NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1937, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Pukekura Park Gatcs. Work on the Saftders Memorial Gates at tlie Liafdet Street entrance to Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, is expected to begin next week. The work will probably occupy about three mOnths. First Solo Flight. J Mr. M. Hunter, the first of the Newj Plymouth pilote trained xmder fire civil reserve air force schen.e, made his first solo fiight yesterday morning. He was trained hy Flying-Officer Ian Keith. Pipe Band Parade. To bring the jiiftior band before the notice Of the public the New Plymouth pipe band held a parade last Jtught and received a warm welCome. The junior members marched in fine style behind the band, ApprOximately £200 is necesEary to purchase drums and pipes for tne juniOrS and, although no collection was made last night, there was a good response. Mail from Pacific Islands. Thtee bags of fiiail frOm Nauru Island and one from Ocean Island were brOught to New Plymouth by the Bank Lnw steamer Tymeric, which berthed on Thursday night. This is the first oc casion New Plymouth has been rned as a distributing centre for these mails, al' thoUgh on several occasions Australian mail has been landed. One of the bags brought by the Tymeric Was for local distribution. Rights on the Road. A lawyer who said of a ttiotor driver who had admittedly been driving on the wrong Side Of Ihe road that he had "no right to be there" was promptly corrected by Mr. Justice Cal^n in the Supreme Court at Auckland. There _is no law to say you must not go on the wrong side of the road," said His Hoaour. "Ihe point is you must get oa it in good and suflicient time. To be caught in the act of getting back when you ought to be back, that is negligence." "A Bad Mlstake." The decision of the New Zealand Rugby Union to postpone sending a tearn to play in Australia until 1939 was received with disapproval at a meetingof the South Auckland Rugby Union. Ihe Rev. H. H. Jeflreys Said the New^ Zealand union was making a bad mistake in policy and was only following the tragedy of defeat by the Springboks with a further tragedy. The meeting unanimously decided to Writo to tho Auckland Rugby Union urging the Auckland committee to de its utmost to persuade the New Zealand union to alter its decision. Tubcrcutosis in Cattle. Tests carried out last week by oflicers of the Department of Agriculture among dairy herds in the Greymouth district have shown tuberculosis among cattle to be surprisingly prevalent. Altogether about 30 cows have been eliminated from herds as the result of the tests, and a number have been destroyed, lncluding a batch of eight, representmg almost a third of one dairymans herd. • Under the Stock Act cattle shown by test to be tubereular automatically become the property of. the Government, which compensates the owner to the extent of 50 per cent. of their value, which is fixed by arbitration. Maori War History. An analysis of expenditure on miUtary and other services in New Zealand during the early years of colomal development, discovered by an Auckland citizen among some old documents, h&s an interesting bearing on Maon -War history. The year of greatest expenditure was 1863-64, when £786,103 was required for defence. In the next five years the annual expenditure was around £300,000, except for 1867-68, when there was a brief redpction to £120,000. In the 'seventies the figure settled down at about £170,000. The rise to the 1864 peak was sudden, showing how critical was the emergency tlie Government was compelled to fill. Lord Rutherford'# Honour. Ihe Tablet in referring to tlie deatli of Lord Rutherford of Nelson recalls Lord Rutherford's- appointment by the Pope to the Pontifical Academy of Science. This august body of scientists was reconstituted by Pope Pius XI in 1939, and at that time was composed of 70 members drawn from sixteen nations. Gf the three Britisli members Lord Rutherford was one, being one of the few non-Catholics chosen by the Pope for this high honour, which he shared with such illustrious scientists as the late Marchese Marconi, General Nobile and Dottore Gemelli, the first president of the University of Milan, which has become one of the greatest centres of learning in Europe. "The Last Stronghold."

"The last stronghold of miilable indigenous forest, the timber in the far south of the West Coast, extending down to Jackson's Bay, is now to be delivered over to the axe and saw," says the November issue of "Forest and Bird" in an editoriaL "Those timber supplies on the West Coast north and south of the Haast River, particularly the white pine, have been described in vague terms as practically inexhaustible. One timber man's opinion was that the^ would last for a century. Other authorities are less optimistic. It is stated that the dairy industry requires the huge quantity of 35,000,000 feet of white pine per annum. At the present rate of consumption the forests of the south, large as they are, are not likely to last anything like a century, or even a quarter of a century. Now, is that forest of the south simply to be exhausted in the wasteful old way, d r is the worked area to be protected and regenerated.? The young forest growth will undpubtedly provide a new timber forest in time, if it is conserved and guarded for tlie future." In to-day's issue Bennis Patcrson, Ltd. announce the opening of Frigidaire House at New Plymouth and Hawera. The flrm specialises in Frigidaire domestic and commercial refrigeration and will operate in all Taranaki towns where agents have been appointed. Refrigeration service will play an important part in the organisation and under the experienced direction of Mr. Naylor, who not only is a refrigeration engineer but also has served a course in the Frigidaire service' department at the factory in America, expert attention and service will be available to users of all classes of refrigerators.*