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Otago Daily Times, Issue 21358, 11 June 1931, Page 8

The new motor ambulance which hag been presented to the St. John Ambulance Association by the Otago Hospital Board was handed over to the association by the chairman of the board (Mr W." E. S. Knight) yesterday afternoon at the coachbuilding factory of Messrs H. G. Millow, Ltd., Castle street. Several members of the board attended with Mr Knight, and Dr A. R. Falconer, chairman of the association, was also present. In handing over the ambulance, Mr Knight said that the board had given it in recognition of the efficient service the association had given the public over a long period of years, and he trusted that it would long continue to serve its purpose. Dr Falconer expressed the gratitude of the association for the gift, which, he said, would form a valuable addition. to the association’s, existing fleet. Working as it did in the cause of suffering humanity, the association was daily receiving more and more demands on its services, and the board’s welcome gift therefore came at a time when it was badly needed. The new ambulance, which is one of the most up-to-date machines .of its kind in New Zealand,, is mounted on a Humber Snipe chassis, the body having been built by Messrs H. J. Millow, Ltd. Combining lightness and strength of construction, the body is exceptionally roomy and is designed so as to enable travelling at speed with almost an entire absence of vibration. Two stretcher cases and an attendant can be accommodated in addition to the driver, and the stretchers, which are the invention of Mr F. Millow, are fitted with adjustable back rests, which enable patients to be carried in either a sitting or prone position. The total cost of the ambulance was £7lO. In contrast with the repeated statements by banks and other credit institutions that any reduction in interest on loans is impossible at the present time, the annual report of the district trustees of the United Otago District, Ancient Order of Foresters makes interesting reading. During the year loans advanced by the Order amounted to £12,168 11s 4d, while all moneys advanced represent a figure of £133,378. At a meeting,of the trustees it was unanimously decided to reduce the current rate of interest by i per cent., making the rate 5i per cent. "We consider,” says the report; “that by this means we shall be assisting in the restoration of things to normal.” At a brief sitting of the City Police Court yesterday morning, before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., a man named Charles Hughes, who appeared on warrant on a charge of failing to maintain his illegitimate child, was remanded to appear at Invercargill on Saturday. A representative meeting of importers yesterday (says a Press Association telegram from Auckland) unanimously resolved to form a new association named the Association of New Zealand Representation of Selling Agents of Canadian Products to foster amicable trade, relations between Canada and -New Zealand, and to encourage a spirit of trade within the Empire. The feeling of the meeting was that retaliatory tariff action prejudiced the interests of both countries, and that the present deadlock should be broken at once.

j There was an improved tone in the fat stock sales at Burnside yesterday, most classes'being sold at advanced rates. This particularly applied to the sheep section, the market being very buoyant. Mediumweight ewes sold at an advance of Is 6d to 2s, and heavy ewes at an advance of about Is per head. In the fat cattle section best quality beef realised good prices, which advanced from 7s 6d to 15a per head. The lamb market was also firm, there being a good demand, with prices a shade firmer than those realised at the. previous sale. There was little life in the store cattle section, but prime pigs were sold at firm rates. The fat cattle entry comprised 168 head. The quality was very moderate, with a few pens of extra prime bullocks. Heavy bullocks sold to £l3 10s, medium to £ll 15e, light to £lO sa; heavy heifers to £lO 12s 6d, medium to £7 ss, light to £6 15s; heavy cows to £lO 10s, medium to £7, and light to £5 15s. About 2300 sheep were offered. The yarding was of mixed quality, with a fair number of medium to good ewes, some heavy wethers, and ; a large sprinkling of fine wool sheep. There was a keen demand throughout the sale. Prime wethers sold to 20s 6d, medium to 18s, light to 14s; prime heavy ewes to 16s, heavy to 12s, and medium to 9s. The lamb entry comprised about 1500 head. The quality was very mixed, with several pens of heavy lambs and a fair proportion of finished sqrts. Extra prune lambs sold to 235, heavy to /18s 9d, light prime to 15s 6d, and unfinished sorts to lls 3d. The entry of 150 store cattle included a number of good mixed cows and a few pens of young steers. Competition was not very brisk. Young steers sold to £3 ss, and cows from £2 5s to £5 ss. The pig entry consisted of 200 fats and 113 stores. Bacon pigs met with a fairly good sale, but inferior sorts claimed little attention. Baconers were firm at s|d to 6d, and prime porkers at 7d per lb. Prices for small pigs were unchanged.

“ My sympathies are with the children, ’ said Mr Burns, chairman of the Auckland Education Board, when discussing the position of the pupils at Athenree, near Waihi, who recently went on strike. Because the train was too early the board’s secretary said the children had to leave home before 7 to be at the station in case the train was on time, which seldom happened. The parents had refused to force their children to go. The board decided to leave the matter to the department. An enthusiastic, meeting of the business people of Cromwell was held on Monday evening to receive a report from the Mayor (Mr Roberts) regarding the success of his mission in Dunedin in connection with the New Zealand Industries Week to be held in Cromwell during the week ending June 27. Men who have long been known as phlegmatic and staid were quite demonstrative in their expressions of enthusiasm. The wholehearted support of the Dunedin manufacturers to the movement has given a fillip to the project, which is being energetically and enthusiastically taken up by the business community, and the week promises to be an event unique in the history of the town.

“ A large proportion of consumers is under a misapprehension regarding the removal of the capacity charge on electrical installations,” said the chairman of the Electric Power and Lighting Committee (Cr Marlow) at the meeting of the City Council last night. He stated that the general impression was that consumers would have to pay a standard charge of £l2 per annum. This did not, however, apply to ordinary consumers, but only to ranges of a certain large size.

“The real heroes and heroines of the world arc those men and women living cheerfully under the most difficult con-* ditions with few of the amenities of life, 1 * said Dean G. R. Barnett, in an address to the Hamilton Civic Luncheon Club. The dean said his experiences in thicklypopulated towns in England and in the backblocks of New Zealand showed him that most of the present-day difficulties of the world would not be solved by political measures, but by the distribution ot a larger measure of the milk of human kindness, by greater generosity and sympathy, and by a , greater willingness t® serve others than had been the case in tip past.

At the annual meeting of householders in Auckland city a resolution was passed suggesting that after pupils reached the age of 12 they should be separated according to sex, the girls to be taught by ■women and the boys by men. This was sent on to the Education Department by the Auckland Education Board, and at yesterday morning’s meeting (says our special correspondent) the department’s reply w'as read. The department promised to give the request the fullest consideration, but stated for many years the present system of co-education had proved itself very successful, and the department was of opinion that the majority of parents and teachers were in favour of its continuance.

“The greatest weakness of the age- is the craving to ‘ get rich quickly,’ ” said his Excellenecy the Governor-General (Lord Bledisloe), speaking to the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides at the Auckland Town Hall on Sunday. “ One result is foolish and extravagant gambling, followed often by poverty, disillusionment and discontent, and a disinclination to climb the ladder of life rung by rung, energetically and with self-respect, to the summit of our capacity, if not of our ambition. The lack of home discipline when we are young often accentuates this restless longing to secure the prizes of life without having earned them. But this craving is not confined to the acquisition of money or even of social position.”

A girl’s appeal to / her sweetheart to supply her with £3 for a new dress was contained in a. letter produced on behalf of a boy burglar, Edward Walter Rix, who appeared at the Supreme Court at Auckland a few days ago. Rix had been charged at Whakatane with breaking into an office with intent to commit a crime. He admitted the offence. Mr Noble described it as a classical example of a simple-minded youth who was led astray by his love of a girl. She was 21 and had written to him asking for money to buy a dress. His Honor, after reading the letter in which the girl made her appeal, said he could not accept as an excuse for a crime of this nature the fact that a young woman wrote asking a youth to supply her with £3 to buy a new dress. He must earn the money •which he desired to give for that or any other purpose. His Honor ordered Rix to be detained in a Borstal Institute for two years.

Four cases of skin poisoning in Auckland have been traced to a very popular garden shrub, humea elegans, commonly known as the incense plant. One typical case was that of a woman who is very fond of the plant. She had been ill for a long time, but not knowing the cause used still to smell the incense plant whenever she was well enough to leave her room. Three or four hours afterwards a fever invariably followed, and thus the identification of the plant as the origin of the trouble was established. The doctor treated three other cases in which the symptoms were the same, a bloated condition of the face and hands, and unbearable pain in the swollen parts. The plant which has caused the trouble in Auckland is a native of New South Wales'and Victoria, but is now very common in Auckland. It is a robust, erect biennial, five to seven feet high, and strongly scented.. The flower heads are very numerous in a large, loose panicle, with gracefully pendulous branches. The flowers are copper-coloured. It belongs to the daisy family, and is included in a genus of four species ,-all restricted to Australia.

The Norwegian whaling companies have decided to lay up their fleets in the 19311932 season (says the Economist). This misfortune involves the throwing out of. work of 11,000 men and £10,000,000 of capital. After very high profits had been made in the 1929-30 season, when the price of whale oil was as high as £3O per ton, the whaling companies sent out* larger and larger fleets, and equipped the ' whalers with increased gun capacity. Forty-two floating factories, with 230 hunting boats, were seen in the Antarctic 01 fishing grounds this winter, and_ record catches were obtained.' Yet before' the fleets had set sail last autumn the market in’whale oil had become nominal. Most of the Norwegian companies had sold their catch forward to the Unilever group in the early part of 1930 at £25 per ton. The British-controlled Hector Whaling Company, on the other" hand, missed the market, but, nevertheless, sent' out a fleet in September having a run capacity 25 per "cent, greater than in the previous year. The catch of the Hector Whaling Company is reported to be 280,000 barrels, compared with 200,000 barrels in the previous season, and this huge quantity will have to be stored until the Unij lever group re-enter the market. Unfortunately for the Hector Whaling Company, the Unilever group find themselves overburdened by the record catch of the Norwegian companies, which they had purchased in advance, and have intimated that they will be unable to receive any oil from the 1931-32 catch. Whether the Unilever group will take it upon themselves to acquire next year the unsold 1930-31 catch of the Hector Whaling Company, which, after all, will depress the prices of edible oils as long as it overhangs the market, remains to be seen, butthey have intimated their willingness to " give preference in their future purchases to those companies which decide to lay up their ships for the present.

The information that the regular BlnffMelbourne passenger service would be resumed in the early spring, long before the tourist traffic commenced in earnest, was conveyed by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr P. A. de la Perrelle) to a deputation from the Bluff Borough Council which waited on him at Bluff recently, with reference to various matters they desired to bring under the Minister’s notice. Mr de la Perrelle said that as member of Parliament for Awarua he desired to explain the efforts he had made to procure a regular shipping service between Bluff and Melbourne. “You will remember that when I stood for this electorate one of the planks I took up, with all sincerity, was that I should do my utmost to have this service,” said Mr de la Perrelle. “It was left to me by Cabinet to interview the Union Steam Ship Company with the object of having an eight-day run,” the speaker continued, '• The matter was arranged at considerable cost, but just as it was getting under way we were unfortunate in losing the Manuka. I then approached the officials of the company, asking them to replace that unfortunate ship, but they replied that they were unable to accede to my request. However, they assured me the company would do its best to give an efficient service, and promised to use the Maheno as occasion demanded. I hoped the trade would justify the continuance of this arrangement, but towards the end of last year the company said that even with the Government’s subsidy the service could not be run without a loss. I have now been again in touch with the company, and the Government has provided me with the necessary means to ensure a regular service to commence in tne early 0 spring before the tourists arrive. While I could not arrange the passenger service for the winter months, I was successful in procuring cargo ships during that time, and those vessels are running at present.”

Negotiations are still in hand (says the Timaru Herald) for the sale of the Eakaia bridge, so that it can be used entirely for road purposes. The matter has been under discussion for nearly two years now between the Main Highways Board and the Railways Department, •which owns the bridge over the Rakaia. If the sale is completed, a new railway bridge will be built over the river. In the meantime, the Main Highways Board is to be charged an increased amount for the maintenance of the road surface on the bridge. The present charge w*a» fixed a good many years ago, and since then, the cost of maintenance and also the cost of keeping bridgemen at eitln r end to guard road traffic has increased considerably. The bridge is the longest in the Dominion. The original portion was built in 1871, when 4500 feet was constructed, but additions in 1882 made the length 1940 feet more.

It is generally recognised nowadays that if a great scenic resort is to be brought into line with other resorts attracting tourists in other parts of the world there must be access to it by motor car (says the Mataura Ensign). It was this fact that influenced the Southland League to give its support to the proposal to make provision for the construction of a motor road to Milford Sound. Referring to the project in its annual report, the Southland League states that a very comprehensive report favourable to the project was prepared by ;Mr F. W. Furkert, engineer-in-chief for the Public Works Department. Advice has been received by the league that the road has now been constructed to a point about 32 miles past the Te Anau Hotel. The scenery in the Eglington Valley, through which the road will pass, is very beautiful, and will serve as a fitting introduction to the magnificent scenic attraction of the Milford Sound region which will await traveller and tourist when the road is finally completed. The time when the Milford district will become one of the popular scenic wonders of the world will depend almost entirely upon the provision of a means of reaching there suitable for the world’s tourists

The drawing of the Golden Key Art Union will take place under police and Government supervision in the Conference Hall, Dominion Farmers’ Institute, Wellington, on Saturday. June 13, commencing at 5 p.m. An address on the subject, “ The Romance, Realities, and Stress of Life in Australia and New Zealand —Present and Prospective,” will be given in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall this evening by Sir Truby King. Sir James Allen will preside. The excellent collection of Paintings and Etchings now showing at Park, Reynolds, Ltd., will be on view all day to-day (Thursday) for private sale.—Advt. Why the Austin Seven excels in economy and reliability—simple adjustments performed with ease enable the owner to maintain the mechanism in full efficiency. Just that little -mechanical care ensures added pleasure and comfort. Everythng is in proportion—seven hundredweight, seven horse-power, high quality materials, and frequent tests during construction. See them! Try them! Austin Motors (Otago), Ltd,. 284-6 Princes street, phone 13-215. —Advt. W. V Sturmer, G.A.0.C., D. 5.0.1., optician. Consulting rooms, 2 Octagon, Dunedin. Most modern scientific equipment for sight testing.—Advt. A. E. J. Blakeley and W. E. Bagley, dentists, Bank of. Australasia, corner of Bond and Rattray streets (next Telegraph Office). Telephone 12-359.—Advt. A woman’s hair is a woman's glory. A good hair brush is necessary to keep the hair bright and glossy We have a splendid selection of Hair Brushes to choose from. All prices from a few shillings to £3 10s each. Call and see them. —H. L. Sprosen, Chemist, corner Octagon and George street. Dunedin.— Advt. See our new season’s display of Electric Radiators.--Barth Electrical Supplies, Ltd., 56 Princes street. Dunedin.— Advt.