Untitled

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21409, 10 August 1931, Page 6

■ The postal authorities advise that several vessels are en route to New Zealand from Australian ports with mails for Dunedin. The Monowai, which is due at Wellington to-morrow from Sydney, is bringing eight bags and two parcel recep tacles, which should reach the local Post Office on Wednesday evening. The Karepo, from Melbourne to New Plymouth, is bringing three bags and three parcel receptacles. This mail is expected to reach Dunedin about Saturday. The Karetu, from Newcastle to Wellington, has one bag of Australian mail. This should come to hand about the end of this week.

The Times (London, June 30) announces that the thirty-sixth list of donations for the New Zealand Earthquake Relief Fund brought the total amount up to £48,662 7s 3d. Recent donors were J. Walmsley ilO, W. Wigan £lO, F.S.S. £2, Anonymous £l. A unique ceremony in connection with the new building to be opened by the United Congregational Church in three weeks’ time took place on Saturday. A group of children who had undertaken to collect £5 each towards the cost of the new church, and have falready handed in £BO, had the privilege of laying in position in the vestibule a special brick each,' the collector’s initials being stamped on the brick laid by him or her. The bricks are of a special make, and in the form of a band around the plastered '.wall of the vestibule will be a memorial, as long as the church stands, to the zeal of the young collectors. The ceremony Was of an impressive character, calculated to emphasise the value of the children’s efforts.

At 3.34 a.m, yesterday the City Fire Brigade received a call to a fivjß-roomed wooden dwelling situated at (JO High street, St. Kilda. The back of the building and the attached outhouses were badly damaged before the fire was cheeked. The house, which is owned by Miss Ef Meade, was unoccupied at the time. No details with respect to the insurances are available, and the cause of the outbreak is unknown.

“ The fact that there is an election coming cannot be allowed to influence the allocation of public finance,” said the Prime Minister (Mr, 6. W. Forbes) at Christchurch, on Saturday, when replying to a deputation that asked for assistance in a scheme to establish a technical school at Papanui. A member of the deputation had suggested that it was a good time to press the matter as an election was to be held shortly. Mr Forbes said he recognised the need for the school and would discuss the whole question with the Minister of Education (Mr H. Atmore).

The cold weather that has been experienced this winter has bekn responsible for a great deal of happiness, not a little of which has been enjoyed at Mount Cook. In view of this the two pages in the illustrated sectipn of the Otago Witness, to be published to-morrow, dealing with the Hermitage Winter Sports meeting, are of special interest and provide a series of views of spirited appeal. The front page shows three beautiful scenic pictures around. Lakes Wakatipu, Manapouri, and Te Anau, the other full page in the issue dealing with the first cricket test match —New Zealand* v. England—which resulted in a draw. There are several half-page subjects: "From Milton to Dunedin: A Well-contested Road Race,” “ Training College Tournament in Christfchurch; The Cathedral City Wins the Shield,” “ The First Challenge Match for the English Trophy (Association Football),” and “The Waitaki Hydro Electric .Works, showing the Otago Bank of the River.” Other interesting pictures- include “The Wigram Challenge Cup: A Dunedin Pilot First Holder of the Trophy,” “ Anti-dazzle device Invented in Greymouth,” “A Portable Glasshouse in Christchurch,® and “The First Wash-up of the Golden Progress Mine at Oturehua.”

A return of the estimated population of the Dominion of New Zealand, dependencies, and mandated territory, furnished by the Government Statistician, shows the figures to be 1,574,104, including 804,301 males and 769,803 females. The estimated population of New Zealand proper, including Maoris, at June 30, 1931, is shown as 1,512,627, comprising 772,466 males and 740,161 females. Cook Islands, Niue, etc., contain 15,048 souls; Tokelau Islands, 999, and Western Samoa, 45,430.

The failure of a woman teacher from Otago to give her age when applying .for a position under the Auckland Education Board, caused some amusement at a meeting of the board on Wednesday. The secretary, Mr D. W. Dunlop, said the teacher had failed to give her age when applying, and no reply had been received to a request for it. TI suppose it is a lady’s privilege,’’.said Mr Dunlop. "We might find she is bordering on the retiring age,” said the chairman, Mr A. Burns. An opinion that the merger between the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Union Steam Ship Company will have a pronounced effect for the better in the personal and trade relations between Canada and New Zealand was expressed by Mr John T. Campbell, travelling passenger agent to the Canadian Pacific Railway, in the course of an interview in Christchurch. The merger, he said, would be to the mutual benefit of both countries. There was no doubt, said Mr Campbell, that the barriers which had existed would be removed, and that the move would result in considerably increased traffic to New Zealand. By means of booklets and general literature, dealing with New Zealand and Australia, the Canadian Pacific Railway was doing a great deal to advertise both countries overseas. The whole idea of the' merger was to keep the British flag in the forefront of shipping, and, in the case under review, it would be on the Pacific in common with the attempts of Canada and England to bring it about on the Atlantic. The assets of the Canadian Pacific Railway were £300,000,000, and the organisation was the largest in the world, just as the Union Steam Ship Company was the largest organisation of its kind in New Zealand, and there could be no doubt that the benefits to both countries would be considerable.

Two men who left Auckland in a yacht on July 7 go fishing in Hauraki Gulf have not been of since July 15, and the matter was reported to the police in Auckland on Thursday. On July 7, Mr George Stanley Gee, a young man residing af Sylvan avenue, Milford, accompanied by Captain Cambridge, of Norwood road, Bayswater, left in a keel yacht to go fishing in the gulf. Both (says the Auckland Star) are experienced seamen and yachtsmen. They were last heard of on July 15, when word was received from Mr and Mrs Overton, of Great Barrier Island, by Mr Phillip Stanley Gee, father of one of the men on the yacht. The Overtons said that Captain Cambridge and Mr Gee, jun., called and had dinner with them on July 15, when they afterwards left for Whangaparapara, a harbour on Great Barrier Island. No further word had been received of the men. Mr Gee, sen., says he has faith in both men. The yacht, he adds, is well found in every way, but as Mrs Gee is anxious, he decided to report the matter to the police. The boat sailed, by Captain Cambridge was formerly the well-known racing yacht Wanderer. No search party has yet left to look for the missing men.

The new stamps that have been issued for the purpose .of the collection of tn* i wages tax of 3d in the £ are of plain design, and it is obvious that they are intended for utility rather than b,eauty. Not being postage stamps, they will not appeal to philatelists; in fact, it is doubtful if they will be welcomed by anyone except the Government, which wants the money they represent. The outstanding feature of their design is the numeral denoting their value. The name New Zealand is at the top in prominent letters, and immediately below this in small letters is the value in words. Beneath this is the large figure, and at the bottom “ Unemployment Relief.” Filigree panels at the side add a little dash of ornamentation. The colour of the stamp that washes out 3d in each £ of one’s wages is itself a washed-out plum colour. .. .5

A petition asking for the repatriation of Asiatics in New Zealand is to be circulated by the executive of the White New Zealand League, with a view to its presentation to. Parliament this session. This course was decided, by the executive of the league at a meeting last week. The prer sident, Mr M. Cronin, presided over an attendance of 10 members. It was mentioned that there were 6000 Asiatics in New Zealand keeping Europeans out of employment.

“ If can be taken for granted that many boys and girls are being kept at school because there are no positions available for them, but it must be increasingly difficult for men who are numbered with the unemployed to provide the necessities for their children’s education,” stated Dr Hensen, principal of the Christchurch Technical College, in a report to the board on Friday night. “Undoubtedly, young people who are not at work ought to be at school, and I hope that the Government will help parents to, keep them in attendance by the issue of free books if necessary. This concession was withdrawn after March 31, but it would pay the Government to reinstate it if it had the effect of keeping a number of young people usefully occupied. Further, it would possibly be profitable to the country if the Government would consider the establishment of education . centres' for young men and women, say in their late teens, who have lost their positions or who cannot find suitable work. Their education could be a combination of the cultural and practical, and if given, for even 10 or 12 hours per week, it would help the students and the results would repay any small cost im volved.” : ' • - -

The increase in smoking amongst-both sexes, and the rather free and easy ways of smokerk generally, have resulted in the indiscriminate use of railway carriages by smokers to an extent that has rendered some fresh arrangement necessary in England, and there a compromise has been reached on some lines by marking only, non-smoking carriages, so that the great' majority of travellers may keep out of them, and thus not annoy those to whom the smell of tobacco is really unpleksant. Seeing “ non smoking ” on some local carriages, people were inclined to think that the English innovation was being’ established here, but the fact was that on these particular trains there was a shortage of non-smoking carriages, and the paper labels that gave rise to the supposition were pasted up on carriages equipped for smokers’ use, for the occupation of non-smokers. It is Dot the intention of the New Zealand Railways at present to depart from its established custom in general.,. While it is contemplating further action to meet the 'position, the Auckland Education,Board, in cqnformity with the declaratory judgment given by, the Supreme Court, has decided to withdraw-the notices of dismissal served on married women teachers in its employ. Over 50 teachers are affected by the decision. “We must now bow to the judgment of the highest court in the land,” said the chairman, Mr A. Burns* at Wednesday’s-meeting of the board, when the court’s judgment, holding that the board had not : powe r to dismiss married women teachers under a section of the Finance Act, 1931 (No. ,2), was presented. “In consequence of the judgment the notices of dismissal sent out to over 50 married teachers will now be null and void.” On the motion of Mr E. C. Banks, it was decided there and then to with; draw the notices.

A heavier fine than .usual in compensa- 1 tion for the suppression of the defendant’s name was imposed by Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M., in the-Magistrate’s Court at Lower Hutt, upon an elderly man who pleaded guilty to a charge of having been unlawfully ion the Trentham racecourse, from which he was excluded under the Gaming Act because of a conviction for theft. Th,e facts of the - I*case, 1 *case, as given by Detective W. M’Lennan, were substantially agreed to by Mr R. Bothamley, who appeared for the defendant. Mr Eothamley said that 12 years ago his client had been convicted of theft and had paid the penalty. Since then he had gone straight and had built up a successful businessin Wellington. For the present offence he did not wish to escape punishment, but he did not want it to fall .upon his wife and family, which would happen if his name was published. Mr Bothamley asked that the name be suppressed. Mr Woodward said that it was part of the penalty that a man’s wife and family should have to bear the odium resulting from a conviction. It he averted that he would have to compensate for it by a higher monetary penalty. He would suppress the name and impose a fine of £ls. , ,

The Classical Association and the Otago Institute invite the public to the Rev. W. A. Curzon-Siggers’s lecture on “Erasmus and the Revival of Classical Learning,” which will be given in the Museum Lecture Room to-morrow evening at 8 o’clock. Save your eyes. Be wise, and consult W. V. Sturmer (optician, 2 Octagon), thus conserving good vision for old age.— Advt. A. E. J Blakeley and W. E. Bagley, dentists, Bank of Australasia, corner of Bond and Rattray streets (next Tele.graph Office) Telephone 12-359.—Advt. To see well, see us.—Peter Dick, jewellers, watchmakers, and opticians, 490 Moray place, Dunedin.—Advt.