Suburban Fares Extended

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 8

Suburban Fares Extended

From June 21 next railway suburban fares will extend from Wellington to Paekakariki, following the opening of the Tawa Flat tunnel passenger service.

Greetings Acknowledged The following message has been received by the Governor-General (Lord Galway) in reply to the message which his Excellency sent to Queen Mary on the occasion of her birthday:—" My warmest thanks to the Government and people of New Zealand for their good wishes."

The Pope's Birthday Pope Pius XI will be 80 years old to-day. The pontiff announced recently that he intends to celebrate the event by attending the inauguration of the reconstituted Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which is composed of 70 famous scientists—non-Catholics as well as Catholics —of 15 nations. City Police Court

A fine of 10s. in default 24 hours' imprisonment, was imposed by Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., in the City Police Court on Saturday on Edward Charles M'Loughlin, who pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness.

Cockayne Memorial Fund According to the annual report of the Royal Society oi New Zealand, the sum of £9l has been received in the last 12 months in donations to the fund to establish a memorial to Dr Leonard Cockayne, making a total of £221. "It is regretted that the response to the appeal for funds for a memorial to a man who contributed so much to botanical knowledge in New Zealand has been so slow," stated the report. "It is hoped by means of a second circular to those who have not yet contributed to the fund to augment the amount so that the purpose of the memorial may be fulfilled."

Hector Medal Awarded The award of the Hector Medal and Prize to Mr J. R. Hosking, B.Sc, Ph.D., of Wellington, for his research in the chemistry of New Zealand plants was announced at the annual meeting of the council of the Royal Society of New Zealand last week. The award is made annually for work in various sciences in rotation, and it was the turn of chemistry this year. Professor W. P. Evans, convener of the committee appointed to recommend a recipient, said the committee was of the opinion that Dr Hosking had added to the world's knowledge of plant resins, and drew special attention to his work on the resin and essential oil of the kauri, the resins of the genus Dacrudium, and the toxic principle of the ragwort. The amount was fixed at £SO. Dr Hosking is the eldest son of Sir John Hosking, formerly of Dunedin. The Hamilton Award was given to Mr C. 0. Hutton, of the University of Otago. The amount was fixed at £4.

Certificates of Fitness The intention of the City Council Traffic Department to take measures shortly to ensure that every motorist is able to produce a warrant of fitness was mentioned on Saturday by the chief inspector (Mr H. S. M'Nicoll). "I cannot say that a great many motorists have not got their certificate,", he said. A large number had been checked, but as soon as the registration rush was over his dapartment would undertake an extensive campaign. "The certificates are necessary," he added, " and we are going to see that motorists give their co-operation." Guidon for Mounted Rifles

An appeal is at present being made for contributions towards the purchase of a guidon for the Otago Mounted Rifles, a regiment which has a long and honourable association with the history of the province. The guidon is a banner carried by mounted regiments and bearing their battle honours, in the same manner as the colours carried by infantry regiments. The committee in charge of the fund acknowledges contributions from Messrs G. Shaw (Elfin Bay), D. Broderick (Mornington), F. Freeman (Wanaka), N. R. Wilson, E. R. Smith, H. Horrocks (Anderson's Bay), and " Wellwisher." The committee is aiming at the collection of £2OO, which is about the price of a guidon and accessories, and the amount now in hand is £llO. An impetus should be given to the appeal by the fact that Colonel J. Cowie Nicholls, who was the first commanding officer of the regiment, has offered to subsidise £ for £ any further contributions towards the raising of the sum required.

World's Largest Dredge The resignation of Mr S. E. West, assistant-engineer to the Hamilton Borougn Council, was received at the last meeting of the council. Mr West has been employed by the council since he joined the engineering staff as a cadet 12 years ago. He has been appointed resident engineer for Messrs Anderson's, Ltd., Christchurch, and will take charge of the construction of a very large gold-dredging plant on the West Coast. The dredge is believed to be the largest in the world. In accepting Mr West's resignation, the council placed on record its appreciation of his services

Second K.P.M. Liner News has been received that the steamer Van Rees, which is now en route from Singapore to New Zealand in the South Pacific service recentlv established by the K.P.M. Line with the motor ship Maetsuycker. has been diverted to Wellington, and will arrive there about June 4or 5. It was originally intended that she should first call at Auckland, proceeding thence to Wellington and Sydney. She will later call at Auckland, thence Sydney, Port Moresby, Sourabaya. Samarang, Batavia and Singapore. The Van Rees is a steamer of 3050 tons, and was built at Rotterdam in 1913.

Dionne Quintuplets Three years ago on Friday five baby girls were born to the wife of a poor French-Canadian farmer of Callandar. Ontario. Mr and Mrs Dionne already had five children before the arrival of the quintuplets, but this event did not increase their domestic difficulties, as the children have been made wards of the State, and a special hospital has been erected for them near their home The quintuplets have twice been seen in motion pictures, and have earned a great deal of money from this source. Since their birth the children have been in the care of Dr A. R. Dafoe, and, although the smallest of thes babies weighed only 21b 407 at birth, and the largest only lib more, the quintuplets to-day are little smaller than normal children of their own age. It has been estimated that quintuplets occur only once in 57.000.000 births, and of the 33 cases recorded in medical history during the past 500 years the Dionnes are the firsl to survive. More recently sextuplets were born to a Harijan woman living in the Punjab, and five of these have survived.

Overseas Mails

The Mariposa, which left Sydney for Auckland on Friday, has 105 bags of English and Australian mails for Dunedin in addition to the English air mail of May 15. The air mail portion should be to hand to-morrow afternoon and the balance on Wednesday afternoon. The air mail despatches of May 1 (via San Pedro) and May 9 reached London on Thursday and Wednesday last respectively.

Roads Reported Clear The secretary of the Automobile Association (Otago), Mr W. F. Sutton, reported last night that all roads on the Peninsula and the roads to the Spit were now clear for traffic, although the numerous slips which occurred had not been completely removed.

City Fire Calls A chimney fire in Harbour terrace was attended by the City Fire Brigade at 12.29 p.m. on Saturday. At 5.44 p.m. there was an outbreak at the timber yard in Anderson's Bay road of the Southland and Otago Co-operative Timber Company, where . a small amount of damage was done to a building. A car owned by Mr J. Bremner, of Hyde, caught fire at the Gardens at 4.43 p.m. yesterday. Only slight damage was done. Alterations to Theatre

Owing to the fact that the Marcus Show Revue and Vaudeville Company, which will give its first performance here' next month, comprises a total personnel of 98 members, it has been found necessary to build extra dressing rooms at His Majesty's Theatre. The work will be commenced to-day. The existing accommodation is not sufficient for a company of this size, and in view of the quick changes of costume which must be made during the entertainment adequate dressing-room space is essential. The alterations will be permanent, and will be much appreciated, as later in the year the* necessity will probably arise for catering for another large company.

Missing £SO Note Another case of mistaken identity in which a £SO bank note was involved has cropped up, this time in Auckland. It happened a few days ago at New Lynn, where a resident, who had a windfall of £IOO ana converted it into two £SO bank notes for handy safekeeping, was deeply concerned upon missing one of them. Reluctant to believe that he had been misled into error by the marked resemblance .of the £SO note to the 10s.note, the loser invoked police aid. Official interrogation in the neighbourhood had the small boy element in a nervous condition, before the solution of the mystery was found in the fact that the missing note had been handed by its owner to a bus driver in mistake for a 10s note.

lionsand Industry " I have never been so optimistic about the future of ironsand as I am to-day," said Mr A. T. Christensen, the chairman, at the annual meeting of the Patea Harbour Board. "lam confident that within five years the ironsand industry will have developed to. an extent unbelievable to-day." Mr Christensen added that the iron supplv had decreased enormously during the last few years, md that there was an ever-increasing demand for the material. The use of iron in the construction of buildings and for transport purposes had mucn to do with the demand, which he forecast would assume unbelievable proportions within the next five years.

Child Psychology According to a resolution passed at the interprovincial conference of the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union at Dannevirke - last week, the most-needed educational reform in New Zealand is tnat which recognises the importance of nursery school training by—(a) its incorporation into the regular State school system; (b) the extension of the age for such training to seven years; (c) provision being made as speedily as possible for an adequate supply of scientificallytrained nursery school teachers and up-to-date accommodation. To bring the training of potential parents into line with the nursery school movement, child psychology should be a subject of study in secondary schools it was urged.

Municipal Organ Recital . The city organist (Dr V. E. Gal way) presented another after-church recital in the Town Hall last night, when a large audience showed its appreciation of the well-selected programme. The outstanding item of the evening was the "Suite Gothique," by Boellmann, which was well received and provided a contrast to the vigorous " Fugue in D minor" of Mendelssohn. The serene beauty of the Bach "Air in D .major " and the old-world charm of " Variations on an Original Theme " (Hesse) were given most competent treatment, and other pieces which proved popular wera "A Fountain Reverie" (Fletcher), "The Arbutus Tree," and the march from "Eli." Dr Gal way was assisted by Mrs C. M. Barnett, who sang very well "My Creed" and "The King's Way," and by Miss Audrey M'Caul, who gave an attractive rendering of "LiebesliedWidmung" (Schumann-Liszt). Advice to Sportsmen

The possibility of the Government taking over the work of the acclimatisation societies, and how such a contingency would affect the relationships between sportsmen and landowners, were matters touched on by Dr G. F, Anson, addressing the annual general meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society on Friday night. "If the Government takes over the control of our fish and game, our greatest danger will be commercialisation of sport," said Dr Anson. " I am perfectly certain that, under Government control, sportsmen would have to pay for fishing and shooting privileges. Many people who at present throw open their properties to sportsmen would say, 'What'll we get for it?'" Hence it was incumbent on persons to respect private ownership, stated Dr Anson. " Sportsmen should always ask permission of landowners before going on their property. Call in and see the landowner, give him the news, 'eave him the paper, drop him a bird. That's one of the most important things the shooting and fishing men can do—keep the landowner sweet."

The Railways Department advertises particulars of special excursion fares and train arrangements in connection with the King's Birthday holiday, the Dunedin Winter' Show, and the Dunedin Jockey Club's races. Eye Strain.—For eye comfort or better vision consult Sturmer and Watson. Ltd., opticians 2 Octagon Dunedin.— 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. Those who are requiring an Engagement Ring will do well to inspect our stock. Peter Dick, jewellers and opticians. 488 Moray place. Dunedin.— Advt. ■■