NEWS IN BRIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24792, 17 December 1941, Page 9

NEWS IN BRIEF

There can be few records of family service like that of an Ashburton man who has been medically examined for service as. He went to the last war and in the present war had a son taken prisoner at Dunkirk, has two daughters doing V.A.D. work in the Middle East, has had two other sons called up for service overseas, and he will be going overseas himself before long. See the new season's Mantles, Frocks, Coats, Hats and Knitwear. All the new styles and colours and at unbeatable prices. Call early; many cannot be replaced. Your inspection invited. Mosgiel Drapers, A. F. Cheyne and C 0... "We are all conscientious objectors in a sense; none di us want war, but because we object to it we are not going to sit down and let the blighters walk all over us, and so it is that we go forward to fight," stated the Rev. W. T. Drake, speaking on behalf of the Hastings Ministers' Association at a. function in Hastings recently for soldiers on leave. " It is astonishing to find the number of infants attending school who cannot give their correct addresses," stated the headmaster of a Hamilton school, in reporting to the School Committee on the arrangements made for any possible evacuation of the children. "It would be very helpful if all parents would make certain that their children know the number of the house and the street they live in." The girls of the Southland Technical College had the privilege at the annual break-up ceremony last week of giving the first performance in New Zealand of the song "Motherland." It is a choral song composed recently by Sir George Dyson, director of the Royal College of Music, and the words are from the poem by William Watson. "Drink and be merry" this Christmas from a hamper procured at Crossan's Waterloo Hotel, Caversham... A Hamilton shopkeeper a few days ago inadvertently dropped two packets of bank notes totalling £32 in a rubbish basket in his shop, and did not realise the fact until after the rubbish removal men had called. Hurrying to the rubbish tip, he explained the circumstances to the man in charge. Then began a search that lasted for several hours, without result. Next day the search was renewed, and eventually one packet, of notes totalling £4 was recovered. Further search that day was unavailing, but it was continued next morning. Within an hour the £2B was recovered. Wise housewives secure all their Xmas baking requirements at "The Big Store," Milton. Quantity prices operate in buyers' favour... The pint of beer carries an excise tax of 4Jd, according to Mr O. Phillips, chairman of Tooth and Co., Ltd., brewers, Sydney. He informed shareholders at the recent annual meeting that within the company's last year there had been two increases in duty on beer, one of 9d in November, 1940, and one of 3d in the late Budget. This brought the total duty to 3s a gallon, 12 times what it was in December, 1914. Thus, on every pint of beer consumed over the,bar counter the Government collected'4Jd in excise. A wheat moisture tester of new design will shortly be made available to wheat-growers in Canterbury. The device consists of a circular container four inches across, into which a measured quantity of wheat is put. The container is then filled with oil. Then there is screwed into the top of the container a measuring cone from which a tube passes into the bottom of the container. The whole device is plunged into boiling salt and water, kept boiling, and the steam expels the oil into the measuring cone. The more water there is in the wheat the more oil is expelled. A gauge in the measuring cone thus shows whether the moisture content is 14, 15, or 16 per cent. and so on.