A Suspicious Fire

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 8

A Suspicious Fire

In the early hours of Wednesday morning a haystack valued at £ls and owned by Mr J. Thomson, of “ Hopehill,” Allanton, was discovered to be on fire. The stack was completely destroyed, and the opinion in the district is that it is a case of incendiarism.

Otago Artists’ Work

While the Association of New Zealand Art Societies has finally selected 32 works for forwarding to London for inclusion in the Empire exhibition of pictures to be shown during the Coronation celebrations, it is very satisfactory to learn that seven of these are by members of the Otago Art Society. All the art societies in the Dominion were invited to make contribution. The members of the Otago Society whose work has been chosen are Miss K. Salmond, Miss lone Todd, Mr Russell Clark, Mr R. N. Field, and Mr A. H. M'Lintock.

Fast Wool Ship A remarkably fast passage of less than 14 days from Wellington to Yokohama was recently completed by the Osaka Shosen Kaisha motor ship Tokyo Maru, which delivered a shipment of wool in less than four weeks after it was sold in Dunedin and a fortnight after the Wellington sale. The Tokyo Maru, which came specially from Australia to lift the wool, loaded 8000 bales at Dunedin and 3000 bales at Wellington. The ship departed from Wellington at 0.20 a.m. on January 12, and arrived at Yokohama during the afternoon of January 25, having made the passage of over 5000 miles in a shade over 13$ days, at an average speed of over 16 knots. The Tokyo Maru and her sister slfip Canberra Maru are motor ships of 6477 tons gross register, and are capable at full power of a speed of 21 knots.

The Oyster Industry A Gazette issued last night announces that the industry of taking oysters from oyster beds has been brought within the scope, of the Industrial Efficiency Act, 1936.

Mosgiel-Dunedin Suburban Trains Following on a local in our columns of Tuesday morning concerning an alteration in the time table of the suburban train at present leaving Mosgiel at 8.14 a.m., a correspondent took exception in yesterday’s issue to the action of the Mosgiel Borough Council in the matter. The town clerk of Mosgiel has explained to us that before the Railways Department approached the Mosgiel Borough Council a vote was taken amongst the travellers on the 8.14 a.m. MosgielDunedin train, and the result was a two-to-one majority in favour of the proposed change. As the Railways Department was aware of the interest taken by the local council to improve railway facilities, it evidently considered it advisable to follow up the taking of the vote by communicating with the local council before deciding to make a change in the time table. With regard to the earlier train, the council merely made the suggestion that the Railways Department might obtain an expression of opinion from those using it as to the advisability, of leaving Mosgiel a few minutes later in the morning.

Petrol from Coal The Minister of Scientific and Industrial Research (Mr D. G. Sullivan) and the Minister of Mines (Mr P. C. Webb), in a joint statement made on the West Coast, said that to produce 45,000,000 gallons of petrol from coal, or twothirds of New Zealand’s requirements, would involve a capital cost of £11,500,000, New Zealand currency, and the production cost would be 14d a gallon, including interest, depreciation, raw material, and operating costs and maintenance under the present known methods of hydrogenation or synthetic production. This cost, the statement added, might at present be considered prohibitive, but if a flow of oil should hot be found in New Zealand, or if the cost of imported petrol were to rise appreciably or other reasons arose, it might be desirable to produce New Zealand’s, own supply of liquid fuels. To obtain 'the necessary information on which a sound policy may be based, a coal survey of the Dominion had been commenced, starting with certain areas near Westport. This involved a geological study of various fields and of individual seams of 90a! and quantitative estimates of the amount of coal involved.

A.S.R.S. Changes Name A decision to change the name of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants to that of the New Zealand Union of Railwayman was made at the biennial conference of the society, which was opened in Wellington on Monday. The president (Mr E. Dash), said, in an address of welcome to the delegates,, that with the coming of the New Zealand Labour Party into power the Executive Council of the society had decided to seek affiliation. Owing to the society’s terms of recognition with the Government,. however, that could not be done immediately, and it had taken 10 months of effort to achieve the objective. The society had been represented at the last Easter conference of the New Zealand Labour Party for the first time. Butter for Ireland

A fact New Zealanders may riot generally appreciate is that Northern Ireland takes large quantities of New Zealand butter annually. The point was mentioned in Christchurch by Sir Basil Brooke, Minister of Agriculture in Northern Ireland, who arrived in Christchurch. He said that the dairying industry in Northern'lreland' took second place to beef production, and every year the Country was short of its butter requirements by about 60 per cent. This was filled by consignments of Australian and New Zealand produce, and the name of both occupied a high place. Northern Ireland also took large quantities of fibre for rope-making.

Blue Gums or Red Gums “I have seen a considerable number of gum trees in New Zealand,” said Senator A. J, M‘Lachlan, Postmastergeneral in the Australian Government, during his visit to Christchurch, “ but they are nearly all blue gums. Why haven’t you imported our best gum? The blue gum . seems to thrive well enough, but it' is not the type that contributes much to the beauty of the landscape, nor is it particularly useful. Our red gum makes excellent timber and is very .beautiful." Senator M’Lachlan said his advice to the people of the West Coast would be to plant more trees. There was a danger of deforestation, and New Zealand would l have to conserve her timber resources. Rotary Conference-. ■ ’• The Pacific area Rotary Conference which is to be held in Wellington on March 1 next and the following days will be attended by delegates from practically all countries bordering, the Pacific, and some distinguished speakers are expected to be present. The American shipping strike, however, has placed obstacles in the way of the attendance of some delegates, and possibly there will not be as many present as was at one time expected.

Price of Fur Skins Due to the continually increasing costs on the English markets, there are prospects of an advance in the price of fur skins, such as musquash, Peschaniki, and marmot. Skins of good quality are difficult to obtain, and even rabbit skins have soared in price. Those firms which possess stocks of well-bought skins will probably find a ready demand for them. r

Fire Brigade Calls The City Fire Brigade was called out on two occasions yesterday, the first being at 2.12 p.m., in response to an automatic false alarm at the Corporation electrical stores in Cumberland street. At 9.55 last night a small outbreak of fire occurred at the Dunedin Engineering Company’s premises in Thomas Burns street,' only slight darhage being done to sbme shelving. Moeraki Centenary

The celebrations in connection with the centenary of Moeraki, which were postponed from last Christmas on account of' the infantile paralysis epidemic, will now be held next December. This decision was reached at a meeting of the committee on Monday N night, the arrangements tentatively made for Easter being abandoned. The actual dates of the celebrations will be December 26, 27. and 28.