GENERAL NEWS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18285, 7 June 1929, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS.

A cable message from Adelaide reports that Mr Harold Darling, grain merchant, has given £IO,OOO to Adelaide University to establish a Commonwealth centre for soil research. A new farming term was unearthed recently when a party of Massey College students were being addressed at the Weraroa State Farm (says the “Manawatu Evening Standard.”) The lecturer stated that, when on a to America, he had asked a farmer his opinion of his wheat crop. “Well, it's a 'flapper' crop,” replied the farmer. “It looks a lot but hasn’t much on.” It was announced at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Auxiliary of the New Zealand Baptist Union (says a Press Association telegram from Christchurch), that Mrs S. Dennis, of Glenroy, Greendale, has given £IOOO to the union to be invested by the Public Trustee, and to be applied by the union for opening and equipping new Baptist Sunday schools and assisting others. The possioility of the Government steamer, Hinemoa, being sold to an Invercargill syndicate is reported from Auckland. Negotiations are said to be in an advanced stage. The syndicate will use the Hinemoa as a tourist ship to make visits to the West Coast Sounds. The Hinemoa has been laid up in the stream at Auckland since she was superceded by the Maui Pomare in the Islands trade. Questioned as to the Government’s attitude towards the position of the High Commissioner in London, Sir Joseph Ward said that Sir James Parr's term would expire next month, states a Press message from Auckland. Without giving a lead as to any probable extension of Sir James Parr’s term, of a new appointment, the Prime Minister said he hoped to make an announcement on the subject some time before the filling of the office was necessary.

An article published recently in the Greymouth “Star,” on the subject of old violins has brought to light an interesting instrument in the possession of Mr A. Shannon, of Greymouth. Tfye unusual appearance of the case is borne out by the instrument itself, which bears the inscription "Antonius Hieronimus Amati, Cremonen, Andre fili, 1678.” Mr Shannon states that the violin was in possession of the family from which he purchased it for 70 years. Before that, its history is lost in the mists of Time. From time to time advertisements appear from private car owners to the effect that they have vacant seats for a trip to other centres. At the Nelson City Council meeting the other evening, a letter was read from local taxi owners and service car proprietors protesting against the practice, and pointing out that private car owners did not have to pay heavy annual license fees (reports the “Evening Mail.”) As the council was uncertain about its powers to deal with the matter, it was resolved to communicate with other centres concerning the position.

Nearly 500 whisky bottles are thrown overboard dally by British ships sailing the seven seas. The practice has nothing to do with liquor, and the contents of the bottles are the driest things imaginable. In each is a small paper Issued by the meteorological office of the British Air Ministry. The finder is not rewarded, but if he forwards the contents of the bottle to London, his postage is refunded. And many of the papers come back, for the objective is purely scientific, to chart the courses of ocean currents. Each paper records the position of the vessel from which the bottle is cast into the waves.

On the eastern side of Wellington Harbour, the residents still have to put up with makeshifts in some of their domestic arrangements. One of them could not get the water tap to run the other morning. His supply comes from a stream in the hills at the back of the house, and in order to find out what was wrong, he traced the pipe back from the house to the creek. At length, he found it blocked at the stop-cock, and after unscrewing it, he found an eel about two feet long blocking up the pipe. Before the visitor could be got out, the pipe had to be chopped in half—chopped because the resident had no suitable tools to deal with the situation in a plumber-like manner.

A Press Association message from Palmerston North states that under the will of Mrs Mary Elizabeth Chowen, of Palmerston North, bequests are made of £IOOO to the Building and Finance Committee of the Palmerston North Baptist Church to augment the building fund and for other general trust purposes, as the committee thinks fit; £IOOO to the Cuba Street Methodist Church for the installation of a pipe organ, the erection of a tower, and the liquidation of any remaining debt on the Church property, subject to the life interest of her foster-daughter. The deceased also bequeaths £IOOO each to the Presbyterian Girls’ Orphanage, Wellington, the Methodist Orphanage, Masterton, and the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, Auckland.

A recent cablegram from London to the Australian papers stated; In connection with the £250,000 radium fund the question of the price of radium has been again raised. Professor Lindemann, professor of experimental philosophy at Oxford University, states that when radium was discovered, it was sold at approximately £SOO a gramme. Now the price was more than £IO,OOO a gramme despite the new rich deposits and more efficient methods of extraction. Lord Birkenhead says there surely must be some explanation which ought to be supplied without, delay. Mr Stanford Cade, one of the leading (radiological surgeons, points out that the price was once £20,000, and then £15.000. America now pays £14,000, Britain £II,OOO, Germany £IO,OOO, and uweden £9OOO. It looks as though the nations were graded according to capacity to pay. The “Daily Telegraph” comments that the belief that even the lowest price carries a satisfactory profit is likely to persist in the absence of an explanation by the vendors.

A donation of £2 for the Chinese j Famine Fund, has been received from "Sympathiser.” A number of the delegates to the annual conference of the Honey Producers’ Association will leave to-day for Mount Cook. - At Napier, the loading operations of the Remuera were held up yesterday, the watersiders refusing to go aboard till a clean bill of health was given. It is said that a case of influenza exists among members of the crew. The eleventh annual championship of the Wellington Miniature Rifle Association commenced on the Winter : Show buildings' range yesterday, j There were 125 entries, Walrarapa be- j ing largely represented. The decision will be on the aggregates of nine matches. The Mayor opened the proceedings and welcomed the visitors. The weather yesterday was fine and warm for the tour of the South Taranaki farmers through the South Canterbury district. While at Holme Station, a few spots of rain fell, and this caused one of the visitors to remark: “Get your coats on Taranaki, you’re getting nearer home.” The remark caused a good deal of hearty laughter. The new roadway at Brookland's Hill, on the Main South Road, was opened for traffic yesterday. At present the surface is thickly strewn with coarse shingle, and makes rather rough travelling, but later on the improvement effected should be generally appreciated, as the new track is wide, well graded, and obviates the two turns formerly required. Mr T. Hope-Evans, chief officer of the steamer Aelybryn. at present in New Zealand waters, halls from Wales, and is a keen follower of Rugby football. Speaking of next year’s tour of New Zealand by an English team, he expressed the opinion that New Zealand would receive a surprise at the strength of the team which will be sent out, judging by the standard of Rugby football at Home at the present time. That the visit of the South Taranaki farmers to this district had created a good deal of interest, especially among the country school children, was evidenced by the welcome extended to the visitors by the pupils of the Pleasant Point school. When the party approached the school in the course of their tour of the' district yesterday, they found the children lined up on. either side of the road, and in front of them was a blackboard bearing the words “Haere Mai. Taranaki." As the cars passed, the children greeted the occupants with cheers and paper streamers. Constant improvement is being effected in the Main South Road south of Oamaru, and from that town to Palmerston the highway is now better than at any previous time. The rough hill just south of the Junction Hotel, Oamaru, has been tar-sealed, and the use of fine gravel and the grader has produced an excellent surface. In the neighbourhood of Waikouaiti borough, the road is rather more appalling than usual, but the country road is somewhat better, and the Kilmog, though still decidedly rough, is not the terror to motorists it once was. The stretch from the Waitaki to Oamaru is not inviting, but even that is receiving attention, and on the whole most roads in North Otago now compare favourably with those of South Canterbury.

There was only one mishap of a serious nature during the tour of the South Taranaki farmers through South Canterbury yesterday. A car driven by Mr R. Clelland, of Waihao Downs, and which contained Mr C. R. Mackenzie, Railway Business Agent and three Press representatives, was about to take the Cannington Hill when the left front wheel came off. The car swerved to the left side of the road, but as it was only travelling at a moderate pace, quickly came to a standstill. When the breakdown car arrived, the wheel was re-fitted, but Mr Clelland had only proceeded a short distance when it again came off. The car was then jacked to the breakdown car and towed first to Holme Station and then to town. The occupants of the car escaped without even a shaking. In the course of an address to the Palmerston North Rotary Club, Miss J. Dalton, a visiting Girl Guide officer, gave an instance of native ideas about the white people, which would appear to shake our superior complex. An English family with a pretty daughter went to reside in one of the wilder parts of the Sudan. They found at first that all the natives ran away at the sight of them, but after some time came to know them better, and inquired the reason for this antipathy. They were told that the Sudanese did not find the presence of Europeans congenial because they “smelt so,” and because they looked “so hideous." “That,” said Miss Dalton amid laughter, “would appear to be a very good moral lesson. It all depends upon the point of view one has.” The Dominion Council of the League of Nations Union annually conducts a poster competition with the idea of making more widely known the aims and objects of the Union. The competition has created a good deal of interest among the pupils of the Secondary Schools of the Dominion, to whom it is confined, and in the past some clever posters have been sent in. This year the interest taken by the pupils is greater than ever, the posters displaying a wealth of talent and originality. It is quite evident that the competitors have caught the spirit of the movement, and it is further evident that all of the twenty-three pupils who have forwarded posters have gone to a good deal of trouble in an endeavour to make their efforts as attractive and as truly representative of the great peace movement as possible. During the past few days the posters have been on view at the Timaru Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools, and to-day and to-morrow they will be available to the public, free of charge, in the Technical College. Vehicles travelling from Dunedin yesterday were challenged at different points by public officers, who were searching for a prisoner who had escaped at 7.30 a.m., from the Dunedin gaol. A motorist who left Dunedin In I the forenoon for Timaru, gave a lift to a young lad, who. when overtaken, was trudging through the rain north of Waitati, in search of employment on a farm. On learning that the car was going to Timaru, the lad decided to avail himself of the opportunity to try his fortune In South Canterbury. Ap- , proachlng the first police station, the car was stopped at a bridge by a constable, who obviously eyed the passenger with great suspicion. With the aid of the motorist, who had gleaned something of the lad’s history, the suspect was able to satisfy the representative of the law that he was not the wanted man. Forty miles further on another bridge held a waiting constable, and again the boy was subjected to keen scrutiny. This time the examination was of shorter duration, and the lad was allowed to proceed. He was clothed in a way which made his age j appear greater than it really was, and this no doubt caused the policemen to pay him unwanted attention. The fact that the car-owner was known to both constables made the ordeal lighter than it might otherwise have been.

"There are some absurd anomalies In the present system of electing education boards." declared the assistant director of education. Mr A. Bell, at the conference of education boards in Wellington. He said that the Wellington Board provided a good example. The Hut Valley, with eight schools, had a representation of two. and the Wairarapa. with 70 schools, and a population of 33,000, had the same representation. “It is now possible for a youth to buy a bit of scrap iron with four wheels and some starting gear, spend all his pocket money, and get somethin? that will travel on the roads. Then he wants to travel as fast as he can.” That was how Mr R. E. Chamntaloup. touring manager of the Auckland Automobile Association. described at Wanganui, the risk pedestrians ran on the open ror "s in the present era of speed. “Any one of you.” he told his hearers, “might be the unfortunate pedestrian to be killed by the carelessness of some driver.” An interesting souvenir of the South African War in the shape of a handsomely embossed “social” Jug has been presented to the Wellington branch of the South African Veterans’ Association. The jug, which bears the names of regiments and commanders of the first five contingents, and other inscriptions. came into the hands of the donor in the course of his business, and he presented it to the Wellington branch, with his compliments. This graceful act is highly appreciated by the members of the Veterans’ Association. and a motion to that effect will be inserted in the official records, and | a copy forwarded to the donor. The Stewart Island correspondent of the “Southland News" states that Mr Adam Adamson, “the Ambergris King." with whom the public have become familiar owing to his ambergris activities. has recently been undergoing some hardships in connection with his calling. One of the fishing fleet which called to see him recently found him short of provisions. His home is at a very remote and inaccessible place at Doughboy Bay. Few boats venture there, so Mr Adamson was very glad of the opportunity to send an order for more supplies. At the time he had only a little flour and potatoes, and was far from robust, but a vessel soon had an opportunity of taking round enough to last him till December, when he expects to return to civilisation. Mr Adamson reports that he has had less than his average luck with ambergris so far. but is looking for a good return In the spring. That Californian quail were not thriving in Canterbury as they should was the subject of comment by several members at the annual meeting of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, and one or two suggestions for increasing their numbers were forthcoming. Mr D. Deans described the quail as “the finest sporting bird in the world.” There were two distinct

species of Californian quail, wet belt and dry belt quail, he explained. In Canterbury, quail seemed to flourish along the coasts, but not further Inland. It did not seem that much could come of the introduction of birds from Otago or Blenheim, but they might do something with the birds direct from California. In response to a query by Mr R. S. McKenzie as to whether he was in favour of areas of broom being fenced in to allow the birds to breed. Mr Deans replied that it would be costly to do this and hard to do it so as to keep stoats out. Replying to another question, Mr Deans said that the hatching of quail under hens was worth trying. One member stated that 90 per cent, of the pheasants In Britain were reared in this manner. Ting-a-ling. tlng-a-ling, ting-a-llng! Drat that clock—must get up and shut it off. Now back to bed and ten minutes more “shut eye.” No, its not worth while—time to get dressed and then plenty of time for a shave and a good hot “brekker." The alarm has done its job and will do so again to-morrow if its a reliable one. And there are plenty of reliable ones from 8/6 awaiting your choice at England, Mcßae’s. ...•