NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1933, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Bequests to Hospital. The chairman of the Wellington Hospital Board .(Mr. F. Castlo) stated at ■a,, meeting of the- board last evening that notification had been received of the following legacies for the hospital: —Estate of the late Frederick Lamberg, £.200 to be invested, and the' income derived therefrom to go to the Christmas Cheer Fund for Wellington Hospital patiedts; estate of Emmelino Euginie Gibbs, £20 to the radium fund; and estate of Rachel Ann Sladen, one-fourth of approximately £900. School Activities. Sports and club activities are fostered to a very large extent in all the, local colleges, and, as far as those under the Wellington College Board of Governors are concerned, they are all voluntary. At yesterday's meeting of the board a* letter was received from the Auditor-General ,(Mr. G. F. C. Campbell) stating that, providing subscriptions to various school activities was not compulsory, the Audit Department would not require the transactions in respect to those funds to bo shown in the board's accounts. On the motion of Mr. T. Forsyth, it was decided to inform those responsible that subscription to school activities is to be purely voluntary, and is so to be stated in the prospectus of each college. ■ . ' Subsidised Competition. The qu6stion of subsidised competition by the Matson liners operating against British vessels in. Australian and New Zealand waters has been attracting attention of late. On his return Homo from a world tour recently, Mr. K. C. Dalgliesh, a prominent English shipping man, had something to say to the "^hipping World" in this connection. "I saw the Matson liners going to Australia and New Zealand with their- heavy subsidy at the expense-of our tonnage," he said.' "There is no doubt that our British liners are suffering by not having the number of passengers or the quantity of cargo. I am very sorry indeed for tho shipping lines traversing the Pacific. In addition to this, the "wages of the Australian and New Zealand steamers are veryhigh even compared with ours." Dictating Terms. "As Great Britain 5s the largest buyer from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, is it not time we dictated our terms to these three Dominions and/insisted upon emigration being started?" asked Mr. B. -C. Dalgliesh, a former president of the British Chamber of Shipping, on his return Home after a world ■ tour, reports the "Shipping World.'' Mr. Dalgliesh pointed out thai there was ample'scope in these countries for new settlers.! New Zealand, f6r instance, was as r large as' England, yet had only one and a half million inhabitants. He would suggest the formation of a chartered company, which in three years' time ought to be able to earn revenue and pay dividends. There was great development going on in Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea in gold mining, with satisfactory results. He considered that the British were losing their spirit of pioneering. College Council's Appreciation. Keen appreciation of the action of Mr. G. F. Dixon and Ms committee in collecting funds to enable portraits in oil to be presented to the Victoria University College library of four foundation prpfessors Of the college was expressed at last night's meeting of the college council. A subcommittee, comprising tho Hon. B. McCallum, M.L.C., Professor W. H. Gould, Mr, A. Fair, K.C., and the Registrar, was appointed to draft a suitable letter of thanks to be sent to Mr. Dixon. Tho letter will also recognise the generous action of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in presenting to the college a copy of an oil portrait of tho late Professor Richard C. Maclaurin, the institute's late president, who was also a foundation professor of Victoria College. New Boilers for Hospital. The engineer of the Wellington Hospital has reported to the board that an inspection made by Government engineers had disclosed the existence of weaknesses in the two main boilers of the hospital, which, said the chairman (Mr. F. Castle) at yesterday's meeting of the board, meant reducing tho pressure very considerably, and that would necessitate a reduction of essential services. When the two existing boilers were installed it was stated that they would last for fifty years, whereas they had only lasted for eight or nine years. The engineer had recommended tho installation of three small boilers instead of two large ones. As the matter -was urgent, the general purposes committee had called for tenders. The lowest' tender was that of Luke Bros., Ltd. The amount of the tender for three two-plate boilers was £2252. It would take somo four or five months to place them in position. The tender of Luke Bros, was accepted. Criticism of Gas Storage. "Gas storage may be the thing of the future but one should regard it with a certain amount of suspicion until it has been investigated," said Mr. J. O. C. Neill, B.Sc, at the meeting of the New Zealand Association of Refrigeration last night. Gas storage for the inhibition of moulds was still very much in the experimental stage, said Mr. Neill, and, personally, he had considerable doubt as to its practicability. The shipment of chilled beef on the Port. Fairy had been hailed as a great success, but there had been no control of the experiment, and the meat had got away under conditions extraordinarily unfavourable to contamination by moulds. At the time, of slaughtering the precautions at tho works and the continual cold, rainy weather absolutely inhibited any air-borne spores. The atmosphere on that killing floor was more antiseptic than that in the average operating. theatre, judging from the amount of living spores oi\e could pick up.

Shortage of Farm Labourers. The question of the sliortago of farm labourers in certain districts of New Zealand was raised yesterday afternoon by a South Taranaki remit placed before the meeting of tho Dominion .executive of the New Zealand Farmers' ''Union. It was decided to notify the Unemployment Board that a shortage of farm labour existed in certain districts, for examplo, Taranaki, North Otago, and Southland, and to ask the board to remedy the shortage. Corps of Commissionaires. After consideration of a proposal for the formation in WcllingtoiVof a corps of commissionaires, tho executive of the Wellington Koturned Soldiers' Association at its meeting last night agreed that though tho scheme presented a number of attractive features no decision could be arrived at until details of the expense and finance had been presented to and considered by tho executive. Hutt Valley Carnival Postponed. The. Lower Hutt Carnival Committee decided last evening to postpone the holding of a carnival until February, 1935. The decision was made because of a statement by the Mayor (Mr. J. W. Andrews) that the Recreation Ground would not be available for next February. He said that though the ground would be levelled and grassed and would be available for cricket,, it would be too soft and easily damaged to be used for carnival purposes. The committee considered that no other ground would be suitable, and it was therefore ' decided to aim at holding a larger and better carnival in 1935. Selling Wool. A South Canterbury remit was passed yesterday afternoon at thte meeting of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, asking the executive to make inquiries as to the methods of .selling wool in other countries, with a view to having improvements made in the manner of selling wool in New Zealand. Mr. L. Hammond (Wellington) expressed the view that until there was a responsible body, similar to the Meat and Dairy Boards, to handle the equally important wool question, and the Farmers' Union insisted upon it, they would get nowhere. He thought it was quite time they woke up to the fact that somoone should be made responsible for tho whole position. It was useless discussing the wool question unless they were going to_ be united and there was some authoritative body to handle it. Mr. J. D. Kevie (Otago) said he thought there was a feeling in New Zealand that there were too many boards. His view was that it was possible, for the scheme to be taken up -without the existence of a board. ■ Censorship of Films. A letter has been received by tho registrar of Victoria University Collogo from tho secretary of the Dilworth Institute, Auckland, asking for the support of the college council, with other educational bodies, to a proposal for reform in. regard to the censorship of films. When the subject came up at the meeting of the council last evening the chairman of the Professorial Board, Professor W: H. Gould, said that_ the institute was requesting the Minister of Internal Affairs to reconstitute tho board of appeal in, connection with the censorship. It was considered that at present filmß which were not in the interests of, young people wcro shown and that the board of appeal tended to override the censor, and did not censor films as it should. It was' proposed that there should bo on the committee some person who could adequately represent the young people of tho country. Mr. A. Fair, K.C., said he understoocl that there was already a representative of tho public on the board. Ho suggested that a sub-committeo should bo appointed to consider the matter and to this tho meeting agreed, and Professor Gould, Mr. A. X.' Atkinson, and Mr. Justice Ostler, were so appointed. Rights of Landowners. A decision was made at the meeting of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union yesterday afternoon to enter a strong protest against the proposed amendment to the Valuation of Lands Act, by which, it was stated, it was intended to cut out clauses 45 and 50, in effect depriving landowners of their rights to a revaluation.. Mr. L. Hammond (Wellington), speaking to the remit, which was moved by tho North Canterbury executive, said that the point was . that counties had found that various ratepayers' had asked for special revaluations. By paying for them these had been received, and in some cases enormous reductions had been made in tho rateable value of properties. It would be understood that if a* certain percentage obtained a fairly largo reduction the extra rateablo taxation had to be borne by the other taxpayers who had not had a reduction. That really meant that an injustico was being dbno to those people who had not had a special revaluation. At the same time he did not think the rights of landowners to a revaluation should be taken away. Sales Tax Exemptions. ' In the current issue of the Gazette further interpretations of the Sales Tax Act .are published. It has. been decided that structural steel and general ironwork used in buildings, including joists, roof-straps, rivets, bolts, fabricated stanchions', beams, and connections, wherever fabricated, shall be liablo to sales tax, but the cost of field rivetting and erection—i.e., tho cost of labour involved in incorporating such materials into the actual structure of a. building by rivetting or otherwise — shall be exempt from sales tax. Another decision is that though bread, cakes, scones, pastry, and sandwiches are exempt from tho tax, in future shortbread shall not be exompt. Bakers' ovens are, however, like floating docks, exempt. Hospital Improvements. The Wellington Hospital Board resolved last evening "that tenders be called for the ieroofing of tho fever hospital, fever nurses' home, and tho Ohiro Home, as follows:—Fever hospital: Main roof, estimate, £600; verandah, & 200; corridor, £75; bathroom wing, £50. "Fever nurses' home, £.40. Ohiro'Home, £310. Total estimated cost, £1275." Tho chairman (Mr. F. Castle) stated that the work referred to was qnito necessary becauso the tiling on the roofs of the buildings was unsatisfactory. Tho board must have sound roofing to its buildings. It was not intended to proceed with other work immediately, but in time further renovation would be required at the fever hospital, which would involve an additional expenditure of £1500 or £1600. .