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Evening Star, Issue 23684, 18 September 1940, Page 6

An announcement setting nut the Government’s proposals concerning the compulsory war loan is expected shortly from the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash. Mr Nash said that the procedure and details had been practically completed, and preparations for printing the prospectus were in hand.

A remarkable meteoric display was witnessed in Auckland at 7.34 on Friday last, when a meteor fell steeply in the eastern sky. Beginning high in the east as a star of normal brightness without a tail, the meteor rapidlygained in brilliance as it flew. In the four seconds of its luminous career it developed a flickering halo of blue light which brightly lit the cloud behind which it finally disappeared, a little above the horizon in the south-south-east.

A remarkable news film is being shown iu Wellington. it is called 1 London’s 'Reply to German Claims,’ and is a pictorial record made by a neutral observer on tour in London on August 23. It was received by Sir Harry Battcrbee, the United Kingdom High Commissioner, yesterday. Posted iu London on September 5, it travelled by air mail across the Atlantic and the Pacific, making the journey at the rate of 1,000 miles a day.

Recently the general manager of Wellington tramways, Mr M. Cable, said that if the present drain on the service by war enlistments continued, they might have to consider engaging young women as conductors. Recently the manager of the Glasgow Transport Department said he would be uuablo to carry on unless he employed women, ap£l reported accordingly to his committee. That committee approved the report, and 200 women between the ages of 25 and 30 years were called up. An attractive uniform was designed for them, consisting of a tartan skirt, a fawn tunic with buff cuffs and collars, and a beret instead of a cap. The first 100 commenced duty on June 1.

Writing to an Auckland friend on July 23, an Essex man who is in the London Defence Volunteers, says: “ We get the raids daily now, and are used to diving in the shelter and in and out of bed, but you can tel) all in Now Zealand' that we can take all that Hitler or Goering likes to send us. 1 sincerely hope it will be my privilege to meet any German who trios to land here. The worst of it is the Gorman airmen will not come down to their target, but keep about three or live miles up and drop their bombs. When they meet the Spitfires and Hurricanes they just drop their bombs and bolt. I have a big score to settle. The Gormans killed my brother in the last war —that was 23“ years ago—and when 1 have bagged my twenty-fourth Hun ] shaJJ begin to feel satisfied. There ars thousands hero who feel like I do. So you see the German big shot 1 paperhanger ’ has quite a job on this time. Keep your peckers up and don’t worry about us.”

The equipping of its engines with twoway radio communication is to be considered by the Christchurch Fire Board, to facilitate control of its fleet and the calling-out of firemen on leave. The board decided to accept the offer of one of its former employees, who is now serving in the signals branch of the Air Force, to report on the installation. Difficulties arising through inability to keep touch with the engines after they had left the station wore explained to tho board by Superintendent A. Morrison. On a recent night a general alarm was sounded, and three engines were sent out. Another call was received and a machine was despatched from the station, a suburban machine being called in. Then a third call was received. As it happened, too ■ many men had been sent to the first call, hut they could not be brought back. With two-way radio communication the whole fleet could have been controlled from the station.

“ I don’t know how far the scheme to evacuate children has gone since I left, but everyone was very keen,” said Mr G. Maxwell Keys, vocational guidance officer in Christchurch, who has just returned from a visit made to Britain and Europe on a Carnegie scholarship. Mr Keys has himself brought out a boy from South Wales, an area whore it was necessary to spend many long night, hours in air raid shelters, a strain on a child. Mr Keys explained how it had been found that >“ safe areas ” did not exist to the extent hoped for. Indiscriminate attacks reduced them. “ I was in the heart of the Midlands for a while,” he added, “ and that was considered a ‘ safe area ’ because children came there from danger spots. But in the spring when it really started we had four alarms in a week and bombs dropped twice in the locality. There was a factory eight miles away. Of course, the bombs may have boon jettisoned.”

Complete settlement of the few points remaining to be approved in the agreement between tho Waterside Workers’ Union and the employers’ representatives is expected within a few days, when tho bureau system of allocating wharf labour will bo introduced at the Dunedin and Port Chalmers wharves. The bureau system, which is really a system of equalising the hours of tho workers iu place of the former custom of free selection of labour, has been in operation in Lyttelton for some five years past, and was introduced in Wellington and Auckland about three years ago.

Coins of one sort ami another are constantly being brought into this office either lor identification or with the hope that they will provide a paragraph. The latest brought in is rather more interesting than many, although inquiries reveal that it is not exactly uncommon. This coin was about the size of a half-penny, and at least twice as thick. Although the edges were mutilated, the embossing was clearly defined on both sides. It proved to be an Egyptian bronze coin minted when Egypt came under Homan domination, and was issued in the reign of the Emperor Diocletianus, who controlled the destinies of the Roman Empire between the years 284 and 305. The obverse depicted a laureated bust of Diocletianus, with the lettering (transcribed from the hieroglyphics), “Imp. C. Val. Diocletiano, C.C.F.” On the reverse was an Egyptian goddess standing with a sceptre in her left hand, and a disc in her right. Despite the coin’s antiquity, its value is no more to-day than about Is fid. the explanation being that considerable numbers were excavated in Egypt several years ago. The Town Hall lifts are now in use, and members of the public were trying them out freely for the first time this morning. After the years of climbing steep stone steps outside and stairs inside the public will welcome the innovation. Although manufactured by the Express Company, the lifts are not “ express ” in speed. The comparative shortness of the general elevating is not conducive to attaining speed, but they have a steady, comfortable motion. Women, notoriously dubious of self-controlled lifts, may rest assured that these Town Hall innovations provide easy riding, and that they are perfectly safe. The danger of being stuck between floors, it can be said, is nonexistent. The attendance returns for the second term, ended on August IG, which were presented at to-day’s meeting of the Education Board, showed that at the end of tlio term there were 218 schools in operation in the district. This was one less than at the end of the previous term, the Ardgonr School being closed owing to consolidation on Tarras, while the Macandrew Road Primary School was replaced by the Macandrew Intermediate School. The figures for the term arc given below, those for the second terra of 1939 being given in parentheses .—Roll number at the end of term. 17,615 117,695). a decrease of 80; average weekly roll number, 17,502 (17,633). a decrease of 181; average attendance. 15.944 (15,962). a decrease of 18; percentage of attendance. 91,10 (90.27), an increase of .83 per cent.

The colossal problems facing civic authorities in the industrial city of Detroit were outlined in a talk to the New Education Fellowship (Canterbury group) by Miss K. Turner last night (says the’* Press ’), Among these problems some of the most serious concerned the housing of the working population in the city, which in 1919 had a population of 500,000, and to-day had a population of more than two and a half millions. When Miss Turner visited the city at the end of last year she inquired about numbers of caravans that were used as dwelling-places, quite without sanitation, on a section in the heart of the city. She was told that the civic authorities had no power to turn the caravaners out. “ I wonder,” she said, “if the reason was that the firm that made the caravans was more powerful than the' civic authorities.”

The extent to which the Canterbury Cricket Association should encourage young players by giving financial assistance to schools was discussed by the Management Committee at a meeting last evening. Members pointed out that with the big drain on clubs by enlistments for the military forces a curtailment of the scope of the sport might be necessary, and every endeavour should be made to encourage young players, even at some expense to the higher grades. It was decided to make an investigation of the position before next meeting.

A linen handkerchief 100 years old was displayed at Akaroa this week. This was procured from a sailor on H.M.S. Britoraart, whose commander, Captain Stanley, visited Akaroa on August 11, 1840, to hoist the flag at Green’s Point, when the magistrates, Murphy and Robinson, exercised the first act of sovereignty over the South Island. The handkerchief, or neck cloth, is of linen, about 18in square, and red, with a white floral design round the edges. It is now in the possession of Mr G. E. Murray, of Kinloch, Little River, whose late wife was a granddaughter of James Wright, known as the Baron of Whakanion, who was whaling at Whakamoa in 1842. How James Wright came into possession of this relic is not known. The handkerchief is in a wonderful state of preservation.

Maori carvings which will be placed on the porch leading into the restored Onuku Church at the Kaik, Akaroa, are at present in Christchurch. Those carvings are a centennial gift from the Government to the Maori people of Banks Peninsula, and will bei a bandsome addition to the old church, which was restored for the Akaroa centennial celebrations.

“ Now, there’s been a lot of talk, especially just after the war began, about ‘ capitalistic war ’ and all that sort of claptrap, but as far as I am concerned, and as far as all right-think-ing people are concerned, everyone realises the meaning of unity now.” said the Mayor of Christchurch (Mill. M. Macfarlanc, M.P.), at a social gathering in the Canterbury Bowling Club’s pavilion last evening (says the ‘ Press ’). “As for the present situation, we know the magnitude of what confronts us, but in spite of that magnitude we all realise we must stand together bore in just the same way as the people of London are standing together at this moment.”

>An extraordinary general meeting of the Port Hills-Akaroa Summit Road Trust will bo held shortly (says the Christchurch ‘ Press ’). It will be proposed to members that if the sum of a little more than £2,000 required to complete the Sign of the Takabe cannot be found the trust be wound up and its affairs placed in the bands of a receiver. If such a decision is made the Takabe will almost certainly revert to the mortgagees and will no longer be public property.

To-morrow evening the annual meetings of tha South and Central Local Associations of the Dunedin Girl Guides will he held in Wilson Hall, King jlreet, at 7.45. The speaker will be Mrs J. A. Hanau.