In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 23374, 4 December 1937, Page 8

In Town And Out

Southland Beech Praised

The Southland beech panelling in the new Automobile Association building was the subject of admiring comment by the delegates to the quarterly meeting of the South Island Motor Union yesterday. “Who would want Australian walnut when we have an industry like this at our back door?” asked Mr H. G. Harley (Christchurch). “Not at the back door,” corrected the secretary of the association (Mr M. C. Fairbrother); “the front door.” Shopping Rush Although Christmas week is a fortnight away the Christmas shopping rush in Invercargill has begun. Last night the streets in the shopping area were crowded with town and country shoppers and shop keepers were kept busy until closing time. Drapers and fancy goods merchants last night reported that trade had improved greatly in the last week and for Friday nights extra labour had been engaged. It was expected that the rush would continue until Christmas Eve. Doctors in the Chair Among the delegates at the quarterly meeting of the South Island Motor Union yesterday was Dr E. E. Porritt, president of the North Island Motor Union, who drew attention to the coincidence that a fellow practitioner, Dr S. E. V. Brown, was presiding over the South Island meeting. “Moreover,” he added, “Dr Brown and I were together on the old hospital ship Maheno during the war.” Dr Porritt is the father of the well-known New Zealand Rhodes scholar, Dr A. E. Porritt, who is practising in London. “City of Prams” If Christchurch is “the city of bicycles,” Invercargill might quite well be called “the city of prams.” That is the opinion of a policeman who yesterday afternoon counted, on one side of Dee street only, 49 prams between the corner of Tay street and the comer of Yarrow street. In the block between the corner qf Tay street and Esk street corner there were 20 prams. “They came in droves of two and three,” said the policeman, “and there appeared to be so many that I thought it would be interesting to count them. And it was.”