In the News

Southland Times, Issue 24536, 10 September 1941, Page 4

In the News

Quadruplets at Timaru Now well established in their new home, the Johnston quadruplets started school at Timaru yesterday. The children, who are now seven years of age, have been enrolled at the Sacred Heart School. They are Kathleen, Mary, Bruce, and Vera. An elder sister will also attend the school. Their father, Mr George Johnston, has begun work at the gasworks at Timaru.

Big Men The Australian soldiers seem to have captured the imagination of the world with their fine physique, but the biggest men among the Empire forces are not the Australians nor yet the New Zealanders, according to an Invercargill soldier who has been invalided back from the Middle East. Private lan P. Foley of Hardy street said the biggest men are the South Africans. He referred in particular to the unit known as the “Cape Town Highlanders.” They were all very big men —six-foot-ers, most of them, he said. The South Africans had done a fine job in Abyssinia.

Woman Drivers “As lady drivers go, she is a good driver,” said counsel when defending a client on a charge of dangerous driving in the Hamilton Police Court. “Why do you say ‘As lady drivers go?’” asked Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M. Counsel replied that as far as his experience went he always felt a little anxious when meeting lady drivers on the road. “Freyberg’s Circus” The official names for various units of the N.Z.E.F. may be such and such an echelon, or such and such a reinforcement, but the unofficial names are more interesting. Soldiers returning from the Middle East give the nicknames. First Echelon men for example are the “Debt Dodgers” or “Death Defiers,” thus called for obvious if unsubstantial reasons. Men of a later echelon are the “Blitz Tourists,” .01’ “Glamour Boys,” because they travelled about Great Britain a good deal and made themselves popular. A section of the reinforcements are called the “Last Hoppers.” They are supposed to have comprised the last of the volunteers and therefore to have enlisted the other soldiers have it, so that they would not be conscripted. The 2nd N.Z.E.F. as a whole is “Freyberg’s Circus.”

Appropriate Music? When some Emergency Precautions films were being screened at Whangarei recently a background of music was also heard. The music was played by a gramophone behind the scenes, and the gramophone operator could not see what was being depicted on the screen, so that in some cases the music hardly fitted in with the film. In one scene a church was on the screen and the music was “Roll Out the Barrel”; in another, an English A.R.P. worker was shouting from the top of a high building and “Little Sir Echo” was heard; “I want to kiss you Good-night” was played while a nurse was tenderly placing her arms round the neck of an injured mian.

Penny Famine in Fiji An acute shortage of pennies is causing general inconvenience in Fiji. So serious is the shortage that bronze coins of the United Kingdom have been proclaimed legal tender for the payment of any amount not exceeding one shilling and cardboard coupons have made an unofficial appearance. The position is aggravated by the fact that the Fijian coinage does not include the threepenny piece. The shortage has been caused to a large extent by the action of New Zealand soldjers, who have taken hundreds of pennies out of the colony. Unlike the bronze New Zealand coins, the Fijian pennies are made of a silver alloy, and as in other Crown colonies they have a hole through the centre. They are popular with the troops as souvenirs and as poker chips. Generous Gesture Fifteen girls who had a meal in a Dunedin tea rooms on Monday night received a very pleasant surprise when they came to pay for it. They were employed at a factory near at hand, and were to be engaged on overtime work, so, following a practice which has become a habit, they had their tea at this particular place. The only other person in the rooms at the time was a man who did not appear to be taking any particular notice of them. He finished his meal first and went to the cash desk to pay, and the girls followed a few minutes later. To their surprise the girl at the desk said their meals had been paid for. They were still puzzling this out when the man put his head back through the door and said, “Your teas are on me tonight. You’re doing a great job of work, girls. Go to it.” Shortage of Bottles Because of the shipment of bottled beer to New Zealand troops overseas, New Zealanders may find there is a shortage of bottles during the summer. Strenuous efforts are being made by manufacturers to keep up with the demand, but breweries are unable to obtain as many bottles as they need. The only manufacturing concern in the Dominion, the New Zealand Glass Manufacturers’ Company Proprietary, Limited, is producing more bottles than ever before. Day and night shifts are being worked, but the position will be aggravated with the approach of summer. The large number of bottles exported has caused the shortage, as these are not returned. A total of 264,000 quart bottles of beer comprised one order for the forces overseas at the beginning of the year. Pronunciation of Names The paragraph in this column the other day about the correct way of pronouncing the name Auchinleck gave examples of several other Scottish surnames that have arbitrary pronunciations which would never be guessed from the spelling. It may not be generally known that such familiar Scottish names as Menzies, Forbes and Dalzell are also commonly mispronounced. Menzies, according to old Scottish usage, should be pronounced “Min-gee,” Forbes, “For-bees” and Dalzell, “Dee-ell.” However the surnames and place names of all nations have traps for the unwary. Listeners to the radio serial, “The Private Life of Henry VIII” will no doubt have noticed that the players in that drama pronounce Boleyn as if it were spelt “Bullin,” and in spite of what many of us were taught at school the correct pronunciation of “Raleigh” is “Raw-lee,” not “Rally.” I It Found Its Man! Strange things happen in war. A letter sent from Auckland by Clipper air mail, addressed to a sergeant in the Auckland Battalion of the Second Echelon, arrived in England just before Christmas. But the New Zealanders were already on the high seas, bound for the Middle East. The letter had to follow. The Nazis scored a hit of some sort on something, and the letter was submerged. Later it was fished up, and eventually reached the man for whom it was intended—Sergeant Jack Bracegirdle, N.Z.E.F., formerly of Auckland. It was unreadable, because of its wetting, but the veteran of Greece and Crete was delighted to find attached a perfectly sound English banknote for ten shillings, which was immediately cashed in the wet canteen! Sergeant Bracegirdle has a high opinion of the Post Office.