In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 23393, 28 December 1937, Page 8

In Town And Out

Rimu School Jubilee The Rimu school will begin its jubilee celebrations today with a gathering in the morning at which old friendships will be revived and old photographs displayed. An address of welcome will be given in the afternoon and this will be followed by a grand concert at night by former pupils. Tomorrow there will be a roll call early in the afternoon, and official photographs of successive decades will be taken, and a ball will be held at night. The celebrations will conclude on Thursday with a picnic and sports, and a banquet at night. The speakers will be Messrs S. Rice (chairman of the Southland Education Board), J. Shand (chairman of the Jubilee Committee) and W. H. D. Gazzard. Medical Testimony In an action for damages arising out of a car collision, which was recently being heard in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, the plaintiff was described by one of the medical witnesses as suffering from “Traumatic neurasthenia and litigation neurosis.” Asked by his Honour to define these terms, the witness said that the first-mentioned disease was mental disorder induced by injury to the brain, while “litigation neurosis” was a nervous state caused by “frequent interviews with doctors and lawyers and the ‘overhang’ of a Supreme Court action.” Shocks from Motor-cars The peculiar sensation of receiving ah electric shock when they tried to open the doors of their cars has been experienced lately by several motorists at Cromwell, and almost invariably they have taken their vehicles to a garage for the purpose of having their wiring systems tested for a short circuit. Inquiries regarding what appeared to be a rather remarkable coincidence were made by Mr W. Sutton, touring manager of the Automobile Association (Otago), who discovered that the shocks were due to an. electrostatic charge, accumulated from the atmospheric electricity. In hot, dusty weather the electricity is gathered in by the steel body of a car, and owing to the insulation afforded by the tyres it is not grounded until a person touching the car provides an “earth.” Although comparatively rare in New Zealand, the phenomenon is not unknown, apparently, in such hot, dry places as Death Valley, in South America. Portuguese Cork Industry Ten billion cigarettes are smoked yearly which have tips of cork manufactured by a Portuguese firm, Mundet and Company, Ltd., the sales manager of which, Mr Fred Saalfeld, was interviewed in Christchurch. Mr Saalfeld said that 50 per cent, of the cork produced in the world came from Portugal, and that his firm was the biggest corkproducer in the world. It employed 4000 hands and turned out 4,000,000 bottle corks a day. Cork, he said, had a big future as a floor material, and was being used increasingly in hospitals, theatres, and hotels, as well r in private homes. It had great advantages—lasted twice as long as oak, it was half as cheap as rubber, and it was noiseless and insulating, keeping rooms cool in summer and warm in winter.