News in Brief

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 296, 14 December 1931, Page 6

News in Brief

Need for Care.

The necessity for care when using sodium chlorate for destroying weeds is emphasised by the painful experience which befel a young man, Mr Bert Gasson, at Oropi, near Tauranga, on Wednesday. He was engaged during the day in spraying weeds on his father’s farm with sodium chlorate, and at milking time was attending to a fire for heating water when his clothes suddenly caught fire as a result of the spraying material upon them. He threw himself under a water tap and escaped with a badly-burned

Got His License.

A jocular reminder to Mr Norman (“Wizard”) Smith that New Zealand’s motoring laws would have little regard for his past achievements or his qualifications to attempt the land sped record was conveyed to him by the Mayor (Mr G. W. Hutchison), when he was welcoming Mr Smith to Auckland. In the course of his speech Mr Hutchison turned to Mr Smith and said, 44 1 have also to warn him that should he propose to do any driving in Auckland he will require to take out a motor driver’s license and I further carefully warn him that the tests in Auckland are particularly strict and that our inspectors always see that only capable drivers are licensed.” Laughter greeted the Mayor’s remarks. Inquiries made subsequently revealed that Mr Smith had been able to secure his license.

Fencing Staples on Roads.

Ninety per cent of the material picked up in the Masterton County by the Main Highways Board magnetic truck, which recently toured the district, would cause punctures, according to a report presented to a meeting of the county council. Large quantities of fencing staples were picked up off the country roads. The truck operated over gravel roads for a total period of twenty-two hours, and during that time, in which a distance of 145 miles was covered, a total weight of 1041 b of material was collected.

Faults of Matriculation.

The absolute necessity for schools and the university to be in much closer touch in respect to the matriculation examination was stressed by the headmistress of the Auckland Diocesan High School for Girls, Miss E. Sandford. 44 Each year, as we bring our girls up to the test, the difficulties and weaknesses of this examination in its double function as university entrance and school-leaving examination are brought home to us afresh,” she said. The length of the papers themselves meant a prolonged mental strain, to which she thought that no girl of sixteen should be submitted. One solution of the problem had been suggested by the Association of Headmasters and Headmistresses of Independent Schools at their annual conference last May. That conference had proposed that a schools examinations board should be set up, with equal representation of the university and school teachers. “It is essential in the interests of the children that something in this direction should be done as soon as possible.”

Children’s Thanks.

The Auckland Automobile Association receives some queer acknowledgments of services rendered, for it renders them in such strange places, but surely it has had few more strange, and few more spontaneous, than those contained in a letter from a schoolgirl in a little King Country school. Part of the 44 safety first ” campaign of the A.A.A. has been talks to school children, and the letter was on that subject. Written in carefully sloped pothooks, the letter is in a phraseology compounded of adult dignity and childish alertness. 44 On behalf of the children of the school, I wish to thank your association for making it possible for us to receive such a good lesson upon safety first on the King’s highway. Your representative, Mr Ringer, in a very effective and genial manner explained the dangers which arise from carelessly using the road. . . . Everyone knows the rules by heart, and we will try and remember to obey them always. . . . I am sure that the A.A.A. is doing a service to the rising generation. ... I remain, yours thankfully, .”