NEWS IN BRIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22654, 20 August 1935, Page 18

NEWS IN BRIEF

Three shifts are being worked daily at the Hutt Railway Workshops, which are just now employing a total staff of 1460. Every department of this enterprise, occupying 60 acres of ground and eight acres and a-half of buildings, and using 6000 h.p. of electric current daily, is very active.

Stock-taking and end-of-eeason bargains at Gray’s Big Store, Milton. . Note that the sale closes on Friday... When the questioa of salaries of nurses came before the Southland Hospital Board last week (reports the Southland Times) Mr W. M. Norman remarked that for the work they did nurses were very inadequately rewarded. With this the chairman (Mr T. Golden) concurred. “It’s the poorest paid profession in the world, I think,” he commented. Included in the cargo which the Kaitoke loaded at Napier for Japan are many twisted girders. These relics of the earthquake of 1931 had been gathered from the sections in the business area as they have been built over since the last visit was paid by a Japanese vessel seeking'cargoes of the same natute about 12 months ago. Kenya coffee, a good medium; Mysore, a better body and richer flavour; and Blue Mountain Jamaica, the world’s best, all obtainable from “ Durie’s,” coffee specialists, 32 Octagon, Dunedin... Through the mischievous insertion of a half-penny and a match iA a stamp-vend-ing machine at the Whangarei Post Office the department received 3s 4d without giving any value for the money. The insertion of the half-penny "and the match put the machine out of order, and, although it would accept pennies, stamps could not be obtained. Forty pennies had been thus inserted.

Has anyone ever heard of “ cosmetology”? (asks the Christchurch Press). It is a subject taught to young girls in American schools. Miss Mildred Mansur, one of a party of teachers visiting New Zealand, said that “ cosmetology ” prepared girls to become beauty specialists. Another new subject was “ orientation,” which aimed to give pupils a grasp of what the various occupations offered. Just landed, latest designs in English Striking Clocks; prices from £3. Timepieces from 26s 6d.—Peter Dick, jewellers and opticians, 490 Moray place. Dunedin .. A child of three years and a-half who wandered away from his home in Hamilton East last week was the object of an extensive search by his parents-and neighbours in the locality. Eventually the assistance of Constable H. M. Kirby was -’ enlisted and he recovered the juvenile cause of anxiety nearly a couple of miles away from where he had set out. In the hour he had been missing he must have covered over three miles from all accounts.

The North Island Maoris are organising Maori choir competitions on a comprehensive scale, and arrangements made for a big gathering in Gisborne next March will comprise an important part of this ?l an •• Those guiding the destiny of the Maori people'realise the importance of various tribes meeting in friendly rivalry, and these gatherings have done much to heal old tribal differences which no other scheme ’has been able to remedy. £ Grandism (2652); Glovin—Central heating this winter. Glovin replaces the vitality you lose in damp, sunless weather. 5s bottle... -

The ravages of chamois and thar on mountain flora were referred to by Professor Arnold Wall in the course of his lecture at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on "Alpine Plants of New Zealand (states the Auckland Star). These animals had spread to such an extent near Mount Cook, said the professor, that not one species of the great buttercup could now, be found. A lantern slide, showing an area of . Mount Cook, illustrated how chamois and thar had depleted the vegetation. _ Th e council of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society recently decided to arrange for the sign-posting of all . rivers its area. The delegates of -the various clubs offered to do the work if the stencils were made available. It was felt the naming of the rivers and main streams would be appreciated by all. One delegate suggested that the work could be better and more thoroughly done if the association sought the co-operation of'the Automobile Association and the Tourist Department. Do without luxuries, but take necessaries regularly. Wm. Crossan supplies the necessaries from the Waterloo Hotel, Caversham...

A chance discovery by Mrs W. W. Sampson, of Wellington, upon her property at Silverstream, may prove to have solved the mystery of how crayfish spawn. A little stream has its source upon her property and increases as it flows to join the river in the valley. The construction of a track in the cliff above a bathing pool led to the discovery of thousands upon thousands of New Zealand freshwater crayfish emb'eddgd in the blue pug some 50 feet or more above the pool ou the shady side. These varied in size from the full-grown members to perfectlyformed crayfish no larger than the head of a pin. The larger were crusted with eggs. The Otira tunnel, connecting link between Canterbury and the_ West Coast, has been 12 years open this month. In that time there has passqd through it a total of more than 5,500,000 tons of freight, and the yearly records of the. freight handled have been an accurate reflection of the fluctuating prosperity of the coal and timber industries on the West Coast, for which the tunnel is one of the two main outlets. Within the last two years substantial increases in the volume of timber sent eastward from West Coast mills have swelled the tonnage figures considerably. For the first seven months of this year this increase is more than maintained —proof of the success which has attended the attempt made to reorganise the timber industry and bring it to something like the prosperity it enjoyed some seven or eight years ago.

Last week of Sale, Buy now and save on every purchase. A good selection in each Department. Call to-day. Your inspection invited. The Mosgiel Warehouse. A. F. Cheyne and C 0... Undoubtedly the best business carried on in Napier on a recent Saturday was near the Borough Council Chambers, where a boy set his stand with white enamel and paint brush and painted cycle mudguards white in conformity with the traffic regulations. He charged Sd per mudguard (reports the Hawke’s Bay Herald). When a reporter asked him about mid-dav how many he had painted, the boy replied: “Oh, gee! I couldn’t keep count.” He carried on his job dur-* ing the W T hen he sees the hundreds of cycles in the .Napier borough with white rear mudguards, he will be entitled to reflect, “ I have done something really worth while.” As an explanation of his remarks at the recent, Hawke’s Bay fruitgrowers’ conference, the president, Mr R. Paynter, stated that outside the United Kingdom New Zealand exported 270,000 cases last season, which included 80,000 to the Continent, 67,000 to North’ America, 42,000 to South America, and 1000 to .the East. The policy of the Fruit Control Board for some years had been to try out all possible new markets. Hopes were entertained that a market for New Zealand fruit might develop, in both Egypt and Scandinavia. It was also hoped that the Continental market would be developed to a much greater extent. You cannot do good work with bluet* tools. We employ experts who sharpen • and set scissors of any size. Satisfaction guaranteed.—Dickinson’s Limited, 245 Princes street...

“Your executive is firmly of the opinion that sharing with the worker, as far as possible, in any improvement in wool prices is a principle recognised by both parties as being fair to each,” states the annual report of the Canterbury Sheep Owners’ Union. "It is hoped that prices for wool may advance during the coming season, to a point which will justify a considerable advance in rates of pay to workers in the industry, in tbe event of the parties agreeing to an extension of the present arrangement on the expiry of the existing award.” The report states that arrangements were made for representatives of the employers and the workers to meet the Government Statistician to fix the rates of pay for the 1935-36 season on the index number of wool values for last season.

A convict who escaped from “ jug ” Called, “ Boatman, loose your wherry! And I’ll give you a Hitchon’s ham To row me o’er the ferry.”..