Local & General

Chronicle (Levin), 1 September 1949, Page 4

Local & General

N.Z. Lucky. - Seven of the ten major prizes, to a total value of £15.750, have been won by New Zealand participants in an overseas sweep.- The first prize of £10,000 went to Ohura, in the King Country, and Auckland and Wellington shared the other six. Toheroas Have Disappeared. Changes in ocean currents are to blame for the disappearance of toheroas from Ninety-Mile Beach, according to residents. They befieve the shell-fish dll not return until the currents change to allow the surf to carry on to the beach material on which toheroas feed. Road Junk. Magnetic trucks sweeping main highways clear of puncture-pro-ducing metal picked up 17,963 lb. of assorted .iunk from 4034 miles of road in the North Islan'd during the year ended March 31, 1949. The average "harvest" per mile was 4.4 lb. in the North Island, compared with .42 lb. in the South Island. Unstable Marriages. There were fewer stable marriages, more crime and an appalling incidence of nervous breakdowns in adults today, said Dr. Alice Bush in a Home and Family Week address. This was evidence of unstable personalities. Dr. Bush afided that the small child required love and security. When a child was "bad" an incompetent mother was the cause. Paintings Poorly Packed. Six paintings by war artists which arrived at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery were incompetently packed, damaged (possihly in transit) and soiled. The box in which the paintings — four by Peter Mclntyre and two by Russell Clark — were packed had only wooden slats at the top. It Was too tight for at least one painting, the frame of which had sprung at the corners. When the case arrived by rail at Dunedin, Railway Department officials found •the glass on the largest of the paintings smashed. Only an old strip of coconut matting had been used as packing. University's Claim. The Auckland University College council on Monday afternoon decided to lodge claims with the Government in respect of coals on its Huntly and Karamu properties. The Mines Department will he asked to make trial bores. Proof is available of 21,000 tons of coal on the Huntly property. A guessed estimate of one million tons, of which minor partial proof exists, has been made of the coal deposits at "run No. 11" Karamu. A wholly guessed estimate of one million tons, of which no proof exists, has been made of coal deposits on "run No. 8" at Karamu. 4-Men .Coal Mine. In three years, over 25,000 tons of coal have been produced by four men operating an open-cast mine in the Mangakara Valley, six miles from Ohura, Taranaki. They are tapping the easter'n fringe of the Mokau coalfield, which is estimated to contain 1000 million tons of coal, and they believe that the valley will one day u be the gateway to vast resources. In charge of the mining operations are Messrs D. Moynihan and F. D. Hennessy. The right to mine the coal was not isecured •easily. Mr. Moynihan's father, an experienced miner, realised the potentialities offering when he visited the valley on a pig-shoot-ing expedition 16 yeard ago, but it was not until 1946 that a lease of 25 acres was secured.

Extra Import Licences. Importers who find that their licences are insufficient to cover the cost of goods plus recently increased freight charges between the XJnited Kingdom and New Zealand, may be granted additional licences for 1949 to "meet the difference. "It is probable that in many instances any increased cost will be covered by the licences held by the importer," said the Minister of Customs, Mr. Nash, yesterday.' "If it should he found, however, in individual cases, that as a result of such "increase," the licences held by the importer are •insufficient to cover the additional cost of goods already ordered which arri've under 1949 licences, the question of granting an additional licence would, if necessary, be considered at the time of importation on receipt of an application supported by evidence as to the orders and increased cost."