Local and General News

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21324, 19 April 1939, Page 6

Local and General News

Injury From Falling Tree Struck on the side of the head by a falling tree. James Weir, aged 25, of Winscombe, received slight concussion that necessitated his removal to the Timaru Public Hospital. He was attended by Dr. Wells. Dairy Conference Matters of interest to dairy farmers are to be discussed at the seventh Dominion Dairy Conference in Wellington to-day and Thursday. The conference is to be opened by Mr Nash, and Mr Lee Martin will also be present. The agenda contains 52 remits. Hospital Statistics Reporting to yesterday’s meeting of the South Canterbury Hospital Board, the Medical Superintendent (Dr. J. C. McKenzie), said that in-patients remaining from February totalled 117 (107 in February 1938), admitted in March 189 (164), discharged in March 179 (163) and remaining in hospital 137 (108). The average daily occupied bed was 126.2 (107.8).

P. and T. Guild

The conference of the Post and Telegraph Officers Guild opened in Wellington yesterday. This organisation represents the senior and controlling officers of the Department. The main questions for consideration are the salaries of senior officers, means of effecting improvements in the administration and executive control of the service, the effective training of junior officers and other questions of that nature.

Russian Prisons Set Example

Russian prisons were well kept and the prisoners were exceedingly well catered for in 1897, said Mr Gordon Greig in an address on Siberia to the Timaru Rotary Club yesterday. The buildings were clean and the prisoners were taught trades that would be useful to them when they were freed. In that connection Russia showed the way to Britain which had not introduced instruction for prisoners for some time after that.

Co-ordination of Road Transport

A further step towards the co-ordination of road transport of goods in the Ashburton district was taken yesterday. Executive members of the Ashburton branch of the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance waited on the Licensing Authority for the No. 4 Transport district to report the purthase of the service operated by Lily Susan Keen at Winslow. Mr T. H. Langford, the Licensing Authority, said that this service had been eliminated because it was looked upon as redundant. The purchase, he said, had been made under conditions laid down by him some time ago, when he indicated that the Alliance had until April 18 to come to a decision

Uncle Adolf’s Funeral

A discreetly-worded anecdote referring to the position of the Jews in Central Europe was told by his Excellency the Governor-General (Lord Galway) at the annual dinner of the Wellington branch of the Royal Society. “There is a story told of a certain country in the centre of Europe where a certain people not unconnected with Palestine are not having a very< pleasant time,” he said. “They are not able to express their grievances for fear of retribution. One of them sent a letter to a friend in England, and fearing that it might be opened by the censor said: ‘All those stories about persecutions are quite untrue. We are enjoying a happy and peaceful life, but Uncle Adolf did not think so. We attended his funeral last Tuesday.”

Conditions In Siberia

Conditions in Siberia and in Manchuria at the end of last century were described in an address by Mr Gordon Greig to members of the Timaru Rotary Club at the weekly luncheon yesterday. Mr Greig commented on the vast size of Manchuria and its wealth of gold, coal and timber. The soil was so rich that it could support ten times the number of people which inhabited it at that time, and until the Japanese invasion the drift of Chinese population was towards that area. Mr Greig described a journey made by his father in 1897 from Manchuria to Moscow, a trip that was made by native cart, river boat and train and that took 76 days. There was great timber and mineral wealth in Siberia which was then being worked, but over the border in Manchuria, there was no sign of development.

Whale Drifts Ashore An unusual piece of flotsam in the form of a 20ft spoonbill whale, weighing in the vicinity of two tons, was washed ashore at Robin Hood Bay, near Port Underwood, recently. It was found by Mr Henry Neal, the large carcass actually having drifted up the beach opposite his boatshed. The whale was apparently dead before it grounded, although, as there were no marks or visible injuries, it is impossible to say in what manner it met its death. The spoonbill is a comparatively rare variety in the Cook Strait area. Full use is being made by Mr Neal of this gift from the sea. It has been skinned to the blubber, which has been retained for boiling down, while the meat is being cut into strips and hung up to dry for dog food. Several years ago a similar find was made on the beach at Kakapo, Port Underwood, and in that Instance 65 gallons of oil were secured. Once Coveted By Russia The rich and vast area of Manchuria, which nas been renamed Manchukuo by the Japanese since it was taken from the Chinese, was coveted by Russia at the end of last century, said Mr Gordon Greig in an address to the Timaru Rotary Club yesterday. Russian troops drilling near Vladivostock were most efficient and left the impression on Mr Greig’s father, who was a missionary in Manchuria for 40 years, that it would require only a small force of Russians to capture the rich Chinese province and that Russia had her eyes on the possibility of effecting the conquest. Further inland where gold was being mined in Russia on one side of the boundary river, the Russians again gave the impression that they would like to have access to the promising and undeveloped areas on the other side. However, the Japanese had made the conquest and would probably benefit by the untouched mineral areas.