NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27317, 17 February 1950, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

High Finance Some agile mathematics must have preceded a letter from the town clerk which was received by the Otago Education Board yesterday. Negotiations had been in progress for the board to dedicate an area of 0.86 poles of land at the Grants Braes School to the council to permit a street corner to be rounded. The board had agreed to the proposal, provided a toe wall was erected for the support of the bank. The town clerk had presumably gone into the cost of the wall in some detail, for he informed the board by letter that its erection would be the equivalent of very substantial compensation for the land—he' had calculated it as the equivalent of £4400 an acre. The board decided at its meeting yesterday to withdraw its original stipulation.

Another Earthquake , An earthquake similar to that experienced on Wednesday was felt in Cromwell at 4.55 a.m. yesterday. On this .occasion the shock was accompanied by a rumbling noise. Whare Flat School

If the approval of the • department is given, the Otago Education Board will sell the old school buildings at Whare Flat to the City Council. The property is sought by the council because of the difficulty of finding men for forestry work unless there is housing available in the area.

No Longer Necessary A request for financial assistance was receiving the serious consideration of members of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Tuberculosis Association at its meeting last night. The request was for the sum of £lO. It seemed to have every chance of being granted until Dr G. L. Brinkman told the meeting that the applicant had recently had a very fortunate wager on a horse race and would probably no longer need the money. Weather In January Just over 224 hours of sunshine were recorded in Alexandra during January compared with 190 hours in Dunedin and 181 in Oamaru. In addition to having the highest sunshine total, Alexandra had less rain than other centres. Its total for the month was 1.58 in, whereas Dunedin had 3.7 in, Balclutha 3.11 in, Oamaru 2.77 in, and Waitaki Hydro 2.36 in. The highest temperature recorded at Alexandra was 90.7 degrees and at Dunedin 82.5 degrees. Praise For Health Camp

“The Roxburgh health camp is the best I have seen,” said the senior inspector of schools, Mr J. C. Hall, at the meeting of the Otago Education Board yesterday. He was suggesting the provision of an extra general purposes room at the camp school, where the roll would soon reach 70 pupils. Occupational therapy played a major part in the daily programme at such a camp, he said, and an extra room would leave the two existing classrooms free for normal school work. The senior inspector and the architect were instructed to provide a report.

Marching Girl’* Long Journey A member of the Greymouth women’s marching team (Miss Flora Hay) proposed to travel 1050 miles in 60 hours to take part in the South Island marching championships at Invercargill this week-end. Miss Hay, who comes from Greymouth, cannot leave Greymouth until Friday evening, and so cannot travel with the other members of the team. After taking part in the contests she will return immediately to Christchurch, from where she will travel back to Greymouth by railcar early on Monday morning. Train, bus, aeroplane and railcar services will be utilised on both the outgoing and return trips. Birch Street Wharf Shed

The construction of the second section of the new shed on the Birch street wharf was progressing satisfactorily, reported the resident engineer, Mr A. C. Swanson, at a meeting pi the Otago Harbour Board last night. The engineer said that the concrete walls had been completed and four portals erected. Boxing for a further two portals was in position. The steel purlins over four bays had been erected and the roof and side wall covering placed and fastened over a length of 64 feet of the building. In reply to a question, Mr Swanson said that the work should be “ pretty well ” completed by the end of March.