Local & General

Chronicle (Levin), 14 July 1948, Page 4

Local & General

Card Prizewinners .The weekly card tournament held by the Levin R.S.A. drew a fair attendance despite the cold weather. The prize-winners were as follows: — Ladies: Miss Rori and Mesdames MeKinstry and Andrews. Men: Messrs. D. J. Newell and E. Rapley. . - . Giant Hydro Plant Leaves The 48-ton hyaro eiectric plant which has been delayed at Levin since Sunday due to difficulty ln negotiating the railway station hydrants left this morning for Palmerston North. It is not anticipate'd that any further trouble wili be experienced in the delivery of the plant to ■ Bunnythorpe hydroelectric station. School Milk Because of the pollomyelitis epidemic, milk supplied lo schools during the year ended March 31 was 303,513 gallons— 10,949 gallons less than the previous year. This was revealed whep the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Board held its annual meeting yesterday. The milk, distributed through the Health. Department, travels up to 70 miles south and 90 mlies north of Auckland. Alpine Vandalism "Vandalism is bad ln the town, but it* is infinitely worse on the mountain, because there it might cost life," said the president, Mr. L. W. Lovell, at the Taranaki Alpine Club's annual reunion at the North Egmont hostel. He added that signposts were being torn down, tracks damaged and emergency equipment removed. He urged mountaineers to help in tracking down "these perverted outlaws of society." Telephones Don't Spread Colds ) The telephone is not an agent for spreading colds. Exhaustive tests by bacteriologists have proved this conclusively. ' This advice is contained in the recently-issued Christchurch telephone directory. The notice says that mouthpieces and ear caps may be cleaned by regular wiping with a soft cloth slightly moistened with lemon oil, eucalyptus oil or thymol. No liquid should be allowed to enter the mouthpiece. Dials of automatic telephones may be cleane'd with a small brush. Homes for Childless The Lower Hutt -City Council has decided to forward a report to the Government urging the need of housing provision for childless couples. The report state'd that while nothing should be done to reduce the building of homes for families with one or more children, - something was urgently needed for chil'dless couples. It was suggested that a number of big blocks of flats should be erected in the State' housing areas. The erection of these blocks, if built of concrete, the report stated.,- would not materially affect the State housebuilding seheme. Alpine Plants at Museum Latest addition to the Auckland War Memorial Museum garden ls an alpine section, in which an attempt is being made to grow alpine plants in con'ditions similar to .those existing in tneir natural habitat. Under the direction of Mr. R. Cooper and Mr. J. E. Jollie the garden has been built in the cold iight wells, originally designed as palm courts. Except for the lack of sunlight, the conditions are almost identical with those on mountain slopes. Object of the experiment is to discover more about this hitherto not so wellknown aspect of New Zealand plant life.

Handling Postal Packets During the year there were 7356 complaints about the non-delivery of postal packets, states the annual report of the Post and Telegraph Department. More than half of these resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for. Articles not accounted for totalled 3587 — but this was -only 0.00118 per cent. of the articles posted during the year. Sanatorium Needed There was a large number of tuberculosis cases on the waiting list and there was urgent need for a sanatorium and chronic chest hospital, said the medical superintendent of the Waikato Hospital, Dr. H. L. Gould, at a meeting of the Hospital Board. He was commenting on a report on the treatment of tuberculosis. cases in the board's district submi.tted by Dr. H.H. ShOrt, tuberculosis officer. Dr. Short said the facilities available at the Waikato -and 'Rotorua hospitals for the treatment of the disease and for the investigation of undiagnosed cases ha'd been fully utilised. During this month and in early August, 37 farms are to be ballotted for among ex-servicemen of the recent war who have been graded "A" by their rehabilitation farming sub-comfnittees for' the type of farming and the locality entailed. The farms are in the following land districts*. North Atiekland • (11), Auckland (6), Taranaki (3), Wellington (13), Canterbury (1). Qtago (2) and Southland (1).