LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16736, 18 May 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

♦ NEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR The question of the distribution of the money raised on Poppy Day was discussed at length by the Wellington District Conference of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, hold at Palmerston North. It was resolved that the whole of the money available for the Wellington district should be handed to tho district secretary at Palmerston North, where a committee, set up at the conference, will allocate, the funds, according to the amount of unemployment prevailing in the various districts which make application. A personal examination of the conditions of the berthing of oversea vessels at tho Auckland wharves was made bv the Minister for Health, the Hon C. .7- Parr, on Saturday evening, states the “ Herald.** When questioned on the subject the Minister said bis inspection had satisfied him that the regulations framed to prevent rats from getting ashore were not being carried out in some instances. Ho was remaining in Auckland until Monday evening, lie said, in order to look further into the matter. Tho following letter has been received by Mr E. F. Stead from Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, M.P. “ I have received a memorandum from the Minister of Agriculture to the effect that the question of introducing the grey winged partridge from South Africa has been recognised by the Board of Agriculture, and that the board has expressed an opinion that it knows of no objection to the birds being introduced, and the previous decision can be rescinded.’* The council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society last niglit decided to subscribe the sum of £37 10s towards importing the partridges, on condition that the Otago Acclimatisation Society pays an equal sum, and to suggest that a sum of £75 granted by the Acclimatisation Societies’ Conference towards importing birds in the Smith Island should be used for the purpose, making a total of £ioo. A new species of “ borer ” grub that threatens to add to the troubles of builders and house-owners has coiue to the notice of Air A. Cummings, builder, of Otahuhu, who has been making inquiries concerning certain marks he found on some planks of timber he had stacked on a property at Buckland’s Beach in preparation for building oi>erations. He was positive that the timber was quite clean when lie stacked it, but a little later he found some rimu lining marked with an unusual encrustation, and a mere scrape of the knife disclosed small grubs in pinholes near the surface of the wood under what looked like insect egg crusts. He found the same thing on some light kauri, and later noticed a fairly heavy rimu joist on a building job at Mnnurewa that showed pinholes under similar circumstances. The pinholes were in clusters, and obviously

the grub had nested in the wood after it had been stacked on the ground. A specimen of the affected wood, states an exchange, has been shown to Mr Cheeseman, curator at the museum, who states definitely that the pest is not the ordinary borer, and is a strange entomological specimen to him. It is suggested by Mr Cummings that builders and others concerned should interest themselves in having the grub pest definitely identified by an entomologist, so that means might bo taken to combat its depredations on building timber. A suggestion that some of the white swans at the Estuary should he taken up tho reaches of the Avon in and near the city was brought before the council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society by Air M. H. Godby last night. He said that the reaches used for boat races would be suitable, but it would not be much use to place the swans near the Hospital. where there was much pleasure boating. Mr E. F. Stead said that they could be established on Victoria Lake, in Hagley Park, on the Avon below tho Manchester Street Bridge and, perhaps, on the island at the Hereford Street Bridge. He was convinced that the swans should be distributed, in order to increase their numbers. Mr NY. Deans said that a pair of white swans bred at Riccarton year after year until a “sportsman came along and shot them. They did no harm to young grev ducks, which got in amongst the tussocks. Air Stead said that if white swans were kept in a place for, say, two months, they would establish themselves, if the locality was suitable. Tt was decided to instruct Air D. Hope, the society’s curator, to obtain assistance in capturing some of the white- swans at New Brighton and distributing them in the way suggested, subject to the consent of the City Council. A photograph to send each of your friends is tho best way to solve tho gift problem. Let Steffano Webb take it. Petersen’s Buildings, High Street. Telephone 1989. 151 If There’s no period of life in which the changes are so rapid, the stages so interesting, or the memory so well worth keeping as the period of childhood. Keep the record in a photograph. Begin with a portrait to-day. Wrigglesworth and Binns, 738 Colombo Street. ’Phono 1268. XU.