In the News

Southland Times, Issue 24493, 22 July 1941, Page 4

In the News

Boots for Home Guard The prayers of the Christchurch Home Guard have been answered at last! After months of agitation and patient waiting a limited supply of boots has come to hand, and will be issued to the most conscientious members (says The Star-Sun). When storage facilities are arranged and a supply of clothing cards becomes available, it is proposed to issue the boots to a number of the men in Class 1. These are men who have given long service and who have been regular attenders at parades. Considerate Thief There may or may not be honour among thieves but occasionally there is consideration for the owner of stolen property. In Invercargill recently a stolen bicycle was recovered by the police without the tyre and inner tube of the front wheel. To secure these the thief had to take off the wheel, but he showed his consideration by putting the wheel back into place and screwing it up securely as before. An ordinary rogue would not have taken that trouble. The young woman who owns the bicycle bore her loss philosophically. She said she had another tyre and tube. She was more concerned that the lamp had been taken also. It was a more elaborate and expensive contrivance than the ordinary “bobby dodger,” but apparently the thief wanted it as urgently as he w'anted the tyre and tube. Two Million Bottles The bottle drive recently completed in Wellington is expected to result in £2OOO becoming available for patriotic funds. The results so far exceeded the wildest dreams of the promoters of the drive that its very success became an embarrassment, and the receiving yards were soon crowded with bottles and glass receptacles of all kinds—between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 of them. Ground Raised by Burials During a discussion in the Wellington Diocesan Synod on conditions governing churchyards and burial grounds, the Rev. N. F. E. Robertshawe asked what limit was to be set to the number of burials in each grave. He had been to a church in England round which the ground had been raised 4ft by repeated burials. A Swim in the Dead Sea Swimming in the heavy waters of the Dead Sea is very different from swimming in ordinary sea water. A New Zealand soldier, Gunner R. A. Doms, who recently spent a week’s leave in Palestine, describes his efforts to “swim” in a letter to his parents in Christchurch. “We went in. How strange! It is 13 times as dense as ordinary sea water, and so full of minerals that it stings the face. I walked in to my waist, and my feet left the bottom. I tried to swim, but, while flat in the water, my feet and legs were right out. I tried to stand up, but could not force my legs down again. It was most amazing.” Naval Men’s Mascots The variety of mascots cherished by some of the small ships •of the Royal Navy based on Britain is described by Lieutenant C. G. Palmer, R.N.V.R., of Auckland, in a letter to his parents. The flotilla with which he is serving numbers goats, hens, bulldogs, cats and a budgerigar among its pets. A hen on one of the ships was a disappointment to the crew until, as Lieutenant Palmer says, “10 days ago while at sea I was sent the following signal: ‘Our hen has laid an egg.’ ” Later when he returned to port he was told by the proud officer commanding the other ship that not only had the hen achieved this feat but it had laid another the same evening. Whose Liability?

If a member of some local body, acting on powers delegated to him from those in authority under the Lighting Restrictions Emergency Regulations, orders a street light to be turned out, and an accident takes place as a result of insufficient light, will that local body be held liable in any subsequent proceedings? That question exercised the minds of members of the Hutt County Council last week. The majority were of the opinion that the local body concerned could not be held liable, but legal opinion is to be obtained. Moneylenders’ Ways The pressing of low-paid people by money-lenders was the subject of comment by Mr Luxford, S.M. in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, when he was sentencing a clerk employed in the Land and Income Tax Department on charges of stealing £2, £4 and £2, the property of fellow public servants. It was stated that the clerk had been “in the clutches” of three moneylenders at once, and that they bad called at the office and asked for their dues, failing which they _ threatened to report him to the commissioner. “Unfortunately this is not the first case that has come before me in which a lower-paid civil servant has had pressure brought on him by a moneylender,” said the magistrate. “The moneylender might as well put up the sign, ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’ That seems to be the experience of most lower-paid people who think they can tide over a difficult period by going to the moneylender.”

Juryman Drops Out When a case in the Auckland Supreme Court was about to be opened, after the jury had been empanelled, the foreman advised the court that a juryman had just intimated to him that he knew the man whose house was alleged to have been broken into by the accused man. Counsel for the accused said he would sooner proceed with a jury of 11 than have one man on it who might have an unconscious bias. The Crown Prosecutor consented to the case proceeding with 11 jurymen, and this procedure was adopted. The full panel filed out for a short adjournment, and when the court resumed only 11 jurors came back. Petrol for Wardens To facilitate training, fire-fighting wardens under the E.P.S. scheme in Wellington are now being given licences to obtain 50 gallons of petrol during the next three months. Up to the present these wardens have had to turn out in their own cars and use their own petrol. The new conditions are not regarded as a great improvement, as the 50 gallons is to be divided among the 10 cars in each district unit, and the men still have to pay for the petrol out of their own pockets. Rare Moth Discovered A place in entomological history has been made for himself by a 14-year-old Christchurch boy who makes a hobby of collecting insects. A handsome moth with dark purple wings and grey markings that he had caught at Arthur’s Pass was identified by the entomologist at the Canterbury Museum as a specimen of Melanchra pelanodes, one of the rarest of all New Zealand insects. Years ago, Mr G. V. Hudson, of Wellington, collected at Waimarino, Tongariro National Park, in two successive seasons, a total of three specimens of . previously unknown moth, the larvae of which live underground, feeding on roots. This new species he named Melanchra pelanodes. From that day, however, although many learned entomologists sought it, no other specimen was seen. Mr Hudson’s three remained unique, and National Park was apparently the only place in the Dominion where the species existed, until this latest discovery. The moth is now in the possession of the Canterbury Museum.