WESTERN SAMOA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23352, 18 November 1937, Page 10

WESTERN SAMOA

The reply which the Prime Minister gave to Mr Forbes in Parliament on Tuesday night respecting the office of Administrator in the mandated territory of Western Samoa cannot be said to be satisfactory. More than two years have elapsed since this office became vacant. During this period Mr A. C. Turnbull has discharged tire duties of the Administrator, but has at no time possessed a status higher than that of a locum tenens. Mr Savage says that the Acting Administrator is doing good work. The Government, however, has not thought fit to recognise this good work by appointing him to the office of Administrator. It might have freed itself, temporarily at least, from the importunities of those of its supporters Who are seeking appointment to the office if it had promoted Mr Turnbull. And surely it should be apparent to it that Mr Turnbull occupies a very invidious position in the fact that he is required to perform the duties of Administrator without enjoying the prestige which the appointment to that office would bestow on him. The Samoans will themselves have been quick enough to form impressions unfavourably to Mr Turnbull from their knowledge that, though he has exercised authority for a lengthy period, the Government has refrained from granting him the corresponding status. While he has had to cope with conditions that have worsened through ill-advised actions on the part of the Government itself, his authority has necessarily been weakened by the fact that he has all the time been a merely temporary occupant of the Administrator’s office. This is unfair to Mr Turnbull himself, and is not conducive to a smooth handling of the affairs of the territory.

Overseas Mail The Awatea left Sydney on Tuesday for Auckland with 41 bags of Australian mail and the London air mail of November 3. The air mail should be to hand to-morrow afternoon, or, at latest, on Saturday, and the ordinary mail on Monday morning. The air mails despatched on October 27 reached London on Sunday last. The despatch of English mails via San Pedro, which left Dunedin on October 16, reached London on November 15

Angler’s Big Basket A correspondent advises the Otago Acclimatisation Society that in October, when fishing in the’ Upper Gatlins, he caught 75 fish of an average weight of lalb. The heaviest fish was 4Jlb. The fish were all in good order.

Burnside Stock Sale A double market was held at Burnside yesterday, and both fat cattle and fat sheep brought high prices. There were 394 fat cattle yarded; including several trucks of prime heavy bullocks though the quality over all was n . more than fair. There was a firming of 10s to 15s a head at the commencement, and a further advance of 10s a head later. Extra prime heavy bullocks made from £2O 17s 6d to £24 2s 6d; prime, £l6 7s 6d to £l9 17s 6d: medium and light, £9 10s to £l2 7s 6d; extra prime cows and heifers, £ll 17s 6d to £l3 17s 6d. Extra prime bullocks made £2 4s per 1001 b; prime, £2 Is 6d; prime cows and heifers. £2; prime, £8 17s 6d to £ll 12s 6d; medium and light, £5 2s 6d to £7 7s 6d.' Only 199 stores were submitted, consisting mostly of aged cows and some heifers. These sold at late rates, one pen of well-bred four-year steers making to £lO Is. The fat sheep pens held 2148, for the most part shorn. Throughout the sale they were firmer by Is 6d to 2s 6d a head until the end. when there was a slight firming tendency. Prime heavy woolly wethers made from £2 2s to £2 8s; prime. £1 18s to £2 Is 6d; prime heavy shorn, £1 18s to £2 4s; prime, £1 15s to £1 17s 3d; medium and light, £1 5s 3d to £1 Us; prime heavy woolly ewes £1 16s to £2 Is; prime, £1 12s 3d to £1 15s 6d; medium and light, £1 8s to £1 9s 9d; prime heavy shorn ewes, £1 15s to £1 16s 3d; prime, £1 11s 9d to £1 13s 6d; medium and light, £1 6s 3d to £1 7s 6d. There were 275 fat lambs offered, but the quality was only fair and values eased. Extra prime lambs made to £1 10s 3d; prime, £.l 4s 9d to £1 6s; light and unfinished, £1 to £1 Is 6d. In a yarding of 197 fat pigs, porkers were in the majority. Baconers brought from £3 8s to £5 2s, and porkers £2 5s to £3 Bs.

Coronation Oaks In April of this year the Automobile Association of Great Britain, in conjunction with the Roads Beautifying Association of England, sent out to the various Automobile Associations in the Dominion parcels of acorns which, with the King's permission, had been taken from Windsor Park. It was suggested that they should be planted alohg main highways to commemorate the Coronation. A parcel of 50 acorns was sent to the Otago Association and was handed to the superintendent of reserves (Mr D. Tannock) for germination. The young trees are now about seven inches high and are doing well, and should be ready for planting out in the autumn. The association has not yet decided where the trees will be planted, but as they were allotted to the Otago district, they will probably be distributed as widely as possible throughout the province.

Literal Obedience An amusing situation arose in an action, the hearing of which was commenced in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth on a recent morning. When the court resumed its sitting at 10 o’clock, the plaintiff in the next action to be heard was placed in a waiting room by his counsel and told to remain there until called. His case was not commenced till after 12 o’clock, but the plaintiff was not required to give his evidence until the afternoon session of the court opened at 2.15. At that hour counsel went to look for his client, who was still in the waiting rooni, having obeyed the instruction to the letter, to the extent of waiting right through the luncheon interval. The indulgence of the court was sought and obtained, Sir John Reed extending the adjournment period for a short while to enable the plaintiff to obtain some refreshment before giving his evidence,

Tenor and Bass The honourable member for the Bay of Islands (tenor) and the honourable member for Franklin (bass) have intimated to the secretary of the Royal Wellington Choral Union that they would like to sing in the gala performance of Handel’s “ Messiah,” to be given by the combined Auckland and Wellington choral societies in the Auckland Town Hall on Saturday evening, December 11. Arrangements, therefore, have been made for them to attend the Royal Wellington Choral Union’s rehearsals. Mr A. C. A. Sexton, the member for Franklin, sang in the ranks of the basses of the Auckland Choral Society for several years, and Captain Rushworth, the member for the Bay of Islands, has, it is understood, had experience as a tenor in choral work.

Hospital Fees Remitted Since the financial year 1929-30, the sum of £151,993 in fees has been written off by the Taranaki Hospital Board. The amount outstanding in current accounts on the board’s books at present is £54,108, an increase of £23,8§2 since 1929-30. It was reported at a meeting of the board on Tuesday that last year the amount written off was nearly £26,000. Besides that, discounts had been given of approximately £3OOO a year. Accounts written off by the board the other day totalled £2200. The secretary (Mr A M. Williams) reported that, although the number of patients at the New Plymouth Hospital was fewer than for the same period last year, patients’ fees collected so far this year were 25 per cent, higher than last year. Fees collected would undoubtedly reach a record figure this year and would approach £IOO per occupied bed.

Friends of the Soviet The twentieth anniversary of the Russian revolution was celebrated in Melbourne during a recent week-end. There was no bloodshed, no terror, ho angry word spoken. Any passing reference made to the terrible days late in October, and early in November. 1917, were spoken with an Oriental fatalism which admits that a nation is born in travail and suffering. The occasion was also the second Victorian Congress of Peace and Friendship with the U.S.S.R. It was ushered in with a Mazurka in D minor by Polovinkin, and continued throughout four sessions in the benign and scholarly air of the classroom with just the nicest evangelistic touch. A university professor, presiding at one session, invited those present to buy a penny postcard each, all ready with greetings to the comrades of the U.S.S.R. and post them to the president of the Presidium This, he said, might seem a kindergarten proceeding to us. but Ivan Ivanovitch is a big. sentimental fellow almost childlike in his simplicity. Congenial Australian audiences were told about women and children in the Soviet Union, Soviet Science, Soviet Culture, Soviet Justice, and so on by numerous speakers in tones of undisguised admiration. Most of the speakers clearly believed (says the Melbourne Age) that we in Australia by comparison are a backward, rude, and oppressed people, but they were too polite actually to say so.

Advice to Youth “ I would advise any person in this country, if he wants to work and make good, to stay here,” said Mr F. J. Marshall, of Morrinsville, who has returned from a visit to Great Britain. “ I would not recommend any young person who has to depend on what he earns to go to England, for if a man cannot make a living here he will certainly starve over there.”

Speech Defect Training The Otago Education Board yesterday received a letter from a parent thanking the teachers of the Speech Defect Class for “ the wonderful improvement that had been effected in his boy.” The boy now had all the interests of a normal boy, the letter stated, and had been able to dispense with the use of glasses as the result of the course of concentrated visual training that he had gone through. The chairman (Mr James Wallace) said that a prominent Dunedin citizen happened to visit the class recently and was astounded by the work that was being done there. “The general public does not realise the amount of social work that is being done in these departments that are outside stra ghtout education,” he said. “it really is amazing, and if the public had an opportunity to appreciate it to the full I am satisfied there would be big responses to any appeals that we might have make for assistance. The teachers are, working for the love of their work and not merely for £ s. d.” Other members of the board spoke similarly, and it was decided to forward a copy of the letter to the teachers of the special class.

Invercargill Bequests Under the will of Mrs E. M. Handyside. formerly of Invercargill, who died at Hastings on October 26, the following public bequests are made - —To the Salvation Army, to be applied towards the general purposes of the Army in the Southland district. £250; to St. John’s Anglican Church. Invercargill, £250; to the Invercargill branch of the Plunket Society, £250; to the controlling authority of the Victoria Home for Girls, Invercargill, £250.

Seventy-five Years in Dominion Sevenly-fiVe years of her 94 years have been spent by Miss M. Parsons, of Wanganui, in New Zealand. She celebrated her ninety-fourth birthday on Saturday. Miss Parsons has vivid recollections of early days of the Dominion, when settlers experienced hardship unknown to the present generation. and strife with the Maoris was common. With her family she landed in Auckland in 1882. after a long passage from the Old Country. They left immediately for the Hawke’s Bay district, where Mr Parsdm took up a sheep run some 30 miles inland. For some time they worked their farm, and were becoming well settled when Te Kooti and his war-mad Hau Haus swept down in an orgy of looting and killing, and they were forced to flee for their lives. The Parsons moved to near Napier, but the# left there in ■IBBO and went to the Wanganui district, where they once again took up farming.

Devotion to Prayers One passenger on the liner Mariposa, which was at Auckland on Monday, did not make any pretence at interest in the scenic sights of the city. While other through travellers made the most of the short stay in port, this passenger, a Mohammedan, spent the day from sunrise until sunset in prayer. His devotions continued during the Customs check on travellers before the ship’s departure for San Francisco, and a certain amount of persuasion was required before he attended the check, some time before sunset

Chinese Battle Filmed The fearfulness of modern warfare to the civilian population by raids by air bombei’s has been caught by the cameraman who filmed the bombing recently of Shanghai by the flotillas of Japanese aircraft, and for the first time in New Zealand a picture of this type will be screened at the St. James Theatre to-morrow. The film is so revealing in its length of nearly 600 feet that the management of the theatre has decided not to include it in the programmme proper, but to sci'een it at the conclusion of the other pictui'es. As many may have no desire to see the film, sufficient interval will be allowed for them to leave the theatre. The film and its presentation are both .departures in a New Zealand picture house.

We have I'eceived £3 3s from Canon C. H. Statham for the Far East Relief Fund.

We stock the best and highest class Fishing Tackle, Electrical Supplies of every description, Wii-eless Valves and Accessories. We keep a competent staff of electricians for electrical jobbing and contracting.—Barth Electric. Ltd., 36 George street, Dunedin.—Advt. ‘ Eye Strain— Fop 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.