In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 23437, 18 February 1938, Page 6

In Town And Out

Maunganui En Route

Carrying about 330 passengers for New Zealand the Union Steam Ship Company’s trans-Tasman liner Maunganui left Melbourne at 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning for Bluff, via Milford Sound. She will call at the sound tomorrow and is expected to berth at Bluff about 6 o’clock on Sunday morning. On Monday the vessel will sad for Dunedin, proceeding later to Lyttelton and Wellington. Lorry Owners’ Complaint

“We can fix prices, but we cannot compel firms to engage carriers, remarked Mr Victor Raines, No. 4 Transport Licensing Authority, at a sitting of the Authority to discuss freight charges yesterday. The remark was made after a lorry owner had complained that after he had worked up two runs carting rabbits a firm had put its own lorries on the runs. Mr Raines added that the prices fixed should be such that it would not pay a firm to use a lorry of its own.

Girl Students at Supreme Court The interest being taken in an action for alleged slander at present being heard in the Supreme Court has been reflected in big attendances of the public at each sitting. Yesterday afternoon the gallery was augmented by a class of students from the Southland Girls’ High School. The girls, like the others in the gallery, appeared to take a keen interest in the proceedings. Minister’s Guinea Goal

The Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) owes the Ohai Football Club a guinea. He incurred the debt yesterday by being the first to kick a goal from half-way on the Ohai football ground. It came about as the result of a place-kicking competition between Mr Webb and the secretary of the Nightcaps Miners’ Union, Mr A. E. Prendeville. Mr Prendeville was kicking with success from 35 yards, but the Minister insisted that kicking from halfway was his “long suit.” He proved it with a magnificent kick that went neatly over the bar. Mr Prendeville missed and the cheers of more than 50 spectators went to Mr Webb.

Fixation of Freight Charges Surprise that there were not more representatives of the customers present at yesterday’s sitting of the No. 4 District Licensing Authority (Mr Victor Raines) was expressed by the Authority, The sitting was held to discuss the fixation of road freight charges, a schedule of which was presented by Mr G. E. T. Dorman, secretary of the Southland Licensed Lorry Owners’ Association. Mr Raines said that once the charges were fixed goods must be carried by only licensed operators—unless a firm had its own delivery service—at the rates fixed. Far more evidence had been given when a sitting was held at Balclutha last week.

Tourists for Milford Sound Fourteen Australian tourists who left Melbourne last Wednesday on the Union Steam Ship Company’s transTasman liner Maunganui will disembark at Milford Sound tomorrow where the vessel will call before going to Bluff. The Government Tourist Bureau at Invercargill is busy arranging tours for the visitors who, if the weather is fine and warm, will see the resort at its best. The Milford Track, which has been very popular this season, not only with New Zealand holiday-makers but also with numer.ous overseas tourists, will remain open until the end of the Easter holidays.

Secteufel’s Voyage No report has been received of the German ketch-rigged auxiliary yacht Seeteufel, which left Samoa for Auckland a fortnight ago. The Seeteufel, in which Count Felix von Luckner and his wife are on a world cruise, _ is equipped with wireless transmitting apparatus and it is expected that she will advise her arrival time. The Maori Bible Altogether 171,474 copies of Maori Scriptures have been issued since the British and Foreign Bible Society produced its first edition of Scripture extracts in Sydney in 1827. Large numbers of editions have been produced since then, the British and Foreign Bible Society being the only means of supply of the Maori Bible. In its recent annual report for New Zealand the society states that each copy of the Maori Bible is sold at a loss of about 10/-. New N.Z. Year Book. The New Zealand Official Year Book for 1938, which has just been issued, continues the tendency to greater size which this annual compendium has shown for six years past. The latest volume has 984 pages, compared with 894 a year ago. Between 1932 and 1933 the number of pages fell from 856 to 724, and has since steadily risen. However, it is less than the 1006 pages of 1931. In a preface the Government Statistician, Mr J. W. Butcher, states that additions have been made to the scope of several sections, notably in cases of topics now assuming an added importance. For example, the section on local government has been expanded and the sections relating to agricultural production and the description and history of New Zealand have been recast. An Ambitious Cat High ambitions for her children are apparently cherished by Contact, the grey Persian cat at the Wigram aerodrome, adopted as a mascot by the Canterbury Aero Club, says The Press, Christchurch. On Wednesday she had kittens —not in a corner of a hangar or on a chair in the club-rooms, but in no less sacred a place than Mr Ernie Clark’s Percival Vega Gull monoplane. Six fine kittens and their proud mother ■ were discovered by members of the club quite at home in the centre wing section of the Gull, in the hollow left when the wings are folded back.