LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20781, 16 July 1937, Page 8

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Lacerated Hand While using an axe yesterday, a lad, lan Wood, lacerated a hand, necessitating his removal to Timaru Public Hospital. His condition last night was satisfactory. Committed for Sentence Gustav Henry Elgin (28) appeared before Messrs J. W. Holdgate and P. B. Foote. J.’sP. in the Timaru Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of incest. After the hearing of the evidence accused pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Thoughtless Motorists Signs reading “Hospital, drive quietly,” are to be erected in Bidwill Street in the vicinity of the Timaru Private Hospital, according to a decision reached by the Automobile Association (S.C.) at a meeting last night. The course was decided upon after complaints of thoughtless motorists unnecessarily sounding their horns and accelerating noisily when changing gears in the vicinity. A Change in Diet A bird lover’s account of how he kept a tui in his garden for four years was related at the annual meeting of the Wellington Horticultural Society. “This tui is quite famous," he said. "To induce it to stay we had to feed it, and we first gave it honey. Now, however, its diet is golden syrup. I don’t know whether increased costs and the 40-hour week are responsible for the change, but if you could ask the tui about it, he would probably say quite a lot.” Women's Division Mrs J. F. Drake (Otago) was elected Dominion president of the Women's Division of the Farmers’ Union with the following vice-presidents: Mesdanies J. C. Wickham, T. C. Barrer, Noel Adams (North Island), W. H. Ward, A. Forsyth and H. A. Nutt (South Island). Mrs Jackson (Walrarapa) was elected Dominion treasurer. The new Dominion Advisory Board consists of Mesdames D. Simpson, Lane, Rybum (North Island). Mclntosh, W. Elliott and B. E. Evans (South Island). A Small Newspaper Reading the newspaper is an expensive pastime in New Guinea, according to Mr W. J. Sawers, who has just returned from a visit to that country as a representative of Papuan Oil Developments (Australia). “The Papuan Courier,” published at Port Moresby, and “The Torres Straits Daily Pilot,” published at Thursday Island, may be bought for the sum of sixpence. The latter paper, probably the smallest and dearest in the world, consists of one page, less than 12 inches square and the reading matter covers one side of the page only. A St Francis of Assisi “On May 29 there was called to a higher service one who had almost become a legend in the life of the church of New Zealand, Thomas Fielden Taylor,” said the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, at the Wellington Anglican Synod. “Perhaps he approached nearer to a St. Francis of Assisi than any other priest most of us have known. He was utterly reckless of self and in spite of constant physical infirmity he used to the full the vast dynamic energy at his disposal for the good of the community as a whole, and he made an undying place for himself in the memories of the soldiers to whom he ministered In Gallipoli.” Man of Quick Auction An incident in the life of a distinguished statesman, the late Sir George Grey, was told by Rotarian W. Harvey at the luncheon of the Napier Rotary Club. The particular incident took place in 1853, Rotarian Harvey said. Sir George was a man of quick action and marked learning, and often if the authorities were slow in making the necessary financial arrangements for various schemes he made the money available out of his own pocket. At this time there had been pitched battles between Maoris in Hawke’s Bay for possession of the area of fertile land between the Seventy-Mile Bush and Napier. Sir George found it necessary for him to acquire the land for European settlers, but he could not obtain the necessary finance when he needed it, so he paid out of his own pocket the several thousands of pounds necessary for the purchase of the land. Refinements of Taxation After outlining the work of social reconstruction in Vienna in the years following the war, Dr. Paul Dengler, of the New Education Fellowship, said at a lecture in Auckland that his audience would be wondering how an impoverished country like Austria could find so much money. “I wondered if you knew anything of taxes,” he asked, “but I see from your newspapers that you do.” In Vienna the air was free, but the rest was taxed. Taxes ranged from 7 per cent to 33 per cent of income, real estate and luxuries. Goods purchased in fashionable shops cost more than the same purchases in other shops; motor-cars and servants were taxed, even meals in a restaurant were not exempt. “Only the foolish or the wealthy could afford to dance at a restaurant,” Dr. Dengler said; there was a special tax on the pianists and a tax on the dancing that increased as the hour grew later.