In the News

Southland Times, Issue 23988, 1 December 1939, Page 8

In the News

Survey Of N.Z. Art With a view to stimulating interest in New Zealand art and provide a visual survey of New Zealand’s achievements in that field during the past century, the National Centennial Art Committee, which was appointed by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) has, with the cooperation of the provincial art committees, completed organization for a comprehensive exhibition of both retrospective and contemporary work to tour the Dominion in 1940. —Press Association. No Recruits Yesterday No recruits enlisted for the special force at the Defence Department, at Invercargill yesterday. Ships and Their Colour British merchant ships which were painted a sombre grey immediately after the war broke out (states The Dominion) are now being repainted in their former bright colours. An Australian naval authority told a recent interviewer that the Admiralty had not given any instructions for ships to be painted grey. Shipping companies had acted on their own initiative in taking this course. At the outbreak of war the shipping companies agreed almost unanimously that their ships would have a greater chance of dodging enemy shells and torpedoes if they were painted grey, which, it is claimed, would be hard to distingush at sea from a distance. It has been found, however, that the enemy has been able to recognize British ships from a long distance because of the uniform grey paint. By the change back to the normal bright colours, it is hoped that the enemy will not have such an easy task in distinguishing British ships, and that a submarine, before firing a torpedo, would have to come close enough, and perhaps appear on the surface, to fire a warning shot, to ascertain the nationality of the ship it has under observation.

Classified Telephone Directory Although “business as usual” is, in general, the predominant note in business circles, reminders that the Empire is at war are occasionally encountered. The latest of these to come under notice is in connection with the telephone directory, the new issue of which is now being distributed and from which it will be seen that the classified section—the familiar yellow pages at the back of the book—has been discontinued. A notice to subscribers inserted in the new alphabetical directory announces that the discontinuance is due to the need for conservation of supplies of paper. American Elections The energetic manner in which people of the United States conducted their elections was commented upon by Mr Justice Kennedy, who returned by the Monterey from a world tour on Saturday, in an interview at Auckland. His Honour said he was in San Francisco during the recent mayoral election, and found that some remarkable’ methods were used for attracting electors’ votes. Outstanding among these was “sky-writing” bylaeroplanes, in which slogans such as “Vote for Mayor Rossie” were spelled out in smoke. So high Avas the altitude at which the “writing” was done that the aeroplanes looked exceedingly small. Another method of campaigning was with processions of cars, which drove through the streets bearing banners and accompanied by a great noise of hooters.

“Shortcut to Insolvency” An interesting commentary on the Californian unemployed pensions scheme, which was defeated at elections held early in the month, is contained in a letter written by a traveller in America to a friend in Dunedin. Writing on November 6 from San Francisco he said:—“ . . , there will be a

referendum about the ‘3O dollars every Thursday’ - ’ for unemployed over 50 years, and the newspapers are full of references to this ‘ham and egg’ proposal. In drafting an American Constitution Alexander Hamilton recognized that no scheme would ‘go down’ which did not contain some appeal to self-interest. But he meant it to be like salt in porridge, or sugar in tea. Now some would turn tea into syrup—too much saccharine, right in moderation, abominable in excess. “Trust the people’ is a dangerous motto when selfinterest is overdone. I seem to have become more in favour of ‘limited democracy’ as well as ‘limited monarchy.’ ‘Thirty dollars every Thursday’ is simply a short cut to State insolvency, as well as a bid for party support.”