LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 4 September 1946, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Found Deacl in Theatre After the audience had left a Hawera cinema last evening, an elderly patron, Mr. John Brown, widower, aged 67 years, was found dead in a seat by the staff. As deceased had been under medical attention for some time, no inquest is necessary. Mr. Brown farmed extensively in the Feilding district before-retiring to Hawera recently. Use for Old Wire Rope Unusual cargo unloaded from the Kaimiro at Greymouth on Saturday was 75 tons of 5-8in. wire rope in seemingly hopeless tangles. New the rope would be valued at £12,000 at to-day's prices. In the war years the rope lay deep in the Auckland harbour as part of the anti-sub-marine and anti-torpedo, defences of the port, and is now rusted and kinked beyond salvage for industrial purposes. The rope in 25 bundles each of three tons has been brought to the West Coast by the Public Works Department for use in connection with river eontrol work. Hawk and Hare While on his run near Morrinsville recently Mr. H. Richards, a mail contractor, noticed a hawk perched on the top of a fencing post, and on closer Tnvestigation saw a hare attempting to get to grips with the. bird. Upon his approach tlm hawk flew away and the thare ran a short distance. ■ The hawk circled around and several times the hare ran back to the f- same • spot. Thinking the antics L'Strange Mn- -Richards investigated a drain on the padglock side of the fence and saw the reason for the •hare's anxiety. She was desperately def ending . her . leveret (baby hare). Mr; Richards says that the • mother hare almost reached the top wire in her effort to reach the jhawk. She had apparently carried her young one to the drain toprevent the hawk swooping oh to it. Close Watch on New Drug The Minister 'of Health, Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer,1 announced yesterday that the Depa'ftment of Health had been closeiy -follcrwing reports from Ameri'can laboratories during the past tWelve' months, concerning the new • drug streptomycin which is closeiy allied to penicillin. Dr. H. B. Turbott, of the Department of Health, now in the United States, was investigating the usefulness of this substance and on be- ! half of the Government would ! endeavour to obtain an amount that could be spared for trial pur- ! poses. The drug was difficult to produce and cost five times as much as penicillin. It was useful in controlling some diseases unaffected by penicillin but its usefulness in regafd tO' tuberculosis was still subject.to experiment. ! Anniversary of War's Outbreak -■ | Yesterday passed many people by with little thohght fbr its significance. September 3, the day the Empire declared war on Nazi Germany and her allies. Perhaps the I first news to reach us of the ruthI less Nazi war methods was the sinking of the liner "Athenia" in mid-Atlantic by a U-boat. Many children, evacuated from J3ritain to be taken to the safety of America and Canada, were lost. This act of senseless murder shook into most people the meaning of war, and, if anything, strengthened 'their resolution. New Zealanders' memories of that day will be the sight of their sons putting on their '"terrie's" uniforms, long queues outside the recruiting offices, and long hours spent in listening to the first B.B.C. news summarles, soon to become a familiar feature of daily life. Sequel to Student's Death A sequel to the tragedy in which a student was supplied with a drug (mercuric chloride) by a junior employee of the flrm and died from the effects of taking it, was heard in the Wellington Police Court when William Ellis Earnshaw, manager of Kempthorne, Prosser and Co., Ltd., was fined £25 and costs after pleading guilty to a charge of failure to enter -the sale of poison in the sale of poisons book as prescribed in the first schedule of the general regulations of the Poisons Act, 1937. In fining defendant Mr. H. W. Bundle, S.M., commented that the offence was not the responsibility of Earnshaw, but of the company, and that the defendant's responsibility was a vicarious one. Counsel for the company said it had now redoubled its precautions and taken steps to ensure that there was no possibility of a repetition of such an occurrence. The student suffered from chronic constipation and took a dose of mercuric chloride mixed - with epsom salts.