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Evening Star, Issue 24291, 4 September 1942, Page 2

Proof that even the best people can weaken at times was provided at a meeting of the Auckland Grammar School Board of Governors by the chairman (Mr Stanton') during a discussion in which the stealing of boys’ property was mentioned. A member stated that there was a code of honour among boys, and it was not likely that the property was removed by others in the school. Mr Stanton expressed doubts on this point. “ 1 recently loft a bunch of keys in the robing room at the Supreme Court, where nobody goes but lawyers,” bo said, “ and they disappeared.” He had since advertised for them, but they had not yet been regained. Marion is still in a quandary as to what should be done with the waste paper accumulated at the depot for the reception of waste materials, says an Association message from Wanganui. Tho garage loaned for this purpose bv the (Raugitikoi County as a depot is already full and people have boon asked to cense bringing contributions of waste to these premises. Tho county engineer, (Mr S. A. R. Mair) declared at a council meeting that if something was not done tho paper would have to be burnt. The fire risk, he said, was too great. It is understood that the Marton Borough Council has written fo tho Nation,!) Council for tho Reclamation of Waste Materials, but has not received a satisfactory reply. In the meantime Boy Scouts have endeavoured to restore some order out of the chaos at the depot. They have packed much waste paper into cartons, but while engaged in this operation recently found a rat’s nest in the centre of a heap of paper.

Tho very real danger lo jife and limb that exists when cyclists hold on to moving vehicles for the purpose of being towed along does not seem to be realised by some youths, and parents with children who possess bicycles should impress upon them the seriousness of sneh a procedure. Apart from this aspect, and also because of it. persons caught holding on 1,0 .the vehicles are liable to prosecution. Yesterday about o o’clock a lad on a bicycle held on to the rear of a corporation bus from Smith street, a short distance up Smart street, until the heavy vehicle reached Mighgate. Its passage up City road was a dangerous one lor the hoy. but he appeared to take it all as a gnat joke, for his face was one beaming smile when he ultimately released his hold. From his position in the front of the bus Ihe driver-was unable to see the hoy, and no blame could have been attached to him hail the lad been brushed olf going round one of the bends. I’areutal warnings in sneh eases might prevent a fatal accident. How a eat will find its way back to a home where it has been domiciled for some time, however far tho distance and length of time the journey will take, has often been told. An Elf ham cat. however, reversed tho order. It was left at its old homo when its owner moved to a new part of tho town fully a mile away. To tho owner’s surprise it turned up at the new home three weeks later. From dawn on Wednesday last, the day of tbe whirlwind which swept in from tho Ninety-mile Beach, largo flocks of seagulls congregated on farms between Wainui Junction and tho beach, about two miles away, the ‘ New Zealand Herald ’ states. Mr E. L. Frost, a writer on the habits of New Zealand birds, estimates tho number assembled within a small area at approximately 1,000,000. Apparently warned by their instinct of the approaching storm, they sought sanctuary and all faced towards the north-west. There is no crime wave in Hamilton, as a section of the public anight ho led to suspect from the number of people visiting tho police station at all hours of the day, and oven at night, since last Thursday, says the ‘Waikato Times.’ ; They are but law-abiding citizens in search of potato seed, an application for tho wherewithal to saw New Zealand’s staple diet having to be countersigned by a police officer. And so, singly and in twos and threes, householders have been making their first acquaintance with a police station, taking in good part this latest rationing edict, which must bo complied with if the potato patch is to he planted this vear. And if . you want to know the best method of cultivation, ask a policeman he knows all the answers now. Extending tho period of the (latent for eight years on the petition of Messrs F. W. Meredith and Philip Cooke, inventors of the gyroscopic control of aeroplanes, Mr Justice Simonds, according to ‘ Modern Transport’ (Loudon), said that the invention was of such value and importance that the inventors had not been sufficiently remunerated. The invention was such that by tho use of it the crossing of tho Atlantic was made a routine operation rather than an adventure. Incidentally, a new record Atlantic crossing—six hours forty-five minutes from Newfoundland to Great Britain —has been made Iby a Consolidated Liberator. The previous record (also set up by a Liberator) was seven hours thirty minutes. The possibility of raising the schoolleaving age, together with the .possible introduction of the accrediting system for university entrance, were outlined by the Director of Education, Dr C. E. Bcebv. when the 1942 conference of the New 'Zealand Vocational Guidance Association opened at Canterbury College. The matter would not rest mefely with the solving of these two major problems, said Dr Beeby, but such a step would bring in its wake a host of other problems equally urgent. Such changes would be not merely administrative, but would involve the whole direction and scope of education. The fact that only about one-sixteenth of the children leaving primary schools completed a university course was a possible indication that too much post-primary activity might be governed by the needs of this small minority. The medical officer of health for Otago and Southland (Dr T. McKibbiu) reports that for the week ending to—ay there were throe eases of tuberculosis in Otago. The strange “ double nesfs ” of thrushes are discussed in the current issue of ‘ Forest and Bird,’ in which it is affirmed that a second nest is built on top of one which has for some reason been abandoned. The writer says: “ These so-called ‘ double nests ’ have given rise to the rather romantic theory that the thrush is a social bird, and that two different pairs of birds are nesting together. Tho mistake lies in endowing tho bird with the attribute of being sociable or gregarious; but when nesting, or At any other time, tbo song-thrush is neither. All birds are individualists, although many species are gregarious, just like a crowd of humans in the street on a late shopping night, each bent on his own affairs .—gregarious, but not sociable.”