LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, 29 March 1933, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Among the students at Massey Agri-* cultural College is Mr. Kameyama, who came out from Japan for a special two years’ study of wool research and sheepfarming. Mr. Kameyama’s brother is an expert Japanese wool buyer in the Australian and New Zealand trade.

Parliament has been prorogued until June 30 by a special Gazette issued last week. The session normally begins in the last week in June, but owing to the fact that the General Assembly only recently adjourned, it is not anticipated that the next session will begin until August or September. Meanwhile, supply has been granted until the end of October.

The staff of the New, Plymouth office of the Labour Department having constituted itself a beautifying committee, a transformation has been effected in a small patch of ground inside the angle of the block of buildings at the rear of the Magistrate’s Court and the Labour Department office. Decorative plants, neatly dug soil carefully sown with grass seed and a symmetrically arranged path complete with flower borders make a derelict comer into a pleasing sight.

“It was interesting flying over the beaches on the West Coast and to see so m»ny people in bathing,” said an airman who flew to Wanganui from Auckland on Sunday. Every mile or so along the beach the water was dotted with bathers. At one isolated point along the coast a number of Maori youths were seen swimming on horseback in the surf. When the ’plane swooped lower over their heads it was seen that the Maoris were unhampered by formal bathing attire.

“Keep an open mind, avoid dogmatism, be prepared to modify your opinions,” said Miss E. Andrews last night, when addressing business women at New Plymouth on changing international relationships and urging on them the value of discussion as an aid to clarity of thought. She said that a person who prided himself on never' changing his opinion allowed no room for growth, for expansion. He negatived the whole basis of progress, the whole process of life. So far as any improvement of civilisation was concerned he might as well be a paleolithic fossil. Nothing could take the place of knowledge increased and applied in the light of past experience.

The spanning of the Waikato River at Tuakau with a concrete bridge, which, it is anticipated, will be opened to traffic in June, is a notable event in the history of the development of the northern portion of the Raglan County. Three ridings across the river, Port Waikato, Onewhero and Pukekawa, have their outlet to Tuakau, and metalled roads from the bridgehead now run deep into these districts, and, in fact, beyond to the Whangape riding. In reference to a report from Woodville about an old violin, a well-known Wanganui resident states that he possessed six violins bearing the same inscription as the Woodville one—“ Antonio Stradivarius, Cremaonentis. Facie bat. Ann 0—1736.” He said that he had seen dozens bearing a similar inscription. It is said that the only genuine “Strad.” in New Zealand is owned by Archbishop Redwood. Antonio Stradivarius was born in 1644, and died in 1737, and had not made violins for many years before his death. The last-known instrument made by him was a viola.

“All the talk about the ‘wild parties’ of Hollywood is nonsense,” said Mr. Harold E. Haines, who returned to Auckland by the Monterey on Monday after an extensive tour of England and the United States. “I was in close touch with many of the best-known actors and actresses, and the atmosphere was always just like that of a nice Auckland drawing room. The sooner the English and the Americans get to understand each other the better it will be. There is no more hospitable or more kindly race than the. Americans.”

“A mine that has been worked more or less continuously for 20,000 years is worked to-day in England in East Anglia,” said Professor J. Shelley in an address in Christchurch. “This is a flint mine,” he' continued, “which was originally worked by Paleolithic man.” Tools made from the flint of this mine were presented to Prof I .sor Shelley when he visited it during the war period. One man was in charge at the time and was under a /contract, to the British Government to' produce thousands of flints for the flint-lock rifles used by the native troops in Africa. Explosive rifles could not .be entrusted to these troops.

“Thanks to the magnificent work of your society, New Zealand has the lowest infantile death-rate in the world,” said the Minister of Health, Hon. J. A. Young, in opening the Provincial Conference of the Plunket Society in Christchurch. “A child born in New Zealand, within the first 12 months from its birth, has a better chance of life than one bom in any other country. Twentyfive years ago, out of 1000 babies born in New Zealand, 88 died in the first 12 months of life: to-day we find that the number of deaths is just a fraction over 32.”

The text was published recently of the Sale of Cheese Bill presented in the British House of Commons by Mr. Richard Bussell. Its object is to control the sale of cheese other than whole-milk cheese, and it provides that every package containing skimmed-milk cheese, whether open or closed, shall have the words “skimmed-milk cheese” branded or durably marked on the top, bottom and sides in printed capital letters . not less than three-quarters of an inch square. In the case of imported skim-med-milk cheese no fancy or other descriptive name shall be approved, by the Minister of Agriculture which includes the name of a British manufacturer or trader, or the name of any place or district in the United Kingdom, or is otherwise calculated to suggest that such 1 cheese is of British, manufacture.

Ten mirrors which were provided for the convenience of touring motorists at the motor camp in Victoria Park, Waimale, South Canterbury, have all _ been stolen. The mirrors cost about £5, and were donated by citizens for the use of campers.

“There should be a beautiful sight on the banks of the Wanganui River next spring. We have planted something like 200,000 spring bulbs,’’ said Mr. A. R. Donaldson, president of the Wanganui Rotary Club, recently. He intimated that another three and a-half sacks had been collected and would be planted immediately.

There is considerable speculation as to who will replace Mr. T. B. Strong, the retiring Director of Education. Four of the higher-placed officers of the department have retired in the past year and have not been replaced. Mr. W. T. Lamboume, who is chief inspector of primary schools, is the next senior officer. He was vice-principal of the Auckland Training College for some years, and then inspector in Auckland and senior inspector in Wanganui.

One result of the prolonged dry period in Canterbury is that there 'is not the usual demand of the season for country labour. Rain is needed before ploughing can be started, for instance. It would be useless for farmers to plant for winter crops just yet. No gorse-cut-ting is being done. Most of the men who went out for harvest woflk have returned to Christchurch, and probably 75 per cent, of the threshing mills have ceased to operate.

A letter in the Daily News on the subject of the Tukapo ground was discussed at a meeting of the management committee of the North Taranaki Cricket Division last night. In reply to a question the chairman of the committee, Mr. T. H. Bates, said that the annual cost of the ground to the division varied between £3O and £55. On one occasion recently the division made a donation to the Tukapo Sportsground Committee to assist in paying off the overdraft. A large red electric light globe is to be erected on top of the main grandstand at Ellerslie racecourse to be used as a starting signal. This is necessary owing to the fact that new totalisator regulations require that both the win and place machines must close at the same time. It was at first intended that the win machine, which is to be operated by hand, should close a couple of minutes before the electric place machine to allow time for counting, but under the regulations this cannot be done. Directly the totalisator has been adjusted a button will be pressed and the red light will flash as a signal to the starter.

A report from Masterton recently stated that there was a possibility of the sparrow proving an effective enemy of the white butterfly. A Masterton gardener said he had noticed a sparrow catch and eat two white butterflies. About twenty blackbirds were also noticed attacking a swarm of white butterflies. Captain E. V. Sanderson, secretary of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, states that birds have an instinct by which they can locate food supplies at great distances, and information such as the above suggests that as the cold weather comes on birds will turn their attention to pests. Caterpillars, which are reported to be doing much damage between Paepakariki and Wanganui, will probably be attacked by birds, and the same thing will probably apply to white butterflies. Some birds are not suited to the catching of flying insects, but they adapt themselves when insects are present in great numbers. There are numerous instances in other lands of birds and animals developing an appetite for unusual forms of food when it is plentiful.

A young Englishman, Mr. Harry Collins, of London, apparently believes that New Zealand is a country almost untouched by civilisation. He is on his way to the Dominion —“off to the wilds” he calls it—in the. fond hope of escaping from cinemas, wireless, motorcars and telephones. He even thinks that in coming to New Zealand he will leave unemployment behind him. This young man is confident of making a living by trading with the Maoris and in the “dangerous and difficult” tasks of shooting wild pigs and trapping opossums. An extraordinary feature of the young man’s statement is that it is published in all seriousness and is apparently believed by the staff of a leading London newspaper. “A gun, a tent, cooking equipment and tools, a horse and cart. With these a young man will set out to live on nothing a day—or nearly so. He is Mr. Harry Collins, who is about to set out for New Zealand to lead the simple life.” This is the statement which appeared in a London Sunday paper recently.

With a view to offering greater help to the vestry of St. Andrew’s (Anglican) Parish Church, the vicar, Archdeacon G. Gordon Bell, proposes an experiment, that is unique in these materialistic times, reports the Cambridge correspondent of the Auckland Star. The archdeacon’s wish is to free the vestry from all financial obligations towards him, and to rely solely and wholly on the goodwill of his parishioners and friends for the means of living and necessary charges in the running of his car. The archdeacon has pointed out that in earlier years the parish had a clergy fund, into which the people paid annual subscriptions. The archdeacon is starting a similar fund, and intends, at least for the time being, to live and do his work depending upon what his friends choose to pay into the fund. The parish is, by diocesan statute, supposed to find the archdeacon a stipend of not less than £350 -a year and travelling expenses. The archdeacon believes that the people will co-operate,in his experiment.