LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 8

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Ingenious Reply An examiner in first-aid in Timaru received an ingenious reply to a question one day recently. The question was: “What is a skeleton and its uses?” and the reply was, “A skeleton is a man with the meat off." Air Liner Makes a Call Owing to bad flying conditions south of Timaru, the Union Airways air liner Kotuku landed at the Timaru airport shortly after noon yesterday. Later the Kotuku left for Dunedin with the passengers and mails. Youth Falls Down Lift Well Robert Norman Porter, aged 18, fell down the lift well in York Chambers, Auckland, yesterday, and suffered concussion and abrasions. It is not known how the accident occurred. His condition is fairly satisfactory. Poultry Association The following officers were elected at the annual conference of the South Island Poultry, Pigeon and Canary Association:—Patron, Hon. W. Lee Martin; president, Mr G. H. Bradford; councillors, Messrs H. S. Lowcay, A. W. Pritchard, J. D. Gobbe. F. Ashworth, C. A. Gallop, F. D. Kingsford and R. W. Thompson; secretary and treasurer, Mr R. Pearce. Sow Attacks Woman A vicious attack was made by a sow with a litter on Mrs Louisa Wellington, aged 50, at her farm at Ngunguru, near Whangarei, on Tuesday. Mrs Wellington was knocked to the ground and bitten severely on the arms and legs before she could escape through a fence. The injured woman was admitted to the Whangarei Hospital. Her condition is not serious. Unusual Experience

Swimming in the Dead Sea was one of the experiences enjoyed by Mr H. M. Bennett, of Napier, during a trip abroad, from which he has just returned. “The Dead Sea is a weird sort of place,” said Mr Bennett. “I had two swims in it and found it impossible to keep my limbs below the water surface. One simply floats on the surface; in fact, it is possible actually to lie on top of the water and write.” Tourist Conference About 60 guests arrived at the Hermitage last night for the annual tourist conference and social gathering. Rain has fallen over the past few days, but the weather appears to be lifting and a fine day is expected to-morrow, when trips will be made to the Ball Hut and HOchstetter Icefall. This year the conference is of more than passing importance owing to the formation of the South Canterbury Travel Association and the growing interest being shown in the fostering and development of the tourist industry, particularly as it concerns the South Island.

Evidence of Witnesses

“Witnesses do not intend to be untruthful,” said Mr Justice Callan in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, in referring to conflicting evidence often given in Courts about motor collisions. “These incidents happen very quickly and everybody gets busy reconstructing. Then counsel impels a great many who have been in a collision to answer questions to which they should really reply ‘I do not know as much about his collision as you think I ought.’ Merely because counsel asks a question they think ‘this is one I should know something about.’ ”

Stonemasons’ Dispute

Except on two points, agreement was reached in the Dominion stonemasons’ industrial dispute, and the Arbitration Court yesterday was asked to settle two matters relating to the payment of additional rates. The agreement reached was on the basis of the 1931 conditions equated to the 40-hour week. On matter still in dispute related to the extra 2/- a day for workers in charge of four men, which payment was included in the previous award. The other matter related to the extra payment for granite workers. After hearing the parties the Court reserved its decision.

Land For Housing

The area of land mentioned by the Prime Minister in connection with the housing scheme in Palmerston North consists of 60 acres education reserve in the West End. Probably building will be started in February. Ten acres of Crown land at Terrace End also will be used if there is a preference for that locality, but first consideration will be given to the West End area. The City Council, at a special meeting yesterday received information that the Housing Department contemplates fairly extensive activities in the city. Negotiations are in progress for an exchange of a four acre reserve held by the Council in Fitzherbert Avenue for a smaller Government area close by the Museum and Art Gallery site. Instructions were issued to the Council’s engineer to prepare a plan of Council areas in the city which might be suitable for housing, as the Government is seeking other sites.

Mr Semple Moralises

“There are two types of people I will not stand for—one is the Stock Exchange gambler who speculates in the necessities of life, and the other is the street comer spittoon philosopher who always criticises but never does anything constructive himself,” remarked the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in an address to railway workers at Bartletts camp, near Gisborne. “The man who stands on a street corner and criticises others for either going too slow or too fast, for doing this wrong and failing to do that at all, ought to be given the opportunity of trying his own hand at directing the affairs of the country. There would be no danger of anything happening, because he would not get as far as doing anything. Confronted with the work that falls to the lot of a Cabinet member, and with the responsibility of really helping to run the country, he would fizzle out like a Seidlitz powder in a puddle of water.”