Local and General News

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22065, 11 September 1941, Page 4

Local and General News

civil Case Judgment for plaintiff was given by Mr H. Morgan, S.M., in the Timaru Magistrate's Court yesterday in a civil case, MacFarlane and Co., Ltd. v. Geoffrey Meredith Townsend and George Thomas Townsehd, balance of claim £l/10/3, costs 8/-. Clergymen’s Salaries A recommendation to General Assembly that the minimum stipend be £330 per annum instead of £360 was made at a meeting of the Christchurch Presbytery yesterday morning. The stipends of home missionaries Were fixed at £l9O for single men and £220 for married men. Army Defaulters Provision for dealing With an Army defaulter who has served a term of imprisonment imposed by a civil Court tor an initial breach of the regulations is included in instructions issued by Army Headquarters at Wellington. On release the man Will be seen and given a lawful command. Failure to obey will be followed by proceedings under military law. Big Men The Australian soldiers seem to have captured the imagination of the world with their fine physique, but the biggest men among the Empire forces are not the Australians nor yet the New Zealanders, according to an Invercargill soldier who has been invalided back from the Middle East. He said the biggest men are the south Africans. He referred in particular to the unit known as the “Capetown Highlanders.” They were ail very big men—six-footers, most of them. The South Africans had done a fine job in Abyssinia. “No Social Security” In the course of hia address at the Hamilton observance of the national day of prayer, the Rev. w. Gatman said that brute force had been let loose upon the World, and there was now no such thing as social security. Man’s security had vanished overnight. Men were realising that life’s security was not an old-age pension or an assured income, but the abiding presence of God. The word of man, whether a dictator or someone else, was insufficient security. God’s word alone could be relied Upon, for it Could fashion a new age and a new world. Prisoners Not Wanted A suggestion that Italian prisoners of war might be brought to New Zealand to relieve the labour situation, which came before the Manawatu Provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union, was very quickly squashed. The proposers had behind their idea the possibility of shipping space being saved as it was stated that Italian prisoners abroad were being fed from New Zealand. If, instead, they were brought to the Dominion and fed here, more space on ships would be available for otper uses. The executive, however, saw the disadvantages Of prisoners Of war in New Zealand OUt-Welghing the advantages suggested. Uninvited Guests Uninvited guests to the cottage of an opossum trapper at Kalmlfo, Mr N. H. Short, one day last week were an Old SOW and her young. It has been said that a pig has more brains than any other animal when it is hungry. These ones pushed open two doors that could not have been shut properly to get io the kitchen," but how they got all the ‘eats’ out of the cupboard is a mystery. Their lunch was a full sugar sack of carrots and parsnips and a few potatoes, and out of the cupboard they task three waves of bread, 31b of block cake, a packet of raisins, rice, sago, a cauliflower and cooked ham. All they left was halt the cheese and 251 b of flour ail Over the kitchen. Errands for Teachers The question of whether children should perform errands or do favours for teachers during school hours Was discittled at a meeting Of the Wellington School committees and Education Association, opinions differed slightly, but it was generally agreed that such tasks as preparing morning and afternoon tea for the teachers, While not beneficial to a strictly educational sense, was not really objectionable if all Were given a turn. Headmasters in most cases had proved Very reasonable when approached by parents, and unless a complaint was warranted the school committee had no power to take action. Emphasis was laid on the responsibility of teachers where children might be involved in accidents in running private errands in town for teachers. Sacred Maori Relic One of the most famous Of Maori relics, the korotangi, has recently passed into the keeping of the Dominion Museum, where it is now oh exhibition. The korotangi is a skilfully-carved stone bird Just under a foot in length, and is supposed to have been brought to New Zealand in the canoe Tainui in the early days or Maori immigration, it was always regarded with great veneration and was even consulted as an oracle. Generations ago, however, the korotangi was lost, much to the grief of the Maoris. But in 1878 it was discovered near Kawhia in a hole where an old tree had been blown down, and there Was much rejoicing among the Maoris at the reappearance of this sacred and historic relic, which no doubt had been deliberately buried where it Was found in order to prevent it passing into wrong hands. Subsequently the korotangi, or “crying dove,” passed into the possession of a Christchurch family, and by them it has been loaned to the Dominion Museum.