GENERAL NEWS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19141, 24 March 1932, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

At a special meeting of the Emergency Committee of the Caledonian Society yesterday an apology was received from A. C. Ritchie of Christchurch, who made insulting allegations against the directors of the Society and the way in which the New Year sports meeting had been run. The apology was accepted. The Star Football Club applied for permission to use the Caledonian Grounds during the season, and the committee decided to grant the application on the same terms as last year.

The fortnightly meeting of the Star of Canterbury Lodge, No. 10 (1.0.0. F.) was held last evening in the Forester’s Hall, N.G. Bro. Preston presiding over a good attendance. Account and sick pay amounting to £9/10/- were passed for payment. After the disposal of the correspondence, brethren stood for a moment in silence out of respect for Bro. Rankin, who had just lost his wife. N.G. Bros. Duggan and H. Clark reported on the United Friendly Society’s dispensary and council respectively. P.G. Bro. Berry also spoke on the dispensary. Half-yearly Government returns were adopted. N.G. Bro. Preston declared the officers duly elected for the ensuing term. Bro. Youdale was elected representative to the W.E.A. in Bro. M. Jordan’s stead, as the latter could not attend. After the closing of the lodge and roll Rail of officers, a pleasant hoqr was spent.

Two schools in South Canterbury, Kingsdown and Pairview, will be holding their jubilee celebrations during the coming week end.

During the course ol a heavy shower of rain yesterday morning, a Puss Moth monoplane, piloted by Mr Douglas Mills, landed at the Saltwater Creek aerodrome, and later left for the north. Mr Mill was returning to Auckland from a business trip to Invercargill.

At a meeting of the South Canterbury Education Board in March 1882, the chairman (Mr H. Belfield) reported that he had accepted a tender at £232 15s for the erection of a school at Albury. They had hoped to secure premises occupied by the police, but as it was uncertain when these would be handed over, and the residents were very anxious to have a school; he had decided on the course adopted. The Committee had agreed to contribute £32 15s towards the cost of the school.

Judgment by default was entered by Mr C. R. Orr-Walker, S.M., in the following undefended cases, at a sitting of the Civil Court yesterdayP. G. Smith v. G. P. Thomson, claim £4/15/-, costs 26/6; Royal Insurance Company Ltd., v. W. O. Smith, claim £l3/5/-, costs £3/2/-; Milne Bremner Ltd. v. C. Rice, claim £5/13/4, costs 15/-; South Canterbury Electric Power Board v. William G. Ottley, claim £3/2/1, costs 23/6; Leo Collins v. J. Kitto, claim £6/3/-, costs 34/6. In a judgment summons case, no order was made against H. Deganneh, who was proceeded against by the Vacuum Oil Company for £5/0/3. Judgment debtor presented a statement of his earnings, the Magistrate stating that under the circumstances Deganneh was unable to pay anything at present.

The reference by Tahu Wiremu Ratana, the Maori religious leader, to the union of interest of Aotearoa, the North Island, and those of Te Waipounamu, the South Island, in the course of a speech at the Native assembly at Te Kuiti, draws attention to the many names applied to the islands of the Dominion. Aotearoa is the general name among the Maori tribes for the whole of New Zealand, only the peoples of a portion of the North Island west coast, near Wanganui, using the word, as Ratana has done,, to describe the North Island, which is ordinarily called Te Ika a Maui. An abbreviated form of Aotearoa, Aotea, is the Maori term for Great Barrier Island. Nevi Zealand was once known as Tiri Tiri o te Moana “placed at wide intervals in the ocean”—and the Rarotongans knew this country as Avaiki-Tautau, one of the Pacific Ocean’s many Haiwaikis. There is also a modern expression, Niu Tireni, which is merely a Maori pronunciation of New Zealand.

Broadcasting from Sydney to his fellow citizens of the United States by means of the short wave service of Amalgamated Wireless, Mr R. L. Ripley, the American cartoonist, said that Americans would take a lot of convincing when told that wild dogs in Australia (dingoes) do not bark, that there is an Australian fence 1139 miles long, rivers that run inland and never reach the sea, black swans and white eagles, and the kookaburra bird which laughs like a man, only louder. Mr Ripley told his audience that he was all burned up about the platypus which is a fish because it lives in the water half its time, an animal because it lives also on the land, and an amphibian because it does both. It is also an “hibernian” because it buries itself in the mud and sleeps for weeks. Mr Ripley also explained that the ornithorynchus paradoxus, to give the platypus its full name, is a duck, a seal, a bird and a mammal. Mr Ripley’s talk was re-broadcast through U.S.A. by ten of the national chain of stations and by six short wave stations.

In the House of Representatives, the Rev, C. Carr asked the following urgent question: —“I desire to ask the Right Hon. the Minister in Charge of Unemployment (Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) whether his attention has been drawn to the fact, as reported to me, that relief workers engaged in the repair of flood damage in South Canterbury on the basis of a forty-hour week at existing relief rates are being asked to make up time in lieu of Good Friday and, presumably, Easter Monday, and whether he will have the position reviewed in order that these men may receive the full benefit of the Easter holidays? (Note. —Ordinary County Council and Public Works employees are granted these two holidays on full pay, and those men who declined to accept relief work under conditions prevailing in connection with this flood damage job, are given the same holidays at their own expense.”) In reply, the Minister stated that he understood that, as a result of representations made, the matter raised was receiving urgent consideration.

Shooting trips will be very popular this Easter. Already many parties are making preparation, as is evident by the number of guns and rifles and the amount of ammunition sold by England, Mcßae. A very fine hammerless double-barrelled shot gun, manufactured by the Midland Gun Co. is selling at £l4/14/-, while B.S.A.’s hammerless are priced at £l7/10/-, Belgian hammerless guns are offered at from £6/15/-. Rifles, too, in far too numerous makes and calibres to mention, are all exceptionally and reasonably priced. Many entirely new models, exclusive to England, Mcßae’s are particularly worthy of note. C.A.C. ammunition, black smokeless 12 gauge sells at 4/9 box. “Long range” at 6/- box. England. Mcßae’s is the place where quality counts