NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1935, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Perfect weather resulted in several short flights being made from New Plymouth airport yesterday. Mr. P. Hannan took a plane as far inland as Matiere.

Busy Day at North Egmont. Thirty cars and over 200 people visited North Egmont yesterday. It was a beautiful day and there were few who did no climbing. Shark at Strandon.

Swimming close to the shore, a 10-foot shark made a slow patrol along the Strandon beach on Saturday morning. Bathers did not wait long after its departure, however, before they entered the water. Fire Near Oil Refinery..

Starting in the lupins near the petrol refinery at Ngamotu beach, a fire yesterday morning caused watchers slight anxiety. The lupins were very dry and the flames spread quickly, but fortunately the wind drove them away from the oil refineries. The fire was still burning in the afternoon but had almost spent itself. Entangled in Spokes.

With golf bags over their shoulders two men were seen cycling gaily along Devon Street yesterday near the Cutfield Road intersection. Suddenly one of the bags unaccountably became entangled in the spokes of a wheel and the cyclist staggered and swerved into his companion. They had slowly and cannily to extricate themselves.

Aeroplane ZK—AAX Arrives. Piloted by Flying-Officer lan Keith, the Western (N. 1. Federated Flying Club’s aeroplane ZK—AAX flew from Wellington to New Plymouth yesterday in the good time of hours. It arrived before dark and was in splendid order. The plane ZK—ACZ, which Mr. Keith took to Wellington on Friday with Mr. C. Plumtree as passenger, returned to the airport yesterday morning. It was piloted by Mr. Plumtree.

Jubilee Stamps. Apart from the new pictorial stamps which will be issued in March probably, New Zealand, in common' with other parts of the Empire, is to have a special set to mark the silver jubilee of the King and Queen’s accession to the Throne. There will be only three denominations in this set, a halfpenny, penny, and sixpence. The design will be the same for all three, featuring Maori carving, the Southern Cross, and the heads of Their Majesties. The King’s approval of the design has yet te be secured, for any stamp bearing his head has to be passed by him first. It is intended to have these stamps on sale for about a month only, probably on Accession Day, May 6, if they are readjr by then,

Not There on Summons. t The unusual spectacle of a large flock of sheep surrounding the entrances in the ’ Hamilton courthouse and browsing on the 1 grass slopes nearby was seen on a recent , morning, states the Auckland Star. They i had been given a rest, and, incidentally, a feed, there, by a drover engaged on a ’ long trek. ; Crowded Excursion Trains, Crowded with holiday makers, two special excursion trains ran to New Plymouth yesterday. From Hawera 11 carriages brought 450 people, of whom 113 came from Hawera. At Stratford the train was carrying 350 passengers. Later in the morning the Taumarunui train arrived with 14 carriages. It was filled with 503 people, of whom 113 had embarked after it had passed through Stratford. “Regimentation” in U.S.A. “The World War left its trail of sorrow. It brought to all citizens, however, an exalted feeling of patriotism, and we cheerfully submitted to orders from the centralised power of Government in order to win the war. That was regimentation. Justified in war time, I do not believe it will ever be accepted in peace time by the average American,” Was the statement made by an American commercial man to a Wellington merchant who returned, recently from a visit to the United States. Toheroas Dying. Mortality among the toheroas on the beaches in the vicinity of DargavilJe nas been discovered recently. In every case the dead toheroas have had their suckers injured and the theory has been advanced that the damage has been caused by large schnapper, which have corns close inshore during the calm period on the west coast as a result of steady easterly winds. So far observation has not disclosed widespread damage to the beds. Crossing the Tasman. The owners of a big, handsome rubber beach ball lay disconsolate on the Fitzroy beach; far on the horizon itheir ball went spinning across the Tasman. On Saturday a strong wind was blowing straight off the land, and the surf was breaking close inshore. One adventurous ball floated out too far and found itself at the mercy of the wind. Its owners dashed after it in agonised pursuit, but gave up after swimming about 400 yards. A member of a life-saving club took up the chase and covered almost a mile before he gave up. Long before that, however, the wind had hopelessly beaten him and the ball had set off merrily qn its long hop to Australia. Each to His Taste. A sample of 500 Indian cigarettes has been received by Mr. W. G. Johns, of Te Poi, from, Mr. Madsen, late of Te Poi, who is n’bw in charge of the Polson Model Dairy at Anand, India. The cigarettes are considerably smaller and thinner than those used locally, and have no paper covering. Instead, a tobacco leaf is rolled round the tobacco so that the tip finishes near one end. A piece of thread is then tied round to keep the leaf in position. The taste is unusual, and some of those who have sampled the weed have smoked them to the end. A general comment is that the taste is something like that of “cigarettes” that youngsters used to make from dock leaves, gum bark and other unusual mixtures. It is said that many smokers in India who have become used to these cigarettes prefer them to all others. Repairing Earthquake Damage. With 1934 ended it is safe to say that all earthquake damage restoration work at Gisborne must not be completed, says the Poverty Bay Herald, and it is interesting to note that since the earthquake of February 3, 1931, the amount expended in Gisborne in making good earthquake damage and in the removal of dangerous parapets totalled £54,958. In 1931 and 1932 the amounts were £11,291 and £15,598 respectively, but the severe earthquake of September 16, 1932, caused a great deal more damage, with the result that in 1933 £20,180 was expended to make it good. The year 1933 saw the conclusion of practically all the building activity occasioned by seismic disturbances, and last year the figure for earthquake restoration work dropped to £7889. To Boycott Undesirable Pictures. A “Legion of Decency” has been formed in Canada to combat the showing of “immoral" motion pictures, and the movement has been endorsed by Protestants, Jews and Roman Catholics (advises Reuter’s Canadian News Service). In Vancouver (British Columbia) alone 20,000 pledges to the movement have been received and it is planned to carry the campaign into British Columbia schools. The Social Service Council of Canada has appointed an official committee representing Protestant denominations in Canada to sit in conference with delegates from the Roman Catholic Church, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canadian Presbyterian Church. The committee will frame a co-operative plan of action with the Legion of Decency for the circulation of pictures with a high standard of common decency. Up-to-Date Flats. The erection of huge blocks of flats in Sydney is enabling the residents of that city to exercise a wide discrimination with respect to the conditions under which they will live. Mr. H. Marshall who recently returned from Sydney to Dunedin, stated yesterday that flats were being built in such numbers that it was feared that demands would be over-supplied, as had happened previously when there had been a boom in the erection of office buildings. The owners of the new flats, however, were not likely to suffer, for they were so much in keeping with modem requirements that people were leaving the old apartments and flocking to those which had just been erected. There they could be assured of having a refrigerator and an endless supply of hot water. Sydney people were now in such a position that they were content with nothing but the most up-to-date living conditions. Lightning on Aeroplanes. The question of whether or not aeroplanes are hit by lightning while in flight has been raised by statements concerning the ill-fated Dutch airliner, states the Christchurch Times. Discussing the position on Tuesday, FlightLieutenant H. B. Eurrrell, of the staff of Wigram Aerodrome, said that numer- , ous cases were known of aeroplanes being struck, but never had serious dam- ; age been caused. Flight-Lieutenant I Burrell said that several times machines used on the Imperial Airways services had been struck by lightning, but only minor damage had been done, and the machines had been able to continue their ; journeys. Not a great deal was known • about the extent to which aeroplanes ' were liable to be struck, but all previ- ' ous experience suggested that lightning : would not do much damage to any ma- j chine. The Imperial Airways machines j had never bean seriously inconveni- i eneed; in the United States, where a tre- : mendous amount of flying was done, ; there were numerous cases where lightning had struck aeroplanes, but never < with any very serious results. Indeed, ! in one cgse about eight months ago light- 1 ning actually hit the pilot’s cockpit but ; caused only minor damage. Not very 1 much was known about the subject, but < always pilots endeavoured to avoid rain- < storms and thunderstorms. It was not 1 always possible to do so, but fortunately ; most of the storms were more or less 1 local in their «