NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24738, 15 October 1941, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

A PLEASANT and exciting homecoming was experienced yesterday by a Dunedin soldier, who was recently invalided home after serving overseas, but not in the Middle East. He is Private W. L. Kirkham, formerly of the New Zealand Medical Corps, whose wife gave birth to a son in the Queen Mary Hospital on October 7. On his arrival by train yesterday morning, Private Kirkham was met by a member of the Otago transport section of the Red Cross Society, and driven directly to the maternity hospital, where a happy reunion took place, and a proud father made his first acquaintance with a tiny son. Stockings to Supply New Zealand

Five New., Zealand women recently went to Australia to engage in work not unconnected with the war. One of them, writing to her parents on October 3 from Melbourne, speaks of a walk through the city: “We all just gasped at the shops—stockings to supply the whole of New Zealand just in a couple of streets; marvellous supplies of everything except small purses to put in a hand-bag.”

More Army Motor Transports With a view to building up the strength of the motor transport section of the Otago military area, a convoy of new troop carriers will arrive from Burnham within a few days. Ten members of the motor transport staff left yesterday by train for Burnham to drive some of the trucks to Dunedin, while others will be driven down by members of the Army Service Corps stationed at Burnham. The additional transports will enable a larger number of units to engage in manoeuvres at the same time.

The Bank of England Mr John Maynard Keynes, the economist,’is to be proposed to fill the vacancy in the directorate of the Bank of England caused by the death of Lord Stamp in an air raid this year. The proposal is regarded by the Manchester Guardian as both surprising and significant —surprising because Mr Keynes has been a vigorous opponent of all the Bank has stood for under its present Governor, and significant because in the difficult years of post-war reconstruction his advice may well be as beneficent in the city as it has lately been at the Treasury.

Six Planets Visible All the planets visible to the unaided eye are at present in the evening sky. Mercury can be located in the last of the twilight glow in the western sky, with Venus a brilliant object slightly higher. Mars rises in the east at sunset and remains visible all night. Jupiter. Saturn, and Uranus are all in the constellation Taurus, and can be seen above the north-eastern horizon about 11 o’clock. Saturn is about six degrees south of the Pleiades cluster, with Uranus lying about midway between the two. Jupiter is further east, below the prominent constellation of Orion.

“ They Hadn't Found Me Out ” His visit to Canada, which, he said, was doing a great job of work in the production of war equipment, had one personal experience for Mr J. G. Coates which he thought worth recounting to the annual meeting last night of the Dunedin Manufacturers’. Association. Mr Coates said that he delivered a speech to an audience of French Canadians in Quebec as part of a recruiting campaign. “I may say that I have had worse receptions in New Zealand than they gave me at Quebec,” he said with a smile. “It was very successful. They hadn’t found me out there.”

,Value of the Vegetable Plot The address by Mr J. G. Coates to the annual meeting last night of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association had its lighter moments. One of them was in praise of the garden of Mr Philip Barling’s home. “ Glenfalloch.” Macandrew Bay. Mr Coates spent a restful hour there yesterday afternoon, and its beauty inspired him to speak of his own gardening prowess. It was as a grower of vegetables that he made his claim to success, and he gave point to his remarks by saying that if every householder devoted more attention to a vegetable garden, probably the increase in the cost of living would not be quite such a burden. Improved Service Required

“ We arc a long-suffering people, and we should ask that the week-end services should be improved,” said Mr J. C. H. Somerville when discussing railway and mail services in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association last night. Mr Somerville said that it should be insisted that night expresses should be run each way between Dunedin and Christchurch on Fridays, enabling passengers to spend two clear days in either city and to return by the night express on Sundays. He referred to the 'difficulties that existed in respect to week-end mails, and expressed the opinion that a mail train to the north at 11 a.m. on Mondays was essential. Religion in Schools

His belief that no change could be secured in the official attitude to religious education in New Zealand unless the churches could go to the Government “with some sort of agreed proposals” was expressed by Archbishop West-Watson in his address to the Anglican Synod service in the Christchurch Cathedral. “ I am also inclined to think that the Government would welcome such agreement and that, it it could be assured that it was not to be involved in inter-church conflict, it would meet the churches in a generous spirit.” He commended to synod a motion for co-operation with mher synods and other denominations in “a new nation-wide movement to strike out the word ‘secular’ from the Education Act. and to plan a programme for reform.” Religious Colour-line

It was to be deplored that divisions between Maori and pakeha in Church matters still existed, said Bishop W. J. Simkin at the Auckland Diocesan Synod. The ministrations of pakeha clergy were not always welcome to Maoris, and vice versa. In one district which was temporarily without a vicar the parties to two weddings would not use the services of a Maori minister who was available, but brought a European minister many miles tef officiate. The same occurred at a funeral, a sacred occasion when such distinctions ought surely to huve been ignored. The bishop added that he was doing everything possible to lessen the division by insisting that Maori clergy should be given a full part in all diocesan services. At his own consecration he had arranged that the Bishop of Aotearoa should be one of the two bishops who presented him.

Coffee for breakfast. Order from your erocer a tin of “ Bourbon,” the coffee of quality Instructions in every tin. Prepared by Durie’s, coffee specialists 32 Octagon. Dunedin.—Advt. For rings, watches, and Jewellery, try Peter Dick, jewellers, 59 Princes street. Dunedin. —Advt.