Town Talk

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 256, 28 October 1937, Page 6

Town Talk

Meat and Wool Next? “We are led to believe that the Government is seriously contemplating a guaranteed price for both meat and wool as well as dairy produce,” stated Mr. R. O. Montgomerie (Kakatahi) at yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. A voice: Hooray! “Wandering Jew’s” Death. Mr. Philip Lewis, better known throughout Australia and New Zealand as the “Wandering Jew” has died. Mr. Lewis was a travelling evangelist and a little over a year ago made a tour of New Zealand during which he preached in Wanganui. He claimed to have worn out 100 pairs of boots and nine Bibles during his wanderings. Flying Competitions. Next Sunday the annual flying competitions between .pilot members of the Wanganui and Middle Districts Aero Clubs will be held at Palmerston North. Landing and bombing competitions have been arranged and it is likely that a message-dropping competition will also be held. Last year the competition resulted in a victory for the Wanganui pilots. Cargo of Phosphates. The British Phosphate Commission’s steamer Tymeric is scheduled to berth at Castlecliff on November 5 from New Plymouth with a cargo of Nauru phosphate for Kempthorne, Prosser and Company’s Aramoho fertiliser works. The demand for phosphate manures has been exceedingly high of recent months and for this reason phosphate vessels have been frequent callers at Castlecliff. Lockheed Electra’s Visit. Yesterday afternoon one of Union Airways fleet of Lockheed Electra air-liners paid a brief visit to the Wanganui Airport. The machine was flown from Milson by Commander B. A. Blythe with Pilot K Brownjohn as co-pilot. The machine made two or three landings on the Wanganui Airport and then returned to Palmerston North. The machine flew over the city between the times the north and south-bound Lockheeds pass over the city and a number of city residens were thus led to believe that one of the service machines was circling the city over the clouds,

Fewer Eearthquakes. The annual report of the Dominion Observatory reveals the comforting fact that the number of earthquakes felt in New Zealand has been getting steadily fewer for the last three years. In 1934 there were 230 earthquakes reported as felt, 150 in 1935, and 123 last year. Of the 123 87 were felt in some part of the North Island and 40 in some part of the South Island, while four were felt in both islands. The maximum intensity reported was 6 on the Rossi-Forel scale. This is the lowest maximum reported in any year since 1923. Earthquakes were most frequent in the Gisborne district. What a Scholarship Did.

“Rutherford always said that but for his gaining a scholarship to Nelson College from a country hamlet he would been a farmer all his life and never realised his special gifts,” said Mr. Frank Milner, rector of the Waitaki Boys’ High School, and a fellow-student, with Rutherford at Nelson College and Canterbury College, in paying a tribute to the great physicist. “When he was asked what dominant factor turned him to science, he* objected to such a supposition. He said that no external direction determined him. He repudiated the idea that any one personality gave him any special bias or dominated his intellectual outlook. It was part of his philosophy, he said, that men had latent gifts and capabilities which awaited the right opportunities for development.” Australian Tourists.

The first tourist cruise to New Zealand for the coming season will commence to-morrow, when the Orient Line’s 23,371-ton liner Orion arrives at Auckland with Australian tourists. During the course of their tour of the North Island, a part of 60 tourists from the Orion will visit Wanganui during the week-end. Other tourist vessels to visit New Zealand during the season will be the Strathmore on November 19, the Strathaird on December 17, the Orford on December 23, the Jervis Bay on December 28, the Otranto on January 7, the Strathnaver on January 28, the Oronsay on February 4 and the Strathmore on March 11. In addition brief visits will be made to New Zealand by large parties of tourists on the North German Lloyd liner Bremen, a former holder of the Blue Riband of the Atlantic, and the luxury liner Reliance.

Timber from West Coast. A shipment of timber from the West Coast of the South Island is dueat Wanganui this evening or early to-morrow morning, when the Anchor Company’s t.s.m.v. Alexander arrives from Greymouth direct. The Alexander, which is one of the smartest trading vessels on the New Zealand coast, has brought supplies of timber to Wanganui on other occasions. Owing to the shortage of White Pine in the North Island, supplies of this timber are now being secured from the West Coast of the South Island, where a big trade is being built up. In many cases the timber has to be hauled long distance to the sea and then conveyed to the ship-side in barges. This shortage of white pine has causey concern to the New Zealand Dairy Board, which has arranged for the importation of boxes from Sweden in order to prevent a serious hold-up of the export trade. Manuka Scrum and Fern.

Recently the Wanganui provincial executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union communicate with the Cawthron Institute (Nelson) asking whether anything could be done to introduce insects capable of perating on Manuka scrub and fern. At the executive meeting yesterday the reply of the chief entomologist at Cawthron (Dr. David Miller) was read, as follows: “In the case of maunka scrub I feel there is very little possiunuy of doing anything in the matter of insect control. In regard to fern, however, I have paid some attention to this,, but have never reached the stage of actually doing any work upon the problem, as we find our hands full enough at present with the pri-piri and ragwort. I cannot definiely state whether it will be worth while taking up the control of fern by means of insects, although there are certain insects that might be worth trying at some future date.”