NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY

A WARM tribute was paid by the Mayor (Mr A. H. Allen), at a meeting of the executive of the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council yesterday, to the 30 or 40 women who have been engaged in the work of “ finishing off ” footless stockings for despatch to men serving overseas. The footless stocking. which is pulled over the boot and stocking, is used to prevent sand from getting into the boot. Supplies are produced bv a mill, which does not possess the' machinery to finish the stockings off. this work being done by voluntary helpers who during the last two years have completed 93.000. From odd lengths and ends they have also made 180 skull caps for despatch overseas. Each stocking took five minutes to complete, the Mayor said, and as the women had spent 8166 hours on the work the cost for labour, which could rpasonably be estimated at 2s an hour, would have been £B6l if the work had been done elsewhere. By making a small charge for a cup of tea for each worker, they had also been able to make a donation to the patriotic funds, and. including this *sum, their contribution amounted to a value of £9OO. War Saving*

In the past nine weeks the total invested in war savings in the Dunedin postal district was £125,173. which exceeded the quota by.£71,263. Infantile Paralysis A boy, aged 11 years, suffering from infantile paralysis, was admitted to the Public Hospital from a district near Dunedin on Monday afternoon. This case, in which there is only slight paralysis, is the first reported in the district since May 11. Sports Equipment for Airmen ' The executive of the Otago Provin- , cial Patriotic Council, at its meeting yesterday, approved a recommendation by the Finance Committee that a grant of £6O for the current year should be made for sports equipment for an Otago Air Force station. It was also decided to recommend to the commander of the station that a replacement fund should be built up from contributions from those using the material, as replacements could not be provided by the council. Visit of United States Marines 'Advice has been received in Dunedin that there is now a possibility that parties of United States Marines, who have served in Guadalcanal’, will spend a short furlough in various South Island centres, in which committees are now busy making the preliminary arrangements. The newlyestablished Visiting Servicemen’s Hospitality Committee of Otago will hold a meeting to-morrow to discuss proposals for the billeting and entertainment of the Dunedin quota. Fine Crop of Carrot* The results that can be achieved by judicious irrigation are amply demonstrated by a crop of carrots grown by Mr F. Swann, of Cromwell The carrots were forwarded to Messrs Nimmo and Blair as typical of the grower's crop. The roots are finely shaped and of giant size, measuring up to 16in in length and weighing up to 41b each. Carrots are scarce in the local vegetable marts this season, ana have to be rationed to retailers. The ceiling price of carrots is fixed at 12s per cwt„ and growers are not very pleased at the figure, which they consider is too low. Handwriting Giving evidence in the Supreme Court yesterday in an acquittance rolls case, Lieutenant R. J. G, Collins, a handwriting expert, said that the handwriting of every person .varied. No one person, he said, ever wrote two words with absolutely and exactly the identical placing.of the letters and the shape of the letters. That statement also applied to a man’s signature. The witness said that there were three types of forgeries. They were the traced forgery (using a tracing paper on top of the writing), the drawn forgery and the written forgery. In the case’ of such a transfer agency as carbon paper, its use could be clearly seen by an ultra-violet lamp, and in other instances there was evidence of pressure in tracing from one paper to the other. The witness explained the method of detection which he adopted in cases of alleged forgery. Patriotic Grant*

At a meeting of the executive of the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council yesterday the Mayor (Mr A. H. Allen) referred to a statement made at a meeting of the Otago Patriotic and General Welfare Association that recipients of patriotic relief had the amount deducted from social security benefits. The secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board (Mr G. A. Hayden) had advised the council a year ago, the Mayor said, that the Commissioner of War Pensions had informed a deputation which waited on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance that where assistance was given individually it would not be taken into consideration by his department. So far as the board was aware, no one would be penalised through benefiting from patriotic funds. It was decided to state a specific case for submission to the Government with a view to having the position rectified. New Zealand Fighter Squadron

The varied life of a New Zealand fighter squadron based on the south coast of England was described by several Dominion pilots in a broadcast from London yesterday afternoon. The squadron flies new super-speed Typhoons made by the same firm that produced the famous Hurricane, and its commander is Squadron Leader Desmond Scott, D.F.C. and bar of Greymouth. The announcer said that Squadron Leader Scott had played a leading part in the pioneer days of night flying and had earned the name of the .“Intruder King.” Squadron Leader Scott himself described the Typhoon as the “finest fighting plane in the world,” and said the squadron gave the Hun no rest. Other pilots described how they dealt with hit-and-run raiders, “shot up” ships in the Channel and trains in France, and escorted bombers and fighter-bombers on offensive missions over occupied territory. A Dunedin pilot, Flight Lieutenant Arthur Umbers, spoke of the high morale of the squadron, while the station leader, an Englishman, sent the following message to New Zealand:—“You have every reason to be proud of your squadron, and I am quite sure you will hear a lot more about it before the war is over.”