In the News

Southland Times, Issue 24211, 22 August 1940, Page 8

In the News

Flying Scouters Scoutmasters from the Invercargill district are well represented in the fighting services. The Air Force has attracted eight of their number, some of whom already have tasted the thrills of battle with enemy fighters and bombers. Those who are serving in the Royal Air Force either in New Zealand or abroad are Scoutmasters G. C. Alington, Hugh Alington, G. W. Alington, P. Fougere, G. Taylor, G. Johnstone and E. Hall-Jones. Scoutmaster B. Wallace is the eighth to join the Air Force; he expects to go into camp soon.

Prisoner Recaptured Cyril Albert Dixon, aged 20, of Winton, who escaped as he was being taken into the Invercargill Borstal Institution on Saturday was recaptured by the police at Tapanui yesterday.

Mock Court At South Invercargill The activities of eight boys, known as the “William Street Cubs,” during a recent “raid” on itinerant “law-break-ers” in South Invercargill resulted in a sum of £6/12/1 being collected for the Southland Patriotic Fund. A mock court was set up by the Cubs, and many unsuspecting citizens paid the penalty of curiosity or one of the many other unlisted crimes associated with patriotism. All of the delinquents, it is stated, paid their fines cheerfully.

Gifts For Fighting Forces Binoculars from Mrs M. Imlay and Mrs G. T. Dawson and a compass from Mr C. McMillan have been received at. The Southland Times office. They will be handed to the Army Office for use by the fighting forces. Reading Of Newspapers

The remarkable increase in newspaper reading in England over the past 70 years was illustrated by Mr F. W. Doidge, M.P. for Tauranga, in an address on the British Press to members of the Auckland Rotary Club. Mr Doidge said that 70 years ago there were only three national papers in London and their total circulation was about 200,000. Today the London newspapers with a national circulation sold a total of 12,000,000 copies daily. Of these papers, The Daily Express, owned by Lord Beaverbrook, had a net paid daily sale of 2,600,000 copies, while The Daily Herald had about 2,000,000 subscribers. On the other hand, the world-famous London paper, The Times, which was almost a national institution, had a circulation of less than 400,000.

No Orators! “There are no orators in the New Zealand Parliament, which is certainly deplorable,” declared Mr Dudley Wills, secretaiy of the Invercargill branch of the Young . Men’s Christian Association, when delivering an address on “Time, the Great Equality” at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Secretaries, Southland Chapter, last night. Mr Wills was deploring the fact that in modern life youth was not trained to express itself coherently. Speaking on his impressions of his recent visit to England, he said he considered there were very few orators in the House of Commons, although Mr Winston Churchill was an outstanding example of the few. There were more orators in England among the clerical ministers. Umbrella Incident Removal of the umbrella and other articles from the tower of the Auckland University College was briefly referred to at a meeting of the college council on Tuesday. The account for the work, amounting to seven guineas, caused some amusement, due to the wording of the details: “Men’s time, five guineas; company, knowing how, two guineas.” The account was passed for payment, the president of the college, Mr W. H. Cocker, remarking that the amount might be of some interest to the Students’ Association. Waterfront Control Because of the need to keep down the numbers of the Waterfront Control Commission, no representative of the producers will be appointed, according to advice received from the Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) at a monthly meeting of the Auckland executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. It was stated that representations had been made to the Minister along those lines in view of the unsatisfactory conditions prevailing. The union had also suggested that improvements might be effected by using barges for the loading of cargo and by using trays or slings which could be lifted from the trucks. Representatives of the union are to be invited to a conference called by the Government to discuss working on the waterfronts in New Zealand.

Speech And Writing In Dominions “I won’t have any nonsense about one form of English being any better than another; I don’t care what it sounds like as long as it’s intelligible,” said Dr J. Y. T. Greig, professor of English at the Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, in an interview. Dr Greig said that he would like to have records of D.iglish as it is spoken in the Dominions, but once someone had said to him of the Australian speech, “Oh, why bother to record anything so dreadful?” He strenuously objected. to this view and said that he was closely interested in.forms of speech no matter how people might be prejudiced against them. “Whatever you may think about Australian speech it is their language, and it is absurd to object to it,” he said. Pro-Churchill Dutch

“Dutch inhabitants of Java are very pro-Churchill,” said Mr W. J. D. Montford, a British company representative from Java, upon his arrival at Auckland last week. “They are taking things very calmly, but show a measure of determination that we will win the war. Their general attitude is that they will put up a good show if the Japanese come. To ensure readiness the European population of Java is mobilized for a month at a time, but otherwise life in Java goes on with very little change.”