Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 48

It was mentioned by Dr Barnett (president of the Medical Congress) on Thursday night that a loan exhibit which should prove of interest to medical visitors is at present to be seen in the museum maintained by the Early Settlers’ Association in Lower High street. It is a copy of the first Medical Register published in the Old Country. The Act providing for tho compulsory registration of medical men was passed in 1858, and this register bears the date of the following year. Two Auckland practitioners, Drs Graves and Kenderdine, were the sole representatives of New Zealand in the book, an insufficient period of time having probably prevented., others complying with the new regulations. The names of a number of doctors who came out to the colony at a later date will, however, be noted. According to the latest report of the Government Statistician, the retail price index for the three food groups as at December 15, 1926, was 1591 (1000 durinq 190913), an increase of 26 points «ince November. The index number shows a 48.7 per cent, increase over July, 1914. It now takes 32s on the average to purchase what 20s would purchase in that month. Marked increases in potato and sugar prices caused a 65 points rise in the groceries group. Meat showed a 22 points decline. A protest was made against what he termed the Acclimatisation Society’s monopoly over the taking and sale of swans’ eggs, by Mr R. Twyneham in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (reports the Lyttelton Times). Mr Twyneham appeared for George Exton, who pleaded guilty to a charge of being in possession of swans’ egers. “Although I plead guilty,” said Mr Twyneham, “there are a few remarks that I wish to make. I think that now it is quite generally thought time that a radical alteration should be made in the law regarding the taking of swans’ eggs. At present the Acclimatisation Society here is taking and selling swans’ eggs. They have a monopoly and are building up quite a nice little business in disposing of the eggs to pastrycooks and other people who can use them. At the present time the lakes around Christchurch and in Canterbury are almost black with swans, and the birds are increasing at a great rate. Yet it is an offence for anyone even to have swans’ eggs in their possession.” Exton was fined 20s and costs on the charge. “The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has referred the report of Dr R. J. Tillyard on New Zealand pests and proposals for their elimination to a carefully chosen committee,” stated Dr E. Marsden, secretary to the depart-, ment (states the Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times). The committee, which is considered to be com-” posed of. the best men available in the Dominion, includes Mr D. Miller (Government entomologist), Mr A. L. Cockayne (in charge of the Fields Division). Dr Hilgendorf (of Lincoln College), Professor H. B. Kirk (of Victoria University College), and Mr Quentin Donald (who is a member of the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research). Similarly the report of Mr B. S. Aston (Government chemist) and Mr Theodore Rigg (of the Cawthron Institute) on the mineral content of pastures has been referred to a committee, the names of which are not yet available. This latter report, says Dr Marsden, is of vital importance in animal growth and nutrition, and is analogous to the iodine deficiency in soil, which is supposed to cause goitre to human beings. These committees will report to the department at an early date on the best way of carrying out the recommendations contained in both reports. Our special correspondent at Wellington reports that the Railway Board on Saturday denied that there was any truth in the statement that the Railway .Department has purchased a site for an underground station in Upper Queen street in Auckland. Eighteen bankruptcies were notified in last week’s issue of the New Zealand Gazette. Twelve of tho number were in the North Island. ’

The Hon. A. D. M'Leod (Minister of Lands) informed our representative on Saturday that the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates) was expected to arrive back in New Zealand by the Makura, which is due to arrive in Wellington on the morning of the 14th inst. The policy of the Government in con nection with the elimination of railway level crossings was briefly stated by the Acting Minister of Railways (the Hon. F. C. Rolleston) in Auckland on Friday (reports our special correspondent), when he opened the new overhead bridge at Newmarket. This bridge eliminates a dangerous level crossing, and the cost has been divided between the Government and the Newmarket Borough Council, the Gov ernment erecting the bridge and the council constructing the road approaches. The Minister said that the only method of doing away with the danger of level crossings was to eliminate the crossings themselves". The policy of his department was to make level crossings reasonable for pedestrians and motorists, but it was impossible to make, any crossing safe for a careless person, and local bodies had the responsbility as well as the Government, and whore the council, as in the case z of Newmarket, proved it was willing to assist the Government would do all it could co Dear the cost of erecting overbridges. Speaking at the special service at St. Joseph’s Cathedral on Sunday morning in connection with the Medical Congress, the Rev. C. J. Collins, Adm., paid grateful recognition of his and his fellow priests* indebtedness to the staff of the Dunedin Hospital. Although the Catholics of Dunedin were, he said, relatively to the other donimlnations, small in number, the priests of the city received the same generous consideration that was extended to the clergymen of other religions in their ministrations to the sick and dying. He could say from observation that in no other hospital in the Dominion were facilities so readily offered them, and his personal experience had been borne out by other chaplains of his faith attached to the institution. The service that morning gave him the opportunity of paying publicly a tribute to the courtesy which it had always been the privilege of the Catholic chaplains to receive from the doctors and nurses connected with the Hospital, and he could assure them that the solicitude for the patients in the matter referred to had not been accepted unappreciatively by the Catholic clergy and laity. Reference is frequently made to the high cost of land in Queen street (reports our special correspondent in Auckland), and the probability of values increasing in the course of the next few years. An instance of the rise in values since the war is provided, by a block of property in Upper Queen street, opposite the Town Hall, and not far from the site which has been chosen for the new underground railway station. A few years ago it was purchased for £lB,OOO, and it was recent! v sold for £26,000. Breaching at First Church on Sunday evening at one of the three services held in the city in connection with the Medical Congress, the Rev. Dr Merrington took for his text, “Luke, the beloved- physician, saluteth you” (Colossians iv; 14). A cordial welcome was extended to visiting delegates, and the hope was expressed that the conference would advance the scientific and general interests of the' profession of medicine and of the community at large. The preacher outlined the progress of the church in Otago, and showed how hand in hand with religious ordinances the cause of education had advanced. The church, under the late Rev. Dr Thomas Burns and the late Dr Stuart, and more recently through Dr Andrew Cameron, bad been the driving force in the matter of the institution and development'- of university education in Dunedin.

The small building near the foot of Rattray street, occupied by Mr H. C. Wakelin, cartage contractor, was -nearly pushed into the middle of the street at midday on Saturday. The building abuts on the footpath, and a line of railway from the shunting yards runs right up to the back of it. ending with a heavily-constructed wooden stop. A long line of trucks was shunted on to this line, and evidently too much speed was used. At anyrate one truck was pushed right over the top of the stop on to the back of the building, and the next truck was derailed. The truck which got crushed, between the stop and the long line of weight behind it has been badly damaged, and the building wears a very shabby appearance.

One of a pair of bronze statuettes has been missing from the saloon of the steamer Moana since that vessel was brought to the wharf at Port Chalmers to be dismantled. Its sudden disappearance has given rise to a popular catch phrase: “Who stole the bronze idol?” When the steamer was berthed a visitor to the vessel noted the artistic modelling of the statuettes, and went to the adjacent offices to learn the price; an official returning with him to the ship. During the few minutes’ absence cne of the ornaments had disappeared. Less than half a dozen people were on the ship at the time, but despite a most careful search, conducted with the assistance of the police, the missing “idol” has not yet been located.

. A large marked stone, known as “Burt’s Stone,” which has lain on the roadside about three miles on tho western side of Matata, and which, presumably, was used by Maoris or some race of the Stone Age as a sharpening stone for their instruments, is at present being packed for despatch to the Auckland Museum (states the Star). The top of the stone has been hewn off, and the markings are generally intact, except for some chippi-g that has 1 een done in the past by souvenir hunters. In a paper which he read before the Otago stitute in 1920 Dr F. Fulton, of Dunedin, said the stone was of hard, volcanic-look-ing rock, possibly meteorite. As far as he could judge there was no sign of any similar stone in the neighbourhood. He was informed that the Maoris asserted that they knew nothing about it, and that the grooves in tho surface were the work of preMaori days..