NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1934, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Described by an expert breeder as a thoroughly well finished animal, a pig killed this week at Waitara freezing works weighed 437 lbs. on the hook. Despite its large size the carcase was, said the expert, neither too fat nor too coarse for bacon purposes. The Napier Intermediate School is the fount of a new howler to be added to an already heavy list to which hundreds of schools have made their contributions. In a recent English test a Napier boy was asked to state the feminine gender of the word “buck.” Without hesitation he preferred “buckshee,” to the hilarity of his classmates and the astonishment of his teacher.

How the “impossible” can be achieved by the photographer’s art is well illustrated by a camera study in a shop window in Devon Street, New Plymouth. The tourist liner Strathaird, of 22,284 tons, is shown berthed at the Newton King Wharf at the port of -,ew Plymouth, a place the vessel has never visited. The effect was achieved by superimposed prints rephotographed.

“We are not objecting to compensation, but to high royalties,’’ said Mr. C. J. McKenzie, chairman of the Main Highways Board, to the Taranaki County Council yesterday with reference to the taking of shingle from private property. The chairman, Cr. S. Vickers, said the council was glad to know the board held such a view, as it had been believed the board thought differently. A young married woman who pleaded guilty to five charges of theft of stamps and small sums of money from a North Taranaki post office had her name suppressed by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., at the Waitara court yesterday. The magitrate, who said defendant had been sufficiently punished, would not in his opinion err again. On the four charges relating to sums of money totalling £1 4s 3d she was convicted and discharged, and for the theft of 50 penny stamps and six 3d stamps she was fined £lO and ordered to restore the stolen property. Visitors to the North Egmont hostel yesterday included Rear-Admiral G. W. Bodell, Captain W. Jackson and Mr. H. J. Pitman, ashore from the lonic, which sailed from the port last night. Admiral Bodell, who is a keen mountaineer in Britain and in Switzerland, made an ascent to the summit with a guide, starting at 4 o’clock in the morning. The upper slopes of the mountain are difficult to negotiate at present, the ice being extremely hard for step cutting. The party returned to New Plymouth late yesterday afternoon

“This is a country of Nature’s gentlefolk,” said Lord Bledisloe at a meeting of the Boy Scouts’ Association at Wellington, “and it is worth a big effort to maintain it as such in days to come. As William of Wykeham said, ‘Manners maketh man.” A statement that on his recent visit to Australia he had found the cost of living to be 25 to 35 per cent, higher than in New Zealand was made by the Hon. Eliot R. Davis, M.L.C., speaking at a luncheon of the Auckland Travel Club. Milk cost 8d a quart and butter Is 4d to Is 5d per lb., he said. Although flour was much cheaper in Australia, bread was about the same price as in New Zealand, while sugar was double the New Zealand price. Rents also were very high. An amusing interlude in the maintenance business heard before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Auckland Police Court occurred when an Indian hawker appeared to answer a matter concerning the support of two children. “Did you marry a white woman?” asked the magistrate, after submissions in the case had been heard. “Yes, I am white myself,” replied the Indian. “You do not look very white, but we will call it sunburn,” said the magistrate, to the amusement of the court. The Indian declared that he was at least white at heart

The North Committee of the Egmont National Park Board met on Tuesday at the North Egmont Hostel and made an inspection of work in progress in the portion of the reserve under its control. The grounds and tracks about the hostel were found to be in excellent order and the buildings in good condition. The guides, having completed haulage of all cut firewood, are at present busy cutting tracks near the scrub line. An improvement which will be undertaken as the committee’s funds permit is the huildjng of a full-sized hard tennis court near the main hostel building, which it is expected will be a considerable additional attraction for guests. To illustrate the affection of Scottish people for the memory of “Rabble” Burns, the Rev, L. McMaster, in preaching on the attributes of the poet at the Onehunga Presbyterian Church, told of an incident at Dunedin. An old lady and her grandson were travelling in a tram past the statue of Scotland’s pride, when the boy pointed to it, and said, quietly, “Burns.” The lady drew herself up, and with emphasis and in the richest Doric, repeated, “Aye, Bur-r-ns!” It may be mentioned that Dr. Thomas Bums, the minister who came to Otago with the first Scottish settlers, was a nephew of the poet. The opinion that with the revival of the building trade would come a demand for more building apprentices was expressed by Mr. A. A. Kirk, vocational master of the Wellington Technical College, in a report presented to the l - board of governors. “Already,” Mr. Kirk said, “there have been applications for apprentices as good aS those supplied four years ago. But owing to the recent slump in this trade, many parents have refrained from putting their boys in these classes with the result that to-day we are unable to find sufficient well-trained lads. Unless more boys link up with our building classes the shortage of candidates for this trade will be eVen more acuta in a few years’ time.”

The portion of the Te Anau-Milford Road constructed through Eglington Valley has proved so popular with sightseers that the Dunedin City Corporation has applied for and been granted the right to run buses to the valley during the summer. Last summer thousands of people visited the valley by motor-car, and 400 or 500 were conveyed there by buses from Dunedin. The Dunedin City Corporation applied to the No. 9 District Licensing Authority for a license to run trips to the valley, claiming that there would be a demand for 30 or 40 trips. The right to run 18 weekly trips was granted, with an additional trip during Labour Day week-end. “I am here as a visitor.” said the Rev. Father Martindale, in an address at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland. “When I return to England I shall be chaffed for having twice visited New Zealand and not having seen the South Island on either occasion. To be perfectly candid, I have seen very little of the North Island. However much one would like to see your beautiful mountains, lakes and streams, my option is between them and living people. My sorrow is not so much that I have not seen the scenic attractions, but that I have been able to see few relatively of the men, women and children living in the North Island. I have a true love for them. In addition, I would like to meet your great Maori people, whose future is your very grave care.” The high regard in which New Zealand is held abroad was remarked upon by Mr. D. M. Rae, principal of the Auckland Teachers’ Training College, who returned by the Monowai from an educational tour overseas. We were best known in Britain for the similarity of our economics, and remembered for the fine work of the Expeditionary Forces in the war, he said. As fearless “experimenters” in social legislation we were also known in America, and to a lesser extent in Europe. “This makes a New Zealander determined to urge upon his fellow men the need for making an effort to deserve such a good name abroad,” said Mr. Rae. “When groups of men and women so far apart as Minneapolis, Winnipeg and Copenhagen inquire about our social experiments, our low infant mortality, or how we managed to sell butter to England at 70s a cwt., one realises that although we may think we are far outside the main currents of international affairs, we are not altogether by the world forgot.”