunedin Scottish Societies has received a letter from a resident of , Toronto, Canada, inquiring i If. there ia a Perthshire Association in Dunedin, the reason for the request being the writer’s desire to get into touch with a James McNeil, a native of Connie, Perthshire, Scotland, who came to New Zealand many years ago. The president of the council (Mr T. Ritchie) would be pleased to hear from anyone having information regarding Mr M'Neil. The attendance officer reported to the Otago Education Board yesterday that fine weather conditions and absence of illness of any consequence had helped to a large extent in maintaining a satisfactory average attendance at schools for the month ended April 15. In many schools the pupils in the standard classes note averaging about OG per cent, to 08 per cent, of attendance. Probate has been granted by Mr Justice Kennedy in the estates of the undermentioned persons:—Thomas Thomson Ritichie, of Dunedin, merchant (Mr A. C. Stephens) ; Agnes Jane Birch, of Roxburgh, married woman (Mr J. W. Thomson), Matthew Bridgeman Peck, of Port Chalmers, retired farmer (Mr G. ,R. Watters); and William Roxburgh, of Allanton, retired bootmaker (Mr Finch). Letters of administration were granted in the estates of James Frame,, of Herbert, farmer (Mr W. G. Grave) and Marv Mnnro, of Dunedin, spinster (Mr Wood).

There were generally reduced entricn at the Burnside stock sales yesterday, but that fact did not bring about any appreciable brightening of the markets. Exporters were operating with caution in respect to both mutton and iamb, and the only fair quality of the cattle caused a dullness there. There were 1700 , fat sheep, comprising only a small proportion of prime wethers, with a majority of prime and medium ewes. Good wethers remained firm at late rates, but the ewes and anything ordinary were cheaper as a result of reduced exporting limits, and the fact that butchers were not wanting heavy supplies over Easter. "Values could be said to be down on an average of 2s per head. Extra prime heavy wethers were worth 355, prime to 335, medium to 295, and light to 235. The best ewes made 24s 9d, prime to 20s, and light to 14s. There were 821 fat iambs forward. The quality was mixed and values were down about 2s per bead. The best prime made to 27s Cd, prime to 23s Cd, and others to 19s. The fat cattle yarding comprised 130 head of average quality bullocks, cows, and heifers, Butchers’ requirements being low, there was no animation in the sale. Good sorts held late rates. The best bullocks made to £2O 10s, prime to £lB 10s, medium to fl 5 ss, and extra good heifers to £l4 14s. There were 280 head of store cattle, mostly of poor quality, The market was considei-abl’y easier, and the sale was duller than has been the case for some weeks. The pig entry was up to standard, and although late rates ruled for the most part, there was an easing tendency. With reference‘ to our paragraph concerning a certain dictionary in our issue of April 11, we find that some of our statements are inaccurate, and the inferences we had drawn are, consequently, unjustified. We, therefore, regret the paragraph and withdraw it. The gentleman concerned is not an American salesman, but a nephew of . a highly respected Dunedin citizen now dead. The dictionary is not misrepresented by him, but is sold on its merits and lias been so sold to leading business people and educational institutions. The gentleman concerned has produced - to us evidence of his own appointment as sole selling agent by a Wellington bookseller, who claims to have been appointed sole New Zealand agent. Our paragraph gives the impression that the booh is readily procurable at retail booksellers. This is not so. Copies have been stocked by one local establishment, but wo know of no Dunedin bookseller who now lias any copies in stock. Fifty students from the Otago University were passengers by yesterday’s northbound 1 express. They are proceeding to 'Auckland to take part in the annual Easter University sports tournament. The party is travelling under the management of Messrs J. A. Stallworthy and P. Si .Cabot. . At a special sitting of the City Police Court on Tuesday afternoon, before Mr Robert Gilkison, J. P., a young woman, whose name was suppressed, was- charged with the theft of £lO in Pahiatua in 1921. She was remanded until April 28. Mr D. T. Fleming. M.L.C., has agreed, at the request of the Otago Education Board, to be re-norn|nated for a scat on the Council of’ Education. . Those residents of Otago who are awaiting the approach of winter with small enthusiasm may take comfort at the thought that - there are people in other lands who regard the clhnate of New Zealand as being as near, the ideal' as possible. A resident of British Columbia, writing to a friend in -Dunedin, states that although the climate in that part of North America is equable, with blit little frost or enow, the winter is characterised by dark, cloudy weather. 1 V .“ I think,” he - writes, “of bright "and breezy New Zealand, which, to my mind, is the most favoured land on earth in the matter of climate, and I have sailed the Seven Seas.” The following additional returns from the sale of poppies during the Returned Soldiers’ Association’s annual Poppy Day appeal have been received by the organiser (Mr C. E. .Pryce):—Naseby, (Mr W. Strang), £5; ■ Hyde ‘ (Mr J. B. M'Gill), £2; Waipori Falls (Mr. D. S. Mackeukie), £3 8»; Mnhiiicraugi dam (Mr v R. Moffat), £8 4s Cd; Roxburgh (Mrs J. R. Gilmour), £2l 4s 6d; Warrington (Mr ,H. Couper), £3 8s Gdi MosgieP Borough and part of Taieri, £67 10s. The total now amounts to a little over £1750. Organisation of a railway tour of the South Island by a large party of Hawke’s Bay farmers is proceeding. It is proposed to limit the number travelling to 250. The tour.will be conducted entirely by the Railways Department, which will probably arrange with the branches of. the Farmers’ Union and local bodies in the' centres included for the visitors’ entertainment, The * tour will be organised from Napier. The party will arriye in Christchurch by the ferry steamer from Wellington on Sunday, June 22, spanning the day in Christchurch. On the following day they will visit Otira by ■ excursion, train. An inspection will be mhde of the Lincoln College farm on Monday, June 24. The visitors will leave for Timaru on June 25, spending several hours en route at Ashburton. They will then visit Dunedin, Invercargill, and Queenstown, and will make several side trips by motor, which arc yet to be arranged. Alfred Hill, of Caifibria street, Nelson,, and liis son Gordon had a narrow escape from being drowned in the harbour on Sunday afternoon while crossing from the Boulderbank in an open boat with a. load of driftwood. A stiff south-westerly wind was blowing with a choppy sea, and thp boat overturned, the two occupants clinging, to, the keel. Their plight was observed from the Wakapuaka Cemetery, opposite which the accident occurred, _and n. dinghy was requisitioned, but some difliculty was experienced in reaching the over-turned craft owing to the wind. In the meantime young Hill w - as washed off the boat, but managed to keep afloat by clinging to a piece of driftwood. He was rescued benumbed with cold, and in a thoroughly exhausted condition, after being in the water half an hour. The father was also brought ashore, but little the worse for his immersion. The Director-general of Health has intimated to the Otago Hospital Board that the Minister of Health (Mr A. J. Stallworthy) is not prepared to commit bis department beyoud a period of five years in connection with the proposed contribution of £2OOO per annum for the new Maternity Hospital', but agrees that the position can then be reviewed on its merits. He has been advised that the board desires assurance, not that the position “ can ” be reviewed, but “ will ” be reviewed in five years. “We are a sort of matrimonial agency up here,” wrote the chairman of a country school committee to the meeting of the Auckland Education Board yesterday (says a Press Association telegram). He asked if it would be a breach of confidence or etiquette on the board's part to advise the committee if the next woman teacher was engaged to be married. He added that his school had had five women teachers in four years, and asked: “Have you no plain or ugly girls? ” Tiie board decided to reply that the vacancy would be filled in the usual way. During the troublous period of about half a century ago, the Taranaki Natives, acting under instruction from the prophet Tu Whiti, frequently obstructed the Armed Constabulary in the building of tiie main road from Okato to Opunake. Each morning the military would find a barricade erected across the road to stay further progress. Hundreds of Maoris were placed under arrest for these acts and sent to prison camps in.the South Island. During their incarceration the prisoners occupied much of their time by making greenstone and bone ornaments. As files and other tools were available for the work the articles made at this period are not nearly so much prized as those manufactured in the ancient times when the Maori had to fashion and finish his greenstone by hand

Two well-known Dunedin (tampers, Messrs James J. Kennedy, and J. M'Grath, will spend the Easter holidays tramping from Central Otago to Oamaru, via Dansey’s Pass. • , ■ : ■ ■ The trading departments of the city of Dunedin show total profits for the year ended March 31,-1030, df JE7i id 7 10s 4d, being an increase of £7781 14s lid over the total profits of the preceding year. The greatest profit was made in the Electric Light and Power Department, namely, £36,354. Every department made a profit. The estate of the late Mr Walter Chapman Mountain, runholder, of Purerua, Bay of Islands, who died on March 20 last, has (reports our special correspondent in Auckland) been valued for probate purposes at £67,320. The bequests under the will were all of a private nature. Mr Mountain belonged to one of the first families to take up land in the north; and, was a grandson of Mrs Letheridge, the first white woman born in New Zealand. In his younger days he was a boxer and athlete of note in Australia. Later he returned to Purerua and helped his father in, the well-known fish and meat canning .works there. He farmed 8000 or 9000 acres with considerable success, and was engaged in cattle dealing ali 1 over the Auckland province. He was a former member of the Bay of Islands County Connell and a Freemason of long standing. Flying Officer Piper will fly from Auckland to Christchurch in the De Souter inonopl'ane .in which lie and Flying Officer Kay flew from England. He will leave there early this afternoon for Hawera ■(says a Press Association telegram from Auckland) and will leave Hawera to-mor-row morning for Blenheim, thence to Christchurch, where he is due to arrive to-morrow afternoon. ■ Flying Officer Piper will be accompanied by Mr A- W. Price, of Christchurch. Proposals regarding the future defence of New Zealand will shortly be submitted by General K. Young ■ (General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces) to the Minister of. Defence (Mr J.'Gi Cobbe). The . proposals will be, the,.out-come-of .the'recent conference of senior, staff officers held in Wellington, Brigadier M. M. Gard ner, 0.C., Southern Command, stated on Monday that though he was not permitted to refer in detail to the proposals, he considered that what changes might be made would not be brought into effect until June, the beginning of the training year. Brigadier Gard’ner paid a compliment to the work of the territorial officers, „ who had been responsible largely for the present highly efficient state of the territorial force. Thesame efficiency could hot he secured by the cutting down of the present ture, width; was less than ffialf-that’of the English system and its results were better. Visitors had stated that the New Zealand system was among the best, if not the best, in'.the world. ' ; . In answer to a letter from the president of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society (Mr L. O. H. Tripp), Mr W. W. Smith, superintendent of Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, wrote as follows to the meetings of the society »last. >week: — !“ While aware, of course, that cats, next to man, are the greatest; enemies of native birds, I am abi'e to corroborate your remark that cats kill and more or less control'the increase ' of, stoats and weasels. 'During my super in tendentship of the park I kept a very smart, well-trained fox terrier dog, and a large white she eat. The dog often devoted riiuch time to the hunting and killing of stoats and weasels. He generally caught them early in the niorning, after a night’s marauding. He enabled me to examine the contents of the stomaphs. During three years , the cat had ’,kittens in'.October, and wept (out hunting, bringing home young weasels' for her kittens to eat.” Members of Parliament are now again in receipt of their old honorarium of £450, the final instalment of last year’s additional £IOO bonus having been paid at the beginning of the month. In the' dying hours of last session members voted themselves the extra sum for the then current financial year,; and ..just before Christmas received in a lump snip, £66 13s. 4d, ~rcpreseutitfgindn thly '■ apportioriiirent ! of £8 6s 8d for , a period of eight months to November last. The £8 6s- 84 due for December was paid in conjunction with that mouth’s honoraria payment, and the balance,- £2O, was distributed in monthly instalments, together with the usual allowance, over January, February, and March. This method of . payment, it was assumed, was adopted by the Treasury to avoid confusion oyer the allocation- Jo be made .to tlie sdCcessfnl candidate at • the Hutt byolection. Mv Nash., was not a member of Parliament during the first eight months' of. the financial year, and .therefore received the extra allowance only for December, January, February, and March. The return to normal salary this month would not benotie'ed by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr J.'G. Coates),'Mr R. A. Wright (Wellington Suburbs), and Mr T, D. Burnett (TemuJcaLall of whom, declined to accept the additional money. During the approaching session .(says the Dominion) efforts will no doubt be made •to have the honoraria permanently increased, but in the light of the present economic positiop the Minister of, Fipapcq may turn a deaf'.ear to .any sentations. September 30 next has been fixed as the final date for the receipt of claims under the Treaty of St. German-cn-Laye from British nationals resident in New Zealand, arising out of aefe .committed by the former Austro-Hungarian Govern-' ment or any Austrian authorities between July 28 and August 14, 1914. At example of acclaim (S&ys a-Prefes Association telegram, from Wellington) would -be that of a.person who had suffered loss by an act of the, Austro-Hungarian authorities, such as illegal detention after July' 28, 1914, and' prior to the outbreak of war with Austria. All claimants who have claims of tiiis nature are advised to communicate immediately with the Public Trustee as controller of the New Zealand Clearing Office, who will supply them with the necessary forms to be completed, and advise them as to their claims. The time limit is in force_ to enable finality to be reached on the claims concerned. , “We do not get enough money from our tourists,” remarked Mr H. S. Dadley at Auckland on Friday (states the New Zealand Herald) on his return from his sixth, tour of the East. “Visitors coming to New Zealand are anxious to spend money, but lack both opportunity and encouragement. The first thing many tourists ask when going to a new country is ‘What can yon buy there?’ but in New Zealand there is very little to buy that is typical of the country. We really need to manufacture something that 'can be sold 1 to visitors at a good figure—something they can take - away and prize as a 1 memento, of their, visit. In the basement of the Imperial Hotel in Tokio there are 20 shops selling goods purely to tourists, and many people spend hundreds of pounds there buying curios and articles of Japanese manufacture. There is nothing like it in New Zealand.” The unsecured debts of a young Swiss farmer, John Joseph Scheuber, bankrupt on his own petition, were shown at a meeting of creditors in Hawera on Monday to exceed £IOOO. The deficiency bankrupt showed as £1203. Assets were nil. Mortgages on bankrupt’s farm amounted to £5700. while his farm he valued at £5500. One of the 14 creditors represented alleged that “bankrupt had had a flash wedding,” and lie asked hankrupt where all the money come from. The bankrupt replied that lie did not pay for the wedding: his wife’s people did. The creditor replied that ho believed that that was merely an excuse. Bankrupt was examined, and the meeting adjourned sine die. Scheuber paid that he came from Switzerland in 1913, and laboured ami milked on shares. Inter fanning various leasehold properties. He blamed the high rentals, losses through caterpillars destroying 12 acres of crops, and deaths amomr his herds- • '

Night tramping by Scouts and Rover*, a well-established practice in England, was introduced into New Zealand during last week-end, when a party of 18 Christchurch scoutmasters, under the command of Scouters F. Olds and K. Dyer, tramped from Sumner to the foot of the. Cashmere Hills. The party caught the last tram to Sumner on - Saturday evening, and leaving Sumner Post. Office at midnight, tramped by way of Corsair Bay, where, supper was cooked and eaten, Governor’s Bay and the Sign of the Kiwi to . the foot of the hills, arriving there at 7 a.m. The object of the night walks is to provide opportunities for discussing the more serious sides of scouting and practice in night scouting activities. A male and female jaguar, obtained from the Hamburg Zoo for the Auckland Zoo, were brought to New Zealand by the Port Hardy, which arrived on Friday, (states the New Zealand Herald). Al- - though the animals have been cramped in their small cages for 42 days they have ■.suffered no ill-effects from the long .sea . voyage from London. Because of his friendliness, the male, which is the younger of the pair, earned the name of *' Felix,” but the disposition of the female was more characteristic of these sinister Brazilian cats, and she failed to win the affections of the crew. The animals are beautifully marked.' Eating on unimproved values had -so far received its best illustration in the case of the city of Wellington, declared Mr P. J. OTlegan, (vice-president) at + he annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Land Values League the other night (says the Post). From the 23 square miles occupied by the city, upwards of half a million of rate revenue was now derived, and the. results of the unimproved value rating system were too jilain to be ignored. No less than 63 per cent, of the city's municipal electors were ratepayers, which was 20 per cent, more than in the case of Auckland, Christchurch, or Dunedin; and last year, in the matter of building, Wellington’s figures had exceeded those of the other three cities combined. ," It is pieasing.lio note that the Minister of Internal Affairs has decided to take : the only satisfactory, .course and institute a more comprehensive survey on the food habits of opossums in New Zealand before permitting further distribution,” writes Captain E. V. Sanderson in ; the latest bulletin issued by the New . Zealand Native Bird Protection Society. "An examination of some 266 stomachs from Kapiti Island has already been made. These showed little indications of . animal matter, but that considerable bird food-was consumed.; .It was stated-by the scientist, who made dire examination that there was food for. both bird and opossum present on Kapiti. This;latter contention is, however, nob quite. wide enough, as the opossums are now very limited in number on Kapiti; and, further, any Jessening of bird food supply must axiomatically be at the expense of the birds, especially in the winter months. There has been much talk, but no decision has yet been arrived at with reference to an improved means Of catching' opossums than the present inhumane, cruel, and bir&3estroj'ihgfttap;" i 's! .'spreading of;-, the,; agitation already commenced in some parts of the world" against the wearing of furs will result if Jess cruel, means of killing fur-bearing ■ animals are not; devised.” . ’

The Wembley’ Club has arranged an “Easter Gala” dance in the Early' Settlers’ and Pioneers’ Halls on Saturday ■night. There will, also, be, an extended dance on Easter Monday, night, . Attention is drawn to the advertisement appearing in this issue concerning the jubilee celebrations at the George Street To-morrow night, at York Place Hall, at 7-45; .a time of quiet meditation at the * cross, to which Christians of all churches are invited, is announced. Mr Frank Varley 'will speak on “ Behold My Servant: Behold the Man; Behold ■ Your God.” W. V, : Sturmer, G.A.0.0.,- D. 5.0.1., optician. Consulting room, 2 Octagon. Dunedin. Most modern scientific equipment for sight testmg.-r-Advt A. E, J. Blakeley and W. E. Bagley, dentists, -Bank - of Australasia/ of Bond anil Rattray r streets v(toextviT-ele-graph Office) Telephone 12-359._— Adv! •S. E. Ferguson;'qualified''optician and rcfractionist, G.P.0.C., 45 George street.. Twenty years;’ experience in eight-testing and spectacle fitting* If your eyes trouble you consult us. Doctors’ prescriptions carefully attended to.—Advt. The ’Vim-Ray. Machine cures ills by artificial sunlight. Inspection invited.— Barth Electrical Supplies, 90 Princes street, Dunedin. —Advt. We make a special/,feature of high-class brushware: Tooth Brushes. Shaving Brushes, and'Half‘Brushes. If you want something really good go to Spros-an’s, Ltd.,, leading' chemists, : corner.- Octagon, and George street.—Advt. ; Choice Jewellery bur values. , Just landed, large selection Diamond Kings, Reliable Watches. Jewellery and Silverware,—Peter Dick, the most reliable . jewellers,-, and opticians,. 490 Moray place, Dunedin.— Advt.