NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1939, Page 9

NEWS AND NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. Millions of Feet of Timber. For the construction of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition buildings, 7,500.000 feet of timber have been used, I The buildings cover 15 acres approximately, and for the flooring matai was used extensively. The amount of matai and other New Zealand woods used was 6.! million feet. For the main beams, 1 million feet of Oregon pine was imported, as the Oregon timber has greater length than the New Zealand woods available. Record Ambulance Week. A recent week has been the busiest ever experienced by the St John Ambulance Association in Auckland, and seldom have the drivers been called upon to work at such pressure. The total number of cases handled in the week was 267. the majority non-ac-cident cases, including numerous medical patients for the Auckland Hospital. In one day the transport staff had made 50 runs, one of them to Helensville, accounting for 67 patients. Fertiliser Prices. The possibility of an increase in the cost of fertilisers being passed on to the farming community as a result of the recent strike of Auckland manure workers, who were conceded an increase in wages, was viewed with alarm by members of the Puketapu branch of the Farmers’ Union. The meeting unanimously passed a resolution recommending the Dominion executive to take any steps necessary to prevent any increased cost being passed on to the farmer. Sharks Attack Whale. One of the most interesting incidents witnessed by passengers on the liner Maunganui, wfiich returned to Auckland the other day from an Islands cruise, was a thrilling fight between a whale and several thresher sharks. A great churning of the sea on the starboard bow just before Noumea was reached drew the attention of passengers and sharks were seen attacking a whale. They were pursuing their attack relentlessly as the Maunganui drew away from the scene. Telephone Progress Maintained. The. demand for additional telephone connections in New Zealand is keeping up in spite of the high total reached at the end of the last financial year, during which the greatest advance in the history of the system was recorded, bringing the total subscribers up to 157,605. In the,first quarter of the current year the monthly average of new subscribers has been in excess of the figures for most months of the record year, the net gain to June 30 being 2,205, after allowing for relinquishments, thus making a grand total of 159,810. 550 Acre Reserve. The Orakawa Bay block of 550 acres, adjoining Waihi Beach township, has been acquired as a public domain. That this should be done was suggested to the Minister of Lands, the Hon F. Langstone, by the Waihi Borough Council, as a result of representations by the Waihi centennial celebrations committee. The area is one of the most beautiful blocks of native bush in the Dominion. A committee has been asked to report at a later meeting of the Waihi Borough Council on the method of general control and maintenance in the event of the property being vested in the council. School Class in Court. Interested spectators of the proceedings at a bankruptcy sitting in the Supreme Court at Auckland were boys of the sixth commercial form of the Auckland Grammar School. They listened while Mr Justice Fair granted a discharge to a bankrupt who had paid all his debts, and heard his Honour malL an order for the winding up of a company which had not begun to function five years after its incorporation. After other matters had been dealt with the ' Court adjourned, and the class remained behind while the master in charge discussed and explained to them the legal papers relating to the day’s business. “Nazdar-Nazdar.” “Nazdar-Nazdar,” meaning “Good Luck,” was the cry at the New York World’s Fair when Dr Eduard Benes, the last President of Czechoslovakia, placed the Crown Jewels of Old Bohemia in a case al the Czech Pavilion. They were not the real Crown Jewels. but replicas, part of a £30,000 collection which will be exhibited at the ■ New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, opening on November 8 of this year al Wellington. The Crown Jewels of Old Bohemia are but one feature of this collection, which includes the Crown Jewels of all Europe as well as a fine display of plate. The Regalia and Crown Jewels of Great Britain from the day of Alfred the Great to the present form a special section. No Hockey Sticks. Hockey sticks for schoolboys are now unobtainable, and the Canterbury Hockey Association is becoming very greatly concerned, especially since there were It more school teams playing this year than, there were last year. It was reported to the management committee that the practice of giving sticks as trophies to members of teams winning competitions would have to stop, because sticks could not be obtained. A suggestion that medals be substituted was not favoured, the opinion being that whereas sticks helped boys to become interested in the game, medals might interest them in pot-hunting. Hockey' sticks cannot be made locally, and normally supplies come from India. The only trophies therefore will be the existing challenge cups, and no attempt will be made to substitute for the sticks. Overhead Wires and Trees. “The pruning back of roadside or overhanging trees by line authorities nearly always is crude in the extreme, unnecessarily severe and frequently' liable to encourage insect attack," writes Mr M. R. Skipworth, a quali- | fled forester, in an Institute of Horticulture bulletin on roadside beautification in New Zealand. “Where trees overhang from adjoining property, the line authorities may retort that the property owner should not allow them to do so, and also that he is served with notice prior to the linesman trimming them, and thus could trim them himself. Very many pole line authorities, however, including the Post and Telegraph Department, definitely fail to serve this notice. A certain amount of trimming is undoubtedly necessary, but there is no justification, and frequently no legal right, for the excessive slaughter so often practised.”