NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27357, 5 April 1950, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Closing Of Schools All primary schools under the jurisdiction of the Otago Education Board will close tomorrow afternoon for the Easter holidays, and will reopen again on the following Wednesday. The Otago Boys’ High School will close for the same period, but the Otago Girls High School and King’s High School will reopen a day earlier. The two last-mentioned schools closed for Anniversary Day, but the Otago Boys’ High School remained open, and will add the extra day to its Easter holidays. The Crown Range The Otago Automobile Association has received advice from the engineer of the Lake County that the Crown Range road, which has been closed for some months, is now open for traffic Unavailing Search The police have not yet dicovered any trace of Thomas Evans who has been missing from his home in Caversham since last Tuesday. The search is concentrated in the Ocean Beach-Smaill’s Beach area. Reservoir Storage The water storage in the city reservoirs yesterday morning was 97,786,000 gallons. This represented a loss of 2,070,000 gallons during the preceding day. This has been about the daily figure for the recent loss of storage. Charter For RSA If the Dunedin RSA was able to obtain a charter and the members indicated their wish that a bar should be set up in the clubrooms, the approximate cost of converting the dining room would be £4OOO. This was reported at last night’s meeting of the RSA executive. Anzac Day Visitors Seven of the party of Australian exservicemen who were coming to New Zealand would be present for the Anzac Day ceremonies m Dunedin. This was reported at last night’s meeting of the Dunedin RSA executive, when preliminary arrangements were made tor the visitors to be taken on tour in Central Otago by car. Holiday In Australia Mr W. J. Poison, former member for Stratford, who was sworn in yesterday as a member of the Executive Council and is to become Leader of the Legislative Council, intends to leave in a few days on an extended visit to Australia. He will be accompanied by Mrs Poison. They will travel by air and reach Australia in time for the Royal Agricultural Show in Sydney. Polling Facilities Criticised Criticism at the lack of facilities provided for voting at the licensing poll recently, was expressed by two ministers at a meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery yesterday. The Rev. L. Jones said that-facilities in the Roslyn area were not good, and the Rev. J. W. Olliver said that there had been only one booth in.his area. He thought the situation had been general. Modern Abattoirs Development of the Auckland municipal abattoirs at Westfield, costing £150,000, will provide facilities equal to the best in the southern hemisphere. The City Council is spending £120,000 on building a new beef house, begun in 1947, and has now accepted a tender of £22,800 for the erection of a new chilling unit. Shortages of labour and materials havp hampered the building of the beef house, but the frame of the building has been erected and the work is being expedited. The new buildings and plant are intended to meet, the killing requirements in the Auckland district for the next 20 to 30 years. Drought Affects Trees In an effort to save the trees in Whangarei parks, which have been badly affected by one of the driest summers on record, many thousand gallons of water are being pumped each week.- Trees which have weathered the worst drought conditions in the past 80 years, are either dead or dying. Unless substantial rain falls in the next week or two, there will be no tree ferns left. In some parks rimus are dying off, together with kaiwakas and tanekahas. The parks supervisor, Mr F. Holman, says he nas never seen native bush so badly affected by drought conditions. Theft Of Dollars A large number of silver dollars and a few paper dollars, all good tender, were among a tray of coins stolen from the music shop of W. H. Matthews in Dee street, Invercargill, early on Monday morning. Valued at more than £IOO, ’the coins were on exibition in the window of the shop. The thief smashed the window, grabbed the coins and made off 'before an alarm was given. Blood on the window and the footpath suggested that the person responsible was cut about the hand. The coins included Englisn and foreign samples of the collectors’ art. Later the police arrested a man who will be charged with the theft of the coins. Most of the stolen property has been recovered. American Taste It was his impression after travelling in the United States of America that the American’s aesthetic standards were higher than the New Zealander’s, said Mr A. J. Danks in a luncheon address to members of the Chirstchurch Businessmen’s Club. Such things as shop fittings, the way shop wares were displayed, and the furniture and furnishings he had seen in private homes “were in better taste than in New Zealand. The worst examples of New Zealand taste were absent in America, a possible result of the dominant role that the woman plays in American society. “Maybe she is also the dominant force in New Zealand society, but the Americans at least admit it,’’ concluded Mr Danks, amid laughter.