NEWS OF THE DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19988, 13 July 1939, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Discharge of Firearms As >a result of a complaint received last evening, the police are investigating a report that the sound of firearms being discharged was heard near the residence of Mr. W. C. PLlmer .at Makauri. A search was made of the property last evening. Collision with Post Late -last evening a motor vehicle collided with a telegraph post at the intersection of Fi.tzherbert and Clifford .streets. Considerable damage was done to the post and the telegraph line was knocked down. The matter is being investigated by Iho police. »• Tours by Secretary Initiating a new service to Diggers, in the form of sub-district visitations, the secretary of the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association, Mr. W. Oakden, attended the annual meeting of the Nuhaka sub-associa-tion recently, and remained in Nuhaka for a day or two to consult with ex-soldiers who wished advice as to their pensions rights. Reporting to a meeting of the district, executive last evening, Mr. Oakden stated that the meeting had been full Of interest, and the hospitality accorded to visitors was worthy of a larger ind more populous district. Mr. Oakden added that the consultative service offered to ex-servicemen had been much appreciated, and a .number of men had cleared up their positions in relation to pensions in particular. Australian Anzacs’ Visit Unless the plans tentatively made by the headquarters of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association are remodelled in some respects, none of the Australian Diggers who are to visit New Zealand in April next for the celebration of Anzac Day will read: Gisborne. The Gisborne branch of the association is anxious to entertain some of the Australians, and, at a meeting of the executive held lasi night, it was decided to propose certain amendments to the circulated programme. If the amendments are accepted, a party ■of 50 Australians will pass through the district, from south to north, spending an hour or two at Wairoa, a short interval at Morere, avad a night in Gisborne, proceeding to iMatawai for breakfast the following morning and thence to Opotiki. 'Whakatano and Rotorua in the day. The Gisborne association will organise entertainment for the tourists during their overnight stay in this centre. Territorial Training A motion recommending strongly the provision of adequate facilities for training men in this district, under f he territorial scheme, was carried at ! as't night’s meeting of the executive of the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association, when it was pointed out that the small hall now available had provided inadequate space even for the small number of men in training in recent years. With a substantial ncrease in (lie number of men under instruction, the position had become acute, it was stated, and for purposes ->*f general training it was necessary to send the units out of doors on .parade nights. The conditions under which military training was toeing carried on placed a tremendous handicap on those responsible for the respective units, an additional difficulty being the lack of a suitable rifle range in the district. The meeting recorded its appreciation of the fine work being tone under these handicaps, and decided to draw the attention of the military authorities to the need for further material provision for tho expanded units. R.S.A. Hospital Refunds. As the Social Security Act now removes from hospital, patients the liability for hospital fees, the hospital agreements made by tho Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association with the Cook and Waiapu boards are no longer necessary, and at a meeting of the executive of the association hold last night letters were received from the two boards intimating that refunds of portions of the pre-pnid fees will be made to Digger beneficiaries. The Cook Hospital Board will return tentwclflths of the sums paid in. advance, lchaining two-twelfths to cover the two months of the term prior to the operation of the Social-Security Act. In the case of Waiapu, the same refund will be made except in respect, of those men who have had hospital treatment. The letters were received with satisfaction, and it was decided to acknowledge with appreciation the co-operation given by the two boards in the past two years. The refunds will be made through the association to the contributors, except where tile latter express a desire to have the money set off against future association fees.

Adilress-in-Reply Debate The member for the Bay of Plenty, Mr. A. G. Hultqui.'-t, has advised tho Herald that lie will speak in the Address-in,-Reply debate either tomorrow or on Tuesday. Sheep Weight r;s:rm;uing Competition The .following is the result of the sheep weight estimating competition held at the Mahia Hunt Club’s point-to-point meeting at Marumaru last Saturday, the exact weight being 21 lib: —.Jack Ruka, 21l)ib, and the Mahia. Hunt Club, 2121 b. equal, first. —Special Youth Not Apathetic “I cannot agree that young men are quite as apathetic to recruiting as is generally supposed. There are so many counter-attractions, and they have so much more to do than in our day,” said Mr. W. Fraser, principal of the Hamilton Technical High School, speaking at the Hamilton Rotary Club. Mr. Fraser said it was difficult even to get young men to attend regularly at football practices, although they were keen enough where the game was concerned. Then, again, during two or three • nights every week lie hud a number of students who put in their after-work hours at night school. He could not class them, as apathetic. They wore among the finest young men in the country. “Diseases” in, Tractors “In these days, when horses arc being superseded by tractors, we farmers should move with the changing times," said Mr. A. J. Davcy at a meeting of the Temuka branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. “11l the past we have had addresses on the diseases of horses and other .stock, and 1 think the time has come when wc should have addresses on the ’diseases’ of tractors. You will realise that if one horse in a (cam is disabled, it would still be possible to carry on work witli the rest of the team. With a tractor the position is different. If any part is out Of order the whole unit is thrown out of commission, and at harvest time this may be a serious incident.” The meeting agreed to send the suggestion as a remit to the South Canterbury executive. Just a Short Story This story of an inventive New Zealand farmer lias had considerable currency in Australia recently, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Knowing the traditional reluctance of sheep lo enter a dip. the farmer constructed a perforated steel platform over tho trough. The principle was to drive the sheep on to tins, then pull a lever and plunge them into the wash. A dozen or so neighbours called to inspect the machine and give their opinion. an interested member of the party being the farmer’s six-year-old son. First the party mounted the platform to inspect, its construction. Need il be told? The six-year-old pulled the lover. For the next week the boy’s mother used to smuggle food to him at his various hide-outs round the property. Oil in Waikaia Valley Mr. R. D. Coghill, a director of Imperial Chemical Industries, who has been visiting Eastern Southland carrying out a preliminary survey of the natural resources for the extraction of petrol, oil, kerosene and paraffin wax from shale, is impressed with the possibilities of the district. “Both at Freshford and Mataura.” he stated in an interview in Gore, "there appear to be opportunities for the production of oil, kerosene, paraffin, etc., from the shale and lignite deposits in the respective districts.” He had prospected and pegged out an area of about 200 acres on rising ground near Freshford, and if the claim were actually developed i! was not improbable that fame would once again come to a district which half a century ago was the scene of great activity. Experiments with Freshford shale, he added, had shown that the samples were on a par with those taken from Orepu lei. Patients Paid For. The money which sick-room visiters so frequently spend in heaping on patients an excessive supply of flowers, fruit, sweets, and magazines has been diverted into more serviceable channels by at least one American hospital. A Dunedin doctor showed a Daily Times reporter a card issued by the Reading Hospital, Pennsylvania, which bore the inscription: “This indicates that you are my guest in the Reading Hospital for the day. I wish you a speedy recovery.” The idea is for sympathetic friends of the patient to pay into the sick, person’s account his hospital expenses for one day. The inscribed card is then delivered to the patient. The advantages claimed for the system are that it obviates the necessity of thinking up some little gift to take to the patient, it partly solves the patient’s problem of how the hospital bill is to be met, and it decreases to an appreciable extent the inevitable “bad debts” which all hospitals incur.