NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 169, 20 July 1939, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Importing Onions. In addition to the shipment of Jap-; anese onions due to arrive in Auckland next week, supplies are coming into the country from California. This is exceptionally early for Californian onions, and it is understood that the Government, which has a monopoly of the import of onions, was able to arrange a small shipment for the time being. Thus there should be ample supplies on the market, and the shortage which was forecast a fen months ago should be avoided. < ruisc Ship at Pago Pago. A wireless message from the Union Company’s cruise steamer Maunganui states that the vessel reached Pago Pago from Apia on Friday morning. l ’[’he weather was perfect and excellent arrangements made by the Government for th#' entertainment of pas- j sengers included a drive to the vil- | lage of Aua, five miles away, where i a native programme was given. Great ! assistance and kindness was received I from United States naval officers. The ’ .Maunganui left Pago Pago on Friday i afternoon for Levuka. House Erected in 100 Minutes. With the present housing shortage' .n New Zealand coming ever to the! an Indiana scheme, under which a house can be erected in 100 minutes, i First a truck mixer comes along with! a load of cement, and a slab of con-1 crete is poured on a gravel base. When the concrete has set. another truck arrives with the house. It is in | sections, pre-fa’oriuated in a ware-| house, and can be put up in an hour and 40 minutes. It has two small bedrooms, a bath and a large living room.■ and is rented at about 12s 6d a week ! Foreign Nurses Not Favoured. An indication that it did not a.p: .»ve ci th engagement of nurses in foreign countries was given in a letter from the Director-General oQ Health to the Hawke’s Bav Hospital Board, which had suggested, because of the diliicuity ol securing nurses in' New Zealand, engaging trained nurses 1 in Denmark. Th? Director-Genera’. 1 said if nurses from overseas were engaged under contract they should be of British birth, if The letter added that there •.••as a certa n amount, Canada. Dorlor, ••Playing tii- Ganic." “The members of the medical p:ufe.'.'ion are playing the game and carrying on their service for the com-; munity in their efficient and I . i i . Stainton, chairman of lite Taranaki Ho.-pi-tal Board, when reporting that there' had been nothing abnormal in the| • mouth Hospital since the introduction | of the hospital benefits under the; Social Security Act. There was no evidence. he said, of any tendency on the part of the doctors to order tu the hospital with a view to the obtaining of free service people who would normally be treated at home bv their’ own doctor. Submarine Bell for Gardens. A bell presented by the Admiralty, and formerly in use on H.M. Submar-; ine L2l, has arrived in Christchurch j to be used as a closing bell in the Botanic Gardens. The curator, Mr. J. A. McPherson, said that, while sending seeds of native plants to Viscount B. he mentioned the question of a suitable closing bell. Viscount Rledisloe wrote 1o the First Lord of! C’.* Admiralty, placing the request before him. He received a letter from Si chard Carter, Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty, stating that the only bell available at tha moment was one from H.M. Submarine L2l. Arrangements M’ere made through the High Commissioner's Office for the despatch of the bell, which had arrived with a letter from Sir Richard Carter,

. Vanity of the Male. ■| Vanity, by the male half of the popu- -. lation, is almost universally held to : • b? an attribute to the other sex, and ; ; the wearing of feathers for adorni ment would appear to be one of its - ma’nifestations. Many varieties of f J brilliantly-plumaged birds have suf- ) i fered in consequent e. However, it - | seems that men are just as amenable ? to the dictates of fashion. A member -of the council of the Acclimatisation i Society at Dunedin remarked on the I practice of shooting chukor with peaj rifles, states that there was a good i deal of it going on in the Roxburgh- ‘ I Alexandra district. The method was ‘; for the hunter to lie hidden among ’ th#* rocks and wait for the birds to • come up. Shooting was done for the • I chukor feathers were being worn in • irmn’s headgear in that district. Acres of Whitebait. - Huge shoals of whitebait were seen it from the motor-ship Gael during a ’. trip from Hokitika to Jackson's Bay I last week. Captain Trediga, master jof the Gael, said the ship passed 1 through acres of young whitebait. iThcre was no mistaking the fish, and J they were little over one inch Jong. ■ | The biggest shoals were passed off ( ! Ruatapu. about 2i miles off the coast. . They were travelling toward the shore ’ j m great masses, and appeared to be i everywhere. .All members of the as to the identity of the fish. This report has been (confirmed by experienced West Coast ‘i fishermen, who state that the whitp- ; bait season may be earlier than usual. | The recent mild weather is adva i. pd • as a reason for this, although it is j not unusual for fair supplies to be secured in July. The presence of large shoals indicates that the season will 1 probably be a good one. Italians Are Happy People. Despite reports to the contrarv, It uere eally happy, declared the Very Rev. Bonaventure 11 Oberst. Consultor-General of the ■ • Passionist Fathers, when he reached '••Auckland on Tuesday in the Wanganella. Father Oberst, wh > stands next ‘ the head of the order, is an i Amer; an and is stationed in Rome. I lie has lived in Italy for some years. 1 'but makes regular trips abroad to iev;p\v Ihe work of his order in Eng-i-speak ng countries. He empha- , sised that the Italian people did not . ; want to fight anybody. All they j wanted was peace, which would allow J them to develop their country. At | the present time great numbers of (Italians were living in poverty; war ( ; would make their position worse and i therefore, naturally, they were not ; seeking it. Father Oberst is accom’ipanied by the Rev. Father C. S. LafJ fertv. of Ireland, who has been workpng with the Australian branch of the ■ -. He s L |nov. returning to live in Northern ’| Ireland. j Wider School Life Planned. • “The education system, in common with many others, can never with advantage stand still.” commented the Hon. P. Fraser, Minister of Education, in a jubilee message to the Shannon • School (Manawatu) on Saturday. The i Minister added that many would be • able to recall the early days of New • Zealand, when education was compul- • sory only up to Standard IV or to the age of 12 years, and when ability to i read and write and perform simple arithmetical calculations was all that was considered necessary. Mr. Fraser said that by successive stages senool i life had been lengthened and the scope of school work onlarged, but school life was still too short and the curriculum too narrow. He believed the school had much to offer young • people long after they had reached the • age of 14 years, and it was the intention of lhe Government to introduce legislation and to remodel curriculums , to enable that to be done.