Local & General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 80, 15 September 1947, Page 4

Local & General

Bretton Woods Issue “Both the Government and the Opposition seem to be dodging the Bretton Woods issue. It is something on which the man in the street would welcome more enlightenment,” said Mr Frank Wilson at a recent meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. “All countries with the exception of New Zealand, Russia and two small nations have adopted the proposal. If we hope to expand international trade we have to have a finance scheme to cover it and if there is no Bretton Woods, what other scheme is there?” Human Heart Beat The beat of the human heart is the reason why most watches have second hands today. An English physician, Sir John Floyer (1649-1734), pointed out that heart and pulse beats could only be counted accurately if they could be timed exactly. Pie invented a special stop-watch which ran for one minute, as ordinary watches had no divisions for seconds on their dials. A few years later, watches with separate second dials were introduced by Swiss watchmakers “for the use of physicians, gentlemen, astronomers, travellers and artists. . . ” Leather From Dogs Because of an increasing shortage of suitable skins overseas, many American and European manufacturers have turned to dog skins for processing into leather. One or two New Zealand manufacturers have New Zealand manufacturers have also utilised the skins of hapless canines, and, according to their testimony, dogs make good leather. Pelts from all sizes, fox terriers to sheep dogs, have arrived from overseas. Purses, wallets, and lining for watch straps are among the more successful articles made from the leather.

N.Z. Band Contest The secretary of the New Zealand Brass Bands Association, Mr J. G. Osborne, has been advised that 27 bands from various parts of the Dominion have already notified that they will compete at the New Zealand championship band contest, as part of the Otago centennial celebrations at Dunedin in February next. It is expected that a further 13 bands will enter, making a total of no fewer than 40 bands competing. A panel of three judges has been appointed to adjudicate this important contest. This is the first time this has been done in New Zealand. Use Of Motor Horn “A motor horn is not intended as a doorbell or to ‘instruct’ another driver,” states the famous Hollywood actor Lewis Stone in a pamphlet “Take It Easy,” which outlines basic safety rules and which is being circulated among members of the South Island Motor Union Mutual Insurance Association with the object of promoting road safety. “The horn is most useful in an emergency, but about 80 per cent, of the horn blowing on the streets is unnecessary. There is no use adding to the modern war of nerves with a horn. But when it is needed as a legitimate warning its importance may be boundless,” he adds.

Political Pigeon Pigeons, for some obscure reason, like to hang around Parliament Buildings, states a writer in a Wellington newspaper. Tired of the indifferent fodder outside, one nice specimen popped his (or her) head into the House the other night in search of food for thought. An attendant, quite brusquely, said “Shoo!” The bird blinked a bleary eye. The attendant waved his arms and, with commendable originality, muttered “Shoo!” The pigeon shooed into a couple of nice victory rolls, skimmed across the Chamber, and swished out through a window. Diverting, but a waste of* time on the attendant’s part, the writer com eludes. Even a pigeon couldn’t have stood it for long. Interest In Wool Types The demand from the farming community for further knowledge of wool and wool-classing has resulted in an extra course being included at Massey Agricultural College this year. Usually the instruction ends when the men who intend becoming professional wool-classers finish their five-months’ course early in October; but this will be followed in mid-October by a nineweeks’ course for ex-servicemen. The instruction will include sheep husbandry, and is designed to * increase the discrimination shown in breeding and culling for wool types, and in the classing of wool on the farms.