NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1931, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Opening of Mount Victoria Timnel. The Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. IHslop, announced at last night's meeting of the City Council that tlio Mount Victoria traffic tunnel would bo available for traffic next week. Tho official opening will take place, at the city portal, at 2.30 p.m. on' Monday. Too Many Street Days. An application was received by the City Council last evening from tho Women's Unemployment Committee for permission to hold a street day this month, but the council did not approve. The Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, remarked that though the organisation was doing good work and was in need of money, citizens became very tired of too frequent street appeals. _ Moreover, if too many woro authorised tho result could only be that all would be killed: War an Anachronism. "Every reasonable man and woman must agree that war is an anachronism, a relic of barbarism which every reasonable man should long ago havo outgrown," said Canon James at tho meeting in the Town Hall last night in support of the coming Disarmament Conference at Geneva next February. Tho Christian churches, he was glad to say, were now united in declaring that modorn warfare was tho most flagrant violation of the principles of Christianity. Picton's Compulsory Pilotage. Pilotage in Pieton Harbour has now become compulsory, the change taking placo at the end of last week. This means that all vessels trading into Pieton whose masters have not secured pilotage exemption certificates will havo to have the services of the resident pilot. The new regulation does not necessarily mean that the new harbourmaster and pilot (Captain Charles M'Arthur) will have an especially busy timo, because it really will affect only strange ships such as overseas steamers, as tho masters of .Uk regular coastal boats will all sccuro pilotage exemption. It will be the duty of the pilot to pick up such vessels at Long Island, at the main entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound. Circulation of tho Air. ' A week or two ago "Tho Post" published an account of the work being done locally by ' the Meteorological Office in the matter of exploring the currents in the upper air by means of small balloons, the same article mentioning the work done by the Navy in this direction. The - last issue of "Nature" amplifies this. Meteorologists, says the writer, havo not yet succeeded in giving a clear account of the general circulation of the earth's atmosphere, that is to sa}', of tho distribution of the prevailing winds at various seasons. The main features of the surface circulation are known. On land, the gaps in our knowledge are gradually being filled, by organised exploration with the aid of pilot balloons. Our very scanty knowledge oi tho upper winds over the oceans is being rapidly increased by systematic observations undertaken on a number of His Majesty's ships, according to a scheme initiated in 1925. During 1931 no fewer than 1500 observations are to be made in various parts of the world, and this year's programme is to oe repeated during forthcoming years. Tho soundings frequently extend up to a height of 20,000 ft, when clouds do not interfere, and one made in Australian waters readied 49,000 ft, that is to say, nearly tho same level as that to which Professor Piccard ascended recently. In some instances, measurements of temperature are made. The accumulated material will bo available at the Air Ministry for consultation by aviators and for meteorological research.

A Blow to the Clergy. "Tlio clergy have suffered a further blow in that it lias been ruled that they must pay the unemployment tux on the value oi their i'reo houses in addition to tho salary tax," states the "Church News." "We understand that tho Department has agreed to the proposal of the provincial secretary (Archdeacon Sinikin) that tho tax value of the houses should bo calculated on tho basis of one day's pay in six." Diomode's Visit Ends. Tho cruiser Diomede, flagship of tho New Zealand Naval Squadron, which lias been at Wellington since last Thursday morning, when she arrived from Auckland, is to sail at 5 p.m. today in continuation of her cruise around tho coast. She will proceed from hero down the West Coast to Bluff, calling at the Sounds en route. She is duo at Bluff oil 12th October, and will be back at Wellington for two days early in November to replenish her fuel oil bunkers. Municipal Conference in Wellington. Municipal conferences go round, this centre one year, another tho next, and if all had been well Botorua would hiivo had a turn. Financial troubles, however, led to the opinion among members oi' tho executive of the. Municipal Association that the Eotorua Conference should not bo held, and it was suggested that tho next conference should be held at Wellington, as tho most central city, early next year. The association has circulated all city and borough councils asking their views, and last night the Wellington Council quite approved. Coalition? At the opening of the Martinborough Bowling Club on Saturday afternoon, the patron, the Hon. A. D. M'Leod, former member for tho district, mentioned that he had been connected with tho club since its inception 22 years ago. He had declared the green open on a good many occasions now, and hopd he would be there to do so for tho next thirty or forty years. In addressing tho bowlers Later, Colonel T. W. M'Donald, M.P., the present member, expressed his pleasure at being present, and hoped ho would be there for the next thirty or forty years to see the hon. patron perform the opening ceremony. (Laughter.) Water in Tepid Batiis. Exception to tho inclusion of an article on tho possibility of infection from bath water in the annual report of the Canterbury head centre of the Boyal Life Saving Society was taken by Miss D. Brown at the annual meeting of that body on Saturday night, states the ''Christchurch Times." She asked why it was necessary to ineludo the article, as it was more or less directed against the Christchurch municipal baths, which were tho best in New Zealand, and were of great value in the teaching of life saving. An article of that sort did nothing, but harm, sho added. The chief reason for a fallingoff in attendances at the baths was the bad weather and not tho risk of socalled infection. Mr. J. Breward stated that the morning after the report was published a man came to the baths and found germs floating on the surface of tho water, so stimulating to tha imagination was tho article. Helping Disarmament. Prayers specially prepared for use by tho Archbishop of New Zealand in tho present, crisis and for the Peace Conference in Geneva next February are published in the "Church News" by Bishop West-Watson. "I hope they may be widely used," states the Bishop in his monthly letter. "We want to urepare the way by prayer and faith and to keep the matter constantly beforo our minds," ho adds. "The burden of armaments is again crushing the nations as it did before 1914. Fear is tho inspiring motive of this terrible competition—fear of other nations and fear of trusting disputed rights to arbitration. In ordinary cases petitions at church doors are to be deprecated, but in this caso I think that wo might well try to givo all our pooplo the chance of signing tho great petition which is at present before us." Nightingales in Canterbury. Littlo more has been heard of the nightingales that were said to bo abroad in New Zealand, but a Fendalton resident who lived for many years in England, states that he has seen one in his garden, states the" "Christehurch Star." Incidentally he holds the nightingale to^bo an over-rated songster, not to be compared with the thrush, and he says that if Keats and the other poets had not idealised the bird probably there would be no widespread admiration for it. It is an inconspicuous little fellow, brown above and greyish-white underneath, and there is nothing about its appearance to suggest its romantic placo in literature, in England it sings from the middle of April to about the middle of June. Top Bad for the Mayor. '' Thero are two things for which I am always laughed at—my singing and my writing," said tho Mayor (^fr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P.), when presenting the prizes Won in the Waimate-Christehurch road race on Saturday evening, reports tho "Christchureh Times." Mr. W. J. Walter presided. "When I am singing, the Deputy-Mayor (tho Bey. J. K. Archer) says he never knows whether I am singing the Doxology or 'The Bed Flag,' or making a speech. All I can say is that he is a 'rotten bad judge of good music' Onco I wrote a letter to Mr. Walter, and when I saw him a day or two later he said, 'By the way, Mr. Sullivan, I haven't been able to read that letter you sent to me.' I took the letter which he held out to me, looked at it, and said, 'No wonder, you have been holding it upside down.' "