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Evening Star, Issue 23682, 16 September 1940, Page 4

After overhaul and. survey the Union Company’s interislaud express steamer Wahine resumed her running on Saturday night in place of the Maori. Tho latter vessel will lay up at Wellington.

An event of interest to astronomers is due, to occur on November 12, when there will be a transit of Mercury. On that day the planet in its orbit round the sun wall attain a position exactly between the earth and the solar disc. A telescope is necessary to view this phenomenon. Given favourable conditions, tho tiny disc of Mercury will be seen as a small black dot on the solar surface, tho transit taking several hours. An address by Mr G. S. Smith on the subject ‘ Transits of Mercury and Venus ' will bo given at a mooting of the Astronomical Society at the Museum on Tuesday evening, and all interested are invited.

“ Some people, especially women, just cannot keep their hands off,” commented the chairman, Mr F. A. Swarbrick, ‘at a meeting of the Hamilton Domain Board, when the subject of the indiscriminate picking of fiowers on domain lands was being discussed. A report mads by the foreman, Mr H. Darrall, stated that he had caught a woman picking some of the daffodils growing beneath the trees on the banks of the lake. When approached, she said she thought they were growing wild. It was considered by some of the members of the board that much of the picking was done by people who did not think, or failed to see, that it was an offence.

The patriotic work of the women of New Zealand was characterised by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Parry) on Saturday as being one of tho most notable achievements in the Dominon’s war effort. The women had not slackened from the day the necessity for it arose, Mr Parry said, and they well merited the thanks of the Government and the community. It did one’s heart good to see the splendid way in which they campaigned for and handled the collection of funds and gifts for the men on service; Theirs had been a real sacrifice for the sake of a real cause.

_ Believed to be the first unit of its kind in New Zealand, the Gisborne mounted auxiliary of the Nursing of the St. John Ambulance Association begun one week’s intensive training for work as mounted nurses on Tuesday. The members will be trained in first-aid and general nursing work, and by means of horses will provide their ovyu transportation to inaccessible parts of the district in time of emergency. The scheme has the full approval of the medical officers of the association and of the officer commanding the National Military Reserve in this district. It is proposed that the new unit will act in concert with the home defence forces if the latter are called upon. The immediate Objective, however, is to furnish the district with an auxiliary corps of women accustomed to riding and able to take care of themselves, and bring nursing assistance to patients in areas where medical and specialised nursing aid is not immediately available. Field and garden peas for tho production of seed are to be grown this season on 500 acres of tho Herctaunga Plains, Hastings, and the crop will be exported to Britain. Every means has been used to sec that the high standard demanded by the British market is attained; an authority on soil types best suited to tho various varieties having visited tho district and selected suitable areas for the crops. Twelve varieties are to be grown; mainly garden peas, hut including a few field peas. It is stated that the average crop of peas should provide a gross return of £lB an acre for the grower, and it is expected that at least 5,000 sacks of pea seed will be provided from Hawke’s Bay, In addition to pea seed, mangold seed is also being grown for tho New Zealand market.

A meeting of the Stratford sub-pro-vincial executive of the Farmers’ Union considered in effect that if the attractiveness of the 40-hour week, better wages and conditions enjoyed in town could not be competed with by the farming community, then the level of conditions in the towns should ho brought to n par with those in the country, so that the competing basis of both labour markets should be somewhere the same. Air U. Alarfcll said that it would not bo fitting for the farmers to ask for greater wages for their employees in the present circumstances —to justify such a step the farmers would have to receive an increased payment. Nevertheless, the position for the farm hand was unfair. He quoted a case of a young man working on a farm, and then of another young man working in a job in town. The latter received £5 a week, worked 40 hours, “ and went away to Auckland or Rotorua for the week-end.” Two hundred offers of homos for 230 British children have been received in the Wanganui district. About 30 children will bo boused in tho Wanganui health camp till claimed by their foster parents, and the other children to be taken into homes in the city will be claimed as soon as they reach Wanganui.— Press Association.

It was reported at a meeting of the Mauawatu Rugby Union's Management Committee that a member of the third grade representative team which played in Danncvirko recently missed the train for the return journey and walked back to Palmerston North, a distance of 34J miles. “ Education, both in the secondary schools and in the university colleges in Now Zealand, is too cheap, and that is the reason why students do not get more individual attention,” said Mr L. H. G. Greenwood, Cambridge University lecturer in classics, and Fellow of Emmanuel College, in an interview in Invercargill. Schools and universities were short-staffed and there was a. tremendous amount of routine work for university teachers and schoolmasters to do, Mr Greenwood said. Whereas in Britain lecturers spent a great deal more time preparing for lectures, mapping out programmes, and “ rethinking ” than they did in delivering lectures, the position in New Zealand was the other way about. Students in the Dominion expected to get the most advanced education for practically nothing. There were two possible remedies to the situation. Either the Government could make larger grants to schools and universities, or students should pay more. Students should be required to pay double what they pay now. Only the best students should be assisted with scholarships. As it was now, any person of only average capabilities was able to obtain the best education that could be obtained for very little money. The grey skies and biting wind of yesterday afternoon detracted nothing from the warmth of the welcome given by members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force to the largo crowd of people who visited their quarters at North Taieri. From tfie flying point of view the day, quite rightly, was kept a quiet one, but on the ground there was a general scene of activity as the hosts conducted their visitors around the. township of substantial buildings and hutments which, mushroom-like, has sprung up on the line of Duke’s road across the fields from the commercial aerodrome. Prominent among tho guests wore executive members and past presidents of tho Returned Soldiers’ Association, together with their wives. Naturally the culinary arrangements were a source of great interest to tho womenfolk, and the provision of a well-served afternoon tea was a social interlude which did credit to the commissariat department, and was much enjoyed by the visitors. In his novel of journalistic life, ‘ Wlieu°a Man’s Single,’ J. M. Barrie recounts how his newspaper representative, covering the Zulu War which broke out in 1879, sent back a message to his paper detailing certain proceedings. This message ended with the words; “The Zulus take umbrage.” Back in the office editor, sub-editors, reporters, and so on down to printers’ devils, spent hours searching gazeteers trying to find “ Umbrage.” They couldn’t, but they were not going to be beaten by a little thing like that. Up went the headings in the next issue of tho paper: “ Capture of Umbrage.” It’s a good story, however you look at it, and no doubt if the incident occurred in this war the Goebbels propaganda agency would have made of it an event of supreme importance—a demoralising blow at the British. Actually both the Goebbels P.A. and the German High Command are working along those lines, as the latest broadcast messages from Daventry indicate. No doubt through listening in to Daventry recitals of German bombing damage the High Command lias been impressed by the number of times the announcers have said: “ Bombs have been dropped: at random.” This may have caused some perplexity at first through none of the returning pilots stating they had dropped bombs at _ such a place, and in the end the High Command can be seen deciding that some of the pilots who had unfortunately been “ downed ” must have been responsible. Strangely, too, no place bearing a name like Random appeared in the gazeteers possessed by the G.H.C., but —donner und blitzen! these accursed English names, who can tell? . . . So the G.H.C. has accepted the Daventry announcer’s word, and from Berlin the world is being told proudly, and in capital letters, that bombs have been dropped on the south, east, and west of England, and particularly at Random! Nest thing we will know is that Random has become a city of 60,000 or 70,000 inhabitants, and has been wiped: out of existence by the heroic Luftwaffe. So are Nazi victories scored. Tho opening ceremony of tho Macaadrew Road Intermediate School, which was to have taken place to-morrow, has been postponed until Wednesday evening. The change of plan was made in order that the opening ceremony might bo performed by the Minister of Education (Hon. H. G. R. Mason). The Minister will arrive on Wednesday afternoon, and will leave again on Thursday afternoon. An outbreak of fire which is believed to have been caused by a smouldering cigarette butt caused damage on Saturday to the rear portion of a five-roomud wooden dwelling and to outhouses at Dacre Court. The building was owned and occupied by Mrs M. Shephard. The outbreak was soon under control, with the result that the damage was confined to the pantry of the house and the outbuildings. A gorse fire in Dalkeith street was* attended to at 9.33 p.m. on Saturday. Formation work on the new main highway 'via Waitnti-Pigeon Flat and the Leith Valley is going ahead steadily, the men engaged, 45 in number, being busy on the last three-quarters of a mile near the saddle. _ The Public Works Department’s section of this new highway ceases at the saddle, work on the city side of the range being in the hands of the City Council. At noon to-day the contributions to the response to the appeal by the Mayor of Wellington for funds to meet Wellington’s contribution of £3,000 for the relief of distress in London had reached £7oo.—Press Association. The Commissioner of Taxes draws Ihe Attention of taxpayers to the not s 'cation appearing in to-day's issue that the due date of payment of.land tax for the current year is oil Tuesday, October 1, 1940, and that the demands will be posted on or about September 24. Tho Dunedin Burns Club will hold their monthly concert in tho Town Hall Concert Chamber on Wednesday night. A first-class programme has been arranged.