NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 145, 15 March 1939, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Link With Bounty A descendant of Fletcher Christian, one of the mutineers of the Bounty, was plaintiff in a claim for compensation heard by the Court of Arbitration in Wellington yesterday. He was Robert Elliot Christian, a Pitcairn Islander, who became a seaman in 1923. being employed by the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. Ltd.

New Chinese Alphabet. An interesting development that the Chinese Government is carrying out with considerable success is the introduction of an entirely new alphabet, based on sounds, called “Kuan-hua,” says the Rev. G. A. 11. Eldriedge, a former China missionary, who is engaged in a tramping tour of New Zealand. In addition to speaking Russian. German, and Italian. Mr. Eldriedge writes and speaks Chinese fluently. He said that the new Chinese , alphabet is Hie original Mandarin language used by the old Manchu Court: in Peiping.

Bowling Tourney Dates. A letter from the New Zealand Federation of Funeral Directors asking for the date of rhe closing of tlie New Zealand bowling tournament in 1940 was received with some amusement at last night’s meeting of the Wellington Bowling Centre. It was explained that the federation proposed to hold its next annual Dominion conference in Wellington in January next, after the bowling tournament, as a number of delegates would be very much interested in that tournament. The secretary, Mr. A. F. Spiller, reported that he had advised the federation that the tournament would finish on January 20 or 22. Cinema in Church. One' meeting at tlie annual assembly of the Congregational Union of New Zealand in Christchurch this week will be unique in that for (lie first time in New Zealand motion pictures will be shown in a church. For his missionary liddress this evening, the Rev. D. Gardner Miller, Christchurch, who is a member of the Religious Film Society of Great Britain, will use a projector which he lias brought back from England to display sound and silent films of religious subjects and of the missionary work of the Church. Mr. Miller is engaged with ministers of other denominations in efforts to form a Christian Cinema Council in New Zealand so that recent developments in this aspect of church work overseas may be extended to the Dominion.

Newfoundland Commission. Since the announcement last year of the appointment of Sir Harry Batterbee as first High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand, the impression appears to have gained currency in the Dominion that he was a member of the Royal Commission which went to Newfoundland in 1933 to report on rhe financial situation there. An examination of 'the report of that commission shows that Sir Harry was not a member of it, nor did he hold any secretarial position with the commission. The Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, probably had in mind the stories that Sir Harry had gone to Newfoundland as a receiver and was coming to New Zealand in a similar capacity when he referred at the State luncheon in his honour yesterday to the rumours that Sir Harry had a lot of offices to fill. However, said Mr. Savage, rumour was not always correct.