In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 22998, 18 September 1936, Page 8

In Town And Out

Denniston Miners Idle. The Denniston miners were idle on Wednesday and again yesterday over several disputed matters which have been referred to the disputes committee. Pending a settlement the miners may not return to work.—Press Association.

Leisure For Board Members. The members of the Southland High Schools’ Board will sacrifice none of the benefits of the Summer Time Act. This was made apparent at the monthly meeting of the board last evening, when on the motion of Mr F. G. Stevenson, it was decided to hold the meetings in the afternoons during the summer months. The time fixed was 4.15 o’clock. Pneumonic Influenza. The effect of the changeable weather last month on the health of the people of Invercargill and district was shown in the report for August of Dr L. C. McNickle, medical superintendent at the Southland Hospital, received at the monthly meeting of the Hospital Board yesterday. Nineteen cases of pneumonia or pneumonic influenza were admitted to the hospital during August, the report stated. There had been three deaths from pneumonic influenza. New Operating Table. Operating tables are not calculated to inspire confidence in those who lie on them. But those who recline on the new operating table which has been secured by the Southland Hospital Board can do so secure in the knowledge that it is not a table common to every operating theatre. This operating table, which was chosen by Dr J. A. Pottinger during his recent visit to England, is a replica of that in use on the new liner Queen Mary. Centennial Half-Crown. The question of special commemoration coins for New Zealand’s centennial celebrations was discussed at the last meeting of the Numismatic Society in Wellington. Various suggestions as to coins and medals were made, and it was finally decided to make a definite recommendation to the Government that a commemorative half-crown be issued at face value. The society also offered the Government its co-opera-tion in respect to any further coins or medals it might be decided to issue to mark the centennial in 1940. Knowledge of Football, “The public of to-day does not know as much about Rugby football as it did 10 years ago,” said Mr F. H. Masters, a member of the Taranaki Rugby Union’s Management Committee and a Taranaki and North Island selector, at the annual dinner given by Mr J. Power for the Taranaki Referees’ Association. “The majority are ignorant of the laws governing the game,” he continued. “I do not mean ignorant in the harsh sense of the word. The continued alterations in the rules are proving difficult to follow for a large number of the public.”

Radio Facilities For Hospitals. That it had been decided by the Government that free radio-receiving licences were to be granted to public hospitals, benevolent and orphan asylums and other charitable institutions was the substance of a letter received yesterday by the Southland Hospital Board from Mr W. H. B. Veitch, telegraph engineer at Invercargill. This concession would apply, the letter stated, to any such institution under the control of the board. The concession dated from September 1 and steps were being taken to arrange for a refund of the unexpired portion of each current licence held.

Where is the Shield? There is a shield, known to followers of rowing in Southland and Otago, as the Edmond Shield. But what it looks like few, if any, are able to say, because it has now been missing for some nine years. The trophy was originally competed for by both provinces in an annual fours race, but despite the fact that the winning crew in the interprovincial eights’ race, held at Bluff on New Year’s Day last year, expectantly hoped for this trophy as a reward for its triumphs on that occasion, the shield was still missing. At the annual meeting of the Southland Rowing Association it was decided that inquiries should be made as to its whereabouts. To Mark the Coronation.

Crown acquisition of open lands for parks and of remaining patches of native bush is suggested by the Christchurch Beautifying Association as a fitting means of marking in New Zealand the Coronation of King Edward VIII. This suggestion was put to a meeting of the association by the president, Mr R. B. Owen, who said that there were now only a few patches of native bush remaining in Canterbury, and they were deteriorating through the grazing of stock. He thought that the preservation of these areas would be a better means of commemoration than the erection of buildings.

New Zealand Film Publicity. Not enough films showing New Zealand’s tourist attractions are sent to Australia, said Captain Frank Hurley, the well-known explorer and photographer, who arrived at Auckland in the Niagara from Sydney. Only one such film, he said, had been shown in Australia in the last 12 months so far as he knew, and the reception given to this one caused him to believe that more should be made and sent. Captain Hurley said the value of these films in encouraging Australians to visit New Zealand would well repay the expenses of making them; but the producers would have to pay more attention to the continuity of their films. He had seen one coming over from Australia, and the continuity was so bad that he did not know in which part of New Zealand he was at any one time. The inclusion of the thread of a story sufficient to give films a psychological interest would also repay the producers.