NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1935, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Pessimistic Prophecy.

“That boy will never make a footballer” groaned a distraught father, dashing up and down the sideline at a school Rugby match and tearing his hair. That was years ago. “That Boy” is now on the high seas bound for Britain—one of New Zealand’s most famous forwards.

Inglewood Property Transfers. Seven large property. transfers in the county during the past month were reported to the monthly meeting of the Inglewood County Council by the clerk, Mr. H. W. Martin, yesterday. The largest transfer was 484 acres for £2895, and the grand total ' was £lO,lOO, an average Of slightly over £ll an acre. Chilled Beef Allotment.

Making her fifth visit to the port the 12,354-ton liner Tamaroa arrived at New Plymouth yesterday to load the second allotment of Taranaki chilled beef. The vessel will load a quantity of dairy produce and frozen meat and will take in the chilled beef to-morrow Or Friday. She is to leave New Plymouth on Friday for Auckland. Torrential Rain.

Torrential rain fell in most parts of Taranaki early yesterday morning and the rivers, especially along the northern coast, were running high. The Waiwakaiho River, which rose four feet above the normal level at the intake to Lake Mangamahoe on Monday, was falling gradually yesterday. There was a moderate fresh in the Waitara River yesterday afternoon at high tide and a good deal of timber was coming down. There were heavy seas between Mokau and Opunake, but no major damage was reported either on the coast or inland.

Dying Language? “I think Maori will be a dead language in less than a’century,” said Bishop H. Williams when addressing members of the Hawke’s Bay branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The bishop added that he had known many instances where Maori students were unable to translate parts of the Bible from English into Maori. Iren Sand at Patea.

The utilisation of Patea’s iron sand was again before the harbour board yesterday when advice was received that the Anglo-American Steel Company would send an engineer to Patea. Later, it was stated, the machine contractors would send out an expert. Poisoned Salt Lick.

Destruction of deer by poisoned salt licks has been tried by the New Zealand Forestry League, but with little success. In its report to the annual meeting the council of the league stated that inquiries were being made from the American Government, as it had been reported that some success had been obtained in America. Waiwakaiho Erosion.

Survey plans on the extent of the erosion of the Waiwakaiho River near Kaimiro have not been completed, according to the Inglewood county engineer, Mr. S. C. Judd, when reporting to the council’s monthly meeting yesterday. When plans were completed, he said, 1 the New Plymouth borough and district’s engineers would make an inspection with him. Recent inspection had shown that there was not a great deal of danger at preserit.

Speech Standards. That present-day singing was suffering from the standard of speech was a contention made by Mr. Ernest Jenner in an address on voice. training to schoolteachers at Christchurch. He said it was noticeable that speech became worse as one neared the younger generation. Older people spoke well, students fairly well and primary school children shockingly. He urged teachers to abandon the system of teaching children to read by placing emphasis on each word. Fluency and musical quality in speech should be aimed at.

Mo tor-Vehicles. The number of motor-vehicles licensed in New Zealand at June 20 was 168,297, a decrease of 41,165 compared with the position three months previously, reports the Government Statistician New licenses became due at the end of May, and it is normal to find a sharp decrease in the licensing figures for June. The number of licenses in force at the end of June, 1935, represents an increase etc 7.3 per cent, on the total a year previously, and 14.5 per cent, on that two years ago.

Land Transfers and Mortgages. Land transfers registered during June numbered 1776, the consideration in respect of such transfers amounting to £1,286,677—51ight increases in both number and in amount involved over the figures for May, and increases of 13 per cent, in number and 32.4 per cent, in value over the totals for June of last year. Mortgage business in June, though substantially higher than in that month of last year, was slighty lower in respect of the amount, and considerably lower in respect of the number of registrations, than in May of this year.

Building Permits. The value of building permits issued in the larger towns of New Zealand during June was £282,063, a decrease of 18.5 per cent, compared with the May total, but an increase of 86.7 per cent, on the corresponding figure for June of last year, the Government Statistician states. The number of permits taken out for the erection of new dwellings was 213, a decrease of 26 when compared with the May figure—which was the highest for some months—but a very substantial increase over the total for June, 1934, during which month only 97 -permits for this type of building were issued.

Waikato Dairy Production. Dairy products totalling 59,244 tons were manufactured by the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company for the season ended May 31 last, a decrease of 2034 tons compared with the previous season’s output. The decrease was due to the dry weather experienced in January and February last throughout the Waikato. The payment, however, showed, an improvement, that for butter ! being 10.281 d per lb. butter-fat for finest grade, delivered direct to factories, including contributions to contract cream cartage and railage on cream. The payment for butter-fat for the previous year on the same conditions was 9.501 d. Cost of War.

Marching four abreast the 9,000,000 men who were killed in the Great War would take six weeks to pass a given point, declared the Hon. T. Bloodworth at a meeting held under the auspices of the Movement Against War and Fascism at Auckland. More men were killed in the four years between 1914 and 1918 than in all the wars from the time Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 54 B.C. up to 1914. At the present time 14s out of every £1 of taxation collected in Great Britain went to pay for past or future wars, pensions and interest on war loans absorbing Us and the maintenance of the standing services 3s. If expenditure on armaments ceased the standard of living would be raised at least 10 per cent.

Prolific Oyster. “If all the progeny of one oyster survived their bulk in three generations would be 1000 times that of the earth, as one oyster lays from 20,000,000 to 60,000,000 eggs in a season,” remarked Mr. A. W. B. Powell, conchologist, in a lecture at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Only very few young oysters, or “spat, as they were called, reached maturity. Their first difficulty was to find a clean place to settle on, and oyster cultivation was therefore only the provision of suitable artificial rock or wooden surfaces for them to adhere to. Throughout their lives they were attacked by enemies. One spiral univalve shellfish, Jike a whelk, inserted the lip of its shell between the valves of the oyster’s shell and levered them apart in order to eat the inhabitant. Another species, called the oyster-eater, used its ribbon-like tongue, studded with sharp teeth, to bore a hole in the oyster’s shell (the operation taking 20 or 30 minutes), and inserted its proboscis to eat the oyster. Maori and Shark Oil.

It has often been claimed for the old-

time Maori that not only did he know the value of shark as a food, but he also knew the value of the oil produced by sharks, which he often skilfuly extracted from the livers of the fish. This oil the Maori used for many purposes, including, strange to say, lung troubles after he left the hill tops and went to live in the lower-lying lands, some of which were swampy, to get away from his enemies. Basking sharks, sometimes 50 feet long, huge fish hardly ever seen now, would produce nearly 100 gallons of oil, which the Maoris used for smearing their bodies. The oil was stored in calabashes after the fish had been boiled down. It was only the oil from the liver that was used internally. To-day in European countries where basking sharks of huge dimensions are often killed the oil is valued at from 10s to 20s a gallon, making a shark worth from £5O to £lOO.

The Red Cross Society and the New Plymouth District Nurse Association are holding a combined collection day on Friday. An earnest appeal is made to all to help make the collection a sucqdss.*